Building a guitar....

Keyzer

Hey all,
I'm looking for some information and tips on what I need to do to build a guitar almost from scatch.

I have a ****ty fender strat squire, bought it years ago but haven't played it in a while. I'm thinking of ripping everything out of it and building from just the body i.e binning all electrics, the neck etc etc.

I'd also like to put a nice paint job on it too...

Any help would be appreciated....

DiamondJQuimby

Go to Amazon,

And do a search for Melvyn Hiscock or Martin Koch

Great books,

Have built a few guitars now and these will save you hours of wasted time.

Best of luck

Bratach Bán

Buy a neck - don't try to fret it yourself, you'll have difficulty getting the intonation and the levelling right without spending a huge amount on tools. There are licensed Fender replacements for sale at www.stewmac.com, and they ship in two days for around 100 euro in total. Their website also has all the electrics and hardware that you need (although personally I would keep the squier trem, there's usually not much wrong with them).

As far as painting it goes, this causes problems. Basically, you will need to strip your guitar first. A squier has a flat top, so you can sand it, but you may find it easier to use a paint stripper (Nitromors) and leave it on the guitar overnight.

A traditional finish is Nitrocellulose lacquer, but without a properly vented spray booth you can set yourself on fire, or blow up your house, VERY easily. Can't stress this enough - don't try it. Even if the stuff doesn't explode on you, it can take weeks to fully cure, which is a pain in the balls.

Painting on the cheap can be done with car spray paint or plastikote spray paint (from Woodies) - which the yanks call 'rattle can paint jobs.' With a bit of care and attention, they can look really good, but it's obviously worth taking the time to do it right. And remember, the thinner the finish on an electric, the better the sound. Check out this guy, I have heard good things: http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/jimfitz.html

Good luck with the project, hope it all works well for you. (But this type of thing gets expensive quickly).

BostonB

In fairness...http://www.vanhalenguitars.com/

punchdrunk

from the sounds of it you get a better result dumping the squire and starting from scratch,stripping that finish will braek your heart! easier to flog it on ebay and pickup a body in a colour you really like

BostonB

Any good resources to setting up a guitar, like re-aligning the neck, changing the nut/bridge, tuners and more importantly getting the height of the action right, and intonation etc.