Epiphone Strat Copy Build/Repair

[kayla]

I decided to start a thread on this build. Picked this guitar up off the forums here for a few bucks. It looked terrible. But i thought i could fix her up and give her a new life.

heres some pics on the progress soo far.

first off, this thing was covered in black sharpie. i dont know why lol.



i used laquer thinner to remove the sharpie and found a decent red paint job underneath. pretty banged up along the edges though, so i decided it needs a refinish.





the neck was also covered in black sharpie, and once it was cleaned up it revealed the epiphone logo. the tuning knobs will be replaced in the near future.



there is what i believe to be a date stamp on the neck. looks like 1990. correct me if i'm wrong. i'm not as knowledgable with anything that isnt a Fender.



then heres a few random pics of the sanding process. i was surprised that the finish was extremely easy to remove. i was prepared for a poly coating, but it wasnt. which was a definite plus.





lastly the electronics were pretty crummy inside this thing. they will be replaced with MIM Fender Strat Stock Pickups.



i must note, that most of the screws on the pickgaurd and back trem cover were stripped completely and made removing this stuff a lil more difficult than i liked. but it all came apart.

the plan is to paint the body gloss black. and install chrome hardware, white pickgaurd and white pup covers. the tuning knobs will be black with an ivory white colored knob.

I've ordered the trem and a few other misc parts and hope to get them by the end of the week.

paint will go on this week sometime. i will post more pics as the build progresses.

if anyone has any advice please feel free to post! thanks!

- kayla.

[TheBMC]

After checking out your project.... now i want a project gutiar... =-)

[kayla]

After checking out your project.... now i want a project gutiar... =-)

ha thanks. i dont think i mentioned it in the the first post. but when the guitar is finished it will be donated locally to a kid in need. i'm hopin to get it completed before christmas.

- kayla.

[TheBMC]

would be nice if I could have spelled "guitar" correctly the first time... ugh.


I think that's great that you are passing that on to somebody who may have otherwise never had a chance to learn music...

[kayla]

just a lil bit of an update. i plan on primer and paint tonight. hopefully the parts come by the beginning of next week.

also found the same guitar on ebay - this will be what the guitar looks like when its finished.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Epiphone-Gibson ... 2eb871bdbf

oh and i'm lookin for the small cover on the neck that reads gibson. the guitar has one, but the black sharpie ruined it.

- kayla.

[kayla]

lil update on the process, i got the trem and it seems to fit well. still need to tweak it a lil bit.

got the pickups installed on the gaurd and all wired. i just need to connect the grounds and the input jack. the pups are out of a 2007 MIM Strat. They have a decent sound, and will do well for a beginner.



the paint process is completed. i went with a flat black paint. not the most perfect paint job, but it'll do.
but first i had to primer



final coat of black paint



because the guitar neck is a lil beat up and worn, i decided to go with a more "relic" type of look. so you'll see the pickgaurd is yellowish in color and only single ply.



next to finish is the install of the trem - need to drill the correct holes. probably should have done that before paint. oops. then i need to drill the correct holes for the pickgaurd. i had to modify the pickgaurd a lil bit to get it to set correctly. also need to drill the holes for the back trem cover and install that.

last will be bone nut and tuners. still waiting on some parts. but i've got plenty to do in the mean time.

thanks for reading!!

- kayla.