Manchester Guitar Tech
This concludes the article started at Recreating the Everyday Electronics Delta Electric Guitar (Part 1). Finishing the guitar I simply sprayed the neck using my Clear Satin nitrocellulose lacquer. I sprayed a sealer coat then de-nibbed using fine sandpaper before spraying a couple more coats. I “designed” a logo for the headstock, laserprinted it on …
Almost 50 years ago. in 1974, I was a guitar obsessed teenager who loved to make things. A popular hobbyist magazine, “Everyday Electronics” ran an article on making an electric guitar in its October issue. The magazine included plans and instructions on how to make just about everything (PDF available here). How could I resist? …
I’m often asked to demo spraying a sunburst so here it is. My starting point is a GuitarBuild body. It’s two piece swamp ash and very light at 3lb 4oz (<1.5kg). My first step was to sand the body well to eliminate any scratches then grain fill thoroughly. There is more on grain filling in …
I often get asked how to spray a TV Yellow finish and have been meaning for a while to demonstrate the process, so here it is. I think it’s unlikely that TV Yellow guitars left the factory as yellow as they are today. As with “butterscotch” Telecasters the colour has become more yellow over the …
Tony is another regular customer who has produced some superb guitars painted using my nitrocellulose lacquer. I think he has excelled himself with this superb tribute to an early Fender Stratocaster using neck and body from Musikraft. Take a look at Tony’s post on TDPRI where he shows how be sprayed the sunburst and aged the …
A regular customer of mine has built this great Jazz Bass replica. The body is alder and finished in Olympic White with a beautiful NOS tortoiseshell pickguard. The bound neck has a matching headstock. You can read the full story on BassChat.
I covered fret dressing in this earlier post but will repeat the steps here for completeness. The pictures should tell the story but I’ll add some text where I think it’s necessary to explain further. The first job, before the frets can be leveled is to remove the lacquer from them. The easiest way to do …
Before spraying I sanded the neck again, checking that everything was clean and wiped over with a tack cloth to remove any dust. I then sprayed another couple of coats of Clear Gloss lacquer to seal before moving on to the tinted coat. You can spray with the neck hanging vertically, but I like to …
I thought I’d share some photos of a Goldtop finish that a customer has sprayed with my Gold top lacquer. Here is what he said: “I must say that Goldtop Lacquer was incredible, quite possibly even better and more in keeping with the original 50’s Goldtop than gibson now spay their guitars with, it came …
I’ve recently finished this La Cabronita style build, using yet another body from GuitarBuild.co.uk. It’s pretty much Fender specification, down to the USA Standard Stratocaster hardtail bridge, pearl button tuners and of course, TV Jones Powertron pickups. Rather than the S1 switch, I have used a normal push-push pot to bring in a tone circuit …