Strat Partscaster with TAG Pickups

[strat56]

Hi All,

Just finished this guitar, plays great and sounds great (because it has TAG SF pickups in it.

Body and neck from USACG, neck was finished by them. Body is one piece ash finished in Tru-Oil. It was my first attempt at finishing a body, came out OK, but I'm glad I don't do it for a living!!

Just thought I'd share here since it has TAG pickups on it.

http://www.jackwdillard.com/images/Strat_Partscaster_20140526/Strat Partscaster 20140526-1.JPG

http://www.jackwdillard.com/images/Strat_Partscaster_20140526/Strat Partscaster 20140526-2.JPG

http://www.jackwdillard.com/images/Strat_Partscaster_20140526/Strat Partscaster 20140526-3.JPG

http://www.jackwdillard.com/images/Strat_Partscaster_20140526/Strat Partscaster 20140526-4.JPG

[RVA]

Very nice! How long did it take you?

[strat56]

Very nice! How long did it take you?

Working on it in my spare time it took me about two weeks.

- The longest part was finishing the body. I did 7 coats of Tru-Oil and that took 3 days then I let it cure for a week
- Putting the pickguard together took about an hour
- Final assembly and set up took 2 or 3 hours
- Positioning the hardware and drilling the body for the hardware, pickguard etc took an hour I guess
- The neck has a Telecaster heel so I had to modify the pickguard to fit the neck heel (the body was made at USACG for the Tele neck heel) about 30 minutes I guess

That's a lot of detail don't know if that's what you wanted or not.

[bear79]

Nice finish.

I'm building a guitar right now and I was wondering if you used a wood grain filler on the guitar. If so, what color and brand.

thanks,
David

[Pietro]

It looks fabulous!

[strat56]

Nice finish.

I'm building a guitar right now and I was wondering if you used a wood grain filler on the guitar. If so, what color and brand.

thanks,
David

I did not use grain filler, I wanted to be able to see and feel the grain. I have an 81 Fender Lead I that I stripped and just stained and the body always felt good to play, smooth and slick but different than a highly polished finish.

I've read the best way to grain fill with Tru-Oil is to put on a few coats and then wet sand it with Tru-Oil as the wetting agent. This creates a slurry of Tru-Oil and sawdust that will fill the grain.

I didn't put any stain on it either, that's the natural color of the Ash finished with Tru-Oil.

[strat56]

It looks fabulous!

Thank you!!

[strat56]

Quick update. I've used this on a couple gigs so far and the SF pickups sound great to me.

Not a real vintage kind of Strat sound but a nice fat sound, still single coil sounding but big. The in between sounds are good, I was worried that they wouldn't be Stratty enough but they're great.

The guitar weighs about 8.5 lbs, 1.5 lbs more than my DTC, but the weight is working for me. I have one of those Comfort Strapps (http://www.samash.com/comfort-strapp-padded-pro-bass-guitar-strap-cbassstr) that I use with my basses, maybe I'll try it on this guitar.

[Big Harry]

Hey Jack,
Looks like a great guitar !
And you're right . We always need one more guitar .....:p
I like natural body wood .
Cheers,
Zoran

[strat56]

Hey Jack,
Looks like a great guitar !
And you're right . We always need one more guitar .....:p
I like natural body wood .
Cheers,
Zoran

Thanks Zoran