Steve St.Laurent
Senior Member
- Messages
- 238
This guitar started as an idea 7 years ago. I ride as often as I can and I was looking for a guitar that I could carry on the bike easily yet still feel like a full sized guitar and give nothing away on tone. I was also completely spoiled by my Warmoth guitars that I really wanted the same great feel. I wasn't finding anything that met my requirements so I hatched this guitar (after a BUNCH of other designs that I scrapped at various stages). Health, fear, work, life, etc got in the way for a while there but I finally finished it up this year. If your interested here is the entire build thread: https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=21608.75
Basically this is a Telecaster except that I moved the tuners to the body, and chopped off the headstock and excess body past the tuners. I started with a body blank from Warmoth so I had the neck pocket, pickup and bridge routes done and all I had to do was shape it, route the control cavity and the area for the tuners. I also went with a 24 fret neck so made the cutaway below the neck deeper for easier access to the 24th fret. The sides are the same width and shape as a Tele. Full 25 1/2" scale length so it feels like my Tele as far as where everything sits while playing. I used Tele string through ferrules on the headstock and Steinberger tuners behind the bridge, so basically turned the strings around.
The door on the control cavity and the inlay where the tuner are located are Padouk to match the neck. This is only the 2nd guitar I've finished (the other I was finishing simultanously with this one but was a MUCH simpler finish) and the only dye/burst - there were a LOT of firsts on this one.
The pickups are HSH Lace Hot Gold Sensors. The wiring on the 5 way is:
1 - Bridge
2 - Bridge + Neck in series out of phase
3 - Bridge + Neck in series in phase
4 - Bridge & Neck in parallel
5 - Neck
The switch between the pots adds the middle single coil to whatever is selected on the 5 way. Tone is a TBX tone, and the volume is a push pull pot that splits both humbuckers.
It's very versatile and there's no way you can tell it's size by the sound. So happy with how it came out after so many years!
Here's the specs on the body blank and neck from Warmoth:
Body Blank:
Swamp Ash
25-1/2"
Right handed
Humbucker (Neck), Strat® (Middle), Humbucker (Brdg) - 24 fret reposition
Recessed TOM-Angled Strings (DO NOT ROUTE THE STRING HOLES – ONLY ROUTE THE RECESSED BRIDGE)
Strat® Shape neck pocket
Neck:
Warmoth Pro Stratocaster®
Padouk/Kingwood (unique choice)
Right Handed
1-11/16"
Standard thin
SS6105 (Stainless)
NO TUNER HOLES – BLANK HEADSTOCK
Bloody Basin Jasper Dots
Mother Of Pearl Side Dots
10-16" Compound
25-1/2"
24 fret
GraphTech Black TUSQ XL
Being that it's my design and I literally cut it out and shaped, it feels that much more like MY guitar - guarantee that there's not another one on the planet (at least right now).
Basically this is a Telecaster except that I moved the tuners to the body, and chopped off the headstock and excess body past the tuners. I started with a body blank from Warmoth so I had the neck pocket, pickup and bridge routes done and all I had to do was shape it, route the control cavity and the area for the tuners. I also went with a 24 fret neck so made the cutaway below the neck deeper for easier access to the 24th fret. The sides are the same width and shape as a Tele. Full 25 1/2" scale length so it feels like my Tele as far as where everything sits while playing. I used Tele string through ferrules on the headstock and Steinberger tuners behind the bridge, so basically turned the strings around.
The door on the control cavity and the inlay where the tuner are located are Padouk to match the neck. This is only the 2nd guitar I've finished (the other I was finishing simultanously with this one but was a MUCH simpler finish) and the only dye/burst - there were a LOT of firsts on this one.
The pickups are HSH Lace Hot Gold Sensors. The wiring on the 5 way is:
1 - Bridge
2 - Bridge + Neck in series out of phase
3 - Bridge + Neck in series in phase
4 - Bridge & Neck in parallel
5 - Neck
The switch between the pots adds the middle single coil to whatever is selected on the 5 way. Tone is a TBX tone, and the volume is a push pull pot that splits both humbuckers.
It's very versatile and there's no way you can tell it's size by the sound. So happy with how it came out after so many years!
Here's the specs on the body blank and neck from Warmoth:
Body Blank:
Swamp Ash
25-1/2"
Right handed
Humbucker (Neck), Strat® (Middle), Humbucker (Brdg) - 24 fret reposition
Recessed TOM-Angled Strings (DO NOT ROUTE THE STRING HOLES – ONLY ROUTE THE RECESSED BRIDGE)
Strat® Shape neck pocket
Neck:
Warmoth Pro Stratocaster®
Padouk/Kingwood (unique choice)
Right Handed
1-11/16"
Standard thin
SS6105 (Stainless)
NO TUNER HOLES – BLANK HEADSTOCK
Bloody Basin Jasper Dots
Mother Of Pearl Side Dots
10-16" Compound
25-1/2"
24 fret
GraphTech Black TUSQ XL
Being that it's my design and I literally cut it out and shaped, it feels that much more like MY guitar - guarantee that there's not another one on the planet (at least right now).
