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O.k., so I thought I'd update you on my progress.
In the course of repeated sanding/stripping of this Strat body, the top has been flattened and the body thinned, causing a flattening of the body contours. Since the area inside the horns are the hardest to do (I do all of this by hand, no router), I thought I would show how I do them.I start by drawing a line that continues the outer contour along the inside of the horn.

Then with a half round bastard file, I file a relief cut that splits the difference between the outer edge of the contour and the inner, giving me a clear dividing line, or ridge, in the middle.

Then I finish rounding the contour with some hand sanding. I will use this technique to bring back the contour all around the top of the body, and also sand smooth the contours on the back of the body, taking away the mechanical look that the original machine route left on the body.


As for the LP style refin, Here she is with the first coat of sanding sealer. What I don't have pics of is the final coats of sealer sanded smooth, and the binding masked in prep for finish, but that is where we are at.


Unfortunately, it's been raining for 2 days, so I can't do anything else until that stops and the humidity drops. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks, Heidi. Here is the strat body with the contours restored and ready for sanding sealer. The black on the back is the original poly body coat. I'll spray right over it with narry a problem.

And here with 2 coats of sanding sealer.


It will sit at least overnight. Hopefully I'll be able to sand it level tomorrow. Then, when time permits, it's paint time! That is, assuming I don't sand through the sanding sealer, requiring additional coats. You know what they say about assuming anything?

At this time, it'll be Regal Blue, with either pearl or tortoise guard(I'm leaning to pearl). Either way, I was considering all new pickups and electronics,since this was a parts guitar built entirely from used parts. But what I may do instead is keep the current pickups, which sound great,and just replace the pots, switches and wiring. Originally it was a humbucker/single coil/humbucker configuration. Here it is:

I can either leave it like that, or do away with the middle pickup and just do dual humbuckers. Or, I believe I have a second used single coil, so I could do the humbucker in the bridge with single coils for middle and neck. Decisions, decisions. I'm partial to dual humbucker guitars, but I already have that, so I'm trying to decide whether or not it would be useful to have something different. Not sure yet. I'll keep you posted.

Arch Monkey wrote:

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Wow two Humbuckers and a regular pickup! That's hot.

The H/S/H setup is really versatile for a wide variety of styles. That one, if you notice the switch where the bridge tone pot usually goes, allows you to split either or both of the humbuckers as well for even more tonal fun! But I don't play covers anymore, so I don't need quite that much versatility. With what I do now, there's one specific tone I'm chasing, and humbuckers are a major part of that. But you never know what the future might bring. Anyway, I've got a little time to make my mind up.

The Tele Deluxes are sweet! But I'm a strat lover at heart. My first electric guitar was a cheap strat copy(a Lazer), and my first decent guitar was a Squier strat. The only reason I 'strayed" was that I'm not a fan of the single coil's 60 cycle hum. I like the guitar to be quiet until I want it to speak. But nowadays there are lots of options that don't include the hum. And I've also grown to recognise that sometimes you've gotta take the bad along with the good, and there are certain tones where single coils rule, especially really clean tones. There's a reason one of the ways people describe the tone of a strat is "bell-like". It's going to be a tough decision which way to go, but I have plenty of time. The finish will likely take 6 weeks or more, with cure time before buffing, and I still haven't decided for certain whether or not to build a new neck. The neck that was originally on it was a Squier neck(I bought the whole guitar used just for the neck, and gave the body, pickups and electronics away). It plays like greased lightning, but it's a little narrow at the nut for my taste, but nothing I can't accomodate. I could buy a replacement for it, but since I plan to do a build from scratch later anyway, it would be a good trial run.