fingolfen
Junior Member
- Messages
- 27
I've always been a huge Rush fan - and ever since I saw a few examples here on the forum, I'd wanted to do my own version of the "Hentor Sportscaster."
The Neck
The necks used on the Hentor Sportscaster were Fender-style, but were made by a Canadian company. They were quartersawn maple, and had no name on the headstock. The fretboards also appear to have been ebony. For my tribute I decided to go with the original materials of construction, and chose the other options based on my preferred playing style, etc. - keeping in mind I wanted to ensure that it was set up properly for a Floyd Rose bridge / trem and locking nut! Here's what I went with based on the Warmoth custom options:
Construction: Modern
Shaft Wood: Quartersawn Maple
Fretboard Wood: Ebony (Black)
Nut Width: 1-11/16" (43mm) - Modern Medium
Right / Left Handed: Right-Handed
Neck Back Profile: Standard Thin
Fretboard Radius: Straight 10"
Number of Frets: 21
Scallops: None
Binding: None
Fret Size & Material: SS6105 - Narrow & Tall (Stainless)
Tuner Hole Size: Gotoh/Grover (13/32" - 11/32")
Inlay Shape: Premium Dots
Inlay Material: Mother Of Pearl
Side Dots: Mother Of Pearl Side Dots
String Nut: R4 Floyd Prep w/ Mounting Holes
Mounting Holes: Standard 4-Bolt
Neck Heel Shape: Strat® Shape
Finish: Clear Satin Nitro
Warmoth did it's usual spectacular job building the neck. One thing to note, the originals were unfinished, but I went with a clear satin nitro on mine - again for reasons of personal preference!
When Alex first started using his modified stratocasters, there was no name on the headstock. He eventually added the name "Hentor Sportscaster" mostly as a joke using Letraset transfers. I decided to use that technique on mine as well. Given there is no finish over the letters, it's likely fairly fragile, but I haven't had anything scrape off yet. I went with a fun dinosaur inspired name for mine.
The Body
The original Sportscaster was white - there were red and black guitars built along the same line, but they had their own names. I sort of wanted to go with red, but since I'm a woodworker I didn't want to go with just a solid red body. I kept the ash core wood that appears to be consensus for the Hentor, but to make things a bit more interesting (to my tastes) I went with a 3A flamed maple top.
Construction: Solid
Core Wood: Swamp Ash
Lam Top Wood: 3A Flame Maple
Right / Left Handed: Right-Handed
Control Cavity: Top Rout
Multi Pickup Top Rout: Strat®, Strat®, Humbucker
Jack Rout: Strat® Flat Mount Top Jack
Bridge Rout Type: Tremolo
Bridge Rout: Original Floyd Rose Recessed
Mounting Holes: Standard 4-Bolt
Neck Pocket Shape: Strat®
Body Contours: Forearm Contour, Tummy Cut
Binding and Edge Decorations: None
Battery Box: None
Paint Category: Dye
Top Color: Red Dye
Back Color: Transparent Red (Burst-over)
Satin or Gloss: Gloss
As with any Hentor build, there is some additional routing required to get everything to fit properly - at least if you're going with the Hentor-style lower horn 3-way switch (which I am). Once the extra routing was done, I went ahead and added copper shielding.
Pickup Selection
The single coils on the original Hentor Sportscaster were fairly hot to match the bridge pickup. Modernly most builds seem to be using DiMarzio pickups, specifically the FS-1, for the neck and bridge pickups. I'd though about getting some custom wound, but given that Freddy's Frets is using DiMarzio, I decided that I'd just go that way. The Bridge pickup is a bit unique. The very first HSS modified Strat Alex used had a Gibson pickup, but those soon gave way to the Bill Lawrence L500L humbucker pickup. These days there are two sources for those pickups. A company called Bill Lawrence USA has a L500L pickup, but these apparently aren't exactly like the originals. You can also source them from Bill and Becky Wilde Pickups, which are the genuine article as they were originally made. I went that route!
Another consideration was getting the switch right. Unlike the standard Stratocaster with a 5 way switch, the Sportscaster makes do with a 3-way switch. You may be thinking, "that's just like the original Strat," but there's a catch. Not only is it a Gibson style switch, the settings are neck, neck + mid, and bridge. There is no setting for middle pickup alone! Reading through a few of the threads on the Warmoth forum, I managed to find the right one.
The Pickguard
I'd considered going with a black plastic or black / white / black plastic pickguard for this build, but with the boldness of the body, I decided to reach back into my previous bag of tricks and go with carbon fiber like I'd used on my Noventa-style Jazzmaster build. Unfortunately, the company that I'd purchased that pickguard from no longer just does custom pickguards, so I had to find alternate sourcing. Ultimately I ended up drawing up a scale version of the pickguard using the Warmoth Floyd-Rose strat template and having it professionally converted to a CAD file. I then had one made up by a third party. The bridge pickup took a little final fitting, but not much. I also did the beveling for the edge and the screws by hand on my own. If I'd known how much trouble actually getting the pickguard right for this guitar right would be, I would have likely gone with an easier material. However, hindsight is 20/20, and the end result looks amazing!
Final Assembly
With the pickguard installed into the body, I went ahead and finished adding the rest of the parts. The jack plate is inverted as it was on the originals - which some people do on their vanilla strats as well. I did need a cool neck plate for this build, and I had a friend do up a really nice laser-etched plate for the build. It borrows the art from Rush's final studio album Clockwork Angels combined with a quote from the last song on the album, "The Garden."
Final assembly was straightforward as this is a simple bolt-on neck. I really didn't encounter any issues and the end result was absolutely amazing.
I did have my favorite local independent guitar store do a set up on it for me, and the guitar plays really well. It absolutely nails that mid-80's Rush sound using either my Bad Cat or my Marshall Silver Jubilee. It's brighter and brasher than any of my Les Pauls - especially when you're in the neck or neck + mid positions.
The final result is absolutely stunning. It has the overall look and fell of Alex's red Sportscaster, which some touches that make it my own. I'm a huge sucker for Flame Maple, and that red dye top just screams - especially paired with the carbon fiber pickguard. The body is so visually interesting, I think just a solid black, or even a 3-ply pickguard would detract from it.
In conclusion, his build ended up being far more of an ordeal than I thought it would be going in - part of that was self-inflicted though. I knew that the routs would take work, and while laborious, that part of the build went fairly well. I didn't expect the carbon fiber pickguard to become the odyssey it ended up being. I'm beginning to understand why fewer and fewer luthiers are working with it! That being said, I'm super-happy with the guitar, and it of all of my Warmoth builds, it gets played the most.
The Neck
The necks used on the Hentor Sportscaster were Fender-style, but were made by a Canadian company. They were quartersawn maple, and had no name on the headstock. The fretboards also appear to have been ebony. For my tribute I decided to go with the original materials of construction, and chose the other options based on my preferred playing style, etc. - keeping in mind I wanted to ensure that it was set up properly for a Floyd Rose bridge / trem and locking nut! Here's what I went with based on the Warmoth custom options:
Construction: Modern
Shaft Wood: Quartersawn Maple
Fretboard Wood: Ebony (Black)
Nut Width: 1-11/16" (43mm) - Modern Medium
Right / Left Handed: Right-Handed
Neck Back Profile: Standard Thin
Fretboard Radius: Straight 10"
Number of Frets: 21
Scallops: None
Binding: None
Fret Size & Material: SS6105 - Narrow & Tall (Stainless)
Tuner Hole Size: Gotoh/Grover (13/32" - 11/32")
Inlay Shape: Premium Dots
Inlay Material: Mother Of Pearl
Side Dots: Mother Of Pearl Side Dots
String Nut: R4 Floyd Prep w/ Mounting Holes
Mounting Holes: Standard 4-Bolt
Neck Heel Shape: Strat® Shape
Finish: Clear Satin Nitro
Warmoth did it's usual spectacular job building the neck. One thing to note, the originals were unfinished, but I went with a clear satin nitro on mine - again for reasons of personal preference!
When Alex first started using his modified stratocasters, there was no name on the headstock. He eventually added the name "Hentor Sportscaster" mostly as a joke using Letraset transfers. I decided to use that technique on mine as well. Given there is no finish over the letters, it's likely fairly fragile, but I haven't had anything scrape off yet. I went with a fun dinosaur inspired name for mine.
The Body
The original Sportscaster was white - there were red and black guitars built along the same line, but they had their own names. I sort of wanted to go with red, but since I'm a woodworker I didn't want to go with just a solid red body. I kept the ash core wood that appears to be consensus for the Hentor, but to make things a bit more interesting (to my tastes) I went with a 3A flamed maple top.
Construction: Solid
Core Wood: Swamp Ash
Lam Top Wood: 3A Flame Maple
Right / Left Handed: Right-Handed
Control Cavity: Top Rout
Multi Pickup Top Rout: Strat®, Strat®, Humbucker
Jack Rout: Strat® Flat Mount Top Jack
Bridge Rout Type: Tremolo
Bridge Rout: Original Floyd Rose Recessed
Mounting Holes: Standard 4-Bolt
Neck Pocket Shape: Strat®
Body Contours: Forearm Contour, Tummy Cut
Binding and Edge Decorations: None
Battery Box: None
Paint Category: Dye
Top Color: Red Dye
Back Color: Transparent Red (Burst-over)
Satin or Gloss: Gloss
As with any Hentor build, there is some additional routing required to get everything to fit properly - at least if you're going with the Hentor-style lower horn 3-way switch (which I am). Once the extra routing was done, I went ahead and added copper shielding.
Pickup Selection
The single coils on the original Hentor Sportscaster were fairly hot to match the bridge pickup. Modernly most builds seem to be using DiMarzio pickups, specifically the FS-1, for the neck and bridge pickups. I'd though about getting some custom wound, but given that Freddy's Frets is using DiMarzio, I decided that I'd just go that way. The Bridge pickup is a bit unique. The very first HSS modified Strat Alex used had a Gibson pickup, but those soon gave way to the Bill Lawrence L500L humbucker pickup. These days there are two sources for those pickups. A company called Bill Lawrence USA has a L500L pickup, but these apparently aren't exactly like the originals. You can also source them from Bill and Becky Wilde Pickups, which are the genuine article as they were originally made. I went that route!
Another consideration was getting the switch right. Unlike the standard Stratocaster with a 5 way switch, the Sportscaster makes do with a 3-way switch. You may be thinking, "that's just like the original Strat," but there's a catch. Not only is it a Gibson style switch, the settings are neck, neck + mid, and bridge. There is no setting for middle pickup alone! Reading through a few of the threads on the Warmoth forum, I managed to find the right one.
The Pickguard
I'd considered going with a black plastic or black / white / black plastic pickguard for this build, but with the boldness of the body, I decided to reach back into my previous bag of tricks and go with carbon fiber like I'd used on my Noventa-style Jazzmaster build. Unfortunately, the company that I'd purchased that pickguard from no longer just does custom pickguards, so I had to find alternate sourcing. Ultimately I ended up drawing up a scale version of the pickguard using the Warmoth Floyd-Rose strat template and having it professionally converted to a CAD file. I then had one made up by a third party. The bridge pickup took a little final fitting, but not much. I also did the beveling for the edge and the screws by hand on my own. If I'd known how much trouble actually getting the pickguard right for this guitar right would be, I would have likely gone with an easier material. However, hindsight is 20/20, and the end result looks amazing!
Final Assembly
With the pickguard installed into the body, I went ahead and finished adding the rest of the parts. The jack plate is inverted as it was on the originals - which some people do on their vanilla strats as well. I did need a cool neck plate for this build, and I had a friend do up a really nice laser-etched plate for the build. It borrows the art from Rush's final studio album Clockwork Angels combined with a quote from the last song on the album, "The Garden."
Final assembly was straightforward as this is a simple bolt-on neck. I really didn't encounter any issues and the end result was absolutely amazing.
I did have my favorite local independent guitar store do a set up on it for me, and the guitar plays really well. It absolutely nails that mid-80's Rush sound using either my Bad Cat or my Marshall Silver Jubilee. It's brighter and brasher than any of my Les Pauls - especially when you're in the neck or neck + mid positions.
In conclusion, his build ended up being far more of an ordeal than I thought it would be going in - part of that was self-inflicted though. I knew that the routs would take work, and while laborious, that part of the build went fairly well. I didn't expect the carbon fiber pickguard to become the odyssey it ended up being. I'm beginning to understand why fewer and fewer luthiers are working with it! That being said, I'm super-happy with the guitar, and it of all of my Warmoth builds, it gets played the most.
