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

DrBob

I am verrrrry much loving this guitar 

paulnb57

Wired the reverse Strat up today, Jimmy Vaughan wiring front tone to neck pickup, back tone to bridge pickup, middle, no tone...
String it up and a, the nut is cut too low and b, I’d forgotten I’d reliced the tuners, so they will have to go...
Nut and tuners on order (sods law they are left handers, Ive got shitloads of right handers!)

Knobs should come today.

It needs a good setup, no point until new nut arrives, but, it’s getting there!

TTony

Looking good!

Could you put a shim under the nut?  Although, for the cost, probably just as easy to put a new one on.

You've got some much nicer tuners than those old things too

paulnb57

TTony said:

Looking good!

Could you put a shim under the nut?  Although, for the cost, probably just as easy to put a new one on.

You've got some much nicer tuners than those old things too

Just realised the tuners and nut are still in the cart so I haven't bought them yet, baking powder and superglue would sort the nut and those mad Steinberger tuners would work......costs nowt to give it a go!....

paulnb57

Hold the front page! Just found another left handed neck with locking tuners! So that’s tuners sorted!
I amaze myself at the amount of parts I have (and have forgotten I have!)
Trouble is I now have a 5th unfinished project to add to the list...photo later....

NPP

maybe the trick is to sell off the parts before you actually use them, that way you'd find it easier to part with them? 

That said, what you do with them looks very good!

I shimmed the nut on my Strat with a strip of plastic cut from an old discount card as a temporary measure. Two years ago. Ahem ...

paulnb57

NPP said:

maybe the trick is to sell off the parts before you actually use them, that way you'd find it easier to part with them? 
I

Thats not a bad idea! I

paulnb57

So, I changed the tuners over and while looking for something else found a bone nut, so fitted that. Swapped out the Wilky trem (that was a bit rusty) for one from a MIM - much nicer!
Then set neck relief, fettled the nut slots, set the intonation and action, plugged the joker in....its quite bright with plenty of Strat clank, I dislike the bridge pickup intensely, so that will have to go, and the neck and middle are nothing to shout about, so next string change will probably see them swapped out....pickup selector switch is a bit imprecise too, so that will go at the same time....
Its an incredibly light piece of Swamp Ash......now I’m waiting for the other two bodies to be painted, then the madness starts again!

PhilKing

Nice, when I did mine, I kept the body right handed, just for ease of playing.  I have reverse stagger magnets on the BK Irish Tours though.  I put left handed Sperzel's on it (I had a gold set, so used them).

paulnb57

PhilKing said:

Nice, when I did mine, I kept the body right handed, just for ease of playing.  I have reverse stagger magnets on the BK Irish Tours though.  I put left handed Sperzel's on it (I had a gold set, so used them).

Nice!

TTony

My brain is saying "that's all wrong" ... but i still like it!!

What did you dislike (intensely) about the bridge p'up?

paulnb57

TTony said:

What did you dislike (intensely) about the bridge p'up?

It is trebly harsh and awful!
I was expecting some fatness - Ill try a Sinner!

TTony

paulnb57 said:

TTony said:

What did you dislike (intensely) about the bridge p'up?

It is trebly harsh and awful!
I was expecting some fatness - Ill try a Sinner!

Could it the the pots  or some other aspect of the wiring (capacitor)?

I'd have thought that would have been reasonably grunty.  I'd thought about trying something like that myself in a past build, so I'm curious!

paulnb57

TTony said:

paulnb57 said:

TTony said:

What did you dislike (intensely) about the bridge p'up?

It is trebly harsh and awful!
I was expecting some fatness - Ill try a Sinner!

Could it the the pots  or some other aspect of the wiring (capacitor)?

I'd have thought that would have been reasonably grunty.  I'd thought about trying something like that myself in a past build, so I'm curious!

It did occur to me that there. might be a wiring issue, so Ill pop the neck off and have a butchers
In the bridge and middle position there is a volume drop and it goes thin and trebly, needs some investigation...

250k pots .022 cap...

In this case its a JB Jr
I have a Lil 59 in a Tele and love it, grunty, fat, middly....

Andyjr1515

Looks absolutely splendid!

paulnb57

Today the neck arrived from STRATOSPHERE in the US for my White Blonde Strat project....so it got unwrapped, checked, masked and a coat of clear Nitro on the face of the headstock, ready for decal application tomorrow.....
”But it’s a Tele neck!” I hear you exclaim..or not..yep, Tele neck on a Strat body....neck pocket is Tele size
Rosewood neck with a Rosewood board, vintage narrow/tall frets, .960 at the nut and 1.00 at the twelfth...chunky and sublime, I love a Rosewood neck!
Once the decal is done and sealed under Nitro, the rest will get a sealer coat of Tru Oil....

poopot

TTony said:

(And I know what you mean about the lack of commenting - seems like the forum has become a lot less participative.  I might name one of my guitars "Chappers" because that always seems to prompt comments ...)

Sorry to highjack the thread...

a lot less participative? Really? Based on a lack of anyone organising a challenge?

PeteC

Another Rosewood neck!!!....please stop fellas.....you're going to push me into buying one.....
Looks great @paulnb57 ;

paulnb57

PeteC said:

Another Rosewood neck!!!....please stop fellas.....you're going to push me into buying one.....
Looks great @paulnb57 ;

Do it they are sublime!

TTony

paulnb57 said:

Today the neck arrived from STRATOSPHERE in the US for my White Blonde Strat project....so it got unwrapped, checked, masked and a coat of clear Nitro on the face of the headstock, ready for decal application tomorrow.....
”But it’s a Tele neck!” I hear you exclaim..or not..yep, Tele neck on a Strat body....neck pocket is Tele size
Rosewood neck with a Rosewood board, vintage narrow/tall frets, .960 at the nut and 1.00 at the twelfth...chunky and sublime, I love a Rosewood neck!
Once the decal is done and sealed under Nitro, the rest will get a sealer coat of Tru Oil....

Ahhhhh ... Rosewood necks ...


A wise investment for any build, I love the feel, the look,  and the "I've done this properly" statement!!  

I only vaguely remember what my Warmoth RW neck cost - and that was a few years ago when exchange rates were friendlier - but it turned an otherwise simple Tele self-build into a great guitar which is still one of my favourites.

On the end of a white blonde Strat ... looking forward to seeing this one