Next!!! StRATocaster - Finished w/ PICS

Preacher · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 10:50 am Post subject:

Stan are you saying that this is not rare and I can't bank on it putting my kids through college? Laughing

I remember when I was first looking at buying the motorcylce I have now I saw a review that said it was too big, couldn't turn and had way too much power. I seriously thought about not checking it out, good thing I am stubborn and went ahead with it.

The internet, well it must all be true, right? Laughing

Preacher · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 6:58 am Post subject:

OK boys and girls, back on the StRAT.
I did not get any pictures taken, I was having too much fun putting it all together I forgot...so forgive me...

Where did we leave off?
Well I got the body all ready for the tremolo, what a pain that was. And I messed up a little bit, I will show you later... Embarassed

but isn't part of the fun of building a guitar is fixing your mess ups?
So anyway, I decided to drop all the stuff in the body over the weekend, string her up and play it with no finish on the body.

I learned a valuable lesson while building the Bondocaster and that is predrill everything you need to drill BEFORE you paint... so I was fitting the PG, making sure the switch fit the holes I left for it and the jack worked in its hole. Went ahead and soldered up the jack. (Man, strats are a ton easier to wire than Teles, just flip the guard over and wire away and then take two leads to the jack. No tunneling through the body, soldering on top of the finished guitar, nice!!!) So I got to strap the neck on to make sure I line up the tremolo right. So I mark and drill the neck, and it fits really well and is straight (Bonus!!) and get the tremolo squared up. Now I am finding out that the tremolo bridge I have is a wee bit narrower than the neck I have. So I may have to change the bridge out at a later time but for now it is fine. Lined up the e string and locked the bridge down.

So I decided, lets string her up... but I don't have a nut for the neck. So a little dab of corian, and some small needle files and a belt sander and I have made my first nut. It probably is going to have to be shaped some more, but not bad on my first attempt. Well actually my second attempt as I broke the first attempt while sanding it on the sander.

So I take my dad in laws Tele to get the string spacing (his neck is a little narrower than mine at the nut) marked and filed and the nut is on.
So I strung her up with the Ping vintage tuners (man I like these!!!) and I am ready to play right? Wrong. I notice that the fretboard is setting about a heavy 1/8" above the pickguard. Now I routed that neck pocket out 5/8" just like my tele, why is this neck setting so high? Is the strat neck route lower than 5/8"?

So it is back to the router for one more pass, and then I should be good to go.

SAguitar · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 10:38 am Post subject:

Guitar building could very well be the Last Frontier. Cool

_________________
...all the gray areas are becoming black holes...

Preacher · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:14 am Post subject:

Well boys and girls, she is together...

the neck was thicker than usual Confused

so I had to take an additional 1/8" of neck pocket, it was probably a little light anyway. Had to shim the neck a little but all in all it worked out pretty good.
Camera phone was struggling today, so the pics are not so great...

You can see a little bit of filling I am going to have to do around the tremolo, apparently my jig size on the drawing is for a little larger bridge. I have an idea that th e bridge I used off the Bently is narrower about 3/16 than that of an American standard. I would love for someone to measure out to out for me on a Vintage six so I know wether to fill that or not.
Grain looks nice too, but this one is going vintage white or cream or whatever they call it so it is going away. The PG still has the plastic on it so it will look better after everything is put together for the final time. The PG was also wired by someone who was a modder. There are more grounds than you can shake a stick at and he had it wired backward on the switch so that with it in the forward position you got the bridge. He may have played a lot with the neck and mid pups so that kept it out of his way. Who knows. I will shoot some pics of the PG once she is apart again...

Preacher · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:17 am Post subject:

OK remember the fat neck? Well with a little shaved off the neck route and some shimming it fit on pretty good. Man that fretboard is wide and it is probably a 12 radius which I am liking a lot. I love the vintage ping tuners and I applied my own decal and still have to take it apart and top coat if later. But here is the headstock as it is. And yes it takes a while to get used to the tuners on the "wrong" side.

Preacher · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:19 am Post subject:

The back pic did not turn out too well, so I am posting it with apologies...

I think I will try to get all the crew together tonight and shoot some pics with the good camera...

I do believe that I will add another couple of springs, but it stays in tune pretty good with those three, and the tremolo works!!
I will have to show my slight modification later on the tremolo route hole... good thing it gets covered up!

MykWiz · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:41 am Post subject:

Looks good Preach!

Congrats! I like it a lot.

~MW

gpower · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 7:14 am Post subject:

Very nice Preach. I absolutely love transparent finishes. Why would anyone hide all that gorgeous grain.

I just grabbed a vintage trem, I have in my parts box, and it's 3 1/4" across the widest part. Across the mounting holes it's 2 29/32" edge to edge.

If you'd like any more dimensions, let me know.
_________________
Whether you think you can...or you can't...you're right!

Some mistakes are just too much fun to only make once!!!

Preacher · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 7:51 am Post subject:

Great!!
Thanks!

Jake D · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 1:46 pm Post subject:

I'm diggin' it Preach. Are you going to do the finish on it yourself?

Teleblooz · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 1:59 pm Post subject:

Preach, are you sure you want to cover up that gorgeous grain?
_________________

http://www.myspace.com/chrisleonhard

SAguitar · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 2:58 pm Post subject:

Hey bro, spread your outside two springs out more. They are s'posed to be crammed in the center like that. You'll get better control over the whole operation 'n stuff.

And yes, that grain is something beautiful! Don't lose it. Cool

_________________
...all the gray areas are becoming black holes...

Preacher · Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 5:44 am Post subject:

Well boys, I finally got a decent pic...

And what you are not seeing is the back is really green, remember this is poplar... if I was doing some kind of dark finish it might be OK, but a sunburst is going to look bad or a natural. I still have all my jigs (although some need some work Wink

) so maybe in the future.

Front shot...

It is going to get a champagne type color, similiar to this...

teleman77 · Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 7:21 am Post subject:

Not too bad, for a non-tele type guitar. Wink

At least it isn't purple. Laughing

_________________

...........Ahh, that's better!

"Turn it up and you don't need any reverb".................Danny Gatton

www.myspace.com/reubenadkins

SAguitar · Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 9:15 am Post subject:

Don't you have any of that lovely Gumdrop stuff left? Shocked

_________________
...all the gray areas are becoming black holes...