In Praise of Goldfinger

[DGNR8]

Can I say how lucky we are to have Cooterfinger on this board? There are other fine builders, and RobertOG will always be in the Hall of Fame, but I have seen Richard make a number of exceptional bodies for SS, OSG, and RR projects.

This time he patched another 70s Strat for me. Look at the attention to detail on this match. The only mistake he made was in telling me he found Antigua under the LPB Duplicolor,or I probably would have tried to put myself through another sunburst marathon session. Now of course I am on a mission to return it to its former ungodly avocado glory. Now that I put Zpoxy on it to seal it, the patch is barely noticeable.

The set is HERE.

[taylornutt]

Did all 70's Strats have micro tilt?

[robert(original)]

honestly, i can't even touch what cooter, and joey are doing these days, i don't think i have ever been at there level. they are fucking great craftsmen.
i believe the micro tilt started appearing as early as 69 on strats, and was a staple until 80 or 81.
i like the micro tilt, i have seen it on a few other guitars by other manufacturers and really like the design aspect of it.

[cooter]

honestly, i can't even touch what cooter, and joey are doing these days, i don't think i have ever been at there level.

I call bullshit. I saw some pretty amazing woodwork come from your hands. You're build threads were actually one of the reasons
I started doing this.

[MattK]

Now of course I am on a mission to return it to its former ungodly avocado glory.

PLEASE don't make it avocado. Only the MIJ "antiguas" look like avocado, the original antigua was a "whiteburst" and much classier. With a yellowed clearcoat it should still look whitish.
Here's a couple of 78 antigua Strats:


The pickguards seem to yellow more, but if you can match the look of the bodies it will be AWESOME.
And agreed about Cooterfinger, of course. Timber alchemist.

[DGNR8]

Ha. I am going to try to make it look Antigua, whatever that means, and whatever I can pull off. If it doesn't work, I may have to paint it sunburst. 70s Fenders had great grain. Maybe the necks didn't fit, but they looked good.

Here's the plan so far: I coated it with Zpoxy to make it level. I painted it with primer and Reranch Desert Tan 55. For the burst color, I found a Mohawk furniture aerosol SAGE toner. After I get the sage, I will hit it with tinted clears and hopefully it will shade it all just slightly to look like the yellowed gray version. If it doesn't look right, I will keep adding yellow. There's a pretty big range between the gray kind and the most amber/avocado.

From my experience, toners are translucent colors used to make pieces of furniture match, or to age it. I have used several to complement neck amber, but some were too orange. These aerosols are compatible with nitro. I have also used a German brand KONIG, but their gray is not available in the US. Look at the grays! There's like three shades of it. I found another site with LARCH BEECH and Transparent Anthracite. How about gray, folks?

[finboy]

Now of course I am on a mission to return it to its former ungodly avocado glory.

PLEASE don't make it avocado. Only the MIJ "antiguas" look like avocado, the original antigua was a "whiteburst" and much classier. With a yellowed clearcoat it should still look whitish.
Here's a couple of 78 antigua Strats:


The pickguards seem to yellow more, but if you can match the look of the bodies it will be AWESOME.
And agreed about Cooterfinger, of course. Timber alchemist.

I LOVE the white burst, I just wish there was a way to keep it from yellowing because it does NOT look good to me when it looks like snot burst

[DGNR8]

Oh shit. I still need to spray the black pickguard.

[NickS]

Did all 70's Strats have micro tilt?

My '73 does.