PPP Audio

Screening

I’m still working out exactly how to ground the bridge, but for now the cavity gets a nice application of Conductive Paint. I paid £8.50+P&P for 30ml and it came with a brush and stirring stick! The wide nature of JM pickups make them very noise-susceptible, so it’s important to screen behind them even moreso than in other guitars. Some people buy metal pickup plates to go behind them. Do the whole lot while you’re at it.

Also, don’t be a moron like me: mask your beautiful finish first. I think all my accidents will be under the pickguard, but I’d rather they weren’t there at all!

• 139 comments  //  Permalink  // Add to...                    

Mock-up

Just to see what it will finally look like!

Introducing:

NECK: Squier standard 22 fret to hide the neck pocket issues. One day I’ll change the decal.

PICKGUARD: 3 Ply W/B/W from ebay

PICKUP COVERS: Allparts UK.

BRIDGE: Fender stock from Thom on HCFX. Will be replaced with a Mustang bridge one day.

TREM: £28 on ebay including arm and screws.

As you can no doubt imagine I was feeling pretty pleased with myself at this point.

• 343 comments  //  Permalink  // Add to...                    

Clearcoat (”lacquer”)

“Clear gloss”, again Belton Molotow. It’s tempting to lay it on really thick to get that factory-guitar finish but if it forms liquid on the surface of the guitar, you can dissolve the paint already on there. Then it bubbles and comes off. Nightmare!

Less gloomy indoors; a better representation of the actual finish.

• 135 comments  //  Permalink  // Add to...                    

Colour

For the paint, I used “Belton Molotow Premium” from Graff City. Fantastic decision; it’s a pleasure to work with. I’ve finished a bass in a single kind of nitrocellulose before and it was very expensive; £15+ a can. Considering I used 4 different cans in this project I’m glad I didn’t go that route. This paint is nitro based, not acrylic, but isn’t nitrocellulose, and so you don’t have to worry about it giving you cancer. Graffiti paint is designed to be quick drying (so your, uh, legitimate art is ready quicker) and easy to work with, which was certainly my experience.

The cans are £4 each but shipping is higher than you might think because it’s “hazardous”. I paid £15 for two cans shipped in the UK.

This is “Ruby Red”. Not quite as dark as expected but a lovely colour.

Lay it on thick one thin coat at a time! The colour is matte. The shine comes later.

Every red heart shines towards the sun…

Always clean out your nozzles; hold the can upside-down and spray. I didn’t realise the paint came with nozzles and ordered a pack of ten with my paint; if you ruin one of yours and need one, shoot me a message!

• 190 comments  //  Permalink  // Add to...                    

Primer

Lots of primer. One and a half cans, in fact, of “Plastikote Primer Super” (I think it’s acrylic). You can never have too much primer. It was doing part of the grain filler’s job, really. But you’d be surprised how much paint goes on a guitar.

For the painting, I stuck the guitar in the garage, on a board to protect the floor on a couple of planks to keep it up. Hindsight says this was a mistake; I should have found a way to hang it from the ceiling. More than once I accidentally flipped the guitar over before it was dry and caused myself big problems. If you absolutely have to do it this way, always let it sit OVERNIGHT before flipping it over.

The guitar is carefully masked with masking tape (shallow routing eg pickups, neck pocket) and stuffed in newspaper (deep routes). The newspaper trick works surprisingly well.

To get as smooth as possible, I used fine sanding after every couple of coats of sanding, and used some wet-and-dry (fine sandpaper) before the colour went on.

• 269 comments  //  Permalink  // Add to...