My refin project

[rdamaral]

Well, the progress has started on this mystery guitar that I got in a trade. My thought was that it had a decent neck, and it would be a good guinea pig for my forst refin project.

I was already planning a trip to Boston to visit family, and my Dad is a Body Man, so I had the painter set up. I've always wanted an orange guitar, so this was my chance. Now, finding the color I wanted was kind of tough, since there arent many "agent orange" vehicles out there. But I found an orange that I liked, and was pretty close, so we went with it.



During paint, but before clearcoat:



Here is the before pic:

[rdamaral]

I will post more pics later, she is back together now. I upgraded the pups to SD's, upgraded the bridge to double locking, and cleaned up the neck. Polished the frets, and oiled her up some.

I'm having hell getting it set up, but I will get there sooner or later. The neck is buzzing too much, and the action has to be set up way high to stop the buzzing.

[DonP]

Looks good. Wish my dad was a body man. That's a skill I'd like to learn.

[rdamaral]

I just bought another rough body off the Bay for $32, for my 2nd attempt. A f'd up attempt to fill two single routes. I will fix her up and get her refinished also. I'm thinking yellow....

[DonP]

I don't know how you filled yours, but I filled a pair in my Aria by using the plastic pickup covers screwed into the body all the way down, then bondo'd over the top. Bondo went into the pole piece holes to lock it in. You can barely see the seams around the pickups, but it has held together for 22 years now. So to recap, try to fill the pickup cavity with something solid that almost fills it in completely, then bondo over.

LOL! you probably should be telling me this (or your dad LOL!)

[rdamaral]

The body I bought has them filled already, but the fill is too low. It will need a skim coat of fine puddy and should be good to go.

That one will be a lot more work to do, but I enjoy having projects to do.

The action on this project has me stumped. Will tweaking the truss rod eliminate string buzz? It seems to be isolated on the low E from 12-24 frets.

[AdRock]

The buzz could be coming from several things, but check the neck relief and adjust the truest if needed. Also check the frets. See if they are level, have any low spot from wear, or possibly fret lift. That's where I would start and go from there.

[DonP]

How is the relief on the neck? Loosening the truss rod will add relief letting the string "swing" in a larger arc before it hits the frets.

I don't see how you could have buzzing on fret 24 unless you had a 25 fret neck, or if the string was buzzing against the pickups. A rattle is something else-like a loose bridge saddle, loose nut clamp.

If you suspect a high fret, start at fret 12, you hear buzz, then 13, then 14, ... keep going until you hear no buzz. The fret where the buzz goes away is the high fret. That's why I'm stumped if you say you have a buzz on fret 24. The last fret should never buzz because it's just that fret and the bridge with nothing in between to buzz aganst.

[rdamaral]

I say 24th fret, but I really mean that the strings are buzzing on the bottom half of the neck.

I need to be more specific and explore exactly where the buzzing happens. I will finger her when I get home to look for a high fret.

I will also loosen the truss rod to see if that helps too.

[tonemonster]

Looks good so far, I would like to see the finished product!

[Corpsegrinder88]

I have the color code to agent orange from house of colors.

its what i did my soloist out of to match my custom shop agent orange RR

Looking good though. starting to like bright colored guitars more!

[VanHoosen]

I will finger her when I get home

Heheheheheh, cool.

[coloradoman25]

so you got that usa fusion body i forgot about lol? Enjoy that beast i was gonna mess around with that one for fun. I would reccommend removing whatever filled those cavities and start again

[rdamaral]

yeah, I will prolly drill it out and see what the filler is. If it looks solid I might leave it. I wish I could get that paint out of the neck pocket and prove that it is a USA body.

[coloradoman25]

I have 0 doubt that its a usa body man. He has been listing things left and right on there lately