Blue's build

ocguy106

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Well I need some advice. My dad's 55 b-day came and gone and I was to busy to get this build going so now it is going to be a x-mas gift. I am ready to order but need some advice. He currently plays an american strat that I got for him fathers day in 98' I say this because it is his favorite (playing guitar) he has ever owned and I would like to know if any one may know what kind of neck radius this may be. It isn't any special series or any thing just a american std made in 98' pewter grey with ebony (dark wood) neck. I would like to get a neck with the same radius and frets if anyone has any thoughts on that.
As for playing style..like the title says Blues. I want to build him the ultimate blues machine. His playing style is a mix of Jazz and Blues. Think Larry Carlton, Robben Ford very clean melodic tones. Sometimes he will venture over to the SRV side of things as well but always with his own twist so kinda hard to quantify. He plays through a Fender tube (I think hot rod delux) with a over drive pedal and that is about it.

Now for the build:

It will be a semi hollow strat with an f-hole quilt top with a hardtail....What kind of body wood?

P-up's Probably the most important decision I will have to make. I haven't a clue but I would like somthing that can sustain and and sound very melodic. he hangs out down past the octive for the most part so I need it to reproduce the highs (very warm) not tin like. I picture a warm chorus like full rounded sound.

Neck:  again this is huge since he loves his current guitar so much. I to, have a american std from the same time frame with a maple neck and he doesn't like how it plays. Over the past 10 years any guitar he picks up be it 10 dollars or 10,000 the first thing he always say is he likes his better.  When I bought his other guitar I first picked the color then pulled down about 6 or 7 of them (guitar center) and played them all an picked the one I though played best. I guess it worked cause he loves it. I need to try and reproduce the felling of this neck as close as possible.

This is going to be a very special guitar for me to build and I know for sure he will love it.
It would be the ultimate testament to Warmoth if I can get him to retire his current guitar.

Thank you for any suggestions




 
This may answer your question on the fretboard radius...

http://www.stratcollector.com/newsdesk/archives/000204.html

As frr pickups, I'm a big fan of good old Fender Custom Shop 69's. Not too much, not too little, just right (for me at least).

Warmoth has made me a Black Korina fanatic as far as body woods go.

Rich
 
Jack-the-hack has always said nice things about hollow Alder, I believe with it would be more "traditional".
The another "top of mind" is the Black Korina, for sure!

Neck I believe a raw wood would make difference... it's very nice to play, I think.
I usually think in Gibson-kind of sound to me, so I don't got that expertise in Strats (that's why I'm going slow motion)...
Perhaps a Wenge/Ebony or Canary/Rosewood, all Rosewood... Warmoth have really a big variety (which means sometimes hard to pick only ONE thing)

Does your dad like things *fancy* or simple??
 
When you say blues.... there are blues and there are yet again blues.....

May I respectfully suggest a Tele shape, to be different - get it hollow (tummy cut, forearm cut) with f/hole.  Make it ash, it'll sing.  I say that, since the Tele shape with f/hole is a more traditional thing, plus he has a Strat already, so you can give him some "alternative".

May I also humbly suggest you dont try to get too close to what he has, in terms of tone and playing.  He's gonna love it, don't worry.  Me, I'm stuck on the P90/HB combo (jury is out on the Fat Bastard).  I'm a blues player, hate too krispy a tone on a guitar.  That is, I hardly ever use the Strat bridge pickup.  Its neck, or neck middle... maybe bridge middle.  I can handle the BB#3 or even #2 as being acceptable.  The #2 is ok in a hollow body... maybe too bright on a solid.  Its just damned hard to beat a P90 in the neck.

Neck... mahogany w/rosewood or ebony.  Winning combination.  No surprises, and guaranteed great tone.

Get it bound, front and back.

Do some diamond inlays.

I think you'd want a 9 or 10 inch radius - but a Warmoth Radius might be "just the ticket"

Standard thin should do ok to match the Fender neck profile... unless its a reissue of some sort, they pretty much have been having a thin neck.

 
Sounds good thank you.

CB I definatly hear what you are saying about the Tele but the thinline has been done over and over. I have never personaly seen a hollow body strat with an f-hole so for me that is very different. All of your other suggestions will deffinatly be considered.

Also this will be a rear route will that make any differance as far as tone goes or limit and P-up choices.
 
ocguy106 said:
Sounds good thank you.

CB I definatly hear what you are saying about the Tele but the thinline has been done over and over. I have never personaly seen a hollow body strat with an f-hole so for me that is very different. All of your other suggestions will deffinatly be considered.

Also this will be a rear route will that make any differance as far as tone goes or limit and P-up choices.

Have a look in the strat gallery of this board for my flamed bubinga/swamp ash hollow strat. (can't figure out the link myself, I'm a bit of a dork) it's top routed but it has an f hole. Top or rear routed hollow bodies should sound about the same IMHO. Pickup routes likewise, although my strat ended up having a s/c middle route I didn't specify because it was the "default" CNC setup. I believe I could have had it without this middle channel but I didn't know. If you stay with a rear routed body this "default" doesn't apply.
You're doing a great thing for your Dad......Good on Ya !!!
 
Ok, I see ya point.

Pickups... three P90's and dont look back!

Then right after that, let me adopt you.......
 
I usually don't like strats with F-hole...(Sorry Willyk)
It matches way better in a Tele!
Here's the pic:
bill_keaveny.jpg
 
ocguy  wow!, you mentioned larry carlton and roben ford, I just saw them 2 months ago, I had never even heard of these guys before, my bad.

These guys were awesome and inspiring, I really like roben the most as he had a more SRV sound feel and style.  I recently built a warmoth guitar for a friend who supplied me with all the parts, including VanZant pickups. I cant stress enough how impressive these pickups sound, and I wind my own pickups too, so I know how it all works

Stevie Ray Vaughn used these same pickups I am told, I have never heard a better single coil pickup. the ones I installed were in the middle and neck only, he (my buddy) chose a SD JB junior for the bridge. He is now getting a bridge VanZant as the 2 existing ones made the humbucker look bad, now the entire pickup selection will sound great.

I also think your dad would love a tele as CB stated, every Strat lover like me, wants a tele too.....
 
I hate to sound wrongfully critical, but why try to replace the guitar he says is the best?
Personally, if anything, I'd try to mod that one to make it as absolutely flawless in his eyes/hands/ears, like the body, p/ups. And maybe build him a backup that isn't so flashy.
The most positive thing I could say is make sure you do what would suit him.

And build 20 more for yourself to give Warmoth mo' business!
 
Use alder for the body wood... If you are going to do the finishing yourself, using quilt on korina can be very challenging or you're planning on doing a dye job unless you intend to stick to the darker end of the color spectrum. Any way, if he's in his 50's, blues-playing, Fender tube amp playing like a few of the denizens here, alder should work fine.

As to the neck, you'd want a std. thin, 9.5 radius with 6105 frets, hard to decipher what he has know from your verbiage: "with ebony (dark wood) neck"; unaware that ebony was available on an American Std., probably just a maple neck with a dark rosewood fretboard? Try a flame or birdseye neck with a figured rosewood or kingwood board.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the f-hole on a top route Strat, don't need one on the hollow chambered body for any reason other than the aesthetic...

PUs? Probably nothing real "hot"; Febder Custom Shop '69s or SRVs or Lace Sensors Silver.

I've done the exact same thing on more than one occasion, i.e., played every Strat in a store, typically never wound up picking out the most expensive one. Don't know that it's exactlt about feel, probably more about the fact that the average wood used on stock Fenders isn't all that great, but if you play a number of them all lined up in a row in the store, the wood in one or two of them will stand out in terms of sound/sustain. The AVERAGE piece of wood you get from Warmoth will be of much higher quality than anything you're going to find in a store stamped "Fender"...
 
Tweed said:
I hate to sound wrongfully critical, but why try to replace the guitar he says is the best?
Personally, if anything, I'd try to mod that one to make it as absolutely flawless in his eyes/hands/ears, like the body, p/ups. And maybe build him a backup that isn't so flashy.
The most positive thing I could say is make sure you do what would suit him.

And build 20 more for yourself to give Warmoth mo' business!

I agree.  If anything I would get him an ES-335 type guitar for some excellent blues tones.
 
Oh BTW I have probably the exact guitar your father plays; I have a 1996 American Std Inca Silver Stratocaster w/Rosewood fingerboard.  I also have a Warmoth with the Standard Thin neck profile and compound radius fretboard.  While the neck profiles are similar, they aren't exact.  I don't think Warmoth makes a neck profile that would be exactly the Strat's neck profile (the strat neck is really thin, particularly at the nut).  Radius on the strat is 9.5 inches I believe.  I did replace the pickups with fralin vintage hots which are excellent sounding for just about anything.
 
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