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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's totally amateur refini
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 12:12 am
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OK, I must confess it looks nice - black is always the new black.

But since you went all the way from green stain to black because of a minor dent (did somebody say "overkill"..?), a question arises: whatcha gonna do when the black gits the first wound?
:mrgreen:


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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's totally amateur refini
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 7:06 am
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Thanks all. looking forward to forward to putting down the spray cans and getting it all back together. :D

grainslayer wrote:
The black looks great but I am a little disappointed you bailed on the green.i was looking forward to seeing the final outcome.the last picture you posted of the green was lookin pretty sweet. :mrgreen:


Thanks. Believe me, it wasn’t an easy decision. What did it for me was the frustration of still being able to make out where the ding was through the poly. When I spoke to the luthier and explained it was a transparent finish, I could tell by the look on his face it wasn’t going to be easy but I figured I’d give it a whirl. Just couldn’t stand looking at it anymore and in hindsight, I think if I did the transparent look, the proper way would have been to do a veneer top to completely get rid of the evidence in the grain. I didn’t think of that solution. When I started doing the black it just felt right. I had a black strat years ago that I regret selling so that was sort of the motivator… that and I’m a huge Gilmour fan but I have a Rosewood neck so it’d have to be the DSOM, WWYH or Animals strat until I can afford the maple neck.

jmattis wrote:
OK, I must confess it looks nice - black is always the new black.

But since you went all the way from green stain to black because of a minor dent (did somebody say "overkill"..?), a question arises: whatcha gonna do when the black gits the first wound?
:mrgreen:


Well if It gets scratched, I do like Midnight Wine and Candy Apple Red :wink:

But seriously, it wasn’t so much the dent that prompted the refinish, it was the repair that I should have let be but totally effed it up trying to improve upon it. The stain where I did the repair didn’t match at all so there was about a 1 inch circular blotch right behind the bridge. I figured the only chance I had at matching a transparent finish was to strip it down and do one consistent coat. Overkill? Yeah you’re probably right. I guess I’m a pretty impulsive feller. When I was a kid I took apart my X-Wing Fighter because I had to see how that LED light in the nose worked. When I get my American Vintage I swear I’m not touching it …. :lol:

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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's totally amateur refini
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 9:13 am
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New to this thread, it's very interesting. It's to bad about the green, but I thought the ding would show through. The black looks good though.


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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's totally amateur refini
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 9:40 am
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Strataggravater wrote:
New to this thread, it's very interesting. It's to bad about the green, but I thought the ding would show through. The black looks good though.


thanks

The irony of the whole thing is that while messing with the ding for the last time before it was beyond hope, I had the film Tommy Boy on. Now looking back the phrase “quit playing with your dingy” holds deep sentiment for me. Should have heeded that advice.

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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's totally amateur refini
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 12:03 pm
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Black!!!! YUK :lol:, TBH mine is black also, don't know if it was the black that just made that scandinavian blonde maple neck scream at me, just knew I had to have her, been happy ever since, nice job Captain 8)


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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's totally amateur refini
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:51 am
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Well I suppose its been long enough so here’s an update. Its been slow going to say the least trying to get work done on this with life going on around me. But here goes. Its not perfect but for roughly 40 Bucks in supplies and my beginner hands I really can’t complain. In fact, I’m actually pretty pleased with how things are turning out.

Used Minwax Spray Poly Clear Gloss over the Flat black enamel. Used two cans but lost count on the number of coats. I got pretty fortunate with minimal orange peel and drips so it was tempting at times to just stick it back together and skip the wetsand and polish but patience had to prevail here. So after the last rattle of the empty poly can I called it quits on spraying and just let it cure. The timing was good because the weather started getting cold and I really couldn’t move that operation indoors.

After letting it cure for about a month, I did the deed and wet sanded. So here we are in all its dull blackened glory. I was a little depressed seeing it like this after getting used to the high gloss that preceded it but I’d have to trust in the magic of polishing compound and elbow grease that I could bring it back.

Image


For the polishing products, I went with Meguiars Ultimate Compound and Ultimate Polish. I highly recommend this stuff. This is after about 10 minutes. Now I know how Frosty felt when they put that ‘Old Silk Hat’ on his head… “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Big relief, time for a well-deserved cold one. I live in PA so that usually means Yeungling if there’s no Leffe in the fridge. Don’t have a power buffer so had to do it by hand which gets a little tiring but worth it in the end.

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And voila! After a few sessions with the Meguiars Ultimate Compund I moved on to the Ultimate Polish. Looks pretty good. There’s a couple spots here and there that I have to try to forget but they really aren’t all that bad and honestly I think It looks worlds better than it did and I’m loving it. I can apply lessons learned to the next one if I ever do something like this again.

Image




Now to think about the pickguard…

I had been on the fence about this. I’m a huge Gilmour fan so the “Black Strat” look was REALLY tempting. However, I don’t have a Maple neck so if I went down that road it would be an ‘Animals’ era Black Strat look and would then need a black cover for the bridge pickup and then I don’t have a CBS type headstock blah blah blah… honestly I just wasn’t even sure I wanted black on black with the Rosewood neck. I wanted something more “Me”. One thing I knew for sure was I didn’t want the glossy Stark White pickguard that I had. Do I buy a Mint Green, Parchment, Aged White etc.? I’m not a fan of relicing but I decided since all the knobs and pickup covers were naturally aged and the stark white guard that even after 20 years still looks brand new didn’t match, I’d make an exception. Mainly as a test to see how it looked and if I liked how it turned out, I might purchase a new one in aged white or mint green. Well I’ll tell you one thing… aging a pickguard is no easy task. I sanded the sheen off with P1500 paper. Looked pretty cool flat but still a stark contrast with the knobs and such so had to take it a little further. I tried everything, coffee, tea, food coloring, dye, combinations of…nothing took. Moments after I decided to bag the idea, I spotted some Golden Oak stain in the garage… hey why not? Tested on the trem cover and what do you know… That did the trick and it seems permanent too so gave it a go on the Pickguard. It’s a very subtle tint just to try and match the knobs but I think it turned out pretty good. I wasn’t going for a “Damaged” look, to each his own but that’s where captainc draws the line on relicing. I do however have a bit more of an appreciation for the process. Ok enough about that… moving on.

Trem Cover next to untreated pickguard.

Image


Treated pickguard with original knobs.

Image




That works for me. Now to fire up the Soldering iron.

Image

Not really much to say here… There’s 3 pickups, 3 Pots and a 5 way switch and I soldered them. I do have a toggle switch added to activate the neck pickup when using the bridge pickup and a jumper for the second Tone knob to control both the Bridge and Mid pickups. I ran out of the cool white cloth wire so had to use some red that i had but i can always go back and replace that.

These are Custom Shop 69’s with a Seymour Duncan SSL-5 in the bridge. I really like the Duncan in the bridge but the only complaint I have about it is on cleans, it’s not as toppy as I’d otherwise like but it screams on driven tones for leads and such. I assume this is due to it being such an overwound pickup at 13k but that’s just an uneducated guess. So while I was putting it back together I had a thought. Why not stick this no load pot I have in for the bridge/mid tone control that way I can take the tone pot out of the circuit when I wish and see if that helps give it back some of the sparkle that I miss? I’ll report back on how that works if I ever get to plug this damn thing in and play it.

Lets drop the pickguard in and see how she looks.

Ok… I’m digging this. I’m glad I went with the tinting the pickguard. This is definitely more “me” than the black on black so I think I made the right choice here.

Image


… time to drop in the bridge.


Image


Ok now I’m getting excited. This is looking way better than it ever did and even though its not a factory job or any sort of professional job for that matter, I’m pretty proud of this so far. Plugged it in to my amp and checked the pickups by touching screwdriver to a magnet on each pickup to verify the switches worked properly. All good …On to the neck which requires a wee bit of work so on that note…

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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's totally amateur refini
Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:40 am
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Looks great you should be proud can't wait to see it with the neck on
mud


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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's totally amateur refini
Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 4:01 am
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Looking very good Chris, like the update thanks for posting.

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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's totally amateur refini
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 8:11 am
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Thanks very much for the kind words guys.

Got it all back together and strung up last night. As expected, it’s in dire need of a setup. Had to put a small shim in the neck pocket and back the truss rod off a hair but got the neck relief perfect. It was getting pretty late so will hopefully get the string height and intonation done tonight if I don’t get home too late. Regardless, final pic coming soon. I’m really stoked how its turned out and glad I decided to go with the solid black. I just wasn’t feeling the green anymore. Forum has a new look and so does my Partocaster.
:D

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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's shiny new partocaster
Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:24 pm
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Well…. The ding is fixed :lol:

I finally finished this damn thing and after many months apart, I am finally reunited with my old friend. Gave it a good setup over the weekend. (String Height, Pickup Height then Intonation etc.) and as far I can tell, its playing better than it was before so I guess I didn’t eff it up. This has been VERY Educational and VERY fun.

Would I do this again? Hell yeah, probably won’t rush into stripping it down and doing another refinish of this one if it gets a scratch but I’d certainly get a kit in the future when I have some more time on my hands. This was a good way to make mistakes and work through them to learn the process.

So what have I learned?
• Fixing a Ding on a transparent finish is REALLY difficult to get to match perfectly
• Grainfilling/sealing is extremely important.
• Bursting a finish is a LOT harder than it looks… at least for me.
• The copper Foil shielding I removed must not have been doing much… its just as quiet as it was before and as can be expected with single coils. Maybe I’ll shield the cavity in the future but I wanted to see how it was before I did all that work. Perhaps I’ll just get some shielding paint.
• Patience goes a long way.
• I’d like to try using Lacquer next time.
• I’m a lot more confident with Truss Rod adjustments and setups now.
• My hypothesis of the high end on the SSL-5 was correct... much better now
• Blah blah blah blah


Not really anything more to say… here’s the final goods. Thanks for following and sharing your thoughts. Hope you enjoyed it. If you need a ding repaired you know who to call. :lol:

Have a very happy holiday all!


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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's totally amateur refini
Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:29 pm
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"It looks Marvelous" good job thanks for sharing
mud


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Post subject: Re: Evolution of a Ding... captainc's totally amateur refini
Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:49 am
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That looks fantastic.. Good job!


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