First Full Body and Matching Headstock Refin on a Squier VM Jaguar

[Surfysonic]

Here's my first full body and matching headstock refin project on a surf green Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar in 3 coats of Gracey's Vintage Finishes' Sherwood Green (10-15 minutes in-between coats) from Madison's Music LLC (http://www.madisonsmusicstore.com/) and 3 coats of Minwax Clear Aerosol Lacquer - Clear Gloss (30 minutes after last paint coat and 30 minutes in-between each coat). I always wanted a Sherwood Green Jaguar after seeing the limited run Fender Johnny Marr Jaguar.

I watched several YouTube demos to (hopefully) follow the correct process. I tried getting some ReRanch paint but for some time now, their website states their either taking a break or awaiting new supplies, so I gave up and happily found Madison's Music. Apologies for the different lighting shots.

















Matching headstock - only front face is painted, the sides/back are blue painter taped up... 3 coats of Gracey's Vintage Finishes' Sherwood Green (10-15 minutes in-between each coat). Awaiting repro Fender Jaguar decal to put on before I put on 3 coats of Minwax Clear Aerosol Lacquer - Clear Gloss (30 minutes in-between each coat).

[HNB]

Looking good!

[Surfysonic]

Thanks, HNB!

[fleezinator]

Looking good! Did you take it down to bare wood or just scuff up the existing finish (poly I assume?)

[Surfysonic]

Looking good! Did you take it down to bare wood or just scuff up the existing finish (poly I assume?)

Thanks! Just scuffed up the exisiting surf green finish poly.

[preservation]

love it
aside from playing, few things are more therapeutic to me than sanding off finishes and spraying new ones.
you've done well!

[Surfysonic]

love it
aside from playing, few things are more therapeutic to me than sanding off finishes and spraying new ones.
you've done well!

Thanks! Now the hard part, giving it time to cure. Mid November isn't coming fast enough.

[mbene085]

What colour pickguard and plastics are you going to be using on this?

[HNB]

Thanks! Now the hard part, giving it time to cure. Mid November isn't coming fast enough.

The wait is really important. Waiting the right about of time uses less time than having to strip or sand down and start over. I for sure know how hard it is to wait, but it leads to better results.

[Surfysonic]

What colour pickguard and plastics are you going to be using on this?

I had a sherwood green Strat with a cream pickguard and to me it was a fantastic look, so it was an easy decision. I bought a cream pickguard from WD Custom.

As for the plastics, for now, I'll just keep the stock black plastics. I have have some cream cupcake knobs which I've put on a couple of my Mustangs so I could go with that. I've never swapped out the upper bout rhythm switch and the control wheels for the volume and tone before. Cream ones would be tempting if I can find some and swap them out succesfully.

[Surfysonic]

Thanks! Now the hard part, giving it time to cure. Mid November isn't coming fast enough.

The wait is really important. Waiting the right about of time uses less time than having to strip or sand down and start over. I for sure know how hard it is to wait, but it leads to better results.

Oh yeah, I waited a month for curing on my Squier J Mascis in shell pink where I had to a refin restoration on the back half of the front of the body due to a decal removal issue. No problem waiting on this one for my curing month time because it allows me to work on some other modding/refin projects.

I recently had bought a Fender Classic Series Black '60s Tele alder body on Reverb and I had used it as part of a Tele build. Eventually, I found myself not interested in playing it much so I broke the build back down and spent some time yesterday removing the poly finish with my heat gun and scraper. The job was successful but I'm in no hurry to do it again any time soon.







Yes, those might be slight scorch marks from holding the heat gun too long (and set temp too high) before I stopped to look at some poly removal vids on YouTube...

I typically will just do the refin over the existing poly like on the Jag, but wanted to have a try at a refin on a plain body. I plan on putting daphne blue with a matching headstock on this particular tele...or I might go with lake placid blue...or shell pink... my options have sort of opened up since I found a used (oly?) white Fender '69 Reissue Telecaster Thinline from Guitar Center's website. I might go with one of the other finish options on the thinline depending on what I go with on this tele.

I got some Gracey's Vintage Finish spray cans of daphne blue and fiesta red on order but the order has been delayed since they were out of daphne blue. I checked ReRanch again and was happy to discover that I could finally put an order in for daphne blue, fiesta red, and lake placid blue spray cans from them (they've been closed or out of stock). Hopefully, they will arrive soon. I sanded down the tele body today to fix any clumsy scraping from yesterday.

Funny enough, I had bought another Fender Classic Series '60s Tele alder body in Olympic White with the intention of refinishing it over the poly but I was so in love with the Oly White on this body that I decided to leave it as is. I put all the other components of the aforementioned build: Fralin Split Rail pickups, all rosewood Fender Tele U-shaped neck, Armadillo brass control plate, knobs, bridge, Glendale Brass Tele Saddles, Fender gold tuners, and Electrosocket gold jack mount on this one. I just got a Decoboom pickguard that looks spiffy. I'm waiting on a proper decal to put on the headstock before I put strings on.

[HNB]

Nice looking tele.

[mbene085]

I really like how those split coils look with the decoboom guard.

[Surfysonic]

Thanks, guys. I am a big fan of Fralin pickups. You have to be careful when installing them as they can be fragile in regards to the intricate wiring on the pickups. That’s probably a given with all pickups.

I swapped out some Fralin pickups (split rail Tele neck and P90 Tele bridge) from one cheapie Tele build and messed them up when I clumsily put them in a nicer Tele with one of these Armadillo brass bridge plates, which is a bit of a tight fit for the Fralin bridge pickup. I guess I was just careless when attaching the neck pickup to the pickguard or something.

I’ll have to send them back to Lindy Fralin to rewind them to get them working again.

[mbene085]

^That's a huge bummer. Coil wire is incredibly fragile. As much as it's an inconvenience in terms of cosmetic options, I like working with pickups that have sealed covers for exactly that reason - they can be handled much less carefully. Wilde (Bill Lawrence) seals their pickups in covers with epoxy, as do Lace and EMG. Metal covers on PAFs, firebirds, filtertrons, tri-sonics, etc serve a similar function (but telecaster neck pickups still have some exposed wire, unfortunately).