Strat Project

#1 I have decided to upgrade the hardware on my strat. I got a new bridge (hard tail), new pick guard, strap locks, and all new screws for everything. I can already tell that most of the screw holes in the body are pretty worn out and I would like to fill them with something and re-drill them. Any suggestions what to use? It will have to be strong enough so the new screws don't strip it right out.

#2 Since I'm giving it a makeover I'm going to have a local artist paint it for me. I don't want to pay him to strip the old paint off though, so I'm doing that part myself. Any suggestions on products to use for this? Sanding would take forever and probably deform it more than I would like, but I don't want to ruin the wood with the wrong chemical either. I may decide not to do this if it's going to be too much work, or possibly damage it.

Thanks!

#2 set it on fire. There was this guitarist once (Jimmy Hendisstonsomething) that did it and there was no more paint on it

Actually, I happen to know that works. My parent's house burnt to the ground when I was a baby and the only guitars left were an Alvarez my dad grabbed on his way out and his Tele, which was in fairly good shape except for the paint was almost totally gone and the plastic melted. :(

First, a question: Is your strat already a hardtail?

For the screw holes, you can get some small dowel, drill out the holes to match, then glue in pieces of dowel. If you can be precise about the depth, you can probably avoid any sanding and risking the finish. (Although you are also talking about stripping it.)

For the stripping, I recommend checking with our own Guitar Tech in his forum below. You will need a stripper suitable for the exact finish used on your guitar. I have also heard of finishes being sanded, and even "picked off" with a razor blade!

You can also search for some answers here. You can find pretty much anything you need to know: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/

Yes, it's already a hardtail. Thanks for the dowel tip. That's exactly what I'm going to do. Should I make the dowel quite a bit larger (diameter) than the old screw hole, or keep it small?

ok for the holes, get you a pencil and a sharpener.
sharpen your pencil.
take the shavings and get you a razor blade.
chop shavings up very very fine.
use high quality wood glue and mix in just a few drops
in the shavings.
with a tooth pick fill the holes as quickly as possible.
you wont get a lot in but it will work.
wipe hole with clean finger of over fill. now you
can screw the screws in and your set.
ive done this several times over the yrs and even with
strap button holes. it works.

as far as re painting goes, honestly, your better off
just buying a clean body from stewart mcdonald or warmoth and
going from there. what a PITA it is to strip a body and
do all the sanding to get it to look right.
bodies are cheap. ive done several over the yrs.
even with my background in autobody painting, it is still a PITA.
my next project i'll again go buy another body and go from there.
its just not worth the hassle.

Originally Posted by: jedftYes, it's already a hardtail. Thanks for the dowel tip. That's exactly what I'm going to do. Should I make the dowel quite a bit larger (diameter) than the old screw hole, or keep it small?

No bigger than necessary to do the job.

Also, ec's suggestion can work and I've used that myself, although it does not last as long. It's pretty much done for if you need to remove the pick guard again in the future. Another simplified approach would be to jam some glue & toothpicks in there and trim them off. Again, it won't be a durable, but it will hold for a while.

The proper and most durable method will be to properly replace the worn and missing material with new wood.

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to use the sawdust method on the strap button and bridge holes, but I have to take the pickguard off every time the pickup battery dies, so I'll use the dowel method for those. As far as the paint goes, I decided to leave it as is. Every scratch and dent in the finish was put there by me and since I don't ever plan on getting rid of this one I'm just going to leave it alone. I guess I'll just have to start a new project axe to have custom painted. Darn. :D

Originally Posted by: jedftThanks for the tips. I'm going to use the sawdust method on the strap button and bridge holes, but I have to take the pickguard off every time the pickup battery dies, so I'll use the dowel method for those. As far as the paint goes, I decided to leave it as is. Every scratch and dent in the finish was put there by me and since I don't ever plan on getting rid of this one I'm just going to leave it alone. I guess I'll just have to start a new project axe to have custom painted. Darn. :D

Strap buttons...I might differ but I've done it a few times. a broken toothpick and a teeny bit of wood glue. the toothpick has more structure and smashes in to the space pretty tightly.

tooth picks do work.

The more real wood you put in there the better. I am no guitar tech, but been working on that, and I've worked with wood a lot in general. Especially in a high stress point - like a strap button - I'd properly fill that with wood. A glue bond of wood to wood is actually stronger than wood, but a clump of glue in a hole (even with sawdust) on it's own will have no strength.

Also, I would use a nice long screw after the repair. Not sure what was in your's, but the screws for buttons I purchased for a build were only 1". I think I exchanged them with 1 1/2" (you'll have to drill the hole to accomodate).

Well it's all done except for the front strap button, which I'm going to go ahead and use a dowel for that one. I changed so much at once I'm not sure what did it, but man does it sound better. Thanks for all the input. I'll have to post a pic if I can put the guitar down long enough to take one :D It took me all day to get it done and reset the pickup height, bridge height, intonation, yadda yadda but it was definately worth it. I made a couple discoveries while I had the pickguard off. One was I had a busted grounding connection between the cases on the volume and tone pots. I re-soldered it but as I was putting the guard back on I felt it pop back off again. I figured it worked before like that so I'm not going to bother with it. All the pots are bonded by the foil on the back of the guard anyway. The other thing I found was that I apparently have some sort of built-in EQ on the bottom tone pot. I always wondered why that pot seemed to adjust the tone on ALL the pups, not just the middle. I think it's an option that you can get with the EMG pups I have. I always leave it turned all the way up anyway. :p

Originally Posted by: jedftI always leave it turned all the way up anyway. :p

No sh*t. :) I am seriously considering my next build will have no tone OR volume controls. Just a kill switch. ;)

Originally Posted by: jedft#1 I have decided to upgrade the hardware on my strat. I got a new bridge (hard tail), new pick guard, strap locks, and all new screws for everything. I can already tell that most of the screw holes in the body are pretty worn out and I would like to fill them with something and re-drill them. Any suggestions what to use? It will have to be strong enough so the new screws don't strip it right out.

#2 Since I'm giving it a makeover I'm going to have a local artist paint it for me. I don't want to pay him to strip the old paint off though, so I'm doing that part myself. Any suggestions on products to use for this? Sanding would take forever and probably deform it more than I would like, but I don't want to ruin the wood with the wrong chemical either. I may decide not to do this if it's going to be too much work, or possibly damage it.

Thanks!

Despite what others may say about the mess and difficulty of stripping a guitar, it is a very gratifying experience and makes the project really yours and not that hard. I've recently stripped a poly finish on a Strat - started with chemical stripper, moved to a careful scrape, and then sanded and sanded through clear, black paint, primer, sunburst (???), and then the sealer, which was a urethane of some origin and the toughest to remove. I'm at the 220 sanding now and it looks like a really great piece of alder (3 pcs actually). I'm converting from a trem to a hardtail by filling the trem cavity with wood (I've worked with wood and this is the easy part), and I'll seal, prime, and paint (lighter color TBD) with a nice clear topcoat to polish to a high gloss. Changing the neck is a cinch. I'm proceeding slowly to ensure that I'll get satisfying results, but at the same time can't wait to see how it looks when finished. I get tired of reading people who say," just block it, add springs, and tighten the claw screws. The tone of a true, through-body hardtail is vastly different from that of a blocked trem simply because wood is different than metal and they carry sound waves differently. One vote for filling screw holes with sawdust and carpenter's glue (yellow not white) - it is indeed more stable than the original wood. Just make sure that the glue around the hole is sanded away or the finish will look sloppy under the paint, but sanded glue and a little sawdust will act as a wood filler and provide a solid base for primer and paint. Pride in workmanship is about 80% of why we take on these projects, isn't it?

Originally Posted by: painter33Despite what others may say about the mess and difficulty of stripping a guitar, it is a very gratifying experience and makes the project really yours and not that hard. I've recently stripped a poly finish on a Strat - started with chemical stripper, moved to a careful scrape, and then sanded and sanded through clear, black paint, primer, sunburst (???), and then the sealer, which was a urethane of some origin and the toughest to remove.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure a person even needs the stripper. I was testing a repair method on a finished body I have for an upgrade project and using only 1000 grit, I accidentally sanded completely through the poly finish with ease. And I was just running 1/4 inch strips under my fingertip. :p Now I might sand the whole thing because it was so easy, and the mahogany underneath looks awesome.

[QUOTE=painter33]I get tired of reading people who say," just block it, add springs, and tighten the claw screws. The tone of a true, through-body hardtail is vastly different from that of a blocked trem simply because wood is different than metal and they carry sound waves differently.

I also agree. This project guitar is a Yamaha SE, basically a hardtail Strat design, though out of mahogany. I have all Fender parts to replace the chintzy circuitboard electronics and the folded metal bridge. Making it a string through. I am interested to hear what it sounds like.