1954 Stratocaster, real, replica, details, fakes and famous.

After much prevarication over the contour I have grain filled and sanding sealer on the body.
Nails are in and paint is ready. Three tints and white blonde.
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I am going to paint this in two days separating the front and back. Leaving it to dry for my easy handling. The aim is to put on the blonde then add the discoloured parts blended in and over the almost sunburst white edge.
It will look it’s worst at this point. Just like a crap paint job. But you need to resist the temptation to make it perfect because it comes to life with the relic work and checking.
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Probably leave it a few days before doing the front.
 
One interesting point on Fender of this era is they didn’t grain fill the trem rout or anything under the pick guard, they didn’t even put in the middle tint in a three tone sunburst ,
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This is a 64 body. By this time the sealer was tinted amber to become the light colour in the sunburst.
Failed sunbursts were used to spray custom colours over to avoid needing primer .
This very thin brittle non plasticised finish contributed greatly to the tone and as they gas off over the years it gets thinner and harder. One part that is greatly under appreciated today by builders and reissues.
Also by this time we have lost the nails and have the paint stick.
 
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For those not familiar with nitro lacquer when I paint the other side the new lacquer will overlap the edges and melt in to the existing finish. When you buff it or flat it no join is visible. This is a huge advantage if you want to repair damage on any nitro finish.
 
The first decent Fender I had was the first relic series in 95. It was really nice and I kept it for many years but I didn’t want to alter it so eventually I sold it. 9.5” and vintage frets was always a fight. These days I would refet it straight away. But I wanted to keep that one stock.
 
Front painted.
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I really hate this part because it looks like shit .
It needs flatting and hand buffing. Before anything else happens. Then in a couple of weeks I can start the relic process.
When doing a relic you need to constantly remind yourself that it’s building the layers not doing a normal refinish and then ageing it.
So that’s;
Not enough grain filler.
A very thin sanding sealer
As little paint as you can get away with.
Discoloured patchy clear coat..
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I need to flat sand the paint today because when doing a relic you want the lacquer to sink slightly after you flatten and hand buff it to replicate the effect of time in vintage paint. Old fender finishes are quite thin to start with and they over the years get thinner and sink in to the wood. This doesn’t happen on later ones when they used an epoxy base coat.
Here is a sunburst body I find a gentle relic finish on some time ago;
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The process is the same on this as mine.
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You wet sand it with 1500 to leave some grain sink in the equation.
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Then when you do the checking it looks pretty convincing up as close as you like.
It’s reasons like this that make most relic finishes look fake and ugly. When you do a relic finish it starts with bare wood and everything is done with it in mind or it just looks like damage to a new guitar by an idiot (Nash belt sander series comes to mind)
This particular guitar is not super accurate but was made the be a touring instrument with the right sound and the look he wanted.
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Smaller player wear copied from vintage instruments but with 55090 SS frets
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Nice pickup set.
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A good fit in the neck pocket and by good I mean fits like a piston with enough room to accommodate the finish on the neck. Not tight enough to crack the lacquer due to seasonal changes.
 
What's your thoughts on the tone cap value Andy? I see you've gone with 100nf, is this to be vintage correct or do you prefer it?
 
SillyOctpuss said:
What's your thoughts on the tone cap value Andy? I see you've gone with 100nf, is this to be vintage correct or do you prefer it?
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On single coils I prefer it but this type only. It’s a phone book cap. It doesn’t kill all the treble fast and first. Yes it’s a high value but sounds really good .
 
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