I keep finding myself watching your videos and they are very entertaining since nobody else does guitar projects like this. Keep up the great content 👍👍👍👍
Hey, the reason the original finish cracked that way was due the incompatibility between the sealer and the finish Fender used between the late '90s and the late 2000s. They found out when it was too late and so many of their instruments made in that 10+ years showed exactly that issue. I had a Malmsteen signature (big price tag guitar) from 2006 and it had exactly the same issue, for example. Love the YT channel, keep it up!
@@Stewbert_72 Same! Was playing my 84-87 MIJ 62 reissue & looked at my 2006 MIM ‘72 reissue in Olympic White (one of my favs) hanging on the wall & realized the paint had cracked from the top to bottom & the paint was literally curling over. I wanted to cry because it had a nice yellow tint & nice natural aged look to it which I loved. I decided to start chipping away & had half the front side pulled off within 5 minutes so I don’t think it’s gonna be too hard to remove. And on the positive side it is an all ash body & so far I haven’t found any splices. Maybe I’ll be lucky lucky lucky & have a 1 piece haha. I think I’m gonna paint it black or else go back with the original aged white. Depends on how nice the ash body looks once it’s all peeled off.
It's a Fender of course, the workmanship is poor, so is the hardware and the equiptment. 2024 and they still build their guitars as if there have been no improvements in the last 50 years
Thanks for this! Planning on attempting my first strip and refinish this summer - so this vid was super helpful 👍 For the Silver Sky - I'd vote HSS (Chrome covered HB) Creme covered SC's and a Brown Tort Guard 🥸
My 70's Sunburst Japanese Kasuga Strat copy was stripped in 1976 with the intention of refinishing it as Natural. When the french polisher stripped the old finish it revealed 5 mm thick top and back layers, and an eleven piece body. Initially I was ever so disappointed, but nearly fifty years on I have come to love it.
I have a 1974 Fender P bass and it's a 7 piece body. It was black original, but the old finish just was coming off so I stripped it and did a natural finish. It looks cool with all the different pieces of wood showing. Lots of different wood grains. It doesn't have the top piece like yours dose. Good luck with your finish. 👍🎸🍻
Hi Jerry! Yep! I predict crickets on your thoughts. All the possible colors and finishes completely shroud reality. Good heavy plywood would suffice just as well in this mess. 2 or 3 piece ash would be more genuine on a painted signature instrument. But we must assume the shared responsibilties of the "assemblers" here. Use up every scrap. Make it solid. Paint it. Sell it. Arrrggghhhh!!!??? Cheers!
Totally agree. I love a tinted/stained maple neck that's got a color to it, but nothing SOLID that just covers up the grain, I have never understood that. I always want to see the wood grain of the neck of the guitar I'm playing, at a minimum. I don't like solid colors on guitars, really anywhere on the guitar. Love a classic Fender color with a matching headstock, but, I'd get one made from Warmoth before I'd buy a Fender...
Nice! New subscriber here (came from following you on IG) and I loved this video - super informative for poly finishes! For the Silver Sky, I vote one pickup 😉
Great tip removing lacquer with plastic scraper. I’ve always dented the wood in the past. I vote for a Shell Pink refinish, love that color. On the SilverSky, you could do a John Mayer PRS hybrid and do a SuperEagle II setup with Humbucker nickelcover - mini humbucker/singlecoil black - humbucker nickelcover. Add some coilsplitting switches. Regular 3 pcs white pickguard. That would be a pretty cool guitar.
Thank you bud, yeah I discovered that one by accident last year when I was moving house and packed up all my tools so the only thing I could find was a plastic silicone scraper and it worked a treat! Never looked back. And great suggestion thanks 🙏
I never noticed before, but after seeing you talk about the neck pocket cracks, I went and checked mine. Sure enough, hairline cracks about a centimetre in length. And I think you’re right about it being because of the 7 piece body.
Mine’s an ‘03 in graffiti yellow. Which is funny, because I like surf green the best. My paint isn’t pulling away from the body at all, but I hope those cracks don’t get much worse any time soon..
Fingers crossed they don't get any bigger bud, I wouldn't worry all that much though they pretty much all had it - some didn't but it's rare to find now!
7 poece- fender using leftover prices of wood probably different kinds if wood or wood left to dry out at different rates of time causing inconsistencies in the overal body after the paint job Is done it can cover up a multitude of sins, these faults/inconsistencies like I said will cause cracks in the paintwork and worse because of the lack of diligence in making sure each piece is the same humidity and density a simple test using a cheap tool can determine the moisture content of each piece of wood used to match them up to prevent these un resolvable issues that fender will blame the customer for, now, that I'd shady as hell.
That came off super clean! I tried this with a Harley Benton, maybe I did something wrong, but the paint and underneath the wood started burning before they would even consider flaking off. Maybe wasn't a poly finish, I don't know. Only way we managed is carefully sanding it, but it took almost the whole day.
Finally starting my project of completely customizing a BC Rich Bich I bought with my very first paycheck when I was 18. I just turned 30 and am so excited to have it finally look the way I've imagined.
Thank you for uploading this video, I can confirm what people say about Fender body is right. I don’t care many number of pieces and surface veneer, this is the effort to produce mass products with similar weight and sound. But if my Custom shop Strat has same body construction, I will be feel so sorry😂.
My American Performer Telecaster honey burst 2021 has a 4 piece body. Of course, I bought it with that in mind, because it was well connected and the wood grain was beautiful. And it goes without saying that the sound is the best for me.
I think you’re on point with the 7-piece having a hand in the paint cracking. Fender is kind of notorious for not drying their lumber properly. For the Silver Sky: you could do a double P90
You can actually tell from the end grain how a piece of wood will move. Quarter sawn wood is the most stable . Wood from the same board should be used or at least boards with similar grain structure. When I glue up a table top I flip grain orientation 180 degrees for every second board to add stability to the top. 🍻
Tried doing this as an absolute amateur, and it definitely shows on the body I used😅Glad to see a better execution of it for the world to see *Definitely* a solo humbucker for the SS mod
Quarter-sawn wood is straight and very stable, better than just a slab. In that mix of wood there are very little to no voids/defects and just solid stable wood with an organized grain structure so good for stability and I'm sure it sounded great.
If wood is properly dried the amount of pieces doesn't matter. And for a painted guitar if done properly there is nothing wrong with multi piece bodies. One of my favorite guitars I had was an old Electra X-260. The called them their Workingman series. The were intentionally made with cost in mind. The gave them natural finishes and you could actually see how many pieces of wood they are made of. It was a great guitar. I had a Les Paul around the time as well. The Electra was better than the Les Paul. Even with what some people consider inferior construction. Finishing is less about what is used and more about technique. And better finishes take a lot more time.
The 7 piece with maple veneer is common these days in Fender products, in fact I have a 90's Squire Fat-Strat that I stripped that has the same construction and veneers. I sanded off the veneers on mine and actually got some nice semi-matched basswood underneath that I shot a transluscent color over. Then I burnished the paint to make it even more transluscent and paste waxed and buffed the finish. What I like about the burnished and waxed paint is that it has the actual feel of wood even though it is painted. It feels and looks more natural to me. This can produce loads of character in the guitar because each one is eunique.
I was using this technique to repaint a Jazzmaster and it chipped the guitar multiple times even using a dull paint scraper. also using the heat gun caused bubbles under the wood veneer that popped into splinters. If I could have redone it I would have just sanded especially because if you are repainting you can actually save time sealing the guitar and making sure the wood grain is sealed, just use finer grits around the edges or hand sand to reduce the risk of reshaping the body. Also making sure the wood is sealed and an even surface is 100% necessary especially if you are spending good money on high-quality paint. If you are doing a DIY paint job I recommend watching the stew mac tutorial, they have tons of great advice.
Aw sorry to hear you chipped out your Jazzmaster with this method, it's why I use a plastic scraper, very hard to do with that! And yeah gotta watch you don't heat it too much too. I totally get your logic in sanding it down and suppose it comes down to personal preference, I prefer this method and then doing that extra work to seal it again. Both ways will work just fine 🙂 thanks bud 🙏
Good video, looked like a bit of a chore, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I wouldn't think the number of pieces on the body would matter in regards to contracting/expanding/causing the cracks. It's all kiln dried wood so the moisture content is very very low. Fender used 7 pieces on this for economics - they're in the business of extracting as much profit as possible. Most solid color guitars are multi-multi pieces, that's why they're solid colors (so you can't see how many pieces it is). It's the transparent finishes that get the 2 piece bodies. And remember, you're not paying $2k for the body, you're paying $2k for the headstock :)
Haha your last line on that comment is true, I bought one of these necks for $400 dollars last year which I made into a pink delonge but only 2 piece body so it's totally not authentic 🤣🫢
Multi piece bodies and necks are generally more stable as they are laminated. One and two piece bodies are prone to cracking and splitting due to the higher stress levels inherent. This is why solid table tops are never screwed rigidly down to the fame. The need to contract and expand with the different weather and humidity.
The trouble with polyurethane is that (unlike nitrocellulose) it basically hermetically seals the wood, which normally shouldn't be that much of a problem, but when you combine that with the multi piece body and what looks like a seriously thick layer of paint, then I think it may just have created a perfect storm resulting in the wood contracting under a finish that was too thick and hard to move with the wood.
I used this method on an OLP bass. The first half I messed up cooking the paint and making a gooey mess in the initial heated areas also burning the wood some but I got the hang of it and the last half looked nice and clean. Glad I tried a cheap instrument first.
It's scary that those things are going for $2,000 used right now and Fender has that many pieces of scrap wood making up the bodies. Certainly doesn't make it a bad guitar but you'd tend to expect a single slab (maybe a two-piece) for that price point. As far as the PRS I actually think a humbucker/P90 combo would be cool. Cheers.
Yeah it's a bit sad really that they weren't better build quality but I suppose Fender wouldn't have known just hope big they would get, let's hope the re-release ones are better!! And thanks for the suggestion 😀
If it has that big "F" on the headstock, they can get away with most anything. I have a 2012 FSR American Standard Tele that has a three piece body with a *stained finish.*
There’s no way any MIM fender body with a solid color is going to be a two piece at least from back then. Good for them in a way. There’s no sense wasting wood.
Multi-piece bodies are fairly common and don't usually suffer from paint cracking like that, I think its more likely to be an issue with the paint-curing process. Polyurethane paint is especially prone to shrinking if the temperature of the curing process isn't carefully controlled.
The more pieces of wood, the better the sustain, the Chinese make guitars from sawdust, this is an endless sustain, the Americans should strive for this
@@Giant_Guitars don't buy that bs, wood makes virtually no difference in solid body guitars. Just record yourself and listen to it afterwards, don't let the feeling of the guitar against your body fool you, or its unplgged sound.
@@guitarmissionary well yes and no. The key piece of wood is really only between the bridge attachment and the neck attachment. The entire rest of the body really doesn’t matter that terribly much apart from comfort and playability. There was a guy on CZcams that started hacking chunks off a strat body to see if the sound would change. It didn’t change until he started cutting into the area I previously mentioned. Then the sound got really thin and sustained was severely limited. From that experiment you can surmise that as long as you maintain the integrity of that central block of wood, the wings could be made of anything and the sound would not be appreciatively effected.
Went to the pawn shop years back and bought a Dean LP style for $40. Took it home, stripped it just like this then dyed the wood a blackberry burst color, took it back to the same pawn shop and sold it back to them for $80.
I guess if my $200 Tagima has less pieces. But anyway, I don't think that it would make a difference in tone, and I believe that your cracks are caused more by the type of paint than the body joints.
100% the cracks are caused by the multi-piece body. Fender just trying to be as cheap as possible, no real concern about longevity and that's a shame. Good video and look forward to seeing the spraying too Humbucker and single would be my preference for the silver sky btw! Oh and shout out from Tyrone!
Figured that! Made sense in my head haha and I appreciate it Mark 🙏 nice to see some local people on here 😀 even if I'm a fair bit away from you! I agree with you about the HS, I've done the single humbucker thing already on one of these and I don't think anyone has went HS yet!
Graffiti Yellow is a fabulous color! In the '90s, they were made from several layers stacked up. The 2000 American Series was the first in at least a decade, to not be made from multi layers ...
I've seen paint cracks on guitars since the early 60s. It seems to happen more on cheap butcher block multiple piece guitars. So, you are correct in assuming that.
Excellent! I had a burgundy mist that cracked the same way , I peeled the whole thing with a 1mm pick took awhile for sure but normally with the poly I would have to use the heat gun and a scraper. Either the paint had seen a drastic temp change or there was a problem with the adherence with the base coat.
13:15 Thanks for that, lol. Answering the important questions. I always say as a seller:'The pocket crack is just in the finish' but as a buyer:'that crack is in the wood'
I thought theres another thick coating of some sort under the Fender poly finish. I have an old MIM body i want to do this too. Ur giving me inspiration
Some of them probably do but I'm not sure which, I also think some of them used a clear primer. Chances are if there is any coating it will come off as one piece with the paint when doing this anyway!
I never thought of a heat gun. I had a mid 80s "metal" strat I needed to refinish. I ended up taking a plumbers torch to it to melt off the finish. Had a 3 piece body of Ash... looked cool.
My father has a 2006 Fender Stratocaster MIM sunburst with maple neck and have a veener. I discovered it by removing the jack. The body seems to be in one piece but against the light you can clearly see 3 parts but I'm sure it has 5 or 7. Even so, it is very resonant although a bit heavy.
Not yet bud, I've delayed things while I build my workshop which should be done end of this month. This guitar will be one of the first I do after that!
I reliced a guitar and put some big gouges in it and changed my mind later and stripped the finish and scraped out the finish from the gouges and used one of those clothes steamer and they all came out like nothing ever was wrong. Lol. I'm surprised you got crack I always heard that a lot of pisces out more stable that glue joints are stronger than the wood is itself. But wood is a living thing and may not mix well with different ages or parts of the tree out candy from example Hartwood vs new big growth stuff from a farm. The three hundred year old trees are all gone so that's the way it goes that's why I try to rescue anything from the garbage that is old hardwood on its way to the dump. It's often the best stuff that is worth 20 or 30 dollars a board foot. Doors and tables are often mahogany and maple even rosewood and walnut. The old dark walnut. Thanks for your video. I hope this inspires some of you to get dirty. You always feel funny pulling out some thing from the pile on the street as people are going to dinner and drinks and you're going for a dumpster dive. Lol
Sounds awesome bud and yeah I appreciate turning old stuff into new things, I've started collecting free hardwood tables and cabinets to use the wood for guitar builds too
Loved this when it was released in Daphne Blue, had a real guitar crush on this & the Hoppus Bass. Mad it’s 7 piece, this surely has to be done for cost? It’s not as if it’d be known for killer tone 😂 Love the Silver Sky, would always go for single humbucker with coil tap if mine, but had a 2001 Tele & still miss that neck pickup! (Thanks for the advice on Insta the other day around pickguards too - ended up ordering hardware for my PRS build!). Edited also at end - a candy Red could be cool? Know the cheap Fenders usually end up with this, but can look nice if done right?
Yeah you see I had that same feeling but for the Graffiti Yellow one! And anytime dude with the advice, hope it helped 🙏 red is definitely cool when it's done right like you say 😁
My original TD Strat also had cracked paint in the neck cutouts or whatever you’d call them. I think you’re right. Eventually big chips of paint came off all over the damn thing.
I am going to do this step myself to change my Strat to eggshell white instead of arctic. This video helps very much. Thank you for your work The PRS would be interesting in a SHS (yes not vice versa) config. I saw that in some surf'ish bands and I am very curious about this
I like your idea of the Tele pickup on the neck with a rear humbucker with a dual switch to change it to single coil. PRS are a fantastic guitar and I’ve never been able to afford one.
love your videos, been thinking about removing the paint on my Fender American Performer strat, but I´m not sure if its going to be that easy ,like in your vid ^^
Just about to try a heat gun to remove the poly finish on my squier strat se. Starting tomorrow. Wish me luck. I’m thinking surf green for the refinish. Gonna do an aerosol nitro finish.
.. a humbucker at the bridge and a single pick-up at the neck would be very nice .. one for vol, one for tone ppts .. a three way pick-up switch .. looking forward to see your next vid!
Try a wipe on oli finish ! I did a tele with Watco Clear Danish oil finish and I love it. After many applications it looks and feels like real wood but rejects moisture .
I did this several years ago on a Tele body i bought off Ebay. When i hit it with the heat gun, the paint would pop off the body. Hardly any scraping. Under the paint was a gray primer, and it was hard to remove. Heat didn't affect it nor did stripper. Had to sand it off. The body was a finger jointed mess. It was about 30 pieces of unknown wood, 3 to 4 inches long, finger jointed together length wise, then glued together. It was so much work I started making my own bodies
Wow that's an absolute nightmare of a job 😯 sometimes it's definitely not worth the effort but for a signature model or something you want to keep original parts then needs must. I'm lucky this was so easy for me 😁
I keep watching this vid over n over hoping i would get enough balls to do this to my old 87 Squier MIJ Strat. Maybe jus one day ill get enough balls to do this. I REALLY want to and have been thinking about it for a year.
Crazy 7 pieces I will for sure buy a non painted one maybe a sunburst love the giveaway single pickup would be cool most people already have one with several pickups would love see what just one nice pickup sounded like
Will you be doing a video on spraying using the cans? I have a basswood Harley Benton kit guitar I purchased over lockdown but haven’t built up the nerve to paint yet. Just found the channel recently great to see an NI guitar channel.
@@Giant_Guitars Perfect hadn’t owned an electric guitar for 30 years and bought a tele kit for something to do when we went into lockdown. Now have an squire strat & an Epiphone LP in the house. It’s addictive 😂
Yes the paint problem it's bc of the wood contracting and expanding , the crack was revealing enough to assess that changes in the volume of the wood caused it .
15 years ago, I was at my local music shop. The owner called a luthier he was working with to talk to a client who wanted to refinish three CS Stratocaster. One was a Lake Placid blue, I don't remember the other two. After that, I talked to the luthier for an hour and a half and since I was really passionate about guitar and curious about his work he invited me to his atelier. I went there and he showed me the process for stripping the paint away and so on. The Lake Placid blue Custom Shop Strat (which was around 4000€ at this time) was in 5 pieces. One was in three pieces and the third one in two. I was blown away and he told me : "oh you think it's a rare thing? You should come here more often then". Nobody believes me about that but hell, I've seen a bunch of this the years after that. Since then there's no way I put my money in Fender guitars. I'm happy with my Warmoth or Musikraft ones.
I would like to try this but start with a coat or 4 of black then go pink over top and then try to get the sander on it to relic it and bring out both colors. After that I might even coat it with about 10 coats of poly.
What you said about 7 piece "moving" is true, every piece captures a different amount of heat due to density/composition and thus, expand more and less with it
I would LOVE to see 3 mini humbuckers in the PRS! Chrome pickups with a black pickgaurd and black hardware. Contrast the "moon white" with dark hardware and punchy humbuckers Just found your channel (thank you algorithm.) Love your work
I have a 2006 MIM jazz bass which had the same finish issues. Stripped it and refinished pink, then had my then-girlfriend do some cool graphics on it!
I keep finding myself watching your videos and they are very entertaining since nobody else does guitar projects like this. Keep up the great content 👍👍👍👍
That's great to hear bud I really appreciate that 🙏🙏 and I will!
Hey, the reason the original finish cracked that way was due the incompatibility between the sealer and the finish Fender used between the late '90s and the late 2000s. They found out when it was too late and so many of their instruments made in that 10+ years showed exactly that issue. I had a Malmsteen signature (big price tag guitar) from 2006 and it had exactly the same issue, for example. Love the YT channel, keep it up!
Ok cool that's the first I've heard this thanks mate very interesting to know!
I have a jim root squire that had the same issue. It was mahogany body, so now it is stained natural. Win WIn
I’m about to do a Strat from exact same era
@@Stewbert_72
Same! Was playing my 84-87 MIJ 62 reissue & looked at my 2006 MIM ‘72 reissue in Olympic White (one of my favs) hanging on the wall & realized the paint had cracked from the top to bottom & the paint was literally curling over. I wanted to cry because it had a nice yellow tint & nice natural aged look to it which I loved. I decided to start chipping away & had half the front side pulled off within 5 minutes so I don’t think it’s gonna be too hard to remove. And on the positive side it is an all ash body & so far I haven’t found any splices. Maybe I’ll be lucky lucky lucky & have a 1 piece haha.
I think I’m gonna paint it black or else go back with the original aged white. Depends on how nice the ash body looks once it’s all peeled off.
@@diecapsuleYou can achive the original yellowed off white color while going with a nitro finish. It’s a win-win situation imo.
Thank you for this. I was researching this method but seeing you actually do it makes it seem so much more accessible.
Glad I could help, thanks for watching and commenting, I appreciate it 😁
This channel is growing so fast because of your incredible videos. You deserved it! I'm your silent fan and subscriber
Thank you so much mate, I still can't believe that's possible but I seriously appreciate it 🙏 comments like this keep me inspired and motivated
7 piece body on a guitar that expensive is shocking.
Anyone paying an expensive price for a blink-182 related guitar is shocking
It's a Fender of course, the workmanship is poor, so is the hardware and the equiptment. 2024 and they still build their guitars as if there have been no improvements in the last 50 years
who cares if you can't see it? doesn't make a difference, it's arguably more stable since there are more glue joints.
Thanks for this! Planning on attempting my first strip and refinish this summer - so this vid was super helpful 👍
For the Silver Sky - I'd vote HSS (Chrome covered HB) Creme covered SC's and a Brown Tort Guard 🥸
You're very welcome and good luck 🤞 thanks for your suggestion too 😁
My 70's Sunburst Japanese Kasuga Strat copy was stripped in 1976 with the intention of refinishing it as Natural. When the french polisher stripped the old finish it revealed 5 mm thick top and back layers, and an eleven piece body. Initially I was ever so disappointed, but nearly fifty years on I have come to love it.
Haha nice, that's good to know 😊
Cool, looking forward to seeing the process.
Me too haha 😂
I have a 1974 Fender P bass and it's a 7 piece body. It was black original, but the old finish just was coming off so I stripped it and did a natural finish. It looks cool with all the different pieces of wood showing. Lots of different wood grains. It doesn't have the top piece like yours dose. Good luck with your finish. 👍🎸🍻
Oh nice, I didn't realise they even used so many pieces back in the 70s too
A kid asked me one time why almost all my guitars are natural wood. I told him it’s because they have to use the best wood to pull it off.
Hi Jerry! Yep! I predict crickets on your thoughts. All the possible colors and finishes completely shroud reality. Good heavy plywood would suffice just as well in this mess. 2 or 3 piece ash would be more genuine on a painted signature instrument. But we must assume the shared responsibilties of the "assemblers" here.
Use up every scrap.
Make it solid.
Paint it.
Sell it.
Arrrggghhhh!!!???
Cheers!
Totally agree. I love a tinted/stained maple neck that's got a color to it, but nothing SOLID that just covers up the grain, I have never understood that. I always want to see the wood grain of the neck of the guitar I'm playing, at a minimum. I don't like solid colors on guitars, really anywhere on the guitar. Love a classic Fender color with a matching headstock, but, I'd get one made from Warmoth before I'd buy a Fender...
Unless, they used photoflames, haha.
@@janzelf this far I only have American guitars in my collection. I have been interested in a few Paoletti guitars. Just haven’t pulled that trigger.
wood doesn't matter for electrics. all electronics baby.
Your vids are always so chill and relaxing to watch!
Thanks Adam, that's made my day 😀
Nice! New subscriber here (came from following you on IG) and I loved this video - super informative for poly finishes! For the Silver Sky, I vote one pickup 😉
Appreciate that bud thank you and I'll note your suggestion 😄 you know I love single hum
Great tip removing lacquer with plastic scraper. I’ve always dented the wood in the past. I vote for a Shell Pink refinish, love that color.
On the SilverSky, you could do a John Mayer PRS hybrid and do a SuperEagle II setup with Humbucker nickelcover - mini humbucker/singlecoil black - humbucker nickelcover. Add some coilsplitting switches. Regular 3 pcs white pickguard. That would be a pretty cool guitar.
Thank you bud, yeah I discovered that one by accident last year when I was moving house and packed up all my tools so the only thing I could find was a plastic silicone scraper and it worked a treat! Never looked back. And great suggestion thanks 🙏
that is shockingly exactly what i'm going for, this was scary
I never noticed before, but after seeing you talk about the neck pocket cracks, I went and checked mine. Sure enough, hairline cracks about a centimetre in length. And I think you’re right about it being because of the 7 piece body.
Mine’s an ‘03 in graffiti yellow. Which is funny, because I like surf green the best. My paint isn’t pulling away from the body at all, but I hope those cracks don’t get much worse any time soon..
Fingers crossed they don't get any bigger bud, I wouldn't worry all that much though they pretty much all had it - some didn't but it's rare to find now!
7 poece- fender using leftover prices of wood probably different kinds if wood or wood left to dry out at different rates of time causing inconsistencies in the overal body after the paint job Is done it can cover up a multitude of sins, these faults/inconsistencies like I said will cause cracks in the paintwork and worse because of the lack of diligence in making sure each piece is the same humidity and density a simple test using a cheap tool can determine the moisture content of each piece of wood used to match them up to prevent these un resolvable issues that fender will blame the customer for, now, that I'd shady as hell.
That came off super clean! I tried this with a Harley Benton, maybe I did something wrong, but the paint and underneath the wood started burning before they would even consider flaking off. Maybe wasn't a poly finish, I don't know. Only way we managed is carefully sanding it, but it took almost the whole day.
Oh yeah I've had to remove finish by sanding before too and it's horrible lol 😆 I don't envy you on that one
What Modell exactly was it?? I have a green Harley Benton Fusion 3 and want to remove the paint...
@@flashpadxxxI’m about to sand off the light blue finish on a fusion III.
Thanks for the video. I'm going to subscribe and watch your back-catalogue. Cheers.
Appreciate you mate, thanks
humbucker + tele neck definitely sounds like an interesting mix. I think doing a mini-humbucker in the neck would also be really cool.
You're right for sure that would be cool!
OMFG I laughed so loud when you threw it in the trash can!!
Haha glad you enjoyed it, thanks 🙏
Finally starting my project of completely customizing a BC Rich Bich I bought with my very first paycheck when I was 18. I just turned 30 and am so excited to have it finally look the way I've imagined.
Heat guns are indispensable! Thanks for showing yet another use 😁
I love your approach to the work and the video making.
And for the PRS I would love to see you make it with a humbucker-single configuration!
Keep up
Appreciate you, comments like this really help keep the motivation to do more 🙏 thanks. And I'll note your vote for the free PRS!
Humbucker and tele single coil as you said would look really good on the prs
Great minds and all that 😀😀 noted bud, thank you!
That's absolutely outrageous!
Lol I know but should have expected it, on reflection
Makes literally no difference
Good job. I’m going at a Tele in the same way shortly. Wish me luck.
I even ordered a plastic scraper on your advice
Good luck bud 🤞 I hope the plastic scraper does the job for you
Thank you for uploading this video, I can confirm what people say about Fender body is right.
I don’t care many number of pieces and surface veneer, this is the effort to produce mass products with similar weight and sound.
But if my Custom shop Strat has same body construction, I will be feel so sorry😂.
Humbucker tele single coild would be really unique! Cool idea
Thanks 🙏 this is the most popular choice so far I think
My American Performer Telecaster honey burst 2021 has a 4 piece body. Of course, I bought it with that in mind, because it was well connected and the wood grain was beautiful. And it goes without saying that the sound is the best for me.
Yeah I mean on reflection maybe I shouldn't have expected more from them (or less if we're talking about numbers of body pieces) lol
New sub here. Great video, im amazed at how easy that came off, ive been putting off doing a similar job for years, lol. Might just go for it now
Definitely try it bud, just take it slow and don't dig into the wood!
I think you’re on point with the 7-piece having a hand in the paint cracking. Fender is kind of notorious for not drying their lumber properly.
For the Silver Sky: you could do a double P90
It's such a shame but we'll make it better now! And thanks bud!
You can actually tell from the end grain how a piece of wood will move. Quarter sawn wood is the most stable . Wood from the same board should be used or at least boards with similar grain structure. When I glue up a table top I flip grain orientation 180 degrees for every second board to add stability to the top. 🍻
I second double P90’s!
Tried doing this as an absolute amateur, and it definitely shows on the body I used😅Glad to see a better execution of it for the world to see
*Definitely* a solo humbucker for the SS mod
My first one was the worst thing you'll ever see 😂🤣 I hope this helped and you keep trying ☺️
Quarter-sawn wood is straight and very stable, better than just a slab. In that mix of wood there are very little to no voids/defects and just solid stable wood with an organized grain structure so good for stability and I'm sure it sounded great.
Glad I've found your channel. Similar content that I tried to make. Keep going. 😊👍🏻
Thanks bud 😊
If wood is properly dried the amount of pieces doesn't matter. And for a painted guitar if done properly there is nothing wrong with multi piece bodies. One of my favorite guitars I had was an old Electra X-260. The called them their Workingman series. The were intentionally made with cost in mind. The gave them natural finishes and you could actually see how many pieces of wood they are made of. It was a great guitar. I had a Les Paul around the time as well. The Electra was better than the Les Paul. Even with what some people consider inferior construction. Finishing is less about what is used and more about technique. And better finishes take a lot more time.
You make some excellent points 👌
Right on mate. Everything you said I agree with!!
Man, it'd be cool to see that PRS with a single+humbucker setup!
Excellent video, thanks for sharing!
Thank you too bud
The 7 piece with maple veneer is common these days in Fender products, in fact I have a 90's Squire Fat-Strat that I stripped that has the same construction and veneers. I sanded off the veneers on mine and actually got some nice semi-matched basswood underneath that I shot a transluscent color over. Then I burnished the paint to make it even more transluscent and paste waxed and buffed the finish. What I like about the burnished and waxed paint is that it has the actual feel of wood even though it is painted. It feels and looks more natural to me. This can produce loads of character in the guitar because each one is eunique.
I was using this technique to repaint a Jazzmaster and it chipped the guitar multiple times even using a dull paint scraper. also using the heat gun caused bubbles under the wood veneer that popped into splinters. If I could have redone it I would have just sanded especially because if you are repainting you can actually save time sealing the guitar and making sure the wood grain is sealed, just use finer grits around the edges or hand sand to reduce the risk of reshaping the body. Also making sure the wood is sealed and an even surface is 100% necessary especially if you are spending good money on high-quality paint. If you are doing a DIY paint job I recommend watching the stew mac tutorial, they have tons of great advice.
Aw sorry to hear you chipped out your Jazzmaster with this method, it's why I use a plastic scraper, very hard to do with that! And yeah gotta watch you don't heat it too much too. I totally get your logic in sanding it down and suppose it comes down to personal preference, I prefer this method and then doing that extra work to seal it again. Both ways will work just fine 🙂 thanks bud 🙏
Good video, looked like a bit of a chore, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I wouldn't think the number of pieces on the body would matter in regards to contracting/expanding/causing the cracks. It's all kiln dried wood so the moisture content is very very low. Fender used 7 pieces on this for economics - they're in the business of extracting as much profit as possible. Most solid color guitars are multi-multi pieces, that's why they're solid colors (so you can't see how many pieces it is). It's the transparent finishes that get the 2 piece bodies.
And remember, you're not paying $2k for the body, you're paying $2k for the headstock :)
Haha your last line on that comment is true, I bought one of these necks for $400 dollars last year which I made into a pink delonge but only 2 piece body so it's totally not authentic 🤣🫢
Multi piece bodies and necks are generally more stable as they are laminated. One and two piece bodies are prone to cracking and splitting due to the higher stress levels inherent. This is why solid table tops are never screwed rigidly down to the fame. The need to contract and expand with the different weather and humidity.
The trouble with polyurethane is that (unlike nitrocellulose) it basically hermetically seals the wood, which normally shouldn't be that much of a problem, but when you combine that with the multi piece body and what looks like a seriously thick layer of paint, then I think it may just have created a perfect storm resulting in the wood contracting under a finish that was too thick and hard to move with the wood.
So going with nitro for the refinish like I plan to should be a better choice?
@@Giant_Guitars the nitro will eventually sink into the exposed joins in the wood, if my '70s Les Paul with a 3 piece maple top is anything to go by.
@@JohnBoy-Ramone 🤔🤔 decisions
@@Giant_Guitars I've just done a Four piece body (Chinese kit guitar) with nitro a few months ago... it's fine so far, but it's early days.
@@rossforrest I was actually thinking about this yesterday and I might use resin!
I used this method on an OLP bass. The first half I messed up cooking the paint and making a gooey mess in the initial heated areas also burning the wood some but I got the hang of it and the last half looked nice and clean. Glad I tried a cheap instrument first.
Yeah I even melted a bit of paint doing this one as well, it's easy done! Glad yours worked out 😁
It's scary that those things are going for $2,000 used right now and Fender has that many pieces of scrap wood making up the bodies. Certainly doesn't make it a bad guitar but you'd tend to expect a single slab (maybe a two-piece) for that price point. As far as the PRS I actually think a humbucker/P90 combo would be cool. Cheers.
Yeah it's a bit sad really that they weren't better build quality but I suppose Fender wouldn't have known just hope big they would get, let's hope the re-release ones are better!! And thanks for the suggestion 😀
It’s fine I think. However I have an import cheaper G&L guitar with a clear coat and it looks like 3 pieces. That’s a fantastic guitar
@@ramencurry6672 I suppose for bulk made factory guitars multi piece has to be expected. 3 piece is reasonable!
If it has that big "F" on the headstock, they can get away with most anything. I have a 2012 FSR American Standard Tele that has a three piece body with a *stained finish.*
There’s no way any MIM fender body with a solid color is going to be a two piece at least from back then. Good for them in a way. There’s no sense wasting wood.
Multi-piece bodies are fairly common and don't usually suffer from paint cracking like that, I think its more likely to be an issue with the paint-curing process. Polyurethane paint is especially prone to shrinking if the temperature of the curing process isn't carefully controlled.
Fair enough, I actually just bought a 2003 MIM Fender recently with the same large cracks so maybe a factory issue around that time too
The more pieces of wood, the better the sustain, the Chinese make guitars from sawdust, this is an endless sustain, the Americans should strive for this
@@tomasbalke9318 I've never heard this before, what's the logic behind it?
@@Giant_Guitars don't buy that bs, wood makes virtually no difference in solid body guitars. Just record yourself and listen to it afterwards, don't let the feeling of the guitar against your body fool you, or its unplgged sound.
@@guitarmissionary well yes and no. The key piece of wood is really only between the bridge attachment and the neck attachment. The entire rest of the body really doesn’t matter that terribly much apart from comfort and playability.
There was a guy on CZcams that started hacking chunks off a strat body to see if the sound would change. It didn’t change until he started cutting into the area I previously mentioned. Then the sound got really thin and sustained was severely limited.
From that experiment you can surmise that as long as you maintain the integrity of that central block of wood, the wings could be made of anything and the sound would not be appreciatively effected.
You’re there! Humbucker Bridge, single coil mid and Tele neck pup, sort of a Nashville style combo, would be pretty cool.
The pickguard is here!
Love it 🔥
Cheers big son
Went to the pawn shop years back and bought a Dean LP style for $40. Took it home, stripped it just like this then dyed the wood a blackberry burst color, took it back to the same pawn shop and sold it back to them for $80.
SO WE PASSED THE 2500 SUSCRIBERS!!! ✌🏻😜
And some!! Thanks 🙏 guitar comp will be launched in the next video!
@@Giant_Guitars bro you just hit 3.2k! That’s impressive!
@@themiz1os818 it's insanity!! I can't keep up lol
Cheers, mate
Congrats!
Hammer finish could be cool. I painted my kit Les Paul a Hammer Finish blue. Looks awesome.
Very interesting video! I sanded and then painted with nitro! I now use a 2-component varnish.
Nice one 👌 I'll be doing nitro refin too
I guess if my $200 Tagima has less pieces. But anyway, I don't think that it would make a difference in tone, and I believe that your cracks are caused more by the type of paint than the body joints.
Probably lol, my Harley Benton £79 Tele kit has less pieces
100% the cracks are caused by the multi-piece body. Fender just trying to be as cheap as possible, no real concern about longevity and that's a shame.
Good video and look forward to seeing the spraying too
Humbucker and single would be my preference for the silver sky btw!
Oh and shout out from Tyrone!
Figured that! Made sense in my head haha and I appreciate it Mark 🙏 nice to see some local people on here 😀 even if I'm a fair bit away from you!
I agree with you about the HS, I've done the single humbucker thing already on one of these and I don't think anyone has went HS yet!
Humbucker (bridge) and single coil (neck) is the best combo for PRS..
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Thank you and thank you 😊🙏
Again i find my self stuck on the first step of my new endeavor and voila you got the video for it
Glad I could help 🙏
If you count the two veneers its a 9 piece 😆
Haha you're right 🤣
Graffiti Yellow is a fabulous color! In the '90s, they were made from several layers stacked up. The 2000 American Series was the first in at least a decade, to not be made from multi layers ...
Like a plywood body? I've an old MIJ plywood Squier body somewhere
I like the tip about using a plastic scraper!
Hope it helps 🙌
First off, great video!
Secondly, Hum + Single coil would be cool for sure!
Thanks, it's done! Goes live tonight
@@Giant_Guitars heck yea! About to watch.
Awesome tip! I’d go with the Humbucker and tele lipstick.
Thanks and thanks 🙏
I've seen paint cracks on guitars since the early 60s. It seems to happen more on cheap butcher block multiple piece guitars. So, you are correct in assuming that.
Excellent! I had a burgundy mist that cracked the same way , I peeled the whole thing with a 1mm pick took awhile for sure but normally with the poly I would have to use the heat gun and a scraper. Either the paint had seen a drastic temp change or there was a problem with the adherence with the base coat.
Oofff that's some patience you have to do that all with a pic 😯 nice one though
@@Giant_Guitars It came off quite easily actually.. just a little time consuming it definitely had paint bonding issues.
13:15 Thanks for that, lol. Answering the important questions. I always say as a seller:'The pocket crack is just in the finish' but as a buyer:'that crack is in the wood'
I thought theres another thick coating of some sort under the Fender poly finish. I have an old MIM body i want to do this too. Ur giving me inspiration
Some of them probably do but I'm not sure which, I also think some of them used a clear primer. Chances are if there is any coating it will come off as one piece with the paint when doing this anyway!
I never thought of a heat gun. I had a mid 80s "metal" strat I needed to refinish. I ended up taking a plumbers torch to it to melt off the finish. Had a 3 piece body of Ash... looked cool.
Whatever works mate! That sounds great, I find ash grain lends itself to being more subtle in multi pieces, just my own opinion.
My father has a 2006 Fender Stratocaster MIM sunburst with maple neck and have a veener. I discovered it by removing the jack.
The body seems to be in one piece but against the light you can clearly see 3 parts but I'm sure it has 5 or 7. Even so, it is very resonant although a bit heavy.
Seems to be an early MIM thing, not sure if the new ones are still so many pieces. I might have to experiment!
Looking to see if there are any videos on the rest of the process for this guitar
Not yet bud, I've delayed things while I build my workshop which should be done end of this month. This guitar will be one of the first I do after that!
I'm planning to do this as well. 😎 👍
Best of luck with it bud 😊
I can't believe the body was made from 7 pieces! I would love it see a humbucker single coil combo, with volume and tone controls :)
Volume and tone! Noted. Thanks bud 🙏 appreciate it. And yeah not what I expected on a pretty big signature model guitar lol.
I reliced a guitar and put some big gouges in it and changed my mind later and stripped the finish and scraped out the finish from the gouges and used one of those clothes steamer and they all came out like nothing ever was wrong. Lol. I'm surprised you got crack I always heard that a lot of pisces out more stable that glue joints are stronger than the wood is itself. But wood is a living thing and may not mix well with different ages or parts of the tree out candy from example Hartwood vs new big growth stuff from a farm. The three hundred year old trees are all gone so that's the way it goes that's why I try to rescue anything from the garbage that is old hardwood on its way to the dump. It's often the best stuff that is worth 20 or 30 dollars a board foot. Doors and tables are often mahogany and maple even rosewood and walnut. The old dark walnut. Thanks for your video. I hope this inspires some of you to get dirty. You always feel funny pulling out some thing from the pile on the street as people are going to dinner and drinks and you're going for a dumpster dive. Lol
Sounds awesome bud and yeah I appreciate turning old stuff into new things, I've started collecting free hardwood tables and cabinets to use the wood for guitar builds too
Loved this when it was released in Daphne Blue, had a real guitar crush on this & the Hoppus Bass.
Mad it’s 7 piece, this surely has to be done for cost? It’s not as if it’d be known for killer tone 😂
Love the Silver Sky, would always go for single humbucker with coil tap if mine, but had a 2001 Tele & still miss that neck pickup!
(Thanks for the advice on Insta the other day around pickguards too - ended up ordering hardware for my PRS build!).
Edited also at end - a candy Red could be cool? Know the cheap Fenders usually end up with this, but can look nice if done right?
Yeah you see I had that same feeling but for the Graffiti Yellow one! And anytime dude with the advice, hope it helped 🙏 red is definitely cool when it's done right like you say 😁
My original TD Strat also had cracked paint in the neck cutouts or whatever you’d call them. I think you’re right. Eventually big chips of paint came off all over the damn thing.
I am going to do this step myself to change my Strat to eggshell white instead of arctic. This video helps very much. Thank you for your work
The PRS would be interesting in a SHS (yes not vice versa) config. I saw that in some surf'ish bands and I am very curious about this
Thank you mate and good luck with yours! That's a very interesting suggestion for the PRS! 😮
@@Giant_Guitars Will take some woodwork but it would def. be unique tho :)
I like your idea of the Tele pickup on the neck with a rear humbucker with a dual switch to change it to single coil. PRS are a fantastic guitar and I’ve never been able to afford one.
Thanks bud, I did it exactly that way!
The best sound from a strat is the neck pickup, so that PRS should have a strat neck pickup.
😯😧😮 haha, no problems bud I'll add it to the vote
love your videos, been thinking about removing the paint on my Fender American Performer strat, but I´m not sure if its going to be that easy ,like in your vid ^^
I appreciate that 🙏 and good luck with yours, just take it slow and be patient with it
Just about to try a heat gun to remove the poly finish on my squier strat se. Starting tomorrow. Wish me luck.
I’m thinking surf green for the refinish. Gonna do an aerosol nitro finish.
Good luck bud, you'll do great!! Let me know how it goes, I'll have a video of aerosol nitro finish for mine in the next few weeks
awesome !!
Wow ok. That worked really well ....
Turned out good yeah, I'm happy with it
.. a humbucker at the bridge and a single pick-up at the neck would be very nice .. one for vol, one for tone ppts .. a three way pick-up switch
.. looking forward to see your next vid!
Thanks bud 😊 I am waiting on the pickguard coming, hopefully arrive this week!
The prs with single humbucker is nice!
It was a beast 😁
16:21 dope tutorial..... Silver sparkle H H for the PRS be cool. Logically that theory on the paint cracking sounds on point
Thank you dude 😎 I'm not going to paint the PRS though! Just pickups and pickguard
@@Giant_Guitars cool, suppose if I win I can go all out 🎉
@@chrislawlor23 absolutely
Try a wipe on oli finish ! I did a tele with Watco Clear Danish oil finish and I love it. After many applications it looks and feels like real wood but rejects moisture .
I did this several years ago on a Tele body i bought off Ebay. When i hit it with the heat gun, the paint would pop off the body. Hardly any scraping. Under the paint was a gray primer, and it was hard to remove. Heat didn't affect it nor did stripper. Had to sand it off.
The body was a finger jointed mess. It was about 30 pieces of unknown wood, 3 to 4 inches long, finger jointed together length wise, then glued together.
It was so much work I started making my own bodies
Wow that's an absolute nightmare of a job 😯 sometimes it's definitely not worth the effort but for a signature model or something you want to keep original parts then needs must. I'm lucky this was so easy for me 😁
I wish I'd used this method to get rid of the paint of a mates bass it's so much less hassle and safer on the contours.
Damn you you clever fella ;)
Haha well thank you bud
HS is my personal favourite pup config. Single volume. Nothing fancy.
I like this setup too in fairness
I like the idea of a tele or even lipstick pickup in the neck position. it would definitely make it stand out in the crowd.
Dude im dying to try an hss style hahah
I keep watching this vid over n over hoping i would get enough balls to do this to my old 87 Squier MIJ Strat. Maybe jus one day ill get enough balls to do this. I REALLY want to and have been thinking about it for a year.
Haha well good luck and when you do it let me know 😀
@Giant_Guitars lool will do my man... its got a lot of sentimental value to me so I don't wanna f it up
And maybe for the PRS a stacked humbucker at the bridge and one of those wide range style Tele humbuckers at the neck.
Crazy 7 pieces I will for sure buy a non painted one maybe a sunburst love the giveaway single pickup would be cool most people already have one with several pickups would love see what just one nice pickup sounded like
Thanks bud 🙏 yeah the pickguard has already arrived - HS with Tele neck
For the PRS, I think it would look great with a P90 in the bridge and a Tele neck pickup.
Ohhh 😯 I like this idea
Will you be doing a video on spraying using the cans? I have a basswood Harley Benton kit guitar I purchased over lockdown but haven’t built up the nerve to paint yet. Just found the channel recently great to see an NI guitar channel.
Yes mate I plan to do just that! I also have a HB Tele kit to do so there will be a video on that at some point
@@Giant_Guitars Perfect hadn’t owned an electric guitar for 30 years and bought a tele kit for something to do when we went into lockdown. Now have an squire strat & an Epiphone LP in the house. It’s addictive 😂
@@leftleglimp9110 it sure is haha
Humbucker single coil would be sweet!!! That’s so sick!
Thank you bud 🙏
Yes the paint problem it's bc of the wood contracting and expanding , the crack was revealing enough to assess that changes in the volume of the wood caused it .
I still believe this too 🙏
15 years ago, I was at my local music shop. The owner called a luthier he was working with to talk to a client who wanted to refinish three CS Stratocaster. One was a Lake Placid blue, I don't remember the other two. After that, I talked to the luthier for an hour and a half and since I was really passionate about guitar and curious about his work he invited me to his atelier. I went there and he showed me the process for stripping the paint away and so on. The Lake Placid blue Custom Shop Strat (which was around 4000€ at this time) was in 5 pieces. One was in three pieces and the third one in two. I was blown away and he told me : "oh you think it's a rare thing? You should come here more often then". Nobody believes me about that but hell, I've seen a bunch of this the years after that. Since then there's no way I put my money in Fender guitars. I'm happy with my Warmoth or Musikraft ones.
I would like to try this but start with a coat or 4 of black then go pink over top and then try to get the sander on it to relic it and bring out both colors. After that I might even coat it with about 10 coats of poly.
Very interesting
What you said about 7 piece "moving" is true, every piece captures a different amount of heat due to density/composition and thus, expand more and less with it
I agree with you and still think this plays a part 🙂 despite mixed opinions in the comments here
My Hoppus bass did the same exact thing with the paint cracking
Humbucker, filtertron, single coil would be amazing!
🤤🤤
had the exact same thing with an 94-95 american standard jazzbas
You can use Preval Sprayers and mix your own paint and you get moe choice of colors.
Thanks bud 🙏
I would LOVE to see 3 mini humbuckers in the PRS! Chrome pickups with a black pickgaurd and black hardware.
Contrast the "moon white" with dark hardware and punchy humbuckers
Just found your channel (thank you algorithm.) Love your work
Awesome ideas and thanks for the compliments, I appreciate it 🙏
I have a 2006 MIM jazz bass which had the same finish issues.
Stripped it and refinished pink, then had my then-girlfriend do some cool graphics on it!
Sounds awesome bud