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My First Variax Mod

(Special thanks to Jeff Miller for inspiration)

The plan for this first build is to be fairly strait forward. Since this is

my first build I am purposely not going to throw all the bells and whistles

at this guitar. I just want to get some of the basics of building a solid body down

this time. As I do more builds each one will encompass a few new processes

that I did not attempt previously. By the forth or fith build I expect to be doing

some very nice high-end custom work. Okay enough about my phylospohy lets

get to the processes. This variax will be a tremolo strat body style with 5A quilted

maple top, mahogony back, burnt orange / black burst color, maple on maple neck

matching head stock, sperzel tuners and nitro-cellulose clear coats.

SV-I

”StrataVariax – One”

The Original 700 Trem (the donor).

Scroll down for details

The Original 700 Trem (the donor).

Here I am tracing my Fender Telecaster to use for the pattern for a cutting template.

I also traced my Fender Stratocaster, which will be used for the template for my 1st

Variax Custom Mod the StrataVariax - One

I am taking my time using a exacto knife to cut the pattern.

Both patterns are cut out. The Strat pattern will be used for the StrataVariax - One

and the Tele will be used for a solid body nylon string (a'la Sadowsky)

The pattern is traced onto 1/4' hardboard for the router template.

I needed to add a little more space to the back end of the Strat body to accomodate

the additional space required for the 700 tremolo and electronics. I hear that I am

the first one to mod a $1500, 700 trem. This will be my first and last 700 trem mod however.

I bought the 700 trem long before I realized that people were moding their 300s and

500s. The 700 looks and feels like a $600.00 guitar. I want my axe to feel and look like a

$3000 axe, hence my 700 trem mod is under way. I will be building some 500s with trem

mods soon though.

I added 3/4" to the back of the strat. I am hoping that the additional weight will

not throw off the balance of the guitar. I am a big guy 6'- 2" tall and 235lbs, so in

my hands most people will not notice the larger body.

I am fortunate to live here in southern New Jersey where Exotic Woods is only

30 miles from my home. So if I am ever feeling a little like Black Korina I can get

my fill after a short 30 minute ride. Here I am picking up my 1st

AAAAA Quilted Maple top / Mahogony back, body blank.

The "Wood" top

The "Wood" back.

If you are gonna make guitars you need the right tools and an understanding wife.

I just got back from Home Depot with some of those tools, but I am sure a lot lighter

in the pocket now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Ryobi belt sander sure makes smoothing out the rough template very easy.

What the belt sander didn't do I smoothed out by hand with some 60 grit

sandpaper on the hardboard. I am pretty sure this template needs to be absolutely flawless

when I am finished. I am using this to actually shape the body, right?!!

I positioned the template on the body blank, made sure the center line was dead on,

traced the template then put some naphtha on the blank to get a feel for

what the quilt will look like.

I decided to presand the blank some before I cut the body. Before I got the blank

Exotic Woods had sanded both sides with 80 grit, so I sanded 1st with 120 and then I took it down a

little further with 220. The "Wood" is looking and feeling pretty smooth now.

*foot note......You have probably noticed I am working outside on the back patio,

that is because we don't have an extra room in the house for woodworking. I'll do all the cutting

and most of the sanding outside. I'll shoot the nitro inside in my recording studio booth

which is 18' by 33'. I will have to put some additional ventilation in there, but we'll discuss that later .

Next I took a big fat sharpie and outlined the template on to the wood making sure that

the centerline and the quilt positioning was exactly what I wanted.

I am cutting the body with the new band saw. It took me a while to get all of the Ryobi band saw

guides aligned correctly, I used some old red oak 2"x6" that I had left from making a platform

bed a few years ago to test the band saw for cutting and to get my skills up before cutting the real "Wood".

Make sure to have your goggles on when actually cutting, I was just posing for the picture here.

I cut the body out flawlessly as you can see I was right on the outside of the marker lines.

This should make it a lot easier when I start the routing next.

I used double sided tape to adhere the template to the body, making sure there was lots

of tape so the template would not move. Then the template is turned over and placed

in position on top of the guitar. Now I am ready to rout

I routed the body shape next with a 1" pattern bit. The bearing at the top of the bit

follows the pattern which is double-sided taped to the top of the guitar. With this bit the

bit will cut even to the pattern and we should have the perfect guitar shape,

(if the pattern was perfect)

Next I used a 1/4" round-over bit to round the edges, both front and back.

Here is a shot of the 700 electronics.

This is the 6 pin flat connector from the Bridge to the motherboard.

The motherboard disconnected from it's 3 connectors. I guess there ain't no

turning back now!!!!!!

The 700 Trem without the motherboard.

The motherboard and the tremolo.

The StrataVariax – One along side the new body. If you look real close to the lower horn

on the new guitar you will see where I am doing a repair from the router taking a

chunk out of the wood when I was routing the body. Jeff said only take 1/8" off

each pass when routing. He knew what he was talking about. I'll be more careful

when routing in the future.

I had to make about 5 templates before I got one right for the neck and

tremolo rout. The reason I had to make so many templates is that each one

was just a little off and they have to be almost perfect especially between the

neck and bridge. I don't want any mistakes here or the intonation or/and

the string height can be really off. I measured everything multiple times to make

sure it is correct and then I would cut the template and if it was not dead on, it

went in the trash and I started again.

Here is a close up of the brass threaded inserts for the tremolo studs. I spent all

day looking for them at about 10 stores and could not find them. It dawned on me

late in the day that I know exactly where to get some.

Another donor. I bought this Samick guitar 4 years ago at a flea market for $50.00, I took

all of the electronics and hardware off back then, polished the guitar up and its been sitting

in a corner in the studio for 4 years. Well it is finally going to be used.

GOT INSERTS NOW !!!!!!!!!!

Making the templates (jigs) was extremely time consuming but that is where

the time is spent making them perfect. There are Variax 300/ 500 routing kits available

on the web that I will be using in the future. The Variax 700 main cavity is smaller

that the other variax models, so I won't be using my templates again.

Here is the 700 and the StrataVariax – One side by side.

Here is a close up of the routed cavities. I still have to rout the side of the

guitar for the jack and I have to finish the battery box.

The 700 jack assembly and the rout from the factory.

I created a template for the jack plate rout.

The Jack rout is done along with the connecting holes between the cavities

and the holes for the recessed neck mounting ferrules. You can also see the neck

heel contour I sanded in with the Ryobi Finish Sander.

Next I sanded in the tummy cut with 60 grit on a drill and 60 grit on the finish sander.

I kept alternating between the two tools. The drill would take material out of the body pretty fast

and rough. The finish sander would then smooth it back out and contour the shape nicely.

The tummy cut is complete. It came out very nice. The contours are starting

to make the guitar look like a professional piece. I am very pleased at this point.

I decided to do some tests of

the dye and color that I want the guitar to be. I think this is going to be it. I used

tobacco brown dye 1st and then sanded it back quite a bit to leave the dark brown in the

grain however the field of the wood is back to the natural color. Next I mixed some

Lemon Yellow with some Cherry Red liquid stain and wiped that to the wood.

I had the inserts installed by a luthier here in South Jersey.

I drilled the hole for the volume, tone and selector switch, then I used

a 1-1/4" Cove bit with the bearing removed to add the recess.

I made another template for the Dremel tool to rout for the 5-way switch.

The pots and the switch needed a little less top depth, so I routed the

pots to a depth of 3/16" and the switch to 1/8". I did not use jigs for these

extra routs. I just drew the shapes in with a pencil and eyed it.

Once again I used a 1-1/4" Cove bit with the bearing removed

for the thumb screw recess on the battery cover.

I used this dremel scouring pad to clean up the recesses. They

fit the recess perfectly.

Now that all of the routs are done I needed to assembly the guitar and

give it a dry run to see if everything is copesetic before I continued on

with all the finishing. So I put in all the electronics, hardware, and

then strung her up. The intonation only needed minor adjustment.

I did spend about an hour dialing in the string height and

setting the tremolo to float. The best part was that when I plugged it

in, it all worked.............what a big relief!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is what she looks like with the stock Variax 700 neck. I am still waiting for

my Warmoth maple/maple neck to arrive. Its due early December. Next

I have to tear it all apart again and start the finishing.

Neck, bridge, string alignment looks really good. I was extremely

concerned about this since I had to make all my own templates.

You know nobody has Variax 700 templates. But it came out pretty dang good.

I taped some of the openings before applying the grain filler, which fills

in the pores on the mahogany. The maple on the top does not need the filler

because the pores are very tight on maple. I tried to use the Colortone grain

filler but I could not get it to work for me. Jeff pointed me toward Devcon Epoxy

for the grain filler. It works really good and is easy to use. Just make sure

to work in small areas at a time, just a few inches, and put the epoxy on

very thin and work it into the grain. I used an auto putty spreader and cut it

into a 1-1/2" piece. I would force the epoxy into the grain scraping across the grain.

The body is finally ready for staining.

I have used a very dark mix of Cherry Red with a couple drops of Tobacco

Brown to richen it up even more. This first coat of stain is not for color, it is

to get the grain of the wood nice and dark for the final stain color. No I am

not eating biscuits with Country Crock Spread :-). I used the container for the dye.

The first stain is complete. Next I'll sand this back to leave the stain in the grain.

I split the leftover stain (which I purposely made a lot of) into two jars. 1 jar

is going to remain the same. The other jar I will thin and add Lemon Yellow

to for the final color. The reason I am saving the stain is that I will have to

use it on my Warmoth neck when it comes. I want to make sure the

colors are the same.

Now I sand the color back with the

Ryobi finish sander with 240 sand paper to help bring the finish down

a little quicker, then I block sand by hand with 240 then 320 and finally 400

sand paper. The field of the wood is all most back to natural but the grain

is still dark as you can see in the picture. This will help the final color

get that deep reflective three dimensional look.

Next I took one of the jars of stain and thinned it more with denatured

alcohol and added some Lemon Yellow to give it that burnt orange tint

and then I stained the guitar to its final color.

I had to give some serious thought as to whether I wanted

to clear coat the guitar with a compressor or with the canned lacquer. I have

had some experience with the compressor. I painted this 66 corvette that me

and my father own.

I decided to give the canned lacquer a try, spraying out of the can is very convenient.

I put a couple coats of Colortone Aerosol Guitar Lacquer on just to see what

it is gonna look like. And it looks like the spray can stuff just may work. It does not

flow like painting a car, but it seems to level after a few minutes.

Here is another shot of the guitar on the stand.

I wanted a nice way to clear coat the guitar without hanging it. So I

went to Home Depot picked up some red oak, a handle, a dowel and a

couple brackets and presto I made a stand to paint with. I saw something

similar to this somewhere on the web when I was researching for making

this build. The idea is not an original.

I taped the guitar for the 1st coats of the black burst over. The 1st coat is gonna be

very tight to the edge and solid black. For the 2nd coat I will have to retape the guitar

for the actual burst.

I tried to do the black burst with the Colortone Black Lacquer from Stew-Mac.

It seems to be to heavy to work correctly. I'll have to figure out how to make this black

burst work without me having to purchase a airbrush. Its Christmas and I can't spend

money on the guitar right now.

I tried to sand the black back to get a smooth burst transition. Sanding is

not working for me. I'll figure this out.

I had a small cash winfall yesterday and was able to go purchase a air-brush

and compressor. I spent about one hour learning how to control and shoot with

the air-brush, then I went for it. It took me about 2 hours to get this burst done right.

After the burst I shot 1 coat of clear. Over the next three to four days I will shoot the final

clear coats, level sanding slightly between maybe each four or five coats.

A-B Comparison between the original Variax body and the StrataVariax – One.

I cut a small block of lucite to use as a level sanding block.

I'm level sanding with 400 wet/dry sand paper after the 5th clear coat. I keep a clean

white rag handy to wipe with, often. If you sand to deep thru the clear, the color will show

on the rag. I still have about 7 or 8 more clear coats to go. After spraying the guitar with 5

cans of the Stew-Mac canned lacquer. I decided to pull out the old paint gun and grab

the 6-hp Sears 33 gal. compressor from my dad's house to finish the clear coats. The

canned lacquer just did not flow like I wanted and I know I can make the paint gun lay

the lacquer much better.

I'm shooting one of the lacquer coats. I used Gloss-Guitar-Laquer part # L-3651 (nitro-cellulose)

from the Lawerence McFadden Co. out of Philadelphia, PA.

All the clear nitrocellulose coats are completed. I shot 5 coats with the Colortone

Aerosol Guitar Lacquer and changed over to the compressor and paint gun and

shot 7 more coats.

You can see the dinning room chandelier reflection pretty clearly in the clear coats.

Now I play the waiting game. Today is Sunday Dec 18th, I have to give the guitar 14 days

for the Lacquer to cure. That means that on Monday January 1st I can start the final sanding

and buffing. I called Warmoth about my neck this past Thursday and they said the

neck was in finishing and should be shipped in about 2 weeks.

Well the 2 weeks is up and I am almost through sanding, polishing and buffing. I just have to do a little

more swirl remover and final polish then I am done. These last two days have been pretty

labor intensive for the final finishing. Click here for details of what I did.

Next here are a group of pictures of the finish from various angles both front and back.

I'll start putting the guitar together tomorrow.

This is not the finished product. I'm still waiting for my Warmoth Pro neck

which is due in this week.

My Warmoth Pro neck arrived today it looks great. It's a shame I have to strip the

headstock face, dye it, burst it and clearcoat it to make it match the body.

Striped, dyed, bursted and a few clearcoats are on at this point.

Logo applied

I decided to make a custom truss rod cover out of 5A quilted maple.

I’ll dye it, burst it and clear coat it to match the guitar.

StrataVariax – One

I guess it really got a name now

Sperzel locking tuners installed with Earvana compensating nut.

Rose W. “SV – 1”

Completed