one and a half new strats!

[Mr. E.]

Crappy cell phone pics - my appologies, but the real camera is on vacation with the missus  :glasses9:

Black Strat: Gilmourish; a Highway 1 Fender Body, Warmoth Pro Canary/Canary neck with stainless steel frets and a graphite nut, Callaham hardware (including bridge with short Gilmour arm), and Callaham/Fralin H/SRV pickups with blender pot. I'll get better pics of the neck when the real camera gets back home - the neck is awesome. And yes, the hype is all true: the H/SRV pickups are THE best single coils I've ever played.

and the "half": The Quilt blue strat I posted before - I removed the gold hardware, replaced it with Callaham goodness, and swapped the GFS NeoVins out for a set of EMG-DG20s. I took the pearloid pickguard off the EMGs and replaced it with a single ply parchment one, also from Callaham.

-erik

 

[bpmorton777]

sounds like you did not like the NeoVins...what's your thought on those?

Brian

 

[Mr. E.]

The NeoVins were ok... they were really quiet... I really had to crank the volume to get any noise at all, and then mostly from the neck pickup. They didn't really have a lot of personality, but they were perfectly fine, and I'll drop them into a future build for sure. The EMGs are just an entirely different set. My first thought on playing the NeoVins was "Wow, these are quiet", my first thought on playing the EMGs was "Wow, these are quiet, and I sound remarkably like Mark Knopfler".... clean just straight in the amp, and they had a sparkly, spanky "oompf" that the NeoVins lacked. It really was easy to dial in a clean Knopfler sound, and once I kicked in some pedals, it was very very close to Gilmour's live "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" tone.

The Fralins are an entirely different animal - amazing amazing single coils.

The NoeVins are good. The Emgs (and Fralins) are great.

-erik

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I always like it when nice things are said about EMGs.  I don't know how they got the bad rap. 

 

[NonsenseTele]

Moooooore pics! :laughing7:

Looks cool

 

[Mr. E.]

better pics!

-erik

 

[tfarny]

Mr.E, I had the same experience with the NeoVins, but eventually replaced the pots with 1 meg / no load set and stuck them right up under the strings. That drastically improved them, and they are quiet and cheap, but they are not in the same league as other good pups, for instance my Dimarzio Areas (gotta plug the areas at every opportunity).
Also: Here's the progress on your poplar hardtail body - the pups are in the mail so I should be done by next week or so.

 

[Mr. E.]

wow! that looks amazing. Great job!  :rock-on:

-erik

 

[Mor Paul]

Hey, Tim, what would be awesome would be a darker stain, but sanding off some into a burst. I think. Probably would be hard, though.

 

[tfarny]

Hey max, yeah you should definitely try that!  :icon_jokercolor: