Paulnb57 Q1’20 Challenge - Today mostly I have been assembling a StraTele!....

paulnb57

Ive spent a few days finessing a scratchplate design for number 4, the reverse Strat and have sent a scan to Tim at Scratch-it (Gig Ink) will prob go for plain white....oh and a reverse slant on the bridge pickup, which will be a  JB junior



In other news parts are all in for number two, the White Blond Strat.....



There is a gold hardtail bridge too which I forgot to include, possibly changed my mind about the neck too, like @TTony I have parts all over the place and found a Maple Allparts Vee Strat neck with a modded to Tele shape heel, that I’d forgotten about, headstock is black, so it will need a tickle with something to remove it, the joy is its finished in Tru Oil and I love the profile.....Ill decide when the body arrives....

DrBob

Loving the reverse Strat (but you knew that already !) and I know that this shouldn’t be what I’m taking away from this post but that bit where you reference the Allparts V Strat neck that you’ve modded to have a Tele heel. How would that work ? I get how you can go from a Teie heel to a Strat heel by rounding it off a little but to go the other way to fill a Tele neck pocket with a Strat neck wouldn’t you have to actually add wood ? 

paulnb57

DrBob said:

Loving the reverse Strat (but you knew that already !) and I know that this shouldn’t be what I’m taking away from this post but that bit where you reference the Allparts V Strat neck that you’ve modded to have a Tele heel. How would that work ? I get how you can go from a Teie heel to a Strat heel by rounding it off a little but to go the other way to fill a Tele neck pocket with a Strat neck wouldn’t you have to actually add wood ? 

DrBob said:

Loving the reverse Strat (but you knew that already !) and I know that this shouldn’t be what I’m taking away from this post but that bit where you reference the Allparts V Strat neck that you’ve modded to have a Tele heel. How would that work ? I get how you can go from a Teie heel to a Strat heel by rounding it off a little but to go the other way to fill a Tele neck pocket with a Strat neck wouldn’t you have to actually add wood ? 

Just flatten the curve so its straight, its only about 1mm and there is plenty of travel in the bridge saddles to intonate. I have one Tele neck that got modded to Strat then back to Tele, its still fine!

MattNovak

Great concept - just a small aesthetic point, would the lower horn on the scratchplate 'work' better if the gap between it and the body edge was consistent?   

paulnb57

MattNovak said:

Great concept - just a small aesthetic point, would the lower horn on the scratchplate 'work' better if the gap between it and the body edge was consistent?   

I did that Matt and I preferred it how it is now....
I got through a shit load of printer paper trying different designs...

Andyjr1515

It's going well

MattNovak

paulnb57 said:

MattNovak said:

Great concept - just a small aesthetic point, would the lower horn on the scratchplate 'work' better if the gap between it and the body edge was consistent?   

I did that Matt and I preferred it how it is now....
I got through a shit load of printer paper trying different designs...

Ha, I know - I once spent about 4 hours making a template out of card, then transferred it to 3 x a4 pages... cut it out and hated it.  

DrBob

paulnb57 said:

DrBob said:

Loving the reverse Strat (but you knew that already !) and I know that this shouldn’t be what I’m taking away from this post but that bit where you reference the Allparts V Strat neck that you’ve modded to have a Tele heel. How would that work ? I get how you can go from a Teie heel to a Strat heel by rounding it off a little but to go the other way to fill a Tele neck pocket with a Strat neck wouldn’t you have to actually add wood ? 

DrBob said:

Loving the reverse Strat (but you knew that already !) and I know that this shouldn’t be what I’m taking away from this post but that bit where you reference the Allparts V Strat neck that you’ve modded to have a Tele heel. How would that work ? I get how you can go from a Teie heel to a Strat heel by rounding it off a little but to go the other way to fill a Tele neck pocket with a Strat neck wouldn’t you have to actually add wood ? 

Just flatten the curve so its straight, its only about 1mm and there is plenty of travel in the bridge saddles to intonate. I have one Tele neck that got modded to Strat then back to Tele, its still fine!

You Maverick Mad Man ! Love it ! Am finding this and @TTony and indeed @Andyjr1515 ’s build threads hugely inspiring, keep it up chaps ! 

paulnb57

Ive been humming and haaing over the neck choice for the Mary Kaye inspired Stratele build and today bit the bullet and bought a Solid Rosewood WD Tele neck from across the pond...I love solid Rosewood, megabucks but this is a dreamcaster build, and you only live once!.....
In other news the custom scratchplate from Scratch-It should arrive today, so I hope make progress on the reverse Strat.....

paulnb57

Scratchplate arrived today from Tim at Scratch-It...so Ive fitted what Ive got, need switch tip, knobs, Trem mounting screws, output jack and a tickle with the soldering iron.....at last I’m happy with how it looks, bridge pickup is Duncan JB Jr, no idea what the middle and neck singles are, but they will get it going and might be ok...love the way the paint sinks into the (very lightweight) Ash.....Ruby Talulah had to lend a hand....

TTony

paulnb57 said:

...love the way the paint sinks into the (very lightweight) Ash.....

Me too.

I much prefer guitars where you can see and feel the wood that they're made of, rather than a load of paint that they've been suffocated in.  So that gets a from me.

Ddigger

That reverse Strat is messing with my heid.

Good job! 

paulnb57

Ddigger said:

That reverse Strat is messing with my heid.

I know!

Andyjr1515

Looking very good indeed!

paulnb57

Andyjr1515 said:

Looking very good indeed!

Thanks Andy!

Trem screws arrived today Knobs and Switch Tip are on order....

TTony

There doesn’t look like there’s much more to do?

You’ll be in with a chance of the finished-in-the-first-month prize.  





Except there isn’t a prize.

paulnb57

TTony said:

There doesn’t look like there’s much more to do?

You’ll be in with a chance of the finished-in-the-first-month prize.  





Except there isn’t a prize.

I’ll have two out of four finished in the first month, however the other two are at least another 6weeks away, due to paint....I now have everything in place to do the assemblage, except the bodies

TTony

I need to get off my fat wotsit and get on with mine!

To be fair, one is a day or two away, one is a week or two away, and I thought that the third was almost done ... until I realised what the problems were that caused me to put it aside before.

paulnb57

Half the joy for me once Ive decided on a look or style, is researching and sourcing parts, what fits with what, making mistakes and learning from them, taking chances and revelling in the results, or not, enjoying the finished result or storing the failures ready to be recycled into something else, when inspiration strikes, it might be a forgotten part, or a colour, or a part for sale on here, that  I like that sets me off on a build......hugely satisfying, frustrating and addictive. I have far too many guitars, but cant bear to part with them as most have so much of me in them...the majority are partscasters that have evolved into something to be proud of, from some flaky first attempts....

TTony

paulnb57 said:

 I have far too many guitars, but cant bear to part with them as most have so much of me in them...

You are not alone ....
!!!