Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello everyone,

Recently I've bought this 'Road worn'+'teenage worn' mim stratocaster. It was beaten, painted, cut and stabbed without remorse. And Id like to repair this guitar as an selfeducational project and make a nice player for myself. I am not a luthier to start with just enthusiast player with some experience at woodworking and tools. And a painter by the way, so I think I could be capable to make this thing sing again. I've repaired some minor things on guitars through my years of playing. But a friend suggested me this forum for a really knowledgeable masters out here to ask for advice before doing stuff. Sorry for my English it's not my tongue language

Back to the thread.. After I've inspected the strat I found that the neck is in a good condition except few ugly things which I'll point out later, trussrod works fine. Electronics works fine. Neck joint looks fine. Hardware was a bit rusty but working fine. So nothing is wrong in the crucial places that I would be unable to deal with.

So the main job is more of cosmetic rather then problems in construction. The body has been stabbed with screwdriver or whatever all over the place, it was painted with markers and spraycans it has names scratched in with a sharpblade and ballpen. Dings and dents all over the body. However the fretboard and frets look really good and from what I can tell it was barelly played, more like got it's revenge from raging teen.

I would really appreciate your knowledge and advices on some situations tools and materials that i'll have to deal with on this little journey.

First one is not a typical damage done to the freatboard and neck, which I have never seen on any thread around guitar forums:
the neck/fretboard has been cut with a jigsaw I guess. I was thinking how to deal with this ugly cut. My Idea was to get a little piece of rosewood, build some dust and mix it with superglue to build up the fretboard gap and then use the same method to the neck part.

Second ugly thing is I guess the authors name cut in with a ballpen on a back of the neck. The problem is that this model is ROAD WORN so neck is naked in the area. Its not like I could fill it with a filler and touch spray with a laquer.
Here are the pics:
https://imgur.com/a/tY1jYbV#2LTBoQp

https://imgur.com/a/Pv3len0#yOId17O

What technique would you suggest for working things out?

Diggin through the cultural layers:
https://imgur.com/a/mURTGFO
https://imgur.com/a/nCg4EkS
https://imgur.com/a/XKQQJVs

Now that I've stripped the body all the dings needs to get filled. Rusty parts are already getting cleaned with naphta.
Looking for a propper filler which doesn't shrink to hide hundreds of dings and stabs. And ofcourse in the end it will get a fully colored finish as it is not possible to hide those scars under transparent finish.

Simon seemed really invested in personalizing his guitar, I wonder why he moved on from it?

If you are going solid color then a hard filler like bondo would work well. That chunk cut out of the neck should be replaced with a "well" fitting wood patch of the appropriate species.

Maybe he grew up.

To the OP, all the cosmetic stuff can be sanded, filled and otherwise covered up . I would be concerned about the playability things - condition of the frets, geometry, structural issues, can the action be set to be reasonable. Do get too carried away trying to sand out the damage to the back of the neck - remember that there is a truss rod lurking in there. It might be worth just throwing a replacement neck at it.

Nope. Many times the bondo reacts to finishes badly - especially lacquer.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Really? Thanks for that information, Chris.

The neck looks in really good shape except the cosmetic damage. Frets are near mint, neck not twisted, trussrod works fine. No way I would try to sand out the carved in name. I was thinking maybe try to fill the grooves and level them. I see no need to buy new neck just for cosmetic damage done. Id lbetter leave the name as a thank you for the guy who gave me an opportunity to get a not so cheap guitar for peanuts and learn something from it. I hope he learned something aswell lol.

Ive read mixed opinions bout this product elsewhere and I dont know if mixing this chemical product into wood structure is a good idea. Because the wood is breathing and moving material. Plus possible reactions with finishes as mentioned above.

I am looking into woodfillers but haven't decided yet. I live in Europe maybe some one would be kind to share their experience with possible filler options. Cheers!

Maybe at some point it didn't turn out as Rory Gallaghers strat. Who knows man..

https://imgur.com/a/Oohu4Gc
After a little body sanding looking at these mini handsaw or a exacto knife cuts in several places. This one is the harshest. Thinking of material to fill it with. Some of these scars go to ~4mm deep. Woodfiller might be a little weak should I fill it with some kind of epoxy?

I'd go this way on the body - superglue mixed with wood dust. Once it cures, it will only react to acetone or other superglue solvent. As for the neck.... Let me get back to you.

The brain is a worthy tool for a repair guy, and time invested in thought usually pays off handsomely.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Any reason not to use Tite-bond instead of superglue? Less toxic fumes and longer open time?

Wood glue and sawdust is not much good for anything. It keeps shrinking and cracking over time and does not take finish well. CA has none of those problems.

CA does not have toxic fumes. But it is irritating to some folks.

If you want more open time then use a mixture of epoxy and sawdust.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Alright! Thanks for your thoughts! Got plenty of info from you guys on several things. Next week ill try a few samples and see which works best.
Yesterday went to biggest shops around looking for a filler for small body dents. No results. Most of them were water based woodfillers and looked big grained. The others were duo component car fillers, which I guess would be to agressive and might damage the finish. A friend advised me to look for a duo component wood filler which is not based on water.