Being a mad fan of the 90s, 00s punk rock genre, the Delong and Billy Joe specials by Fender and Gibson have really caught my attention.
I was going to buy one but watching the reviews / history of Tom’s first fender and Billy Joes “Blue” I kinda felt like spending few thousand on a guitar with a single humbucker and volume knob that replicates a guitar that each of the owners made themselves to be minimal, easy to play punk on and just fkn cool was not punk rock!!!
I have a basic squire strat (my first guitar) so I’ve decided I’m gunna build my own Delong special.
I’ve bought all the bits from Amazon, got a cheaper version of an Invader humbucker, and it’ll all arrive in two weeks.
Took the old one to bits today and was pleasantly surprised that the body already had routing to accommodate a bridge humbucker despite having originally been a SSS configuration.
Pics of the starting point and strip down are below. I’ll post updates as I go.
At the moment it has real basic tuners, any thoughts on replacing these for locking tuners? Worth the effort?
Has a plastic nut currently, same question?
This will be my first attempt at really doi my anything other than a very basic setup.
If it works, don’t fix it. All my guitars stay in tune nicely even after a lot of bending. Never understood why some people are changing those almost by default.
I’ve haven’t done major mods like this but I decked the bridge when I had a strat. Still had enough movement in it to go out of tune easier than my hard tail Tele.
Locking tuners are for fast string changes rather than holding tune better, not sure if that would be a worthwhile upgrade, I’ve never felt the need.
Totally agree. I’ve had them one one guitar, and it made string changes a bit quicker, but come on - how often are you really changing strings? Personally I find the Fender vintage style tuners (with the vertical hole going down the centre of the shaft) make string changes super quick and easy without the additional complexity and weight, they are my tuner of choice. Also looks neater and you don’t have sharp string ends poking about. I think Fender got this right early on and people should stop trying to fix what ain’t broke
The great thing about Strats is that you can upgrade bits as you go along. Mine are all Frankensteins and I still have my original hardtail Squier neck on one. The body of that is now used for spray paint practice. Proper Fender 50/60’s reissues are not routed for humbuckers in case anyone wants to know.
@jkahn when you modded your bridge did you add extra springs? All the advice I’m seeing is to use 5 springs instead of 3(std) then max out the tension.
I also noticed there are some high strength springs you can buy too.
The YouTube vid I was watching couldn’t get a wiggle out of it after moving to 5 and torquing it all up.
You can add springs but you can also just screw the trem arm down with the six front screws or two in some cases, if you want it back just undo and re-set. tuners yea I agree with Paul Fender with the whole nice safe and tidy cheers HEC
I put in 5 strings too (except on my Strat with a floating bridge which has 3). If you’re really desperate, you can screw the bridge down solid and, I believe Clapton did this on Blackie, you can put a block of wood inside to block it off. But as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, some Strats do not take kindly to being blocked off. It can affect sustain and depends on the body. And I mean this is unplugged where you can tell. Lest not forget there is a large cavity in the body full of springs attached to the bridge that could well act like a spring reverb and is part of the Strat vibe.
I wouldn’t bother, it’s too much of a faff, I tried a Telecaster bridge but they just don’t fit right. What I did was put the maximum on the trem springs and measured the gap between the trem block and the body and made a hardwood block that was just too tight to get in. I then loosened the springs, dropped the block in and then tightened the 6 screws on the bridge right in and reset the string height and checked the intonation. You might need some longer grub screws to raise the string height enough, depending on which Squier series you have.
Part of the reason why Blackie had a mid boost circuit, I’ve done that mod and haven’t had any issues with it, a lot depends on what you’re going to be playing, in this case it’s mostly high gain so it really doesn’t matter if there is a problem!
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