First Build Black Strat

[Jumble Jumble]

Well, looks like someone's been using those heavy parcels to do squats and deadlifts.

Without wanting to derail the thread too much:

That's some tasty playing Jumble jumble  :icon_thumright:

Nice job! The tonal shifts are subtle, but effective. Very tasteful.

Thanks guys.

Great video - I liked the way you worked each sound in.  Could you have used a single stereo jack or would the common ground be a problem?

You need all the contacts on a stereo jack to switch in the battery. Common ground isn't a problem with this setup. I could have used a stereo jack if I had a separate switch for the battery, or if I could find a stereo jack that also had a switch in it (it seems this does at least exist). But I still would have had to split the stereo jack to two guitar cables, and given that it was just an experiment I went with the easy option: two volume controls, two jacks, with a three-way switch that selectively mutes the two jacks.

 

[guitartom]

I have an Ibanez Montage that has a mixed output jack.  It turns the battery on when the plug is in and allows mixing the passive pickup with the active acoustic pickup.  It's a stereo jack that allows the y cables to go to two amps (or an amp and the board for the acoustic).

 

[drewski]

ok hugging the UPS guy is off...don't want it to get weird....unless UPS worker looks like what Updown posted then all bets are off.

Jumble that was some sweet playing you had there now that I got a chance to listen on a PC with real speakers.....I like the setup you have there.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

Thank you, guess I was on a good day that day.

Really looking forward to seeing the next stage. Come on UPS guy!

Oh and if you do get the delivery person pictured, get a selfie with her.

 

[drewski]

the neck made it!!!!  :hello2:

Vintage Modern maple strat. 22 fret. 9.5 inch radius. 1 11/16th nut width. Black TUSQ XL nut. Vintage Tint satin finish. Standard thin contour. 6150 frets.

My last strat I had built for me. Not knowing nothing from anything I bought a Highway One strat neck on ebay. really liked the jumbo frets, satin finish. So I did my best to copy the specs. Neck looks good. Looked good when I seated it. I really like the look of the vintage tint on the maple.  Pic came out awful and I put everything away. Ill have to take some real photos with my Canon when everything is finished. Maybe this weekend?

 

[drewski]

Merry Christmas gang I got some photos.....

Heres the neck with 22 finish free (relatively) frets.....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drucinski/11555460974/

I believe I am going to need to work on the ends of these frets a little. Any tips appreciated. I guess ill be ordering a fret-dressing file. (helpless plea for tips here) I'm not sure if I am going to assemble so I can at least hear the electronics and then work on the frets ends a little or get the fret ends rolled in a little bit then put her together.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drucinski/11555564503

and finally here is the neck seated in the pocket just for "lets see how it looks" happy with the vint tint on the neck.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drucinski/11555564266

 

[Cagey]

That's gonna be a sweet guitar!

Here's a whole thread on filing fret ends and the tools you might want if you were to do it yourself.

 

[drewski]

thanks cagey. I will try to do the ends myself (do or do not....there is no try)

the 3m cloths.....seems like after the job is done I can polish up the whole fret (x22) with them? do they remove a lot of material?

any low adhesion tape will do? I think I have some of the 3m blue stuff laying around....if not....

im not sure if I will attempt a fret level myself if one is needed. From what I can tell so far it seems ok. I guess I wont be sure until I string it up though.....

 

[Cagey]

the 3m cloths.....seems like after the job is done I can polish up the whole fret (x22) with them? do they remove a lot of material?

In the lower grits, like the green and gray sheets, they'll do some cutting as they're equivalent to a 400 and 600 grit paper, respectively. Past that, they're really polishing papers so they don't remove much at all. The equivalencies are:

Green = 400
Gray = 600
Blue = 1200
Pink = 4000
Aqua = 6000
White = 8000

any low adhesion tape will do? I think I have some of the 3m blue stuff laying around....if not....

That's mainly what I use.

 

[drewski]

orders in for StewMac for all that stuff. Will give it a whirl. Also grabbed some feeler gauges from Amazon for less than 10 bucks....sorry Stewie.....cant spend 30 bucks in freakin feeler gauges. 

 

[drewski]

And the package has arrived....so I did work on the fret ends today.

taping up the neck....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drucinski/11606686505/

I found it hard to take photos of what I was doing. I just wanted to barley file off the top edge of the fret where it was cut. This probably shows it the best.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drucinski/11606919683/

The 3m polishing cloths were incredible. Again, hard to take pictures with my phone but all I can say is OOOH shiny.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drucinski/11607452876/

I hit each fret with each color paper. Green Gray Blue Pink. They really came out nice. The fret edges feel a lot better. I really was careful not to remove too much material. Time will tell when I finally get her assembled.

 

[Cagey]

Good for you! I'm glad that worked out.

 

[drewski]

So far all so good. Don't know what took me so long to try a build myself.  :dontknow:

 

[Cagey]

Just wait. You won't be done with this one for a month before you start watching The Showcase on the Warmoth site, eBay, Craig's List, the buy/sell/trade folders on the music forums, etc. looking for parts to build your next one. It's addicting.

 

[drewski]

oh I already want a tele too  :icon_thumright:

 

[Cagey]

Warmoth Teles are the best. I never thought I'd want one until I saw the first one from them. It was another member's fiddle here to undergo my tender ministrations, and I fell in love with the thing. Now I've got 4 of them, and am thinking of maybe doing a fifth along the lines of the L5S in my sig. Probably gonna have to get rid of one or two I've already got before I do, though.

 

[drewski]

is there a build thread for that l5s of yours its a really sweet guitar

 

[Cagey]

is there a build thread for that l5s of yours its a really sweet guitar

Thanks! And yes, it's one of the more thorough build threads I've posted here.

 

[drewski]

sweet I was looking for more reading material. The green finish kind of reminds me of Bonos "im gonna stand there and strum" green Gretch.

 

[Cagey]

It does look more like a Gretsch Duo Jet than an L5S, but with better [everything]. I wanna do it again, but not with an L5S. Weird-shaped body means you can't get a bloody case for the thing without spending $500.