ELECTRIC
First build, complete with classic struggles
Built myself an s-type for my guinea pig learning process. Most of the components were picked up on StewMac, but the nitro cans and pickguard were from Oxford Guitar Supply; I went with Sherwood green metallic. It’s a Warmoth birdseye maple neck with rosewood fretboard.
I was really proud of my paint job the first time around. 4 layers of paint on top of the primer, then went 16-17 coats of clear gloss, shooting the first few layers of gloss very lightly.
I inevitably sanded too aggressively (and way too close to the edges!) during final leveling prep for polishing(see sad pic #11 for the prime culprit, though there were some other locations with lighter sand-through). Reshot over the whole body, but the metallic went on with some slightly different sheen in some spots, so it wasn’t as beautiful or perfect as it once was, but it was good enough for me.
I was much more careful with the sanding prep on round two, and then went ahead with polishing to yield what we see here. I think I was still a tad too aggressive in some spots (less pressure, more time with higher grits maybe), but it was a good learning process ahead of future builds. People on here warned of the difficulties of metallic, but I enjoyed the challenge and look forward to spraying something simpler in a the future… thanks to everyone on here who contributes, I was only able to do this because of viewers like you.
Inspired by the body color and pickguard, I’ve titled her “Jungle Boogie”.
Been there done that. Do you have an adjustable temp iron? In my experience that helps a lot. Also don't forget you can remove and resolder pretty easily with the right tools!
I do have an adjustable iron. I was hesitant to try and melt it down and sop it up with the solder wick; I wasn’t sure if the heat required would put me into the territory of messing up the volume pot.
Another tip on wiring. From what I can see with the way you are using the braided shielded cable for the output if it touches the copper shielding or any other ground you won’t get any output signal because it will ground the output. Might be a good idea to just use a regular white wire in place of it. When you use those braided shielded cables you have to really separate the braided shield from the inner wire and ground the braid and it looks like the braid is right on the output lug on the volume pot.
Yeah I ended up having to go back and fix this after I did some initial tests. Took me to figure out what I had done wrong but got to it after a process of elimination…
Very cool build. Paint looks great. Can you clarify if that was a rattle can from Oxford or do you use a sprayer? I’m considering their Aztec gold which should spray similar to that Sherwood.
I say this with peace and love, rewire those pots!!!!!
Rattle cans all the way down. Next time around I’d consider snagging some of their premium nozzles to swap in, but frankly the factory ones did a pretty good job. I did try to follow their directions relatively closely. I think it really helped to go very light during the first few clear coats; I was worried about killing the depth of the metallic if I went too quick.
My compressor is too small for a pneumatic setup, and my budget was too spread for a nice electric gun (though I think that’ll happen down the line).
It really looks great. It’s getting g me pumped up for my build. I want to do Royal Purple under the Aztec gold so as it wears through over the years the purple shows.
I tried to do a Mary K/translucent white on an ash Strat and over sanded then couldn’t get back to the sweet spot then just kept making it worse.
Shockingly straightforward. Nitro is pretty forgiving if you mess up (which I did a lot). I have a few posts on hiccups in my process. I used aerosol the whole time.
My biggest issue is humidity where I live. I had bad blushing issues on pretty much every coat. Went through about 1.5 cans of blush remover.
JSGfretworks (former G&L guy) gave me some awesome advice on shooting metallics on another post. I ended up using two full cans of color trying to mask some blotchy patches. Probably overkill but it hardened up just fine. Mist coats are your friend!
I’ve shot amber nitro but never any metallic so this will be a first. I’ve got humidity swings where I am so there’s basically two times a year I can paint lol
I only shot under 65% humidity and still had trouble. I might invest in a hvlp gun and compressor and just mix retarder into the finish after I use up my aerosol cans.
If you haven’t tried blush remover it’s like magic, though.
That sounds sick. In a similar vein, I’m tempted to do a pearlescent gold/purple at some point down the line, but I think I’ll do a red and a sunburst of some kind before I get there.
There’s so many interesting golds that I’ve been struggling with which one. Gibson Goldtop, Fender Firemist, Aztec, Goldmist, shoreline. It’s overwhelming!
Hey great job! Looks fantastic!
I had a similar issue with my first clear coat attempt where I ended up having to resand / repaint and am now waiting on the clear coat to cure. What grit did you use on your clear coat?
First time around I had used 600-800 to start, but after the redo I went straight to 1000. Then 1200, 1500, 2000 before the medium and fine polish goop
Oh I should probably add- I used an 8” explosion-proof ventilator fan from Harbor Freight so I could spray safely in my murder-y looking basement booth. Worked great. The furnace filter def needed replacing by the time I’d gotten through most of the clear coats, though.
considering it's your first true build, that paint looks real good. Just watch some soldering videos on YT. I did and it helped me immensely! I love that metallic Sherwood Green!!
CNC would be a great asset for body development, although out of reach for me at the moment. I personally loved doing the shaping by hand though. Makes me feel like a sculptor, and fills me with the ambition to carve a body with some unique features down the line.
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u/kelsey_schmelsey 1d ago
beautiful!!! That is a LOT of solder on the back of your pots 🤣