Squier VM Jaguar refinish

[corporatetom]

Sorry, once again I am redundant. I was reading an older post.

Haha, no worries! We'll see once the handle comes off... Within reason I don't mind of you can see a little of the history of the guitar with signs of the old finish. But I would rather the signs were hidden in the the cavities than totally obvious!

[corporatetom]

I looked a lot at this old thread before starting on the headstock: http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... ing+squier - really useful with all of the pictures! So I copied that basically, roughed up the headstock:



After one coat:


And after three:


Untaped to check how well the masking tape had worked:



At this point I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. A clean line on the headstock, and some really nice comments on my painting which I'm very grateful for! But then I started on clear and my beginner's luck ran out. I hadn't realised how low my first can of clear (nitro) was after using it for sealing the wood earlier on and on my first clear coat I got a load of splatter. I was too slow to realise what was happening and continued spraying way too long. I read up on dealing with runs and drips in clear coats, but basically as this was the first coat direct on metallic paint I don't think there's much you can do except carry on spraying clear and hope it's not going to be too noticeable by the end.

I've done a couple more coats with my second can of clear and I think it's less noticeable already. I think it's going to be something I'll have to live with and see as part of the learning experience.

I also realised I'll need more clear and of course the place I bought it from is closed this week, so I'll have to be patient.

I'll take some pictures soon and try to show the problem.

[Scout]

Be very careful removing that temporary handle, you have quite the paint build up there. Love the matching headstock.

[corporatetom]

Be very careful removing that temporary handle, you have quite the paint build up there. Love the matching headstock.

That's definitely a drawback of the plus size handle. I might try removing it once the latest clear is dry. Run a knife around the edge first.

[corporatetom]

Some splatter:





On the plus side - the metallic looks very metallic.

[Steadyriot.]

It's nitro clear right?
Don't worry, the next few layers will melt into it. When you get to wet-sanding and pollishing, it'll even out and you won't notice.

[corporatetom]

It's nitro clear right?
Don't worry, the next few layers will melt into it. When you get to wet-sanding and pollishing, it'll even out and you won't notice.

It is! Fingers crossed....

[corporatetom]

3 and a half months later! I got held up first waiting for more clear after I totally underestimated how much I would need (started with 2 cans, ended using close to 6). And post from the USA to Sweden has been taking a long time, so I had to wait for the decal to come.

Along the way I was getting nervous about how it would turn out and feel behind on updates - but I was still taking photos!

Sanding and polishing:

[corporatetom]

Definitely made some mistakes along the way, and it's not all perfect - far from it. Didn't manage to get the decal edges to disappear for example!

Decal applied:


Polished:

[corporatetom]

I'd already wired the guitar with a 4 way switch and PTB controls on the rhythm circuit previously. But they were still "adjustments" to the wiring. Now it was almost doing everything from scratch.

[corporatetom]

I made new metal control plates too. I've definitely learnt from my previous attempts. I'm still using quite thin metal though (think it's 0.75 mm) so they're a little flimsy. I put more energy into polishing them up nicely this time too.

[corporatetom]

At the start of this week I finally got the guitar string up and could properly check the wiring - and was surprised everything worked first time. With the pickguard on I had to adjust the upper horn control plate a little to get everything lining up right.

I'd also had to remove a little wood from the sides of the switch cavity to get the 4 way in previously. And that time I'd done a pretty slopping job with the switch plate so it wasn't that centered. This time I did a better job with the switch plate - so now I had to take out a little more wood to allow for the switch being a in a slightly different (correct!) position.

I shimmed the neck which I hadn't done before. I thought that might give me a load of setup issues but so far it all seems good! I had the neck nice and straight before and the shim seems to have allowed me to get the action slightly lower before. Also stopped the low e hitting the screw on the tremolo. Cleaned up the fretboard and got some lemon oil on there which I've never tried before, looks and feels better.

[corporatetom]

So this morning I tried to get some decent picture while we had good light! As people tend to say, I think it's hard to accurately capture the colour. It can look more turquoise/green in reality, but always tends to look dark blue in pictures. But also, it is pretty dark blue, so it's not completely innacurate.

[Bradley-Jazz]

What a great job! Looks fantastic - congrats!

[jthomas]

Fantastic lookin' axe! I am impressed with your clear-polished finish.