Going well so far...
http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/bajage.html
That's some gorgeous grainwork, begging for a transparent finish. Nice work on the stripping.
might i recomend Minwax Whipe-On Polly or Antique Oil Finish
this stuff works great, and avilable in satin or gloss. has a vintage hand rubbed look
http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/interior-clear-protective-finishes/minwax-wipeon-poly
I'm following the advice of the guy who did the Stratele for me. He's a bit of an oil finish specialist. So I've lots of sanding ahead of me. Followed by tru-oil and wax. If it comes out anywhere close to the finish I have on the Stratele, I'll be a very happy chappy.
Here he is wet sanding the oil into mine:
Righty, first a reminder, this was pre-damage
(http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/bajarefin-1.jpg)
...and this is now with an oil and wax refinish (I've tried to take the same picture. This one is clickable for enlargement). The result of £35 in materials and approx 10 hours solid work over the space of about a week. To say I'm pleased with how it's turned out would be the understatement of the century.
(http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/bajarefin-t7.jpg) (http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/bajarefin-7.jpg)
So then, it looks way better than it did from the factory, it's slightly lighter at 7lbs dead now and it seems more resonant. Before I'd finished this I'd never have attempted this on a non-damaged Baja. Now I think I genuinely would. It's dramatically better than it was in many ways and the process was actually enjoyable. If the grain though the plastic looks good, I think it's worth the risk.
(http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/bajarefin-t8.jpg) (http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/bajarefin-8.jpg)
(http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/bajarefin-t9.jpg) (http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/bajarefin-9.jpg)
wow that guitar looks awesome now. great job
Wowza. Nice work. I need to get up the courage to do it to my Jaguar that's been in pieces for months. :-[
Really, really impressive.
Damn, thats a great improvement. Im tempted to do the same to my strat.
I say daaaam
That looks sweet dude!
Don't want to buy another baja to experiment with do you (still not sold mine) ;) ?
Love 'em, but I only need the one ;)
Nice Juan, very nice! Sometimes you just have to take the plunge and see how it works out, and this has worked out great! Thanks for sharing, I can see a whole lot of guitars getting stripped across the world right now... ;)
Paul
If you ever sell holla at me
Quote from: LaceSensor on February 28, 2013, 11:49:50 PM
If you ever sell holla at me
It's my cheapest guitar by far, I think I paid £280 for it from a lad on BKP who got in in p-ex and just wanted shot of it, But it and the WezV Stratele would be the last to go. They're both my go-to guitars and I have more invested in them. The Baja with the customisation. The Stratele in that it was my idea realised by Wez.
It's actually why I'm selling a couple of the others. One is a one of a kind Feline Lion custom. I dread to think what that cost new (at least £2500 looking at the spec and Jon's price list), I've got that up at what I paid for it. I love it, but I'm always paranoid about marking it as it's utterly flawless. I stuck some massive dings in a gorgeous ESP Eclipse once and was mortified. After the Baja incident I'm even more paranoid about the Lion...
The Stratosonic, even though I've listed it, I'll probably keep it. That'd go no probs on ebay at that price, which is probably why I haven't listed it there... But Wez is currently making me something that's somewhere between a superstrat and an SG that'll possibly cover the same territory (also mahogany bodied and wraparound bridge, but with 'buckers). So it might become a little redundant... We shall see on that one.
I do keep trying to cut down the numbers too...
The other option is buying Raulduke's and performing the conversion ;)
I sold the original pups and wiring for £100.
The routing I had done, but I reckon I could do that now. Cutting a new guard might be an issue (you can't get a 50's style single ply guard with humbucker hole. Then again you could do it Keith Richard's stylie with a pup ring and hacking up the original. The replacement pups weren't cheap but they're utterly stonking (BKP Black Guard Flat50 and an unpotted Mule).
The body stripping and finishing wasn't as hard as I'd expected it to be. It just takes patience and time. I'm sure we could help out with the stripping.
Quote from: raulduke on February 28, 2013, 07:30:42 PM
I say daaaam
That looks sweet dude!
Don't want to buy another baja to experiment with do you (still not sold mine) ;) ?
How much are you wanting for it out of curiosity...
See here dude:
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5465.0 (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5465.0)
Note I am open to offers!
Since I got Betty (my eternal guitars tele), it has been sat in a case getting no use, so I would like it to go to a good home.
Quote from: raulduke on March 01, 2013, 10:05:46 AM
See here dude:
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5465.0 (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5465.0)
Note I am open to offers!
Since I got Betty (my eternal guitars tele), it has been sat in a case getting no use, so I would like it to go to a good home.
Ah! I remember now. I'd not be able to offer enough given how good it looks, and what I'd want do to it (essentially the Juan Baja conversion. A Juaja?).
Daftly enough it's probably easier to shift as parts. Which is quite sad really.
A most impressive job John. Love it.
Took some more pics in better light (well, and an arty one).
(http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/juaja-t1.jpg) (http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/juaja-1.jpg)
(http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/juaja-t2.jpg) (http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/juaja-2.jpg)
...and here it is with the WezV oil finished Stratele
(http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/juaja-t3.jpg) (http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/images/juaja-3.jpg)
Sweet tele man.
Looks a million times better like that, and it's got a Mike Stern vibe that really does it for me.
That is one good lookin' gat. (Mind you, look at my avatar -- of course I'm biased!)
Scary amount of finish on it, makes me wonder how much it would be to get my strat refin'ed.
is there any tuttorial for this?My strat is being built and the finishing is going to be oil finish.But I'm sure my luthier doesn't know about this tecknique, it looks cool.Would be great to find something to show him and follow this path.
Quote from: juansolo on February 22, 2013, 10:05:05 AM
I'm following the advice of the guy who did the Stratele for me. He's a bit of an oil finish specialist. So I've lots of sanding ahead of me. Followed by tru-oil and wax. If it comes out anywhere close to the finish I have on the Stratele, I'll be a very happy chappy.
Here he is wet sanding the oil into mine:
I tried and failed to remove the poly finish on a G&L Legacy a couple of years ago with the hairdryer method. Tried aircraft stripper, orange stripper, all failed completely. Ended up taking 8 hours of muscle and a ton ($20-30) of sandpaper. I am thinking about buying a heat gun. I have an old school Peavey Vandenberg with a chipped up 1/8in. poly coating waiting for me to figure out the best removal method.
My point is not all poly finish is made equal. Fenders are easy. I refinished a hwy 1 strat with not effort. Also refinished a MIM, squire, and AMerican standard. All pretty thin and easy. Epiphone and some other brands have super heavy duty poly finishes. The Vandenberg is cruelly coated like it was dipped in a vat of polyester.
So be sure how big a job it will be.
But the oil finish on that tele is most excellent. Big win!
Bitchin dude! I love Teles.
Yep atreidesheir, this just worked for me on this particular guitar that had a poly finish on it that was like 1mm thick plastic. I'm in no way saying that all poly comes off this easily. I was lucky.
garfo, the system I followed was essentially this:
This is totally Sensei Wez's technique. Well apart from the stripping, that bit is all ours ;)
The method employed boils down to this:
- Poly removed with a hair dryer, butter knife and pancake flipper
- Power sanded the body with 70 grit to remove the majority of the sealant/residue
- Hand sanded the rest with a load of 70 until it was just wood
- Then working up the grits until it got to 400 and it was smooth as a baby's arse. All still dry at this point.
- Apply a thick coat of oil over the entire body with a rag and leave to hang 24hrs.
- Then wet sanding with oil at 600 and buffing off. Did that twice. (watch Wez's video for the technique).
- Then 800, twice.
- Then 1200 about 4 times.
- After a thorough buffing, the wax was applied using 0000 wire wool and buffed off. Did this twice.
Now you could also sand up to 800, then apply the thick layer and leave 24hrs. Then apply a few more layers to taste buffing off every 15 mins after application. Then move on to the 1200 wet sanding.
Likewise instead of Tru-Oil you could use Danish (Wez recommends Rustins). They're available in different colours.
Products used:
- Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil
- Briwax Natural
- Liberon 0000 steel wool
- Lots of wet and dry and some horrible cheap pack of 70 grit sandpaper
- Sanding block and soft sanding block
Man, that strat finish is incredible.Thanks for sharing!!!