My new "Parts-O-Caster" Blue Strat

[C Squared]

pretty close to what I had imagined. I've been wanting a decent blue strat for as long as I can remember. Actually, I Really want a midnight blue les paul, but I don't have the $$$$ Gibson wants for the few they sell, and I don't yet have the knowledge or experience to build one...yet.
Anyway

Body is a very light weight piece of Southern Swamp Ash, with a nice Flamed Maple top on it. I'm not kidding when I say light, the body only weighs 3 lbs, 6oz. Nice.


The Blue itself is a shade darker then what I though it was gonna be. It looks awesome in the sunlight, but if its sitting on a stand it almost looks black. Much more midnight blue then the royal blue I was shooting for.


The neck is a classic C shaped maple with rosewood board, 1 11/16 nut (which I'll have to recut, its a little off...) The cool thing is the neck was mounted without a neckplate. I used ferrules (ala Ibanez) instead. I still have some more shaping of the heel to do, but I recommend this to anyone who plays a strat and can't stand the giant heel getting in the way of fret access.


The bridge is a Wilkinson style vintage. I buggered it up a bit and missed one of the screw locations to the left a bit. The good thing is most people only use the two end screws for these, so functionally, it will be fine.




Also, I'll need to order a new pickguard. The last one I ordered (for the red strat) came with the control holes pre drilled and and I really didn't dig how they placed the top pot location so close to the pickup selector. So I tried a new vendor.
Nice pickguard, 'cept it really doesn't follow the body's contour all that well!!! WTF?!?! I haven't drilled any holes to mount it since I plan on shit canning it. I'll save it for mockups I guess So i won't be a total waste. Was set on using a black 3 ply, but did a mock with an old white one I had and now I'm not sure...


Right now its has a set of GFS Fat Pats in it, Volume has a push pull for coil split, tone has an orange drop. After I play it for a while I'll swap in some better pups.

Just strung it up, so have to give it a few days for the neck to settle before I can give it a full set up, but she sounds sweet and after the set up I'm sure will play awesome to.

[integra evan]

Nice! Where did you get the body from/what kind is it?

[C Squared]

thanks man. got the body of ebay, i think its a mighty mite, paid about $200. I've seen some ok stuff from mighty mite, also seen some dead wood as well. guy i bought from offered a return policy if I didn't like it as long as it was untouched. I was a little off when I opened the box and it was like almost black, but as soon as i picked it up and tapped on it a bit a figured it was a keeper. Total cost was around $400 for everything, but I had the pups already.

[integra evan]

cool. I'm eventually going to build my own strat.

[classic]

I've done it also recently ... isn't it a big fun assembling all the parts to a nice sounding Strat ???
Congrats on your deep blue one ... mine is a Daphne blue 'bathroom tile' ...

[C Squared]

Originally Posted by classic

I've done it also recently ... isn't it a big fun assembling all the parts to a nice sounding Strat ???
Congrats on your deep blue one ... mine is a Daphne blue 'bathroom tile' ...

i came close to one of those since I bid on a body a while back. Hell yeah it's fun and very rewarding. I'm still tweaking mine and shaping the heel a bit more. After that's done I'm gonna reshape the headstock just a bit, and then a set of DiMarzio's or WB's to compliment its tonal qualities.

Next one is gonna be greenburst with a padouk neck and ebony board.

[classic]

So you'll have to repaint it, right ... or do you like 'reliced' stuff ???
Mine will age gracefully ... no further job intended ...

[C Squared]

i taped off the back to where the neck plate would have gone and sanded away there first. (took it down about 1/4" to begin with) When its finally right where my hands like the transition best and the most comfortable I think I'm just gonna give it a coat of clear satin poly. May not end up being the prettiest thing ever, but it will be on the back (mostly unseen), and most important be very functional to its purpose.

[frankthomson]

thatlooks sweeeeeeeeeeeeet
dont like the white guard, tho.
like the black