So, almost four years ago, I bought my first guitar and told you about it. Recently, I modded and customised it - Pictures included! · 3:52pm Oct 15th, 2020
This is the week I spent doing some mods I've always wanted to do to my first-bought guitar, and it all went very smoothly. From start to finish, this is how it all went in each stage, beginning with the neck:
I almost entirely rubbed off the serial number, not my intention, but it's still visible. I made a copy of it in my notebook so I won't forget. So, I took the neck, gave it a good sanding before varnishing it, including rubbing off the original brand decal. It's a Squier Bullet Mustang, and I seriously don't like Squier one bit. Ever since I began playing more pricey instruments, they felt like playing a toy.
Coat of primer. Not necessary, but if you want to, by all means. I accidentally touched a wet spot while checking if it had dried hours later. Bit of a pain, but came back next day to smoothen it out and touch it up. It thankfully didn't go any worse.
This was the last stage for paintwork. Four coats. Not an exact match, but you really don't tend to notice. The blue colour of my guitar is metallic and this is satin, but the depth of the colour is very identical. At least those spray cans finally saw some use. I bought them years ago for another project that went under.
I don't have a picture, but applying the waterslide decal, the late 1960's Fender Mustang decal with black lettering and gold outline, was surprisingly difficult to apply smoothly. I don't know if the water was too hot and the adhesive became too loose, as the decal itself is just a thin piece of film-like material, and it curled in on itself when trying to pull it off. Thankfully, nothing bad happened and it got on there eventually, but it got a bit creased. Not too pleased about that, but it's on there and it's not going anywhere after getting a good four coats of lacquer, so we're good!
Anywho, that's my baby all done. Nice, right? I wouldn't blame you if you forgot about it, but this is the first guitar I ever bought with my own money and I hardly ever played after buying many more. I wanted it to become my main guitar, and the sentimentality for it made me crave modifying it somehow.
If you remember her from those years ago, you probably think she looks much better now. I was going for that true punk style. While I was at it, I switched out the cheap black plastic switch with the high-quality steel one from my Duo-Sonic. Looks much better, feels much better. I'm still not entirely done, given I need to find a way to seal the wood properly and protect it. Oil from my skin has already gotten into the varnish, so that needs to be fixed quick.
The intonation was very off, too. Had to take it into the shop to get done professionally since I don't know how to do it right and everything I tried didn't work out. It wouldn't even sound right despite being in-tune.
On the other hand, I went ahead and took this time to properly find a solution to cleaning the muck from my found amplifier. It's an old 2000-2001 Fender Frontman 25R PR-498 amp, all analogue, with actual spring reverb. The distortion is not great, but it's a loud piece of kit. Trust me on that. Barely turn up the volume past 3 and cover your ears. When used properly, it's deafening.
This thing has fought off all cleaning methods I've used. From white spirit to WD-40 for the rusted parts, to industrial-strength cleaning wipes my dad used for work, it's not done much. All it did was get the dust out, which would have been much easier if I understood how to take the grill off, which I didn't know about until only days ago.
Cleaning tolex that's been spattered with paint and other tough stains isn't an easy job, but I found a solution for it with thanks to a YT video. If you use soft top cleaner meant for convertible cars, it works very well and removes all those tough stains! Wish I knew that when my old hard case for my guitar had those same stains. Well, now you know what to try! There are other solutions, so shop around and do your research, it'll be worth it!
Anywho, that's my sweet guitar back in action and playable again, so let me know what you think if you remember it from back when I first bought it. I'm still not done; gonna look into the electrics and add some shielding, maybe upgrade some other parts if I want. I really want to make it mine.
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Rock on! - Ribe ✊🤘
It looks fantastic!