custom strat - advice?

[taypeng]

Hi MLF friends!

hope its ok to post this on the forum. I'm thinking of putting together my own strat in the coming months. (yup decadence and sacrilege.. i miss playing the old strat i sold )

I've got some basic idea of what kind of strat i want. Its gonna be alder or ash for the body. 3-tone sunburst. S-S-S pickups. Rosewood fretboard (i just prefer the color of rw to maple). hope i can find a really slim neck to fit my chubby hands.

But i still have these questions in my head:

1. I've seen strat bodies that are routed simply like a big rectangle to fit all configurations. Does the routing have any effect on the tone?

2. Are there differing types/quality of alder? I've played some alder-body guitar that were different in weight (same size of course). Does that have any bearing on the tone?

3. my ideal tone would be SRV on the neck and bridge, and vintage chime in the middle. (is that possible to achieve?) What pickups should i get?

Hope you could share with me your opinions and experiences or any other factors i should consider. Hope this thread makes for good discussion too.

btw Happy holidays everyone

 

[Roman]

Hi MLF friends!

hope its ok to post this on the forum. I'm thinking of putting together my own strat in the coming months. (yup decadence and sacrilege.. i miss playing the old strat i sold )

I've got some basic idea of what kind of strat i want. Its gonna be alder or ash for the body. 3-tone sunburst. S-S-S pickups. Rosewood fretboard (i just prefer the color of rw to maple). hope i can find a really slim neck to fit my chubby hands.

But i still have these questions in my head:

1. I've seen strat bodies that are routed simply like a big rectangle to fit all configurations. Does the routing have any effect on the tone?

2. Are there differing types/quality of alder? I've played some alder-body guitar that were different in weight (same size of course). Does that have any bearing on the tone?

3. my ideal tone would be SRV on the neck and bridge, and vintage chime in the middle. (is that possible to achieve?) What pickups should i get?

Hope you could share with me your opinions and experiences or any other factors i should consider. Hope this thread makes for good discussion too.

btw Happy holidays everyone

The routing will lighten up the guitar and give you a bit more resonance.

The great part is that is makes it easy to experiment with different pickguards and pickup combinations. One day single coils the next humbuckers.

Just play around and have fun. The beauty of Strats is the modular design

cheers
Roman

 

[taypeng]

hi Roman!

Thanks for the heads up. its an honor to receive advice from an experienced builder!

How does the pickguard affect the tone. Is a thicker pickguard is more desirable than the thinner ones?

I don't quite understand resonance. Does a more resonant guitar improve the sustain?

Sorry for these noob questions...

 

[coldsteal2]

yea

 

[taypeng]

ok!

 

[ArchEtech]

Hi MLF friends!

hope its ok to post this on the forum. I'm thinking of putting together my own strat in the coming months. (yup decadence and sacrilege.. i miss playing the old strat i sold )

I've got some basic idea of what kind of strat i want. Its gonna be alder or ash for the body. 3-tone sunburst. S-S-S pickups. Rosewood fretboard (i just prefer the color of rw to maple). hope i can find a really slim neck to fit my chubby hands.

But i still have these questions in my head:

1. I've seen strat bodies that are routed simply like a big rectangle to fit all configurations. Does the routing have any effect on the tone?

2. Are there differing types/quality of alder? I've played some alder-body guitar that were different in weight (same size of course). Does that have any bearing on the tone?

3. my ideal tone would be SRV on the neck and bridge, and vintage chime in the middle. (is that possible to achieve?) What pickups should i get?

Hope you could share with me your opinions and experiences or any other factors i should consider. Hope this thread makes for good discussion too.

btw Happy holidays everyone

Buy a high quality neck and body of ebay. There are TONS and I mean TONS of sellers that have some high quality stuff. If you want the STV tone, get the Texas special pickups from fender. Problem solved.

Even fender USA bods are all over.

FENDER CUSTOM SHOP TEXAS SPECIAL STRAT PICKUPS NEW! - (eBay item 310009721000 end time Dec-28-07 08:28:23 PST)

Vintage 62 RI Fender Stratocaster Strat BODY Guitar - (eBay item 200185196840 end time Dec-27-07 19:38:01 PST)

NEW USA Custom Guitars Strat Neck Maple w/ Rosewood fb - (eBay item 150199007401 end time Jan-01-08 15:10:53 PST)

 

[AS90]

Buy an early 90s Squier for the neck, they are awesome. Look for serial numbers beginning with S9 or E. Stick it on a nice Warmoth nitro sprayed body and you are almost there.