Mary Kaye Strat

[nullref]

So earlier today I started working on the assembly of my '56 Mary Kaye Strat and thought I would share some of the bits with everyone.

The body is an Extra light Swamp Ash that is being finished by Tonar8353 in a Mary Kaye finish (which you can check out here).  The neck is being done by Musikraft in Birdseye Maple and with the 10/56 profile.  As pieces arrive, I'll make sure to post them.

Today's task, loading up the pickguard...  The pups are a set of Epic Series 1956's from Klein Pickups.  The electrical consists of CTS 250k pots, vintage clothe wiring, and a Sprague Orange Drop that I had laying around from a previous build for the tone controls.


Front: 

Back:
Ignore the beginner soldering... That is not one of the reasons why I was placed on this planet.  :laughing7:

 

[Glimmer]

Gosh, that looks pretty all by itself!

Looking forward to seeing this one come together.

 

[Cagey]

Looks good to me. And that soldering isn't bad at all. Some of the solder jobs I've seen have been so bad they probably would have been better off just leaving the iron unplugged and using scotch tape  :laughing7:

 

[nullref]

Looks good to me. And that soldering isn't bad at all. Some of the solder jobs I've seen have been so bad they probably would have been better off just leaving the iron unplugged and using scotch tape  :laughing7:

Thanks. One of these days I'll invest in a better iron and practice more.  To be fair though, I've thrown out a number of connectors that I've ruined over the years.

 

[Cagey]

Who hasn't? One simply strives to keep the success/failure ratio as wide as possible  :laughing7:

 

[nullref]

So true, and for so many things...

 

[rgand]

This will be a fine axe when done. Tonar is sure doing an outstanding job on the body. the assembly will be fun to follow.

 

[Tonar8352]

I'm thinking this is going to be one beautiful Mary Kaye Strat.

 

[dmraco]

Looks good to me. And that soldering isn't bad at all. Some of the solder jobs I've seen have been so bad they probably would have been better off just leaving the iron unplugged and using scotch tape  :laughing7:

stop picking on my wiring..... :toothy12:

 

[Cagey]

ccasion14:

 

[nullref]

So the neck for this build was delivered today.  Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far.  Here are the specs for those that are interested:

Musikraft 1 piece Strat neck
Premium Birdseye Maple
10/56 profile
1 11/16th bone nut
9.5" radius
6105 frets
Gloss Nitro finish
Gold Kluson machine heads

 

[Glimmer]

:drool:

 

[rgand]

That's an outstanding neck. Nice catch.

 

[stratamania]

That is a nice piece of birdseye. What grade of maple did you order ?

 

[nullref]

That is a nice piece of birdseye. What grade of maple did you order ?

Birdseye Maple Premium 4A, which is an $80 upgrade.

 

[nullref]

A sneak peek of how it should look at the end...

 

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Hardware mounted...

 

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Neck mounted...

 

[nullref]

And final front and back shots...

 

[mayfly]

How can you stand to take all those pictures when you have that in front of you to play???