creating a low-budget evh frankenstrat

[cphelpsss]

eh, it was just for fun. it doesnt matter now, cause my cousin isnt letting me get the guitar he said he would trade me for... so now i have to wait it out and get one by some other means...

 

[BrianM]

You can get one from Divebomb Inc, with proper routes.

 

[cphelpsss]

i just looked at that site... if i had the extra money, id do it... i dont want to invest all that much money into it... which is why im opting for a crapocaster basic guitar to work with. lol ive never done any kind of paint work, so i dont want to spend 155$ on something i could EASILY screw up.

 

[BrianM]

The problem is finding a cheap guitar that doesn't have big swimming pool routes. I have 3 Squire Strats and none of them would work as a frankenstrat. I'd be surprised if that Starcaster doesn't have a pool route. Definately make sure you see under the pickguard before you buy one.

 

[JonMan94]

Or from musikraft...

 

[cphelpsss]

if i had to, i have no problem routing out the body myself. that wouldnt be all that hard to do. i have the tools to be able to.

 

[BrianM]

Here is a Strat with a swimming pool route:

You don't want one of these.

 

[Rock Johnson]

watching all those vids, none really give that relic'd look... i dont really want it to look like a perfectly fresh and clean paintjob... thats where all of these were going. and none really show how to get the detail like he has on his, with the specific layering.

i want THIS:

not THIS....

in the authentic strat, you can see how the red kinda layers into the white and black... its not just one color on top of another...Thats the same result im looking for by the time its done...

OH, ok, that part is easy. Just beat the living crap out of it after you paint it.

Seriously. Throw it down the road. Toss it into the back of a truck. Leave it outside for a week or so. You get the idea.

EVH is known for *seriously* abusing that guitar. The best way to replicate that kind of abuse is by abusing it.

 

[cphelpsss]

Lol. Yeah. I def don't want a body with that style of routing in it. Ill be able to find something with a ssh body. If anything, maybe a cheap one on eBay. I'll see.
Also, about the abuse, yeah. I plan on playin with the elements with it. (dirt/water/fire def). It should be fun. haha

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

eh, it was just for fun. it doesnt matter now, cause my cousin isnt letting me get the guitar he said he would trade me for... so now i have to wait it out and get one by some other means...

Oh, I wasn't meaning to rag on you with that post. I'm sorry it came across that way, I was just trying to explain my ignorance of the finer points, and the questions that ignorance raised for me.

My apologies.

Also, good luck with getting your project back on track.

 

[cphelpsss]

Oh, I wasn't meaning to rag on you with that post. I'm sorry it came across that way, I was just trying to explain my ignorance of the finer points, and the questions that ignorance raised for me.

My apologies.

Also, good luck with getting your project back on track.

haha i didnt think you were ragging on me at all. I know what you mean by not caring about copying anyone elses work. i completely understand that. its like all these people trying to get that "SlashTone" or whatevre they call it... they need to come up with their own. But im not on like a dire mission to build this guitar and call it the holy grail... i just wanted to do it to give a shot at painting and relic'ing a guitar. and that is the most relic'd guitar IVE personally ever seen. and it just seemed like a fun project to work on while im out of work.

and thanks! i hope i can find someone on craigslist with somethin decent that i could trade for...

 

[Leendrix]

im thinking i might have to do it white..black...red..
then again for the stripes, white..black...red..then give it a clear coat...

Wouldn't you want a clear coat if you we're going for the frankenstrat you don't want?

 

[cphelpsss]

well, if i was to, i was gonna clear coat it so that its evened out.. not that like..the red bumps up higher than the whites or blacks... once everything is even, id hit it with one of those 3m scotch brite so that it isnt a glossy finish. itd matte it out.

if its not as bad as i think it would be, then i might not have to clear coat it. i never painted a guitar, so im not too sure what to expect...

 

[BrianM]

You would definately see ridges at the edge of the stripes, where the white is higher than the black, and the red is higher than the white. But thats how Eddie's is, and the Fender replicas also. They aren't smooth at all. Not that this should stop you from doing whatever you want. But a clear coat alone wont smooth it. You would need multiple clear coats with wet sanding in between.

I'm always tempted to start one, even tho I haven't been into EVH in a couple decades. Always liked that guitar.

 

[cphelpsss]

Oh alright. I wasn't sure if it was even or not. I can do without the clear coat then. That seems like the part where I'd mess it up the most and be unhappy with the results anyway. I'll skip it then.

 

[longan]

I'd say do the coats all very thick and sand down the ridges. Then do you typical relic job. It'll age a lot better that way

 

[Tenacious T]

I always wanted to do the EVH paint on a guitar but I feared that I would screw it up.

So, I just bought one. Done.

 

[zslane]

In the case of the Frankenstrat, there aren't "ridges" to sand down so much as channels to sand down to. Every bit of surface area around each stripe is higher (thicker) than the stripe itself, which means sanding down that surface to meet the lower level of the stripe channels. This is tricky because if there aren't enough layers of clear coat filling those stripe channels to a level higher than the red surface, you will just end up sanding away the topmost layers of clear coat, hitting paint, and still leaving yourself with glossy stripes. This is why it takes a lot of layers of clear coat to make the entire surface smooth and even.

Luckily, this isn't the OP's goal.

(But it was my goal when I built my Frankenstrat tribute guitar, and I didn't get it perfect even after nearly twenty spray passes of clear coat.)

 

[cphelpsss]

thats what i figured would happen... id end up sanding down to the stripes, but just end up taking off the previous layer in order to make it even. im not gonna bother doing all that, especially since his guitar is not even... im not worried about it.. lol

 

[espvh]

I have one of these, not a Franky, but what's known as a "Kramer Ad" Kramer, as seen in the second pic.