Firebird211
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Out of the box: http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=15167.0
Strat Thread (Summary): http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=15709.0
Sound Clips
http://www.mediafire.com/?ujo7djdfad81l
The point my first Warmoth build was to create my #1 guitar that bared some likeness to my first guitar, but would blow it away in every way. My first guitar of 15 years was a Yamaha Pacifica...I know start laughing, but the blue burst finish, pearloid pickguard, and gold hardware won me over. Through the years I have changed pickups, wiring schemes, and made modifications that made the Yamaha sound pretty BA. A long time ago I put some small Firebird logos on the jack as a mark of my hotrodded guitar. The gold hardware got crappy over time, so I changed that out with chrome. The bad thing was there were sound limitations on the wood type, Agathis, and the extremely thin neck warped and I could never get rid of the fret buzz. I have always wanted a Fender, so I justified possibly putting all of the electronics into a Strat. As you can imagine buying a 1400 dollar Strat just to gut it out for parts didn't appeal to me as much as what I found I could do with Warmoth for the same price. I had most of my Strat parts from the modded Pacifica, so I couldn't care less about the Fender parts. I had drilled out some small holes around the Pacifica's universal pickup route, which opened up the sound even more than the pickups I put into it. I was then looking to get a chambered body as a better way of accomplishing this. I wanted an ash body to as a set off the character of the guitar’s sound, but put on a pau ferro / goncallo neck to add warmth and balance the bright ash slightly.
I was looking to give the guitar a super natural blue fire like look, but have some natural elegance. In the design I wanted to mix vintage with modern function, and a distinct tone personality. I feared that putting that much pearloid on a quilt maple top would appear too busy, but I decided that the pearloid binding would be the finishing touch that would make the pearloid belong on the guitar. I also chose pearloid topped bell knobs and white switch tips to distract from the pickguard looking too busy with controls. I wanted the pickguard to look like everything blends, but keep the black pickups as an edgy contrast.
The guitar has been a work in progress since before May 2010 when it was orderered. I didn't get too much into this forum for a while since I had lots of work to do and wanted this to be more self-inspired design without a whole lot of outside suggestion. After reading on this forum and learning about everybody I would say now that this might not be a popular choice in design since it has a ton of pearloid with a quilt top, and many switches for control, may be seen as over done by most. I have only recently made a decent rough mockup to see how it really looks together. When the parts come it I will really start to get an accurate idea of what it will look like. I'm like anybody else on this forum creating my ideal guitar. Instead of a plain headstock or a Fender headstock, through much long thought, I decided to give the guitar a name that I have been kicking around for years, and put that name on the headstock. I feel that putting a Fender logo on your guitar is cool, as long as the guitar can still pass as a Fender visually. If it doesn't then having the logo on the guitar is more like a contradiction. The most work that I have put into this guitar other than its appearance was the circuit that went into it.
Through the years of trying different pickups and wiring I found two that I liked and wanted to keep were the Duncan Hot rails, and Vintage rails. I wanted to try the Duncan P-rails in the bridge just to add more versatility to the guitar. I tried many things and made several mistakes, but put every feature that I like into one final draft circuit. I made sure the new circuit was more user-friendly and everything was quickly accessible. I reached the limit of how much crap you can cram into a Strat. One of the great things I like about the guitar is that it consists of all hum buckers, yet it can be set up as all single coils, like a traditional Strat. Now that I have a P-rail in the bridge, that’s basically four different bridge pickups, counting the acoustic bridge. I shouldn’t be at a loss for a unique sound. Unlike a traditional Strat, this one doesn’t follow the normal pickup selection. I like having the neck combined with the bridge, so I kept it just like the original guitar. Everything else is finished other than the body and neck, so I will follow this with more info
