Trying to keep myself occupied during the summer and not sitting on the couch, I desperately search through my attic looking for things to take apart. I come across my dad's old broken 23 year old fender stratocaster. It looks dusty, rusty and ugly, but this will do. I then start my quest to turn this piece of junk guitar into something worth bragging about.
I start by disassembling all the parts and screws. This is when my dad comes home and sees his guitar in pieces and has a heart attack... but walks it off.
I then use a heat gun and a paint scraper to remove the plastic coating.
After many hours of sanding, the body has been stripped to bear wood.
I used my cnc router to engrave my initials into the headstock. The old tuners were extremely rusty and barely worked so I replaced them with new ones. I used steel wool on the other metal parts to remove surface rust and now they look aged and cool. The new tuners were slightly bigger than the old ones so I had to redrill the mounting screws for them.
Then I stained the body and applied many coats of gloss to give it a hard finish to withstand hours of rocking. Then I reassembled the guitar and strung it with brand new strings, and guess what! It made a noise the first time I plugged it in! I actually didn't expect it to work and I figured I'd have to put $100 into it to get it functional, but I only had to replace the tuners. With brand new strings, the guitar has a nice bright tone to it.
And finally, the finished product!
I start by disassembling all the parts and screws. This is when my dad comes home and sees his guitar in pieces and has a heart attack... but walks it off.
I then use a heat gun and a paint scraper to remove the plastic coating.
After many hours of sanding, the body has been stripped to bear wood.
I used my cnc router to engrave my initials into the headstock. The old tuners were extremely rusty and barely worked so I replaced them with new ones. I used steel wool on the other metal parts to remove surface rust and now they look aged and cool. The new tuners were slightly bigger than the old ones so I had to redrill the mounting screws for them.
Then I stained the body and applied many coats of gloss to give it a hard finish to withstand hours of rocking. Then I reassembled the guitar and strung it with brand new strings, and guess what! It made a noise the first time I plugged it in! I actually didn't expect it to work and I figured I'd have to put $100 into it to get it functional, but I only had to replace the tuners. With brand new strings, the guitar has a nice bright tone to it.
And finally, the finished product!
