DIY Groovy Scratchplates & Fake Tan For Your Neck

Well, I wanted to get on with the Purple Paze this weekend, but realised that the 'chiseling' part of removing wood from the guitar to fit the pickup in needed a chisel, which I didn't have. Which slowed me down a wee bit, but meant I could concentrate on a different bit instead.

Two jobs then, and the first is easiest dealt with... When I got the neck for this guitar, it had - has - a lovely feel to it, but I have to say I thought it looked a bit insipid and pale. What I decided to do then was to give it a bit of a fake tan, so first job of the day was to break out the trusty tin of Danish Oil I used on the neck of my Cigar Box Guitar, and try and warm it up a wee bit. As I write this there are a couple more coats to go, but so far so good.

The second one was more of a trial, but seems to have turned out beautifully, and is a nice 'proof of concept' for the main guitar body. As I couldn't go ahead and start covering the guitar body with my Paisley cloth, I thought instead I'd try it on the scratchplate - see how it worked.

The truth of the matter is that I'm not sure whether I will use this scratchplate anyway, as design-wise I'm figuring a plain black one will look more effective against the background ocean of Paisley, but you never know, and nothing lost whether it works out OK or not.

How to do it though, was pretty easy.

First off, I traced an outline of the scratchplate onto the back of the cloth and cut an inch or so around that, so that when I lay it on the scratchplate it flopped over the edges.

Second, I came over all Martha Stewart - God, that would be aw-fful *- and used a product called Mod Podge to glue the cloth onto the plate. I covered the back of cloth and the surface of the plate and then stuck it together. It's not hard.

Third, to make it nice and smooth and bubble free I used an old debit card to spread the cloth out. The only pain was  because there are the three pickup holes cut already, the cloth naturally dips into them. One will be cut out, but the other two are a pain. Hence the thought that a new custom cut scratchplate might be the final solution.

Fourth, I let the scratchplate dry for twenty minutes, and had a cuppa. Hard work all this, I ain't kidding you.

Fifth, is the good bit and what will either make this whole cloth covered guitar idea work or not. The clever thing with this Mod Podge is that it isn't just a glue. Nope, it will also act as a 'grain filler' and sealant, and so the next step is to literally paint it over the top of the scratchplate.

This will fill the teeny little holes in the cloth, and eventually make it hard and smooth, and to be honest putting it on is a dream. Painting it pretty thickly, it is just a case of leaving it twenty minutes to dry for each coat - it goes on white and ends up transparent, so you can tell when it is 'done' - repeating the process five or six times. At the end of that, the material is like pliable plastic, and slightly rough to the touch, with a nice gloss sheen to it. There is a matte version too, as well as some others. Cool, to be honest.

Sixth, once that was dry, I used a Stanley knife to trim the excess cloth off from around plate, and it looks excellent and feels very hard wearing. The finishing touch today will be to smooth it down with some wet and dry, and seal the whole shebang with  couple of coats of clear coat, which I have left over from the guitar build. It doesn't actually look like it needs the clear coat, but Mod Podge can get a bit sticky apparently, and that is meant to cure the problem.

And that is that, and exactly what I plan to do on the guitar body. I have to say, I was leaping into the night a wee bit with this whole thing, and I am surprised how well it worked on the scratchplate. Better than I had hoped in truth. I still have to cut out the hole for the pickup, you may have noticed, but I figured I'd do that once I know exactly where it will sit in relation to the scratchplate. It would be grim for things not to line-up, and all that.

It does set me thinking about scratchplates generally though as it is an easy way to update your own with any design you like on the cheap. The Mod Podge cost £3.49 and the cloth was pennies, but it will stick paper as well as cloth and the scope for that is endless.

Other than that, I went and bought some chisels - set of five from Homebase for £3.59 - so I'm going to have a go at routing it out today, and maybe do a bit more cloth sticking for real.

* Copyright Rob Newman, sometime late in the 1980s