# £10 Stratocaster Project



## Jem

So I picked this Squire Stratocaster up on eBay for the princely sum of £10. It's all in good order other than the body being pretty battered and needing a good clean, new strings and setting up. The relic look isn't for me, so first job is going to be repainting the body white. Then I'll change the pickguard (not sure what colour yet) and better pickups.


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## JMorty

Fun times, I'll be doing mine when I get some time!

Look forward to seeing this!


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## Jem

Well three hours ago the guitar looked like above, now it looks like this, all sanded down and ready for primer. I've also stripped the tremolo down and cleaned it all up and cleaned and oiled the fretboard.


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## Bustanut

Keep the pics and dates coming. Love this.


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## mike41

Had one of these back in the day, 1985 to be precise 
Cost a lot more than £10 back then, cracking guitars though,mine was black with maple neck. Keep the pics coming :thumb:
Mike


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## Jem

This is how it looks now after a light coat of primer, then a coat of black paint to ensure the final white doesn't have a pink hue to it. Next is a thickish coat of filler primer followed by a guide coat, wet sanding then the top coat. Then more wet sanding and then polishing.


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## Nico1970

Subscribed to see how this goes....

Good luck!


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## Jem

Primered and guide coat on ready for wet sanding tomorrow:


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## Denzle

I'll follow this with interest. Looking good in the early stages.


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## tmitch45

This will be an interesting project. The squiar guitars are very good and very underrated. Getting one for £10 was a steal! I keep looking for a squiar telecaster as a project guitar!


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## Jem

I spent some time on the neck this afternoon. Firstly I sanded off the clear lacquer on the back of the neck as I prefer the feel of a smooth oiled neck, so started with p180 wet and dry to remove the lacquer, then worked upto p2000 to leave a very smooth finish, then oiled with walnut oil. I also masked off the fretboard leaving the frets exposed and polished them with some fine wire wool.

50:50


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## Jem

More work on the body this afternoon, this picture was taking while I was wet sanding the guide coat off. You can see the plain white area has been sanded and is perfectly smooth with no pits or imperfections in the paint.


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## hoikey

What hardware and pickups will you be running on this? Sticking with the standard stuff or upgrading?


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## Jem

hoikey said:


> What hardware and pickups will you be running on this? Sticking with the standard stuff or upgrading?


I'm most likely going to fit a white pearl pickguard like this, with Wilkinson Vintage single coils, so much like it was, just a little better.


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## Jem

Change of plan on the white, decided on matte black instead:


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## Jem

Trial fitted up now, I'm going to change the pickguard, but unsure of what colour. I like the black pickups, but not sure what colour knobs I'm going to fit.


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## hoikey

I like black and red together


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## Sicskate

Have you put a Matt lacquer over the colour?


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## Jem

Sicskate said:


> Have you put a Matt lacquer over the colour?


No it's just matt black.


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## mike41

Id go with black knobs, unless you can get Pearl ones to match the scratchplate?
Mike


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## Sicskate

I think you'll really need a Matt lacquer if you want it to last, otherwise it will just scratch/rub off.


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## Jem

Sicskate said:


> I think you'll really need a Matt lacquer if you want it to last, otherwise it will just scratch/rub off.


It will be fine, I've used matt black on a lot of things which are frequently handled and never had a problem.


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## Jem

I found some volume, tone knobs and switch cap so popped them on. I think I'm going to order some black ones though:


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## dcj

Is this spray painted?By aerosol or ai gun? I,ve got one in the loft and want to paint it and then put a tattoo design on it which was drawn by my late daughter and hang it on her bedroom wall.


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## hoikey

You could get a nice finish with just rattlecans


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## Jem

dcj said:


> Is this spray painted?By aerosol or ai gun? I,ve got one in the loft and want to paint it and then put a tattoo design on it which was drawn by my late daughter and hang it on her bedroom wall.


Just rattle cans. First a high build primer then a guide coat and wet sanded with P600 wet and dry, then straight on with matte black.


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## s_hosgood

Great work Jim, I did very similar to a free Squire P-Bass ... Stripped, repainted, battery cavity routed for active EMG pickups. I decided to go for white with matching headstock and ruby pick guard. I hope you like?


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## tmitch45

Dude that bass is sweeeeeet! What type of paint and primer did you use?


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## Guitarjon

Always fancied doing this myself before. Never got round to it though. I'll do it one day!


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## s_hosgood

tmitch45 said:


> Dude that bass is sweeeeeet! What type of paint and primer did you use?


Just standard primer, white & lacquer rattle cans from Halfords. Just take your time and sand between coats.

Thanks for the kind words - plays and sounds like a brute after a good set up and the active EMG pickups.


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## Outshone

Jem, any chance you could post a pic with the strings on mate? :thumb:


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