Looks like he bought one of these on e bay. Then changed the neck, pickups, knobs and neck plate. Take notice of the bridge on this, same thing. Quite a mark up on the price also. There's a boat-load of these things on ebay, from Strats to Les Pauls ...etc..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Deluxe-6-String-Cle ... 7C294%3A50

$208 for a decent lucite body seems a good deal.

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No no and no

Ha! Indeed.

I'm late to this party: all the fun work's been done. Russianracehorse's shot of the back of the Squier headstock nails that aspect and sourcing the bod seals the deal.

But as someone who's worked with cast resin I've gotta say $208 for a lucite body is insanely good value for money. It ain't just making the mould: no matter how well you've done that you still have to buff and polish the piece after it is de-moulded. And that can be a tiresome job, particularly because you have to wear a hot clammy respirator: resin dust is not something you want in your lungs.

A grand and a half for the fakeocaster at the top of the thread is silly: but having seen the price of the legit ones I am cured of any vague plans I may have had of making transparent bodies myself. Couldn't possibly do it for that price!

Cheers - C

The quality of the body is still to be decided though. I cant see much going wrong with a lump of clear plastic except maybe air bubbles in the body. I fully believe that the stuff is hard to shine, thats what apprentice daughters are for.

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No no and no

Ha! Indeed...I'm actually sort of intrigued by the whole idea of peddling good-quality lucite bodies. Judging by the interest expressed here, I'm sure there are a ton of people who'd love nothing better than a clear Strat, Tele, or even a Les Paul. The only guitar I've ever played with such a body is an Ampeg Dan Armstrong and it was pretty clear right away that lucite does have some drawbacks. Notably, it weighs a ton; heavier than even the boat anchor Les Pauls. I wouldn't want to lug one around onstage for a couple of hours....

Depends how good your mould is - which depends on how smooth and perfect the original from which it came was.

BTW, Niki. I know you know how to make moulds. For a job like this I'd be looking at a pourable room temperature silicon rubber, such as these:

http://www.tiranti.co.uk/subdivision_pr ... bdivision=

The RTV-101 at the top can take temperatures up to molten "white" metals (lead, pewter, etc) so can handle any kind of resin, hot or cold. You'd have to do a two-piece mould for a Strat - a bit like a surfboard mould. Sand off the flashing afterwards.

And various resin options are here:

http://www.tiranti.co.uk/subcategory_li ... ategory=10

Polyester resin is the one I've used quite a bit: you just add the appropriate number of drops of hardener, mix and try to pour without bubbles. There are various dyes for whacky Steve Vai color effects, too.

Don't see it on that page, but that supplier also does a vinyl resin. I haven't used it, but at one point I was vaguely wondering whether it would be a good one for guitar bodies - and maybe even necks. A LOT of effort though.

...Over to you!

- C

Not me mate. I just had a bit of a think about what would be needed to get the pickup, jack, and control cavity routes looking atleast half decent. The problem would be any lubricant build up in those areas will cause a horrible defect easily visible in a clear body.

Outta my league, I'll stick to stucko and paris.

$208 lucite strat here i come.

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No no and no

'Zactly! Me too...

- C

If you're pouring the resin, mold all of the routs in. in other words, make the mold, with the routs already in place, that way, there would be no mistakes in the routs. And as far as getting the bubbles out, I've seen a tv show where they make concrete counter tops, and they place the mold on a vibrating table, to vibrate out all of the air bubbles from the pour. perhaps something like that could be done. In theory, all that would have to be done with the body afterward is polishing, and drilling the hole from the jack to the pups. With that said, I've never worked with resins before.

My 2 cents

Digby the problem is the way lubricant builds up in the deeper area's of the mould. Too much oil and you end up with a chunk missing out of the top of your body or if your lucky a rough unsightly ripple. Also i'm starting to suspect you'd need a special lubricant without oil of any kind in it.

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No no and no

Though have you used RTV silicon rubber? No need for lubricants, not even an aerosol seperator.

Far as getting the bubbles out: with the rubber itself people use a vacuum cabinet which sucks the bubbles from the material before it dries. A bubble right beside the surface being cast from ruins the end result - or at least leads to a lot more work chasing that blemish out of the final product.

However, that won't work with resin because it is too viscous. Similarly with the vibrating plate, if you are using the resin in significant quantity.

The problem is the working time: that resin starts curing as soon as the hardener hits it. You have to stir a small amount of hardener into a large amount of resin and get it well mixed (if you don't want swirl marks), yet without incorporating bubbles. Very tricky to do.

With small volumes of resin there is time to reach in with a needle or similar and literally scoop the bubbles out. Dunno what the volume of a Strat body is, but I'm guessing it would take between two and three litres of resin to cast it. Just gotta find a way of stiring that hardener in fast and yet without bubbles.

Three litres of casting resin: that's about £30/$45 worth. Mistakes are going to mount up very fast!

If a complete guitar with a resin body is avaiable on Ebay for $208 I'm certainly not even going to bother trying to make one myself.

Unadventurous of me, huh?

Cheers - C

Well the resins really heating up in here.... I found another one today on Craig's list at least this guy is not falsely advertising...
http://charlotte.craigslist.org/msg/1166727124.html

I'm with Vulkan on the lucite it must weigh a ton wouldn' want to lug it around all night...

Things that dont look right
1. logo is all wrong for Custom shop
2. designed and backed by.........scammer!
3. bridge saddles are straight off a Squire Strat
4. a humbucker pickup ring???? Fender always mounts them to the pickguard
5. why would Custom shop install a Duncan designed pickup in a "$2500" guitar?
These things are dead give aways to me.

Right. It's a Squier neck that's been rebranded to pass itself off as a Custom Shop.
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I wonder if a guy could get a Lucite Doubleneck body?

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

nedeye is right... I too, see these lucite body strats, flying v's etc. all over e-bay. All of them in the $200-$300 price range and most of them are made by a company named "Galveston."

And you would think that this counterfitter would be decent enough to at least put an American or Crafted in Japan neck on it for $1,399.00!

Fender made a Lucite body Fender Strat for a NAMM show in the late 60's I believe... and it was a "one off" ... worth a fortune!

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I love the smell of hot vacuum tubes in the morning...