[Pink]Guitarlopnik

"That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms" (thatbastardkurtis5) 08/15/2015 at 13:50 • Filed to: None

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My wife went to Salem this morning with a couple of her friends, which means I get to enjoy a Saturday by myself for the first time in...well, in quite some time.

I went to the metal recyclers this morning and sold the old catalytic convertors off my P71 for $100, along with an alloy wheel that I had sitting in the bed of my truck...I acquired that when, rather than pay the city of Providence for their parking tickets they had accrued, the person decided to remove the wheel (with attached parking boot) and throw it into a dumpster. A police officer found it, and when I went to retrieve the boot, I took the wheel as well. Good times.

So with some cash in my pocket, I headed over to the Warwick PD to get my VIN inspection done. Because my P71 is a 2008 and not titled by Rhode Island, I needed to get that done in order to register the car...that cost me $10, so now I’m good to go with the registration on Monday or Tuesday.

Then,

Then it was over to 7-Eleven to grab a cold beverage. While sipping my Big Gulp of Mountain Dew in the parking lot (the woman ahead of me was refilling a Double Gulp, which is an absolutely massive cup of soda...I believe it’s a full 2 liters), I looked across the road and noticed Al Trombetti Music. My wife takes cello lessons there, but they’re going to be closing, and her cello lessons moving to another store. I figured if they’re closing, maybe I can get a deal on something.

And I found this.

It’s a Squier Bullet Strat, and I acquired it for the princely sum of $60. He had a few of them, but I was going to get the best price on a pink one, and I actually bought the thing specifically to paint it. I’m pleasantly surprised by the neck and body on it..body is nice and light (basswood?), neck is straight and the rosewood is quite nice.

Naturally within about 5 minutes of getting it home, I had ripped the guts out of it and roughed up the body for primer. Now that’s drying, and I’m about to start prepping the neck...I’m thinking about going body color on the headstock, then masking off that and the fretboard and doing the rest of the neck in a nice vintage amber.

Honestly, if the paint job goes nicely, I’m going to go back next weekend and grab the other pink one for the same price...get myself a nice little pair of knock around Strats to fool with for $120, can’t even beat that.

I’ll post pictures when this one is done...probably tonight or tomorrow.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms 08/15/2015 at 13:57

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Ain’t nothing wrong with a basic Squier strat unless it’s got a pieced body (which I’ve heard a few do). Nice catch.

Jcarr > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms 08/15/2015 at 14:13

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Body might be alder or ash. IMO the lighter woods don’t hurt the Strat like they would a Les Paul, since the Strat is typically known for a brighter, twangier tone anyway.

I’d be interested to know how you paint it. I have an old Fender Strat that I’m considering repainting one day, but I’m a little apprehensive about screwing it up.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 08/15/2015 at 14:16

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Official specs from Fender say basswood, which is good. When I took it apart, it didn’t seem to be plywood...looked nice and solid. I’m happy for the price, though I do have some other pickups and electronics that’ll go into it, but then I’ll only be in the thing for $100 plus time and labor. Not bad at all.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > Jcarr 08/15/2015 at 14:53

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If it was a Squier Standard or one of their special editions, you’d probably see alder or ash...on this little Bullet, Fender says it’s basswood. I have no problem with that, basswood sounds fine to me and the guitar is nice and light, maybe 4.5-5lbs.

On this one, the painting procedure is fairly simple. Because its already finished, and I’m not trying to show any wood grain, I roughed up the pink paint with a fine grit sanding sponge...like a 220-300 grit. Nice and light, basically just taking the shine off it and giving the primer something to bite into. Then I primed it with a Krylon primer...I wanted something lighter, this is kind of a dark gray, but that’s fine. Once that’s dry, I’ll hit that with the same sanding sponge to smooth it out for the color. After that, it’ll get some Dupli Color paint, that’ll get buffed with 0000 steel wool between coats, and finally it’ll get a clear gloss lacquer. That’ll also get the steel wool between coats.

I also just sprayed the neck with a vintage amber lacquer (ohmygoditlookssogood), the headstock will get painted body color, and then I’ll finish it off with new headstock decals. It’s going to look pretty good, I think.

Jcarr > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms 08/15/2015 at 15:07

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Nice, looking forward to some after pics.