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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 5:17 am
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It's been a whole five days since the start of this thread, I expect to see this guitar finished tomorrow.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 8:08 am
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I'm still waiting on some parts Frank otherwise I'd be on it.
The super switch I ordered 9 days ago has been (according to the tracking number) stuck in the sorting facility in Miami for the past 7 days. Gawd, but I hate UPS. In any other type of industry a company would get squeezed clean out of the market with the level of incompetence they routinely demonstrate.

(I better not get on a rant here cuz I could go on for days about UPS)

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 10:34 am
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That's odd, I got some bridge posts delivered from US to UK in under a week.

Problem was he sent the threaded inserts instead. So that didn't really work out too well.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2013 6:29 pm
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Since I am still waiting on my super-switch and cannot do any more on the electrical of the guitar I thought I would try my hand at some fretwork. I bought some fret work files and a few other tools from Stew-Mac a few years ago and I've used them a couple times to level out some high spots on a few guitars that were causing issues with bent notes "fretting out". At Frank's suggestion I just bought the radius gauges and also a sanding block and some fret erasers a few days ago. They're like eraser material but with abrasive embedded into it. Stew-Mac used USPS instead of UPS and it's clearly faster that way. They're here and the switch still isn't despite being shipped several days earlier. Anyway, despite having done some small area touch ups to fret work before I have not attempted a full neck level and crown before now. More learning experience for me. The 2004 neck had a noticeable amount of fret wear. I say noticeable but it certainly wasn't terrible but since I've nothing else to do on this guitar at the moment I thought I might as well give it a try. I'm sorry but I forgot to take a "detail" picture before I began, showing the fret wear. The previous owner clearly was not much for going up the neck. Virtually all of the significant wear was on the first three frets. The deepest spot being on the first fret, second string and is openly visible in this pic. Looking at the fret wear patterns I got the distinct impression the guy played a lot of open C and F chords or similar chord shapes.

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First I took half a sheet of sanding paper and used the 9.5" radius block to grind down any high spots. I was very pleased to notice that there were no obvious high or low spots after the first rub with the paper.

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After I sanded enough to get most of the fret wear levelled out (I left a little bit on the deeper spots for fear of having to grind so much off) I put the straight edge to the neck but without any string tension on it the neck is actually just a few thousandths convex right now or perhaps you could say negative relief, if that's even a real term. The straight edge always rocked a little at every point on the fretboard so I didn't bother taking any pictures of that. Once I get some string tension on it I'll get a better idea if any further levelling work needs to be done.

Then I took the crowning file (300 grit) and recrowned the frets. The first thing I noticed that I had not known before is that this file has two different radiuses on it. I quickly discovered that the fastest way to crown the frets is to use the tighter radius first to round the shoulders off the flat spots generated by the levelling block and then use the wider radius to finish the top of the fret. The groove on the file is not deep enough to cause the edges of the file to come into contact with the rosewood.

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After the shaping of the frets was done I took the fret erasers to them to reduce the size of the abrasion marks. First a 600 grit (green) and then an 800 grit (grey).

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Here's a pic of the profile after crowning.

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And here we see the difference before and after the erasers. The quality of the pics I took reveals some imperfections that you cannot really see under normal light with the naked eye. It looks better in person than it does in these pics. That being said I might take a closer look with a flashlight and a magnifying glass and check to see if there are any places where I need to put in a little more elbow grease with the erasers.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2013 9:46 pm
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Moving on to other things I can do without a switch, I painted the cavity with conductive paint. First I masked off the area. I left a little bit of a circle around the cavity unmasked and will paint right up to the tape. I'll do that because I had read years ago that guitar shielding work has to be complete. They say if you leave gaps the shielding can actually make the guitar noisier than it would be without the shielding. My concern is where the cavity meets the scratch plate. Plus I don't think it's a bad idea to reinforce grounding between the two.

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I use a small brush to ensure I get into all the small areas and crevices.

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The shielding paint is very thick and goopy. Almost tar-like but not quite. I laid it on thick and heavy because that's how I've noticed Fender does it. Now, I'll leave it dry overnight and tomorrow I'll look at it see if there's anything else I can do while I wait.

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Edited because I replaced a couple of the pix on my photobucket account.

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Last edited by BMW-KTM on Sat Nov 23, 2013 11:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2013 1:25 am
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So a few hours have gone by. The paint is dry to the touch but I can tell it's not fully dry. Still, I am curious as to just how conductive this paint really is. I put the multi-meter to the task. Here we see the open circuit.

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Here I have lain the probes on top of the paint. It's conductive but at 4.1K doesn't that seem like maybe it's just barely conductive? I also tried poking the points of the probes partially into the soft paint but the reading was still in the same ballpark at about 3.9K. I guess it doesn't really need to carry any current so it prolly won't matter as long as it will conduct. I am still a little concerned that they market a conductive paint with that much resistance. I paid a pretty penny for a small jar of this stuff and I can't help feeling just a little ripped off. Does this sound normal?

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Last edited by BMW-KTM on Fri Nov 22, 2013 1:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2013 4:01 am
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That's not spectacularly conductive , it certainly won't offer very good grounding compared to lining the cavities with copper. How far apart were the probes to measure 4k? If that's across the whole cavity then maybe you could get away with running several ground leads into the paint but it's not a very good solution.

Davey does the best shielding job I've seen on youtube ...


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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2013 9:44 am
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OK, crisis averted.
I guess the paint has to be completely dried out.
This morning I lay the probes across the same distance and I see a little over 100 ohms.
Much relieved.

Now I have to go out and shovel snow.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 1:01 pm
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Here I am installing the jack. I have her wired up and installed onto the plate. I have some heat shrink around it but I didn't actually shrink it. I only used it because this kind of wire leaves the ground exposed. I intend to leave more length on the wires leading to the jack so that in future if I ever pull the scratch plate off I can move it further away from the guitar when I flip it over. That's a bit of a pet peeve of mine with stock Fender wiring. Any time I've lifted the scratch plate off of a stock Strat I am a little frustrated by the shortness of the lead to the jack. Anyway, because I want to have more wire I can envision when I am stuffing that extra length into the cavity to mount the plate to the body that the exposed ground wire could possibly contact other connection joints on the pots or on the switch. I decided all my ground wiring will be yellow because I have some on hand and matches the only heat shrink I have on hand and also because it's different from all the other colours involved in this build.

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Here I am using a Sharpie to mark the hole locations for the screws.

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I wrap a little blue PVC tape around the bit as a depth gauge. It shouldn’t be required for these particular hole but it’s just a practice of mine when I’m drilling into something that would be expensive to replace.

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Here I have drilled the holes….

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… and here I have mounted the jack plate.

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Next up is the ground wire to the claw. I use a set of forceps to hold the wire in position so I can use both hands to solder the connection.

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And here we see the finished joint. Looks like I overdid it a little with the solder.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 2:23 pm
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Nice neat soldering job there. And you can never have too much solder on a ground wire.

I would have used black for the ground wire though!

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 3:11 pm
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GilgaFrank wrote:
Nice neat soldering job there. And you can never have too much solder on a ground wire.

I would have used black for the ground wire though!

Thanks. I thought about using black but the humbuckers I have don't use black for the ground; they use a bare wire tied to the red wire (the single coil does use black though) and also the coax ground wire to the jack uses black for the tip.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 3:22 pm
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Frank, I have a question for you since you're the only one who seems to be interested in this project and this is a huge learning experience for me as I've never done some of this stuff before. I don't have any pics right now but I will post some maybe tomorrow. I'm seeing an issue with that shielding paint now that it's dried for a couple of days. It's not sticking to the clear coat very well in a couple of places and it's also cracking in two of the corners of the pickup cavities. Do you have any experience with this kind of paint? Do you think it is salvageable or do you think I'm going to have to strip it out and reshield it with foil? I've got some stuff to do today so I won't be working on the project but I'll try to post some pics tomorrow.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 3:32 pm
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I'm interested in the project. It is my understanding that Fender puts the conductive paint under the paint and topcoat. If it is chipping now it will just get worse in use. I'd either give it a top coat or strip it and put on the foil.


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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 3:37 pm
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Strange you should ask me that, I was just thinking today I need to repaint my bathroom where the paint has cracked in the corners. I think it's inevitable, where the paint pools it'll dry thicker then contract then crack.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it. As long as most of the cavity is shielded then you're really not going to get much noise breaking through into the cabling. If it becomes a problem then you could maybe add copper tape but really I would be surprised if there's any noise problem with that guitar.

The only potential problem I can see is actually getting a good ground connection onto the paint, presumably you're using an isotag screwed into the wood? Might be an idea to paint the conductive paint onto the screw and tag to ensure a good connection ... and if you start to get noise after using the guitar for a while then that'd be a place to check for failure, it's going to be the weak link in the connection.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Partsocaster Build
Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 4:21 pm
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BMW-KTM wrote:
. . . since you're the only one who seems to be interested in this project . . .


Not True. I am interested and I read all the posts in this thread. I think you are doing a great job in building this guitar and it is going to look fantastic when you are done.

I just can't contribute anything because I have never done anything like it, but I sure like reading about those who do. :D

Jerry

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