5150 build.

I recently found two high res shots from the originals last outing;gettyimages-107764052-2048x2048.jpg
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As you can see here the guitar is in fact pretty shiny and the damage is mostly from the thousands of tape strips pulled off over the years. This is quite different from the vast majority of replicas that fail to notice this fact. It is also common in fender style relic guitars. One thing people who don't regularly see originals do is forget that using it polishes the contact point you have with the instrument. Then the guitar was in fact shiny in the first place.
 
Still looking for better shots of the back;
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This wear pattern is mostly sandpaper IMO it is simply not proportional to the arm cut and shows up as soon as the shelf bracket hinges (table thing) was removed. It never had time to appear naturally and there are no shots I can find show it in development (other than around the rout.)
I have seen other guitars of Ed's from the OU812 era and they have sanded wear on them as well. This was long before it was a thing.
 
I just came across an original 1984 Kramer neck plate at a decent price ( less than the shit aluminium copies I see all the time ). Obviously it's not the same number but it is the same type;
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I will however have to fill and redrill the holes in the new (actually old) pattern. The irony being that I had to redo the Musikraft body to the fender style and now I'm going to have to swap this one from fender to old Kramer.
 
One piece or advice I would give to people trying this themselves is about the paint. I use nitro in all my normal work which dries brittle hard and thin with the ability to melt in to old paint if you do a touch up. If you have read my relic fender thread you will see how much trouble I go to to get the paint to actually be the same as what ever I am trying to replicate so as when you add damage it behaves and more importantly looks the same as an original. The problem I have here is I don't know exactly what was done on the original. I can only guess from an array of terrible quality picture none of which are actually good enough to discern this from. I know they used acrylic lacquer and the red is GM 7753 but that's it.
Next problem is no grain filler was used BUT sealer was . How do I know this? if you look at the forearm cut you can see clearly the grain sink but when you look a the chipping in front of the pickup and on the back the transition white to wood is clean no seeping. Then you have the claim that it was painted by the regular guy at Kramer with half the prep not done and no sanding to the transitions. I can only conclude that if the Kramer guy did paint it (and he claims to) that Ed was with him and told him to paint the white there and then regardless of the state of half finish the body was in. Then on another day Ed taped it and told George to paint the red. Then Ed put the black on later . That leaves the problem of how did it get sealer before it was sanded? One possible explanation and the one I think must be right is it was done as a pre coat at the same time as the white . Why does any of this matter? as in the Fender thread the paint needs to be the same to damage the same.
I am not familiar with using auto paint as modern auto paint is not on the guitars I paint. I don't use 2K.
I see people attempts to paint guitars using 1K rattle can acrylic quite often and it is usually a disaster and remains soft . On this I have to use car paint so what to do? So here is a list of things I learned from my mistakes so you don't have to make them on yours.
1 The white isn't and never was Wimbledon white. Use bright white acrylic over sealer without primer and do nothing in-between .
2 Do not wet sand the white unless to fix issues and if you do shoot another coat afterwards. This is important because the badly done orange peel effect has a large impact on how the red looks at the point of rub through back to the white. it shows the texture and grain in how the red stays in the rough surface and looks like a fade.
3 The black is really bad so you do need to use a stencil, not tape or it just looks too good. It even moved part way on Eds . Don't even try to suggest this was George painting the black.
4 Test you'r paint BEFORE you paint the body on pine or something similar to make sure it dries and passes the fingernail test of hard.
On mine I used 2K white to be sure it would be hard and didn't use sealer or grain filler ,mistake. The 2K is to well sprayed (smooth) and it has seeped in to the wood a little making it very hard to get a clean chip. This also has made the rub through of the red look different at the point it hits the white.
Don't assume the guitar is not glossy ,the original is. It is polished by use and the fact that the paint is gloss finish however badly it was painted. Do not clear coat it if you want it to look anything like the actual guitar.
Work slowly because this is one of the hardest guitars to copy well. The vast majority of copies look nothing like it really and as I have learned the more you look at it doesn't mean you notice everything you need too.
When I saw the guitar in person it looked like the one you see in the last picture (from 2005) condition wise but with original neck and pickup.
Trying to copy an awesome piece of garbage that is infinitely cool and out plays my Suhr Modern was the brief and It is still on track (I hope.)
 
Looking at a lot of pictures I decided that the tape damage on the lower bout is too much and there is no reason why I can't retouch it back in like I used to do on large photos (in my days as a photographer .) so a triple 0 sable brush and some 7753 and the best pictures I can find;IMG_2049.jpg
Better than the shot above .
 
Got a MJ Frankenstein pickup (pretty much the CCJ) today so I wired it up. I should use a bourns square sealed pot but I haven't found the right one in the UK yet so until then a low friction CTS is my choice .
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Also some brass fine tuners.
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Note the yellow earth and blue heat shrink as on 5150.
 
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