Intergalactic Space-Age 3 Pickup Electric Guitar!

[zhivago]

love the strat!

it's got nice wear on the hardware too!!

well done, Doug!!

[fullerplast]

Thanks all!

how did you do the bakelite-esque pickup covers? Did you just sand down a regular set of pickup covers?

They are regular reissue covers. I used a fingernail file to round the edges, sanded the entire surface to remove any gloss, then used a raor blade to make fine 'cracks' between the holes. To give it a bakelite look, I sprayed them with satin clear. I like the way they turned out. Compared to a real set they look pretty good.

an aside, the freeze thaw (natural or using spray application) method of relic'ing seems  unpredictable to me - they always wind up having too many spiders and not enough linear checking.

I put this body in the freezer overnight and it came out with the long longitudinal cracks, protruding from any drilled holes and running to wherever they could relieve themselves. It looked pretty good. But due to my OCD and refusal to leave anything alone, I blasted it with electronics cleaner. That's what made the spider cracks. But the real trouble with the aging on this one was that the finish was way too thick. It practically shattered like glass when I blasted it.

I spent more than I wanted to on this project by having a custom body cut and a nice nitro finish applied on it. It was a nice job in terms of color and smoothness, but as I said.... it was much thicker than I expected.  I could have built this with an off-the-shelf poly body for a total cost of under $500. There would be lots of room for profit if I had the name to sell them under. As is, it's just another "parts guitar'.

[lalalandstudios]

thanks for the info on the relic'ing, and i think you're wrong, there's a bunch of people on this forum that probably would pay a bit for a guitar with the "fullerplast" logo - provided of course it was an offset.....

can't wait to see the JM prototype

[mynameisjonas]

great job doug! i can´t wait to see the jazzmaster...

[i love sharin foo]

Doug, if you don't mind me asking, how did you go about aging the hardware? I've become proficient with plastic, but I can't seem to figure out what to do with chrome 

Justin

[fullerplast]

Doug, if you don't mind me asking, how did you go about aging the hardware? I've become proficient with plastic, but I can't seem to figure out what to do with chrome 

Justin

Very simple, grasshopper!   

I suspend the parts over Muriatic Acid (found in the swimming pool section of almost any store). The stuff is noxious. I don't wear a mask, but I try to keep my face out of it as much as possible. Here's how I do it:

Put the acid in a tupperware bowl (or round butter container). Take a strainer out of wife's cooking utensil drawer. Counteract ration of shit doled out by wife by promising to procure a replacement strainer. Place parts in strainer and set on top of container of acid. Make a cardboard or paper top, and put some holes in it, and place over parts. The nickel dulls out quickly, so monitor closely. Remove when desired effect is achieved (obviously, the longer they are in the acid fumes, the more "wear" is applied). Hint: cheaper material/plating will turn black, so be careful (look at my saddles and you'll see it). Rinse and dry parts. Place parts on paper plate and spritz with salt water. (I use canal water from behind my house in a spray bottle - it works overnight). Monitor parts on plate until desired effect (rust) is achieved. Re-spritz as necessary. Be careful with cheaper repro (non stainless) screws because they'll turn orange and the threads will be destroyed.

Optional: replace strainer in utensil drawer with new one (I never have).

Even those tuners on the $trat are brand new Fender/Gotoh. They were only over the acid for about 20 min. and on the plate outside overnight (be careful with tuners cause you don't want to wash out the grease).

Chrome will stain more than tarnish (look at the bridge plate and jack cup), nickel will tarnish.

Gen Fender reissue parts are the best quality and will age very nicely without getting 'weird'.

Hope this helps!

P.S. I've heard someone else say to cut a milk container (plastic jug) in half and pour the acid in the bottom, suspend the parts from fishing line, and put the top back on without the cap. I like the strainer better because you can put a crapload of parts in at once, and since they're all in there randomly, the effect is random, thus more realistic (some parts age a little more than others due to their orientation in the strainer).

[Orang Goreng]

(found in the swimming pool section of almost any store).

And still he keeps rubbing it in  .

[sookwinder]

not to mention: 

I use canal water from behind my house

 

[fullerplast]

not to mention: 

I use canal water from behind my house

   ;)

That stuff will turn your home hardware, grille, patio furniture, vehicles, appliances, tools, and anything else you own into a 'relic' in short order! 

[sookwinder]

can't be any worse than Hong Kong habour.... and I'd watch people swim in that, while I walked to work, years ago....  but then again you aren't fishing in the oil soaked water, pulling up 3 eyed fish that Bart Simpson would be proud of and then trying to sell to passes by outside Wan Chai ferry terminal...

[Maggieo]

Something like this:

And it's stablemate, the Mary Kaye Jazzmaster:



how hot would that guitar be?  Oh yeah.

[scottme]

Where did the neck plate come from ?

[fullerplast]

That's one of those 'ronkirn' ebay $20 knockoffs. They look cheesy and fake when shiny, but a little rust and pool acid and they look OK. The rust hides the lack of depth of the stamping.

You also have to be careful what numbers you pick. His 1 does not look good, and a few others are not realistic. I always try to stick with 7, 0, 8 etc... they're hard to mess up.

[cmatthes]

This guy does some cool work:
http://www.revelatorguitarworks.com/index.html
Some are restorations, but most are scratch built. I believe he actually cuts the bodies/necks himself.

Proceed with caution with that guy.  His Strat bodies (and necks?) are AllParts (it's stamped right on them), but you aren't told that until you question it after it arrives.  I know a few close friends who have been very disappointed with the end result and the poor customer service.  Just try to get the full refund in a timely fashion!  A shame too, because the stuff on his site looks great.  What you see is not always what you get...

I have had good luck with the Musikraft stuff, btw - the necks are fantastic.

Thanks for the muratic acid aging description - sounds like something to pull out for a cool project!

[fullerplast]

Thanks for the warning!

I wondered about that, because in a few of his ads he actually hints that the necks are aftermarket. Never does he say about the bodies. That's the same thing Bill Nash does, but he's up front about it. Nothing wrong with that, but the customer should know up front. I for one would not like to pay a custom price for something I could have assembled myself andthen beat it up.

I do  like the Revelator's aging though.

I've heard great things about Musickraft but never tried them. I'd like to get ahold of one of their JM necks with the round lam and clay dots... the only product I know of with the correct headstock...