jrockbridge
Stealing Your Riffs
What a great build! It's very pretty! 
DIY Stratocaster Build - hand tools only
- Thread starter irishstu
- Start date
...what is the bridge HB?..Duncan JB Junior or similar?
irishstu
really experienced
Thanks a lot, everyone.
Ethan, the battery powers the booster circuit I built in (see the scratchplate schematic). It's based on a Vox treble booster.
Mo, the neck pickup is a Little '59. I use it mostly tapped, and it still maintains a very stratty sound - crystal clear. When I do need a little something extra, the option is there.
P.S. I'll stick up a little epilogue later, with what I've changed since this build and why.
Ethan, the battery powers the booster circuit I built in (see the scratchplate schematic). It's based on a Vox treble booster.
Mo, the neck pickup is a Little '59. I use it mostly tapped, and it still maintains a very stratty sound - crystal clear. When I do need a little something extra, the option is there.
P.S. I'll stick up a little epilogue later, with what I've changed since this build and why.
irishstu
really experienced
OK, just a little update on the guitar now.
It was actually made 10 years ago, so has had a few changes since then (not much though - I'm generally very happy with it).
Here's a few things I did wrong, and what I did about it later:
1. Wrong wood - should've been swamp ash, not northern ash. No complaints about the tone, but the thing weighed over 10lbs (not to mention how hard it was to work with). I ended up removing as much wood as I could under the scratchplate to alleviate this a few months ago.
2. The tremolo I got for this was crap, going out of tune all the time. I ended up putting in a Wilkinson.
3. I had positioned the old tremolo too close to the neck (just a few mm, but enough to be a problem). This meant I had to move the saddles as far back as possible, and even then for the low E it wasn't far enough. Since I was putting in a Wilkinson anyway, I took the opportunity to re-drill the mounting holes and change the routing a little bit. The Wilkinson had a different stud spacing anyway (the one I had on previously didn't appear to follow any standards whatsoever).
Here's a pic of my son helping me put the guitar together after doing the above:
Then recently I decided to make a few cosmetic and tuning-related changes, mostly because while I had the guitar apart from the other work, I decided it was time.
I got a proper battery box, trem spring cover, semi-blank Strat scratchplate, chrome dome knobs, a Graph Tech nut and a couple of Graph Tech string retainers. Though it's admittedly superficial to change the colour of a scratchplate, etc., it's made me totally fall in love with this guitar again, and the more reliable tuning makes it a pleasure to play.
Here it as as it looks today (well... last night):
It was actually made 10 years ago, so has had a few changes since then (not much though - I'm generally very happy with it).
Here's a few things I did wrong, and what I did about it later:
1. Wrong wood - should've been swamp ash, not northern ash. No complaints about the tone, but the thing weighed over 10lbs (not to mention how hard it was to work with). I ended up removing as much wood as I could under the scratchplate to alleviate this a few months ago.
2. The tremolo I got for this was crap, going out of tune all the time. I ended up putting in a Wilkinson.
3. I had positioned the old tremolo too close to the neck (just a few mm, but enough to be a problem). This meant I had to move the saddles as far back as possible, and even then for the low E it wasn't far enough. Since I was putting in a Wilkinson anyway, I took the opportunity to re-drill the mounting holes and change the routing a little bit. The Wilkinson had a different stud spacing anyway (the one I had on previously didn't appear to follow any standards whatsoever).
Here's a pic of my son helping me put the guitar together after doing the above:
Then recently I decided to make a few cosmetic and tuning-related changes, mostly because while I had the guitar apart from the other work, I decided it was time.
I got a proper battery box, trem spring cover, semi-blank Strat scratchplate, chrome dome knobs, a Graph Tech nut and a couple of Graph Tech string retainers. Though it's admittedly superficial to change the colour of a scratchplate, etc., it's made me totally fall in love with this guitar again, and the more reliable tuning makes it a pleasure to play.
Here it as as it looks today (well... last night):
John Watt
Banned
irishstu! When you removed as much wood as possible under the pickguard to lessen the weight,
did you notice any new characteristics or acoustic qualities?
I wasn't going to post, not wanting to be discouraging about your original stainless steel backplates,
never seeing anything like that before, and seeing the corners as not rounded like the Fender plate.
But now it's back to following your initial style.
Forget about me posting in your thread. When are you going to visit and jam with me?
The way you come off, it looks like you'd have some solid musicianship happening.
as always, John Watt
did you notice any new characteristics or acoustic qualities?
I wasn't going to post, not wanting to be discouraging about your original stainless steel backplates,
never seeing anything like that before, and seeing the corners as not rounded like the Fender plate.
But now it's back to following your initial style.
Forget about me posting in your thread. When are you going to visit and jam with me?
The way you come off, it looks like you'd have some solid musicianship happening.
as always, John Watt
irishstu
really experienced
Hey John, I somehow forgot to reply to you. I did notice a difference in tone when I routed out the guitar. It seems much more resonant now - much more alive. But then again, I also removed a treble bleed (resistor and capacitor in parallel) that I had, for some uneducated reason, installed in the volume control when I first built the guitar, so maybe that was muddying up the sound. Who knows? All I do know is that I'm in love with the current sound and haven't touched my American Standard since I made these latest changes.
Well, thanks for the compliment. My playing skills really should be a lot better than they are. Nevertheless, I'd be happy to jam next time you're passing through Taipei.
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lol this is coolJohn Watt posted in my thread. My life is now complete!
John, you may be a little disappointed by my tremolo choice. I mean it's no Floyd Rose, but it's not original Fender either. I hope you enjoy the build regardless. The dining table comment is just the beginning of the fun.
More very soon.
COOOL! Glad to see a DIY thread with home tools!
Hay irishstu have you tried an angle grinder with an 100 pack of cutting disks and a few course paper sanding discs? It would out-perform the chizzel for all but the tightest spots - but surly no one would recommend my tools to anyone but me. thanks for sharing the project - nice to see it accomplished! :
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