Last Waltz Stratocaster build

[Neo Fender]

http://www.fendercustomshop.com/features/last-waltz/

Not a particular fan of the music or documentary but the guitar has piqued my interest.  Looking for feedback on something similar.  Not interested in replicating the finish which is cool but prohibitive for me.  I'm mostly interested in the pickup arrangement.

I'm pretty sure two angled Strat pickups adjacent to one another will not fit in any typical humbucker rout, so a bridge pickup rout will need to be opened up or go with a swimming pool rout.

I've never seen anyone offer a pickguard cut for this configuration so I may have to "roll my own."

The Fender Custom Shop website states that Robertson "...replaced it with a left-handed pickup and relocated it adjacent to the bridge pickup."  I'm not sure how to interpret this.  Assuming that it still had the original '54 pickups I don't know if the middle pickups were RW/RP then.  Lefty Strats didn't receive different pickups (except for maybe pole height differences).  By left handed pickup, do you think they're talking to pole height differences on a lefty strung guitar or a RW and/or RP pickup?

Thanks.

 

[mayfly]

Hi Neo,

Gotta bath the kids, so my answers will be short and to the point:

1 - swimming pool route is the way to go
2 - UPDATE!  This statement is wrong -> there is no such thing as a "left handed pickup".  Robertson just moved the middle pickup over to the bridge.  I suspect it's wired the same as a standard strat.
3 - Yea you'll have to cut that other hole in the pickguard yourself.  Do you have a router?  Should be fairly simple if you are versed in the ways of routing.
4 - regarding the finish - well, firemist gold looks kinda close...

 

[vetteman]

You can just open up a standard humbucking rout to fit the pickups on an angle.  On mine I wanted them to fit well at the ends, so I started with a pickguard blank and used my drill press to drill then use a rotary file to open up the holes.  Don't know why Fender never really adopted this setup instead of the conventional humbucker,  it fits the style of both the tele and strat better.  Forstner bits are your friends when doing this mod!

 

[Neo Fender]

...Robertson just moved the middle pickup over to the bridge.  I suspect it's wired the same as a standard strat.

Thanks.  After thinking about it further, the middle pickup would have to turned around.  "Regular" Strat single coil pickup windings terminate on one side, so there's no way two could be placed together with little or no gap unless the middle pickup is turned around.  Exceptions to this would be some noise canceling designs (e.g. Lace Sensors) where the leads extend from one end of the pickup.

 

[mayfly]

Hmmm.  That's a good point actually.  And the different height pole pieces from strats of that era are probably where the 'left handed' statement came from.  Starting to make more sense now.

Fortunately turning the pickup around 180 deg would not affect the polarity of the magnets, so no worries there.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

But, two EMG S or SA's could sit in there with now side tab issues.

I'd like to do something like Vetteman did with his July 2016 GOTM in this type of pickup fashion with a tremolo.

 

[aarontunes]

Warmoth built a Last Waltz replica for Jason Becker a couple years ago. We had a body copper plated, did a special pickguard....the whole nine yards. He used a Fender neck to complete it. It turned out really cool. I grabbed a picture with it before we sent it to him. I ain't gonna promise, and I have no idea if we can/would do it, or if we even still have it (is that enough disclaimers?), but it's possible that we still have this pickguard program, and could do another one for someone if they called in and requested it.

At the time we did this, we had about four other bodies plated too, some in the copper, and some in chrome. The one we gave Jason was the pick of the liter. The others had bubbles in the plating, or the plating was peeling off. It's a very difficult process, to say the least. They are all still here, at the Warmoth mothership.

 

[Logrinn]

Damn, that's cool! Awesome.

 

[Neo Fender]

I'm good for at least one.

I ain't gonna promise, and I have no idea if we can/would do it, or if we even still have it (is that enough disclaimers?), but it's possible that we still have this pickguard program, and could do another one for someone if they called in and requested it.

 

[Cagey]

I want a copper plated body.

 

[bagman67]

I want a copper plated body.

MY GRANDMOTHER WANTS A COPPER PLATED BODY.