Bat-tar

No Batdad Cave would be complete without a guitar with which to melt some faces (as my friend Paul would say).  So my second post, which only took a few months to get done, is a sweet Bat-tar.   It all started with the Batdad's brother's old yamaha stratocaster knockoff.  It was looking and sounding pretty rough anyway so it was in need of an overhaul.  Here it is partially disassembled:

Bat-tar Before

Taking it apart is pretty easy.  I just pulled off the volume, tone, and pickup selector switch knobs and unscrew everything.  The screws around the pickups are a little longer and have a spring that, I think, isolates the pickups from the body of the guitar.  Then I washed and laid out all the pieces.  I am sure there is some product that washes and preps the pieces for painting better but soap and water did find for me.  Perfect is the enemy of good enough.  One thing I would do differently is set the pieces off the ground a little higher because I was getting some dust and bits of debris on some of the parts.  Here are the pieces laid out in my painting booth with the front plate painted:

Pieces laid out for painting

 One of my favorite effects (that my lovely Batwife taught me) is the glossy/matte effect.  First I painted the front and back plates of the guitar with high gloss paint.  Then I used a spare Bat-a-rang that I had lying around (thanks to my old buddy Matt) as a stencil.  Below is the back plate of the guitar with the aforementioned Bat-a-rang in position.  After a coat of matte black paint on all the pieces, the painting was essentially done. 

The back plate of the Bat-tar ready for a coat of matte paint

Assembling a freshly painted anything is one of the most fulfilling experiences I can do, especially when it is something as awe-inspiring as a Bat-tar.  The knobs came out great and the Bat-tar actually sounded better.  I guess I must have fixed a connection or something when I reassembled everything.

Bat-tar reassembled

The Bat logo and volume knob

Here is the before and after.  This was a fun, fairly easy project and great addition to the Batdad Cave.  Oh and the final cost was really just the cost of 2 cans of spray paint and a guitar or anything else you may want to Batify.

The final product

The before