Please help me choose a Strat style guitar

[Structo]

Great looking Strat type guitar but you did stray quite a ways from the vintage design.
But I love exotic woods on guitars so I love the look of yours.

I've built 8 strats for myself and a few others for guys that wanted one with their twist on it. Is it cheaper to build your own?
Not really if you use quality parts. But you get exactly what you want, the color you want, the type of finish you want, etc.
Plus, it's a whole lot of fun!

And like someone else said, you probably won' be able to sell it for what you have into it since it isn't going to gain value as a vintage instrument would but sometimes you just have to eat a little to move on.

I will say that through my experimentation that I have discovered that the neck is probably 75% of the overall tone of a guitar.
This is no surprise for luthiers that have built guitars from scratch.

The mass, the profile shape, the fretboard material, skunk stripe or not, nut material, tuners, type of truss rod, etc, all play an important role in the overall tone of the guitar.
I have transformed Strats that after they were built they were kind of unremarkable in tone.
But slap a better made neck with more mass, and boy howdy!

This last tele I built has been a real treat for me as I had never owned a guitar with P90 type pickups.
What a great pickup those are!
I have two other teles that I built but they have the standard single coil tele pickups. One a little hotter set than the other guitar.
I just could never bond with those.
I suppose if I was a chicken picker and played Country/Western it might be a different story but man, this one with the P90's just loves to snarl on the bridge pickup.
The neck pickup is full and round sounding and since it has a 4 way switch, the #2 is parallel and the #4 is in series for a nice FAT humbucker tone. The pluses are that in #2 and 4 it is humbucking so no noise.

Anyway, back to playing it!

[IMG:600:800]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b392/ ... G_0229.jpg[/img]

[Ears]

Woo, nice quilt! + bound teles look cool, clean lines.

[Markusv]

Ears

Your work is very inspiring!
Thanks for the insights- I think I am hooked and I will soon start building my dream strat. The relic'd one I am currently busy with will be my throw-around, don't care guitar.
The "real" one- now that will be the baby. (probably the first in a string of kids!)

Markus V

[Ears]

I'm with Structo & prefer to build my own.

I make the bodies from scratch. Buy Warmoth compound radius necks & then get parts from StewMac. Been using DiMarzio and StewMac pickups which I'm happy with. I use Deft Clear Wood Finish which is a lacquer and have had nothing but success with that product.

Guitars are costing me about $400-450 in parts.

With respect, 10thtx

Nice looking woods Mr Tenth, do you use veneers or are they solid? You've put a veneer on the headstock of one to match?

[Buschman]

You are on a forum full of builders and tweakers. We love to build our own amps and probably most of us have built strats. If you want to go buy one and want to spend upwards of 2 grand you have a bunch of options. The new Fender American standards are great. That would save you enough to by a second hand something else. The Eric Johnson Strats are superb and you can get a rosewood neck on the new version(it's bound which is pretty wierd on a Strat). Go to a place that sells Custom Shop stuff and see if you fall in love with one. THey are set up and have just been massaged more than a production guitar. I have 2 Fullerton strats from 1982 I could never part with. It's almost a curse because the new stuff is real good. Good Luck

[Markusv]

Buschman

The more I do research, the more it seems I move away from my original position. I was obsessed with getting a Suhr guitar a week or two ago, Now I am getting really excited about building something. It seems with a bit of care I could put something really special together and probably have a guitar that rivals some of the high end items.

Still learning on my relic strat. As soon as I'm happy and stop tweaking, I will move on to the prima donna

Markus V

[Structo]

Also if the finishing part scares you too much, you can always buy a finished body.
There are many places that carry them.

My first partscaster was a pre-finished Mighty Mite body in Surf Green.
The poly finish on it actually isn't too thick like you see on a lot of guitars.

Plus it should look new for a long time.

Lacquered guitars are going to age with time. A lot of guys like that.
Some don't and want the finish to reflect the guitars age.
I don't really buy into the whole "nitro breathes so it's better" camp but I feel as long as the finish film is kept thin, a guitar can sound excellent in nitro or poly.

This is my Surf Green Mighty Mite guitar.
I made this into a Lonestar configuration with the humbucker in the bridge, Fender Hot Noiseless in the middle and neck.
Sounds great!
That is a Wilkinson two point trem on it as well.
All gold hardware.
I think I have less than $500 into this one.

[IMG:219:639]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b392/ ... rfEden.jpg[/img]
[IMG:457:640]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b392/ ... edencu.jpg[/img]

[Markusv]

Tom

That is a hell of a nice guitar
Personally, I go for the chrome or stainless hardware look but your gold complements the green extremely well!

The 2 point trem is my personal fave too and Wilkinson makes some really good stuff

I see GFS is selling handwired pickguards, with their premium pickups of your own choice.
I wonder if anyone has experience with them?

I bought 2 "crunchy PAF's from them a while ago. Good pickups, but I'm not blown away

Markus V

[Andy Le Blanc]

ooooooh....... masonite.

I think it was $50 to build.

[Markusv]

Andy

Sound Wise???

Markus V

[Andy Le Blanc]

The sound is pretty good. You can get any pick up you want, any neck.
The surprise to me was the weight, a real back saver.
A great way to learn set up, and the whole thing can be fab'd with hand tools, if you have to.

[10thTx]

Nice looking woods Mr Tenth, do you use veneers or are they solid? You've put a veneer on the headstock of one to match?

The bodies are either hollowed out southern/swamp ash or PrimaVera with a veneer of 3/16" maple on top. And I buy less expensive Warmoth necks and simply laminate the headstock with figured maple to dress it up.

With respect, 10thtx

[Structo]

Regarding tone and woods I think it was at the project guitar forum that they were debating the old "the tone is in the wood" subject in regards to solid body electrics.
One of the better builders there built a single cutaway guitar and before he showed pictures of his build he posted some sound clips.
Everybody oohed and awed the tone and detail in the sound from this guitar.
He finally posted pictures and body was made from MDF.
Can't remember what neck he had on it but yeah, solid fiberboard body.

The details are a little fuzzy because it was a few years ago but I found that a very interesting statement that kind of threw a lot of what we think, out the window.
In my experience the neck on a solid body electric has the biggest effect on a guitars tone and sustain.

I have built a guitar before with all top shelf components and when it was done it didn't impress me at all.
It had a expensive Warmoth maple/rosewood neck on it and the body was swamp ash of medium weight.
I was really disappointed in that partscaster and it hung on the wall for quite a while. It was very pretty, just sounded like crap.
I even changed pickups and that helped a little but not much.

Later I came to get a few necks in a trade deal and one was a fat Allparts neck.
I'm not even sure of the model number on it but it was a fat C shape with medium frets.
I thought, what the hell and put it on that body.
The guitar came to life!
Instantly transformed it into a tone machine.
That confirmed what I had read before about the importance of the neck in the tone of a guitar.

I haven't put that Warmoth neck on anything else but it just might be a dud.

[Markusv]

Tom

I have read that One of John Suhr's favourite combinations is the following:
-Maple neck / maple board
- Basswood Body, Maple capped

I think he caps his bodies quite thick- not just veneer

Now I am a newb in this but I thought that Basswood is not necessarily the top tonewood out there although some say it sounds good.

The body on my curbcaster I'm building is almost definitely Basswood. It has a pleasant resonance and the guitar is accoustically quite loud! But then the neck is a heavy maple neck with a maple freatboard



Markus V

[Structo]

Yep, beleive it or not basswood is a great tone wood.

Most of the shredder type guitars use basswood.

I believe the Ibanez Jem is basswood.

John Suhr is very opinionated and some have butted heads with him in the past about his opinions.
But you can't argue with success so he believes what he says.

The debate about body woods, neck woods, finish types have always been controversial because most of it is very subjective.
Not everybody likes the same thing and no two people hear the same thing when listening.

So yes, basswood is an accepted wood for guitars as is just about every other type.