Another project roughly put together.

This bathtub routed Indie Strat was going to be an HSH conversion along the lines of the classic Dave Murray, but like a couple of my other projects I no longer have the time for I've decided to make them functional and gift them to friends.

I had made a start at refinishing this black, but only a rough blow over coat to show up the imperfections after sanding.

Getting it perfect would mean a load more work, but the satin look kind of works with the white scratchplate and maple board.

Otherwise it's just the standard electrics and hardware put back in. I need to let it settle then set it up.

Farewall, crusty Explorer

Another one going out of the door as I need to reclaim some space. This Goth Explorer is actually a really nice playing example but had been butchered when I bought it.

It got partially stripped of the awful paint finish and I really liked the way the black back and sides provided a strong contrast to the quite attractive top. Which in reality is just the remnants of the grain filler/undercoat but is like a slightly open pore finish. There are a couple of stains on the surface where paint dust has soaked into the top and if I was actually going to keep it I would have refinished it in this vein. Maybe with a Trussart-esque inset metal scratchplate.

As it is though, it looks cool from a distance and I'm gifting it to a mate so it's up to them if they want to flatten the surface down and apply oil or something.

Most of the neck is sanded to a nice matt finish, so again it looks rough as hell but actually plays really well. I very quickly wired it all up with some new pots and the Kent Armstrong Super Distortions make for a heavy rock monster. Somebody did a lovely job of setting this up before covering it in cruddy spray paint.

Now it's together, part of me wants to keep it but the whole point of the exercise was giving it away so somebody else has the pleasure of it.