SSS Strat Partscaster build diary

That is some beautiful wood on that neck. Good Luck!

Pick guard now wired up. I checked that it works and everything seems to be as it should. It’s pretty tight to get all those wires in the body cavity though.

2 Likes

Word

That wiring job looks tight.

:metal: :sunglasses:

Edit
Are you going to shield the cavity? Oh nevermind, I see the shielding in the first picture hell to the yeah!

So yesterday, I was finally able to work in a friend’s workshop with a drill press to put the bushings in the body for the 2 point tremolo and also the holes to mount the neck. Actually the most difficult thing was drilling holes for the spring claw for the tremolo.

It all worked out ok in the end, even though this part was a bit stressful.

Neck seems to be aligned ok.

2 Likes

Something about the cream body, the contrasting dark wood of the neck and the animal print pick guard. It is saying a storm coming through the edge of the desert where it meets the first muddy watering hole. The lighting is coming and the animals are running. Oh wait, I hear it already…

Its Prof Thunder :cloud_with_lightning_and_rain:

:grin:

2 Likes

My strat build is basically almost finished. I will do a separate NGD post on it when it’s fully complete and I have had time to take some professional quality photos. But here are some photos and description of the last part of the build after drilling holes for the neck and tremolo block.

What I did after that was:

  1. Shield the cavities with copper foil to prevent interference and reduce hum from external interference sources. This seems to have been quite successful. It seems very well shielded. Some people say it’s not necessary to do this but since I have noise on my telecaster after a pickup change (it’s not well shielded at all), I decided not to take any chances with this one and the copper foil is very cheap at Thomman in Germany. Photo below.

  2. Installed the tuners on the neck. These are Schaller non-locking. This step went very smoothly. Photo below.

  3. Installed a neck plate with a serial number. The serial number is also written inside the guitar pocket. Photo below.

  4. Couldn’t install the jack plate that I bought. It was too small and had to order a real Fender one (double the price, but fits!)

  5. Installed string trees. I put 2 on this one on strings 5 & 6 but also 3 & 4. I did this on my tele and it has great tuning stability, so I did it on the strat, even if it wasn’t needed.

It’s not complete which is why I haven’t posted a NGD post with proper professional quality pictures. But it’s now set up and plays really great and sounds lovely. I really couldn’t believe it when i plugged it in for the first time. I spent a lot of time levelling the frets and so I was able to get the action very low so it’s easy to play. Also after a couple of days (probably needed it for the neck to start settling in and the tremolo springs to stretch a bit) the tuning stability is very good. I heard bad things about strat tuning stability but mine seems pretty solid after 2 days.

Things still to do:

  • Screw down the pick guard
  • screw on the matching back plate (matches the pick guard)
  • install tremolo arm.

My wife got me a matching strap which is beautiful. (photo)

I also want to say a huge thanks to all the people who answered my questions and posted advice on this thread or my separate strat build-related posts. It’s a fantastic community we have and everyone was so helpful. Those who advised were:

@TheCluelessLuthier @RobDickinson @DeltaTyne @CATMAN62 @Ontime @DarrellW @sequences
@Lefteris @Wishbone71

Thanks, Ian

7 Likes

I love a tort pickguard! :heart_eyes:

2 Likes

That looks really good!

I love it when a plan come to order.

:star_struck:

2 Likes

Well done Ian, and now is the best time, you get to play it and it looks like you have made a very nice job of her so relax now and enjoy mate. Again well done cheers Hec happy new guitar :guitar:

1 Like

Oh Wow!!!
Sweeeeeet!!!
That is a really good lookin’ strat… the rosewood fingerboard is a beautiful contrast to the body’s color & really “pops”… love the pickguard with complementing strap!!!
Nice job Ian!
Have fun playing her now!

Tod

2 Likes

For a strat it looks ok! :slight_smile:

Gorgeous flame neck

2 Likes

Well funny you say that because I have two telecasters. I love teles and I wasn’t that interested in getting a Strat. But I thought it would be fun to build a guitar, and decided a 3rd tele would be a bit too much.

However, after this experience, which has been really positive, I’m now thinking of building a tele, but with a single coil bridge and a P90 in the neck. :grinning:

4 Likes

That sounds good! If you already have a SS tele why not a p90? They sound different enough and IMo are a much nicer looking guitar than most strats :wink:

1 Like

Maybe a Thinline with a P90?

2 Likes

Is that a kit or just a nice picture of a custom guitar? That is something I’d be interested in.

2 Likes

pretty sure warmoth do a tele body like that

thinline tele with spalted maple top and binding

3 Likes

That’s a great idea. Beautiful guitar.

2 Likes

I just posted a random pic of a P90 thinline from a Google image search.
Looking up where it came from points to this Reverb listing. It’s a Micheal Kelly 59 Thinline.

https://reverb.com/item/63310328-micheal-kelly59-thinline-electric-guitar-with-spalted-maple-finish-includes-p90-pickups-and-f-holes

EDIT: spalted maple top kits are a thing, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find one to your liking.

2 Likes

pretty good price, but the pictures of the goods don’t render for me. I need to go to an evil browser i guess.

1 Like

Huh, that’s not tort. I just clicked through on the pic and it’s rosettes, I really like that too!

Sorry about that

1 Like