First Partscaster

jd0272

jimification;742995" said:

Lots of good comments already but I’ll add my two penneths…









I actually finally built up my own strat a couple of weeks ago (maple neck,

sonic blue, mint green pickguard, EJ pickups, Callaham trem etc.) I had considered

maybe a Fender CS and some other nice options but in the end decided that I

really wanted to put something together and paint it myself. I didn't skimp on

anything and just specced everything I thought would make me the nicest

sounding & playing guitar. Here’s some notes that might help from what I

think I did right / wrong:-



 



Thing I did right:







-         

Neck: I wanted the best made neck I could get

and my research led me to USACG. Tommy there was amazingly helpful and the neck

they made to my exact specs (quartersawn maple, lowered peghead face, '54 soft

v to a c profile, 6105 frets, 12" radius, rolled edges) is the nicest I’ve

ever played.



-         

Shelling out for decent hardware: Callaham trem,

Gotoh vintage staggered tuners, EJ pickups. It’s hard to pinpoint one thing but

the guitar overall sounds fantastic and has the right tonal character that I wanted

from each of the 5 positions. (this is one of the obvious downsides of DIY –

you never quite know how those parts are going to combine)



-         

Setup: I didn’t trust myself with the critical

stage, so gave the thing to Henk Philipsen in Horsham to fit the neck to the

body and fit a tusq nut. The neck pocket in the body wasn’t deep enough and he

had to rout the body to get it to sit lower and correct the neck angle. That

all looked pretty tricky to me and he did an outstanding job with it.



-         

Painted it in nitro…time will tell how it wears

but I have to say I’m really disappointed with how my poly finished 1987 ’68 reissue

has worn in over 25 years of playing and wouldn’t buy another poly-finished guitar

as a “keeper”.



 



Things I did wrong:







-         

Body: - The single biggest mistake I made was

starting with a nice looking, lightweight alder body I couldn't resist on Ebay.

It worked out fine after some tweaking (thanks Henk!) but that fitting is so

critical that I would definitely get the body matched from the same place as

the neck next time.



-         

Spraying the nitro went fine but in sanding it I

went through it in a few spots and so had to buy more paint and respray: clear

coat, vintage tint, under coat and 2 tins of sonic blue, all at £15 per can

that added up. The nitro took ages to dry, too.



-         

Didn’t quite get the tinted laquer right on the

neck - there is some spray “shadow” of it either side of each fret (though I’m

not sure how to avoid that)



-         

EJ Pickups: I love the sound of them but the B

and E string pole pieces are very low and those strings are noticeably quieter

as a result.  I’m considering tapping the

pole pieces gently with a Birmingham screwdriver but it sounds like that is

somewhat risky…



 Good luck! Would be pleased to read how you get

on. A surf green tele is next up for me…

Pics dude.

shaunyshaun1234

So, kit ordered and is currently being "wudtoned".

I will update with a few pics later!

Rhoadhouse_Music

Shop around, and don't be afraid to buy from the Far East - every Brand Name does...

Finishing is the most time consuming part of any build, and the easiest to get wrong.

P - A - T - I - E - N - C - E is most definitely a virtue; I spend literally hundreds of hours sanding and polishing, spraying, flatting back, spraying, repeat ad infinitum, even on a Relic...

That's why I have over two dozen builds running side by side! B-)

FWIW: When writing out your wish list, don't forget the law of diminishing returns; there are some good British companies knocking out some cracking hardware (Axesrus to name but one...).