Custom Stratocaster #3

See what this guitar initially looked like here (use your browser's 'back' button to get back here)

Hmmmmm, why this you ask?

Having a number of fairly conventional Stratocasters and a lot of spare Strat parts, I thought I'd build something that would borrow the best of a number of different electric guitars. I've wanted a Strat with a humbucker at the bridge for some time. But I've also been wanting a Telecaster since parting ways with my '54 as I currently don't a Telecaster at all. After a little research into available full-sized humbuckers, I settled on a model by Seymour Duncan with suitable specs: the TB-4 "Trembucker" version (Fender spaced) of the SH-4 "Jeff Beck" model. What appealed to me about the design is that when the coils are split, the remaining single coil has a metal bottom plate and an alnico V pickup. Electrically and physically, these characteristics are not unlike a Tele bridge pickup. So I took a chance on it.

Hence, my newest creation. So here's the details:

Body:
USA Custom body, two-piece alder, bridge pickup route modified for humbucker
The finish was initially done with mix of stain and Waterlox Tung Oil (see it here), which contains hardening resins. The results were a little uneven so I stripped it, sealed it with shellac (as a barrier between the oil and the lacquer) and shot it with an aerosol automotive acrylic lacquer (dark cherry metallic) made by Dupli Colors with a top clear coat from the same company.

Neck:
Warmoth maple/maple boat profile; "Warmoth Construction" (compound radius, double-action truss rod, etc)
6105 stainless steel frets
Corian nut
Three coats clear nitro cellulous lacquer finish

Pickups:
bridge pickup: Seymour Duncan TB-4 (JB model) humbucker (alnico V, 16.4K DC ohms)
neck   pickup: Seymour Duncan SSL-6 Custom Flat single coil (alnico V, 13K DC ohms)

Controls: 
Vol (bridge, 500K) Vol (neck, 500K) Tone (master, 500K with .047uf)
3 position pickup selector
Coil cut switch
(The coil cut switch cuts out the TB-4 coil with the non-adjustable poles, also puts a 500K ohm resistor across the coil to load it to the equivalant of a 250K pot on a single coil pickup. Switch is a black anodized mini toggle switch, located between pickup selector and volume knobs)

Hardware and misc:
Gotoh chrome Schaller style tuners, 15:1 ratio
Fender American Vintage bridge with Performance Guitar (Hollywood, CA) saddles
Custom made S-H 8-hole Black-White-Black pickguard

Results:
Overall, the pickups are warmer (darker) than most Strat setups. This isn't so bad considering that the big birdseye maple neck with dual-action truss rod tends to brighten the guitar. So there is a balance between these elements. 

The neck pickup is VERY big sounding and dark for a Strat-type singlecoil, not too different from a P-90. Alone it provides nice jazz and rhythm tones and darker blues tones.

There are two possible combos...
neck+split humbucker or
neck+full humbucker

The first sounds like a Tele that's wired this way. Good for James Brown or The Meters type funk rhythm work.

The latter is a very powerful pickup setting. Works great with a slight amount of overdrive.

The humbucker in split coil mode is -- to my delight -- quite Telecaster-ish, with plenty of snap. 

In full humbucker mode, the guitar is a blowtorch.

Bottom line is that this is a very versatile gutiar. I've played gigs with it where the material ranged from Sly to big band jump blues to Bob Dylan to Steely Dan to The Band to James Brown to reggae and there wasn't a song where I couldn't dial in a good tone in seconds.

Custom Stratocaster #1

Custom built by me using a Warmoth unfinished neck and finished body. I needed a straight-forward Strat for gigs. My preferences are alder body, larger radius, medium-jumbo frets, single coil pickups, and vintage tremolo. Now that I've had a chance to tweek this one and play it out in clubs I can honestly say that this guitar will stand up to the best of them. The highlights are the neck's feel, the guitar is a reasonably weight, and the pickups seem well suited to the instrument. There's a fatness to the tone which I believe is from the Korina/ebony neck woods. So, while still a Strat, it's a warm sounding Strat which is sometimes a nice for a change. I couldn't be more pleased with the results.

(note that the color -- pewter -- has no blue in it, it's the reflection of the sky in these photos.)

Click here for more info on this guitar. 

PRS SE Soapbar II Modifed for Full Sized Humbuckers

PRS SE Soapbar II (made in Korea) with a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquity Humbuckers in it -- installation of which requires modification to the pickup routes. The wood and most of the stock hardware on this guitar are decent. Wood is all mahogany. Neck is a moderate to larg C profile. The original soapbar pickups were OK, but not anything special. Electrical components were crap. Loust nut needs to be replaced. Good fretwork.

The photos here show that pickup project after the routes were changed and continue to the finish. Controls are dual concentric "stacked" separate volume and tone for each pickup.

PICKUPS:

This guitar came out playing and sounding so good that it all but completely satisfied my jones for a Les Paul. Cost with pickups is under $500, but I bought it used, got a good deal on the pickups, did all the work myself.

More on this guitar here

1965 Stratocaster

Not very original, so not much collector value in this. It was originally sunburst. I got this guitar in early 1966. It was used. L-series serial number. The original finish didn't fair well in my exuberant youthful playing days so it has had a number of (bad) finishes over its lifetime. The pickguard was replaced in 1971. A large route was repaired in the center of the pickup rounting. The current finish is nitrocellulose lacquer which I did at home in 1988.  Also refretted and the bridge pickup was rewound by Lindy Fralin in the early '90s. Medium weight, B width neck with a very (as in too thin) slim neck profile.

Custom Walnut Bass

Built 30-Jan-2007

• Warmoth two piece walnut body, finished with Waterlox Tung Oil* (two thinned coats, two full strength coats)
• Warmoth P-bass neck, maple/rosewood, corina nut
• Seymour Duncan SJB-1 pickups, CTS controls 500K, 500K, 250K
• Schaller tuning machines
• Gotoh Bridge

*Waterlox Tung Oil contains resins that harden and produce a waterproof finish in the grain.

Before	After

1981 Ibanez AR50 Artist

If you can't afford a Les Paul (or a Fender Robben Ford Signature, or a PRS McCarty), this is the next best thing. 

With a few deviations, this model is derived from the Gibson Les Paul design. Like the Les Paul, this guitar's construction is a solid mahogany body with a carved maple top. It has an ebony fretboard and jumbo frets. The weight is about 8 1/4 pounds. The neck however, is not mahogany. Instead it is made from 3 ply birch (I have read some accounts that it's maple). The upper cutaway is the only other (obvious) departure from the Les Paul.

At the time that this AR50 was produced, Ibanez used their Super 70 pickups. These pickups to be very sweet. I had swapped them out for some old Gibson T-Top Humbuckers but went back to the Super 70s because I couldn't convince myself that the Gibsons sounded better. In fact, when I reinstalled the Super 70s I had to admit that they had the better tone. I have always believed that they have Alnico V (five) magnets, but I've recently read that these use Alnico VIII magnets. Regardless, they have that wonderful quality that Alnico V PAF and Pat Number humbuckers have. Unlike the humbuckers that Ibanez used later on the Artist, the Super 70s are not tapped.

GALLERY OF GUITARS THAT I NO LONGER OWN

1954 Telecaster

Before

After

This Telecaster has a large Tadeo Gomez neck with a soft-V shape (aka "boat neck").  Tadeo Gomez worked at Fender from the early days on and shaped some of the better necks in the 50s, giving them a slight V shape that some might argue fit one's hand more comfortably. The neck has an old brass nut, and the tuners are nickel plated Fender reissues from 1984.

The body is 2 piece ash which was the norm in 1954. The body's original finish was long gone before I acquired it. There is additional routing around the neck pickup cavity which appears to be sized for a mini-humbucker pickup. The only evidence of a previous finish is black. The finish was rough lacquer and a very nice amber color from age before I recently refinished it in blonde nitrocellulose lacquer. I shot the new finish right over the old clear lacquer without any stripping. Although this produces some imperfections, I feel that it preserves the guitar's history.

The guitar has its original neck pickup, a Seymour Duncan Vintage '54 Lead bridge pickup, new pots and a mid 80s reissue Fender Bakelite pickguard which I over-sprayed with clear gloss lacquer.

(sold)

1955 Stratocaster

Mostly original 1955 Stratocaster. The body is one piece ash, not very light and had a heavy varnish over it when I bought it. I refinished it in blonde nitrocellulose lacquer. Here's a close-up shot of the body. 

The neck has a slender profile and measures 1 9/16" at the nut. There is no discernable "V" to its profile. The back of neck was "over sprayed" by a prior owner. The pickup covers and knobs are not Bakelite, but appear to be very old. I suspect that someone replaced the (probably broken) original Bakelite parts in the late 50s. Stackpole controls which may have been replaced at sometime as the cap is .05uF instead of .1uF and it is not of mid-50s vintage. The case is an early reissue Fender tweed.

The bridge pickup is original. The DC resistance of the coil measures 5.6K ohms. Although low by many standards, this pickup does not sound thin or harsh or even terribly bright. Its sound has a nice clear airy quality about it. The neck and middle pickups are from 1956. They have been rewound (fyi '54, '55 & '56 have same magnet polarity. Pickups made after '56 have the magnet opposite polarity. Also, in '54 and '55 the D pole was longer than the G pole. These magnet heights were swapped beginning in '56 so the staggered heights of the pole pieces on the two '56 rewound pickups is slight different than the bridge pickup.)  (sold)

1962 Stratocaster

Not much original about this guitar except for the body, neck plate and bridge assembly. The neck is a Fender Custom shop neck from 1994 with a 9.5" radius, 21 vintage-size frets and abalone dots. Reissue Fender pickguard. I shot the Olympic White nitrocellulose lacquer finish in the early 90s. I installed Seymour Duncan SSL-1 (vintage staggered) pickups for the neck and middle and a Van Zandt Blues at the bridge.

Rear shot shows the pretty flame in the neck. This is a super light guitar (sold).

1984 '57 Reissue Stratocaster w/ '99 replacement body

This is a 'Fullerton' '57 Reissue that had a drastically routed body for Roland Synth electronics. I replaced the body with a recent Genuine Fender Replacement body. The pots also needed to be replaced. I like this guitar because it really plays and sounds like an old Stratocaster, no more, no less. I thought I would use a set of Custom Shop Custom 54s in it, but the old (early) Fender 57/62 reissue pickups seem to capture that distinctive rascally Strat sound that gave so many old Strats the sound you love to hate or maybe hate to love. I'm referring to that edgy bite and round bottom that is sometimes difficult to wrangle into that place in your head where you're happy with the sound, but when you hear another player with that sound all you can think of is that it's that charming Stratocaster tone that no other guitar makes. So the pickups stay put. (sold)

1976 project Strat

I built this non-tremolo Stratocaster up from just the 1976 Fender body. The body is a medium weight northern ash. It was refinished elsewhere in beautiful Daphne Blue. 

I used Fender hardware and electronics including a Vintage Reissue hard-tail bridge and Custom Shop '54 pickups. The neck is by WD and has a large 'C' profile with vintage construction. I rolled the edges and finished it with clear tinted nitrocellulose lacquer. The neck to body joint was converted to 4-bolt with the old holes plugged (doweled) before refinishing.

The combination of non-tremolo medium weight ash body and large solid one-piece neck makes this guitar feel in many ways like a Telecaster. Surprisingly enough (I was surprised anyway) it sounds a bit like one too. For a time I had a Van Zandt Blues pickup (DC resistance 7K ohms) at the bridge position and it sounded even more like a Telecaster. This guitar would make a fine prototype for anyone looking for a Strat that plays and sounds like a Telecaster but maintains the Stratocaster's comfort and versatility. (sold))

1996 Fender American Standard Stratocaster

I built this guitar up from a mint 1996 body and hardware, a mint 1996 neck, correct tuners and Vintage Noiseless pickups and controls. This guitar plays effortlessly and sounds pretty good. If I keep it I will replace the pickups with either Fender Custom Shop Custom 54s or Fender Delta Tones. (sold)