A Mary Kaye Strat
Tim Hall sent us these pics of
his latest "Old Flame" Marilyn. Here is Tim's description of her.
Hey Bill-
I'm not sure if you wanted to
add Marilyn to the gallery, or if you even have room, but I thought I’d
shoot you some photos and a brief “play by play” You
already know I went at it two
times, so I’ll just pick it up from round 2:
After stripping the body and
neck, the body was grain filled twice, and level sanded after each application
with 180,220, and 320. Then a coat of clear lacquer was applied as a barrier
coat. Next, three coats of sanding sealer, again level sanded as described
above. This gave me a “mirror-like” surface to work with.
After that, I sprayed the face and
back with a light coat of Fender Neck Amber to attain a “glow” in the center
of the guitar. Then a coat of clear to protect the Amber. Next, Fender
Blonde was lightly misted over the entire body, and then another protective
clear coat. Then I applied the patented cardboard “Sunbursting Template”,
and hit the sides a little heavier. Finally, using the sunbursting tip,
I sprayed a band around the outside perimeter of the face and back. I probably
used a half a can of Blonde. After that, the usual “Rule of Threes” modus
operandum was applied. I did have a setback between coats 7 and 8, when
we had some pretty chilly weather, and I sprayed a bit of a wet coat, resulting
in blush. I had to wait a week for Blush Eraser, which worked like a charm,
and then continued. All in all, 10 clear coats were applied. Cured 2 weeks.
The usual ReRanch sanding and polish schedule was applied. The neck was
first sprayed with clear as a barrier coat, and then Fender Neck Amber
was lightly misted until the color looked right to me. Then I sprayed 5
clear coats, waited 3 days, wet sanded with 600, and sprayed 3 more wet
coats. After 2 weeks, I started with 800, and wet sanded up to 2000 before
polishing with Finesse it II. This made the process long, (8 hours), but
better safe than sorry, it's real easy to sand through on a neck. Sanding
flush to the frets proved to be a challenge, but two methods employed were
a sanding stick from Stewmac, and folding small pieces of sandpaper into
“sticks” and tactfully sanding against the frets. It was tedious work.
The peg head and trem plate
decal were made from water slide ink jet paper. I found the picture of
MM on the net, printed it on some decal paper, applied it to the entire
plate, trimmed the string holes, clear coated it and wet sanded/polished
it just like the rest of the guitar.
Specs: Warmoth Hollow Swamp Ash
body, Warmoth Boat contour neck with 22 jumbo frets, Fender Fat 50’s pickups,
and Kluson style locking tuners. The Poodle case is by G&G, the same
company that made the original in ’54. Not period correct for 56-57, but
vibey. 
As usual, thanks for all the
great products, and helpful advice.
Tim Hall
Tim, "Marilyn" is Beautiful! Thanks
for the pics.
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