Strat-ish-Caster, Part III

Sitting here listening to Joe Satriani’s new disc (check it out, if you haven’t) and sipping coffee with Kahlua and Baily’s at close to midnight while looking at the pile of parts sitting next to me. It’s not looking bad, from here, and that’s not just the coffee additives talking.  I’ve been steadily working on this project since just after Christmas and, honestly, am starting to make progress.  I think there are two reasons for this: I happened upon an inexpensive sander (if you can find an open box floor model on clearance, I recommend it.  Just under $15 well spent…), and I finally have visions of how I want this to end up. 

Now, it would be super-dee-duper nice if the weather would warm up so I could head back out to the garage to work, but since it’s late January, I don’t count on that, really.  So, I’ve been working in small increments and, today, I worked on more fine-detail work.  I’m getting a bit more comfortable just horking around with the file.  Hmmm…that sounds unprofessional.  Is there a single word that encompasses “working with a large file in ways that are gentle, when needed, in tight confined spaces and not making ugly, irreversible wood-manglings?” Nope?  “Horking,” it is.

I’ll tell you this for nothing, robo-sander beats hand sander for removing existing finishes from guitars.  I know…I should be using a heat gun of some sort and peeling the finish.  However, in the absence of such wizardry, this will do.  I have the back finally just about there, but the front has a little ways to go.  However, one the things I want to is a partial mirror of the back, and that’s contour and reshape (shorten and flatten out) the top horn.  I went ahead and sketched it out in sharpie and set about my business.

At the same time, I decided the neck needed some love, as well.  In borderline Strat heresy, I decided to shave a bit of the headstock “heel” and slope it up a bit towards the … well, it’s going to be the top of the headstock since it will, by necessity, be a reverse headstock.  I’m OK with that.  I’ll just need to get a nice lefty pre-slotted nut.  I guess I could file a blank, myself.  I digress.

As mentioned, he sander really sped things up, as these things do, and got the back from looking a little leprous to looking like something with actual decent grain.  The lower horn/neck access looked good, so I sanded it to a point where it looked not only intentional, but like it could have always been that way.  That’s always the goal, right?  That meant, it was time to turn my attention onto the upper horn.  This was going to have to be just as well done, if not better, as it’s the front of the guitar. 

So, with the sharpie guides, the work has begun on the front contour and, at first blush, it definitely looks like a hack job.  Thankfully, it’s improved since this picture was taken and it’s starting to take shape, so to speak.  The curve up into the horn, itself, it basically finished, so what’s left is getting a nice access-like pocket.  About half way, there.  Once it’s where I want it, my attention will need to turn to the end of the horn.  I still have a ways to go shortening it, slightly, and working the contour into the final bevel.  It’s getting there, but, again, it would be easier if I could do this in the garage when massive clouds of sawdust aren’t a problem.

So, on to the neck.  Most of my focus was on the headstock.  I know it’s blasphemy, but I’m just not a huge fan of the stock strat headstock.  That said, I feel that it’s OK to keep around, just with some gentle tweaks.  The first thing I wanted was to shave a bit off the neck to headstock transition and give want large, wandering thumb someplace to rest.  Unfortunately, the pictures

don’t really show the transition very well.  There’s a much smoother transition, but I’ll have to figure out how to get better contrast photos, or just stop taking said pictures at my desk is fairly awful light.

I set about making little contoured places in several places along the headstock as well as a pronounced bevel around all the outer edges.  The focuses were the knob at the end and making it have sort of smooth grade whereby it starts at the bottom of the knob about 1/4” shallower/thinner, then by the time you follow it around the knob,

you’re back to the full thickness.  That’s probably an awful description, but all I could come up with, so, there you go.  This cutaway/transition thing is also mirrored on the back of the headstock, as well.  It doesn’t look too bed, to my eye, so, I think it’s finished, there.

The final tweak to the headstock was right at the transition from the nut to the pegboard where I tried to do another contour but with still some of the original height, kind

of giving it a sharper line.   It looks pretty good, as well, but, again, lack of contrast in the photo doesn’t really bring it out.

I turned my attention on the neck heel and the neck itself.  I didn’t really want to do much to the neck, itself, but I did flatten out the “thumb zone,” ever so slightly, making it more comfortable to my hand.  That’s what it’s all about, right?  At any rate, I then worked on the heel, smoothing it on the portion of the heel that will line up with the access contour on the back of

the body.  Again, nothing too dramatic, but enough that it felt a bit more comfortable when I placed it in the neck pocket and just felt how the two came together.  All in all, it could have been a much larger mess than it is and, really, it’s coming along well. 

Next steps?  Moly…there’s still so much to be done that Old Man Winter is keeping in check.  Once the rest of the body is sanded clean and the top horn shortened and sanded, final sanding on the body will commence just to make sure that the contours look good, and everything has a smooth transition from one feature to the next.  Then, once the rest of the parts arrive, in drips and drabs, it will be time to start thinking about finish color, any modifications to the pickguard, as well as moving forward with filler, primer and so on.  This is feeling pretty good.  I’m looking forward to getting this closer to playable.