strat project/maybe mustang instead?

harrison

for now the strat is a long way off. and i'm itching for a project. last night i came to the realization that although i love the tone of the mustang neck pickup i never use it, just use the bridge hummy. so now my idea is to do something like those vista musicmasters with one hummy at bridge. and a volume knob. get new guard cut without neck hole.

thoughts?

foxyloxy

mint white.... mint white....

mint. 😀

harrison

foxyloxy said: mint white.... mint white....
mint. 😀

i had thought so too, isnt that more period correct as well?

JaguarOW

foxyloxy said: mint white.... mint white....
mint. 😀

who cares, it makes people want to lick it so its awesome

Robbmonster

With my strat project, I will be going for GFS pickups. Cheap AND good.

Is the plan to take off parts, drop them on to the existing guitar, with the intention of eventually having an entirely new guitar made of entirely new components, but still being operative while the project is underway?

Wouldn't it be easier to keep the Bullet active, and save up and buy the parts you need and then assemble the whole thing in one hit? Or even stripmine the Bullet and sell the parts on ebay (you will make alot more profit selling it in bits), using the sale of each part to fund the buying of the new parts?

Just a suggestion. To me, replacing things bit by bit and trying to keep the guitar active doesn't seem practical. It might also be more motivating to get things done faster if the guitar isn't active until it's finished. Also, when you replace things like the pickguard and neck, you might find that they don't fit well on the Bullet (especially the pickguard). What happens then? Surely you don't cut the pickguard to make it fit when it is going to be swapped to another body anyway?

Sorry if it seems like im ranting. I guess your approach just isn't the approach that I would take.

By the way, I don't know if you have seen it, but there is a new Biffy Clyro (I may have spelled that incorrectly) Squier strat that is Fiesta Red with mint PG. Looks wonderful. But personally, I would go for pearloid...

edit: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19060

harrison

Thanks for the input guys, and yeah that was my plan to keep it active while building the other one on top of the other. Its stemming mostly from desire to upgrade the squire for immediate use and for a nice strat down the road. On the subject of the pickguad I would just keep the stock one on the bullet and keep the mint one for the fiesta one. And yes I've seen that biffy strat and that along with john frusciantes fiesta are my inspiratio for this

Disappearer

Sorry if you already said, but are you going for maple or rosewood for the fretboard? Imo for a classic hendrixy sound maple is better, but its all opinion... Good luck anyways, i do love my strats 😁

Robbmonster

Another thing I forgot to ask... What's the budget? I mean will you be picking up secondhand pickups off ebay, or going straight to Seymour Duncan for some antiquites?

harrison

Robbmonster said: Another thing I forgot to ask... What's the budget? I mean will you be picking up secondhand pickups off ebay, or going straight to Seymour Duncan for some antiquites?

im a rosewood guy and i aim for this to be my #1 player

i would love maple on something, but for this RW FTW haha,

the budget is what time allows and what i can tolerate, it will probably take me a little over a year to complete because i plan on buying a neck and body from warmoth which chalks up $500 or so dollars give or take. i've been debating about pickups, i was thinking duncan ssl-1's, how would they stack up against antiquities?

harrison

i just thought i'd ask your opinions on the body wood, most opaque strats back then were alder iirc, so to cut cost i might try and find an affinity body which i believe are alder but correct me if im wrong. any thoughts on an affinity body as compared to a warmoth or allparts body?

Robbmonster

Affinity body's are alder, but the downside is that they are not standard strat size. They are a 1/4 inch thinner, it think. It's very noticible. They also tend to be 3-piece bodies instead of one piece. This isn't a problem for me, bit some people don't seem to like it.

For the project I recently started, I bought a 'Squier Strat'. No series, and the seriel number is a removeable sticker. It's the one that came with the SE-100 strat pack. The body is full-size, but the drawback is that they were made in alder and agathis, and if you buy one sight unseen, it's basically a toss-up as to which you will get. The one I got was quite pale, soft, and very light, so I concluded it to be agathis. Still sounded (surprisingly) very good, but I would have preferred alder as well.

harrison

ah, i knew something sounded too good about them being alder. and i forgot about them being three piece bodies. i might look into a strat like the one you bought but the hit or miss body wood is a bit of a deterrent

Robbmonster

harrison said: ah, i knew something sounded too good about them being alder. and i forgot about them being three piece bodies. i might look into a strat like the one you bought but the hit or miss body wood is a bit of a deterrent

The guitar sounded surprisingly good considering they are just ceramic bar magnet pickups. As for the wood, I don't know much about agatis, but mine feels light and a bit flimsy. But the sound was ok.

ModNuB

Something to consider is a slight mod on your 5 way selector. On several of my old Strat I did 2 mods. (You will notice both were done to help what I concider the weakest point of the Strat the "middle" pickup)

1. Middle position was useless (where just the middle pup is on) so I rewired this to what I called "tele-mode" where neck and brdige were on. I REALLY liked this cause it made all 5 position useful to me.

2. I bypassed the tone control on the middle pup. This was not a major deal to some but to me it really helped open up the deadness of the middle pup.

Just a thought.

JaguarOW

ModNuB said: Something to consider is a slight mod on your 5 way selector. On several of my old Strat I did 2 mods. (You will notice both were done to help what I concider the weakest point of the Strat the "middle" pickup)

Middle position was useless (where just the middle pup is on) so I rewired this to what I called "tele-mode" where neck and brdige were on. I REALLY liked this cause it made all 5 position useful to me.

I bypassed the tone control on the middle pup. This was not a major deal to some but to me it really helped open up the deadness of the middle pup.
Just a thought.

the real answer to bad middle pickups:

😉 such a lovely clean sound

foxyloxy

lace look mad as well.

JaguarOW

foxyloxy said: lace look mad as well.

would look even more mad inbetween two strat pups 😲

foxyloxy

nah, you need the set.

how much are they, it could be cool to chuck in my stang bridge.

JaguarOW

foxyloxy said: nah, you need the set.
how much are they, it could be cool to chuck in my stang bridge.

last time i looked they were around the same price as duncans, for bridge position get a blue, omg the sound is awesome

yeah here theyre around

JaguarOW

just found the shop i got mine from, they ship worldwide

http://creamcitymusic.com/p-21838-4100-lace-sensor-blue-wwhite-cover.aspx