The Electra Forums

I haven't done any more finish work on the guitar, it has been really humid here and raining for the last two days. I took the weekend off from working on the guitar. I did receive some parts though in the mail yesterday. I have all the electronics except the 3-way toggle and I can pull one of those out of the parts bin. I also received my pickup covers without holes. I purchased my paint and primer last Friday so when the humidity drops I should be ready to go.

Well I hadn't done anything in awhile and I was getting the bug. I'm working on this, painting a room in my house, building a 5e3 deluxe, and working some other smaller projects. I was able to clean out my garage over the weekend and made some space for the painting work needed to be done here. This consisted of a half days work moving everything out and back in and then a run to Goodwill.

The rain ended this morning and there is no rain in the forecast for the next 10 days. I'll have this space for the next couple of weeks or so. The funny thing was my wife came home, saw the plastic sheeting hanging in the garage and asked, "So you're Dexter now?" Don't know if any of you watch the show, but I digress......

So here are a couple of pics after I sprayed a coat of shellac as a sealer, sanded with 400, and wiped with naptha. The grain changes color with the shellac and naptha and you can easily see the layers now. Naptha will be my friend from now on when identifying construction techniques. These were just before my first coat of primer and show all of the good and bad at the same time:

Next is the first and second layer of primer. This will be sanded with 400 tomorrow and then I will most likely apply some body filler. There really are not many spots to fill, most of the spots to fill are on the belly cut and side contour. After the filler dries, I will sand with 400 and lay another layer of primer. Then I will wet sand with 400 and start on the color coats. This is my plan at this point anyway, any suggestions are welcome.

I wish they had made a dark natural Phoenix now after looking at the center wood color on yours. Once it is smooth as glass that Blue you've got picked out is going to look great man, thanks for showing us your progress, Mike.

_________________
Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

It would have been nice if I could have stained that cap to match the center but I know I couldn't have made it turn out right. Thanks for the comments, I'm hoping it turns out half as good as you imagine.

Looking real good man. I think I am gonna do the same to my X140. It has a horrible re-paint on it and I want to try a sunburst or an EVH Yellow/Black thing. It looks like it was stripped and painted without filling the grain holes. There are little flecks of white showing everywhere. I will post some pictures one of these days

Looking at Vid's Avatar, I forgot that they did make a Dark Phoenix... the X150 (and X149).

_________________
Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

That picture is from early 1984. Which means I had that guitar for about two years at point. Long before it became purple.

Not too long after I bought it, I went into the store and they had an X149 with strings through and I tried to trade my X150 back in for the X149. I really wanted that string thru body bridge. I felt a bit cheated with the top loader. The X150 was $319. I don't think that included the case but it could have, I can't remember.

I've had a delay. I bought the bondo and have thought better of it. I returned it today and went and purchased some oil-based wood filler. I just don't have any large spots to fill and don't want to sand the bondo. The spots that need filling are tiny little holes. I am going to thin the wood filler with some acetone or naptha and proceed as planned.