Green Quilted Maple Top Mahogany Strat

[taez555]

It's sort of a Warmoth build double faux-pax.  I made a green guitar, AND top routed a quilted top.   But... It's exactly what I wanted from day one and I'm extremely happy with the results.   It sounds great, unplugged even.  Sustains like you wouldn't believe.  Thick and chunky with the humbuckers, and completely stratty with the single coils/splits.   Besides the standard strat 5 way switch, I wired it with 2 on/on/on switches to give each humbucker series/split/parallel, plus another on/off switch to engage the bridge PU at any time.  Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors, this guitar has 31 Pickup combinations.      I may not use all of them, but it's nice to know they're there.

Body
AAAAA Quilted Maple Top
One Piece Mahogany Body
Contoured heel.
Green Dye Top, Trans Green back, with black burst over on the sides.
Wilky Trem
All chome hardware

Neck
Maple w/Ebony Fretboard.
SS6105 Frets
Standard thin Contour.
Graphite Nut
Planet Waves Tuners

PU's
SD JB in the bridge.
SB SSL-1 middle
SD Stag-Mag in the neck

This picture actually captures the top pretty well.    The pickguard is pearl, the camera flash makes it look pure white.

 

[taez555]

Shot of the pearl pickguard and hardware.  It took me a while to find the chrome UFO knobs and chrome 5 way knob.

 

[taez555]

The camera flash really doesn't do the quilt top justice.  The pillowy/almost flamey quilt along the top is almost 3D.

 

[taez555]

The obligatory long body shot.      Dunlop 535Q, Ibanez Tube Screamer, Boss DS-1 & MXR phase 90 in the background there.

 

[jackthehack]

Not a faux pas at all, looks sharp!  ccasion14:

 

[Nando Vallart]

Cool guitar!
But it doesn't sound trebbly with maple + ebony and JB?  :icon_scratch:

 

[taez555]

Cool guitar!
But it doesn't sound trebbly with maple + ebony and JB?  :icon_scratch:

When I run the JB in Series it's suprisingly dark.   When it's split and/or combined with any of the other PU's, it's a lot brighter and gives an amazing strat tone.     

Actually, I've really been impressed with the Stag Mag in the neck.    I was simply looking for a good PU to split, but the full on humbucker is extremely articulate with distorted tones.

 

[bpmorton777]

excelent build dude! It's green! :icon_biggrin:

I was planning on using 3 stag mags in my build. Would you say that it sounds like a strat pickup when split?

Brian

 

[taez555]

Would you say that it sounds like a strat pickup when split?

When you split it, it really gives you that "strat" tone.  I've got the SSL-1 in the middle, and when you use it by itself in the 5 position, or combine the split stag mag with the ssl-1 in the 4 posittion, it's just as poppy and stratty as any strat I've played.  Again, it's a cool pickup when when split, but I've been very impressed with the versatility of the series and parallel sounds from it as well.  Both are clear and articulate, with a semi single coil sound, but still retaining all that thick humbucker-ness without the normal neck pickup darkness.  It's a pretty cool pickup, I'm not sure if I'd want to use it every position though.

erik

 

[taez555]

I uploaded a 4 minute MP3 of me playing through about 13 of the difference pickup combinations.  The MP3 distorts a bit, but you get the general idea. I do a detailed description of the setup at the begining, so if you want to skip right to the guitar playing, it's at 55 seconds on.   

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=525435&songID=6342173

Don't mind my sloppy noodling at the end.

erik

 

[bpmorton777]

yo rock dude :headbang1: thanks so much for the audio clips. SD only has one clip of the stag mag in bridge which aint enough.

Brian

 

[dbw]

Nice chops dude, and that guitar can sound like anything!  I especially like the 3-split parallel (the last one), just for its tone though that's where the really quality playing is

 

[taez555]

Thanks.  It was all just me noodling this morning. 

The guitar is really all about versitility.  I really don't play out anymore, and it's mostly for recording, so I love having allll these options to choose from when layering.  Just having a single humbucker with the 3 way split, you can clearly hear how HUGE a differnce just that makes.  The serires/parallel is night and day.  I'm really enjoying the combo sounds, like the all 3 pickups on in single coil, or the standard strat 2 and 4 positions.  They really sound great.

I'm still working on tweaking the distorted tones.  My amp is still set for my old guitars which were much thinner.  It sounds great now,  I just haven't found that sweet spot yet.  Something that is overdriven,  but not so much, so it lets the guitar's natural wood tones ring out.

 

[rogerzilla]

Greenburst rocks  :headbang1:

I have a greenburst (flamed not quilted) Tele body on order, and a maple neck with an ebony fingerboard.  Yup, it's top routed too.

 

[Cymbaline]

That, sir, is absolutely gorgeous!

I love the look of the H-S-H pickup configuration, it reminds me of Steve Vai.

What do the 3 mini-toggles do?

 

[taez555]

What do the 3 mini-toggles do?
[/quote]

The front two are 3 way Series/Single Coil/Parallel switches for each individual humbucker, and the back is an "always on" on/off switch for the bridge humbucker so you can engage it when the 5 way is in the 4 & 5 positions to get all three pickups on at once, or to actually use the two humbuckers by themselves together.

 

[Superbeast520]

This is beautifull, If Steve Vai played a Strat this is what it would look like. very nice. :toothy10:

 

[mullyman]

I hate green.........but this is making me re-think that stance. This is a gorgeous guitar, man. Good job and I hope it sounds as good as it looks.
MULLY