agile 50's strat project

[mayfly]

ok, more stuff to report:  Got the neck in

Yes, I'm a bad person.

Had to do a lot of work on the neck pocket to get it to fit.

While doing that i discovered a - horrors - a crack in the neck pocket.  a bunch of crazy glue yielded the worst looking repair ever  :headbang:

More later

 

[Tonar8352]

Trevor I know someone who could do a real nice sunburst Strat for you.  :laughing7:

 

[mayfly]

Trevor I know someone who could do a real nice sunburst Strat for you.  :laughing7:

I think we should put yours and mine side by side when everything's done  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[mayfly]

Hokay - more stuff:

The Agile body only had one bolt hole drilled in it.  I used the Dangerous Dan method of locating the holes.  First cut some #6 wood screws, and thread them into the neck:

Then press the neck into the pocket, causing indents exactly where the holes should be.  Turns out that the one and only hole drilled in the body was in slightly the wrong place:

Once the locations were marked, it was quick work on a drill press.  With this body I was not really concerned about the press base leaving a mark on the back  :icon_biggrin:

Holes all drilled.  Did my best with the one that was not in the right place:

Letting the body rest on a 'soft' bed of concrete while I work on the neck:

More later

 

[mayfly]

Allright, time to work on the neck a bit.

Installed the vintage style tuners:  Just used a pilot hole and wax on the threads and they went right in.  I honestly have no idea why some folks have trouble with the screws on these:

Turns out that I didn't get that one screw hole (you know - the one that was drilled for me by the factory) in exactly the right place.  I just hogged it out later with a hand drill  :evil4:

Not looking to bad - but I was a bit concerned to see how the strings would line up:

Well they line up just fine, thank you very much:

From this point a quick action set, nut setup, intonation and I had a very playable guitar!  For those looking to use an Agile body, they do work just fine.  The only thing that I had to do was sand the neck pocket and drill the holes.  If I were to do it all over again, I would have filled that one hole that was drilled at the factory and then re-drilled it.  That would have made the whole thing just that little bit better:

It makes nice office ornament:

I'm already getting comments about it being an old guitar:  "you finally finished that old thing?"  :headbang:


Edit - my pictures are screwed up - hold on until I fix them....

 

[Corey P.]

This thread is a riot, and that's a surprisingly strong result!  You could actually play that guitar out without embarrassment and probably get someone unwitting to have some vintage lust for it.

 

[mayfly]

Yep - actually the guitar sounds great - both acoustically and electrically.  Neither the agile body or the neck pocket crack seemed to have an adverse affect on the tone.  Course, I've got Lollar pickups in there which are very very good sounding - so that helps.  And the neck is of course fantastic.

I'm very pleased with how it all went.  And it's nice to have a guitar around that you're not worried about scratching  ccasion14:

 

[CrackedPepper]

It makes nice office ornament:

I'm already getting comments about it being an old guitar:  "you finally finished that old thing?"  :headbang:


Edit - my pictures are screwed up - hold on until I fix them....

Nice work - it really turned out pretty cool.  So, what is the story with what appears to be a guitar all covered in tape?

 

[mayfly]

So, what is the story with what appears to be a guitar all covered in tape?

Long story - in the company that I work for there is a tradition to, er, 'decorate' the offices / cubes of people who go to the big trade show (NAB).  One year I came back to find a home-made "hello Kitty" stat made out of cardboard, tape, and foam with about 100 yards of string attached to everything.  There was a note that said something like "we had trouble stringing the new guitar".  I kept the hello kitty 'strat', which you see part of in the photo.

This year I returned to find my office filled - floor to ceiling - with balloons with a sign on the door saying "warning - contents under pressure". I had two garbage bags filled with balloon rubber when I was done popping.  I have no idea how they got them all in there.  Course, that was not the worst - one of my buddies had a bathroom installed in his office - complete with a working shower, rust stained sink and an old gross toilet that had water - and a Hershey bar - in the bowl.  :evil4:

 

[bagman67]

I've got Lollar pickups in there which are very very good sounding - so that helps.  And the neck is of course fantastic.

My experience:

Crappy pickups into a crappy amp = the first five years of my life playing electric guitar, and I apologize without reservation to all who stood downwind of the stink.

Crappy pickups into a good amp = usually good tone, irrespective of the guitar the pickups are mounted to.

Good pickups into a crappy amp = usually crappy tone, irrespective of the guitar the pickups are mounted to.

Good pickups into a good amp = look out, biznitches, it's gonna get hairy!

The effect of the lumber on the overall sound is generally the least of all the various components involved (in my experience, not asserting a Universal Truth here or nothin').  So I'm blaming your happy experience primarily on your Kinmans, Mayfly (and I hear you know your way around an amp and/or amp modeler, so that may have something to do with it, too).

Peace

Bagman