Starcaster Build (completed)

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 5:00 am

Hell with it. I bought the new Grovers. I'm sure i could swap the pegheads. Looking in to these (305C6) they look like really good tuners.

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 2:02 pm

Damn. They are going to reissue the old tuners now. So ill just cancel my order for these and use the vintage ones for now until I buy the new ones.

Untitled by punkacc9, on Flickr

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:00 pm

So, 500K or 1Meg pots? And what kinda caps should I use? I'm going all out on this thing. I'm gonna get a staytrem for it when I have the extra cash and either Curtis Novaks or Custom Shop Seymour Duncan's.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 6:38 pm

You should put whatever you want in it that'll suit the sound you want, not what anyone else thinks. That way you might bond with the guitar and keep it.

As for the tuners with the broken part, I would have given that a miss. Too much money for something that's busted. If you end up trying to sell this on too you'll end up really hurting in the wallet again. Especially with the price the reissues are coming out at.

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:59 pm

I'm not gonna sell this. And the seller gave me a $25 refund for the broken one. There's still value in them and I can use the heads on them. As with the cap and pot question, I'm asking because I have never owned anything with wide ranges so I have no idea which pots will sound better. And I have never used orange drop caps.

finboy · Post by **finboy** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 8:01 pm

Definitely bond with it, make sure it plays well first before upgrading. Mine is t my go to guitar because I was always tweaking things on it (wrong bridge choice, routes slightly too small, microphonic pickups, etc.) so instead of enjoying it, it was benched a lot of time. Make it playable, use the right foundation components (ex. 1 meg pots if you intend to go vintage spec pickups, 7.25 radius bridge if that is what you KNOW you will use), then play the thing as a working unit. If a guitar works and plays well, I will much sooner grab it first over something that has annoying qwirks that are beyond my ability to fix.

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:55 pm

I'm probably going with 1 meg. And yep. It's a 7.25 radius neck and I love that radius and mustang bridges. But I will probably upgrade that to a staytrem.

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Sep 23, 2013 1:57 pm

An update. The tuners didn't fit with the vintage spacing. I'll save them and use them on something else. The body and neck are on their way to Paul Rhoney for paint.

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 8:13 pm

Stereordinary wrote:The box with the body and neck for this project arrived at my shop a couple of days ago, and yesterday I finally got it unwrapped, prepped, and into the spray booth. First impression was that the whole box was very light. I imagine this guitar is going to be very resonant when it's done.

So here's the two pieces as-is, out of the box.

First thing to do is block the f-holes and tape off the back control cavity. With semi-hollow guitars like this, I don't want any paint getting inside the sound chambers.

Of course, the fretboard also needs to be masked. Normally when I paint a bolt-on neck I have a rod that screws on to the truss rod to hold it by. But this neck has a different kind of truss rod. So for now, I masked off the truss rod opening, and bolted a stick to it via the neck bolt holes.

The body needed some filler where there was grain tearout and some dings. I prefer Timber Mate for this, and used a contrasting color to monitor my progress. It gets slathered on, and then mostly sanded off, except in the deepest areas where it's too deep to sand out. It's getting painted a solid color, so it doesn't matter that it now has these black areas on it. In these pictures it's sanded as much as I felt necessary. After this I sprayed one thin coat of sealer. I didn't have time after that to take a picture or apply more sealer.

One thing I should mention is that on this project I'm handling some of this prep stuff at no extra charge, because of the deal that we worked out with punkacc9. I think people should be aware that normally when you send an unfinished body/neck/guitar to a professional finisher, they expect it to be ready for paint right out of the box. Extra sanding, applying fillers, scraping bindings, any of that sort of thing will usually cost you more on top of the cost of the finish.

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Fri Oct 18, 2013 1:05 am

Stereordinary wrote:Here we are almost finished. After cure time it will be ready to cut and buff. The first photo does NOT show the color accurately, which is why took the second photo. Even that is a little off, but it's a hard color to photograph well, especially under the lights in the booth.

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Fri Oct 18, 2013 1:13 am

that is fucking sweet

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:05 am

robert(original) wrote:that is fucking sweet

Mo Law-ka · Post by **Mo Law-ka** » Fri Oct 18, 2013 12:56 pm

Thom wrote:
robert(original) wrote:that is fucking sweet

finboy · Post by **finboy** » Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:09 pm

Beauty, can't wait to see that done

bluesngrunge · Post by **bluesngrunge** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 3:14 am

Mo Rawka wrote:
Thom wrote:
robert(original) wrote:that is fucking sweet

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Oct 28, 2013 12:22 pm

Rhoney is shipping it out today. I'm pretty excited. The only thing I am missing now are the tuners. I have a set of chrome fender kluson style tuners. Should I use them or buy Kluson white button tuners?

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Mon Oct 28, 2013 4:19 pm

So you are leaving the binding exposed while you spray the lacquer on the neck? I was just curious about that for my Jazzmaster neck I am finishing.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Mon Oct 28, 2013 5:10 pm

Yes, the clear coat generally goes over the binding. Otherwise you'd feel where the finish starts and stops. I guess the only disadvantage of that would be refretting; you'd probably have to strip that part, or the whole finish.

Altar · Post by **Altar** » Mon Oct 28, 2013 5:34 pm

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Oct 28, 2013 5:46 pm

Yeah what he said except this is a stain and it's not a part of the clear coat. So the binding won't look yellowed. I hate that unmatched binding. Yuck.