Please allow me to introduce myself

[Damon]

I'm a man of (no) wealth and (questionable) taste. (Sorry for the butchered Stones reference, but if I can't use that one on a guitar forum, where can I use it?) I've been lurking here for a few weeks and decided it's time to say hi so that when I start asking questions soon (and maybe even answering one or two, who knows?) I won't be coming out of nowhere.

Name's Damon, I've been playing guitar and bass at various levels up to semi-pro local gigs for nearly 20 years. I have some nerve problems in my left arm that had me out of the game for a few years, but now I'm back to it, mostly playing at my church. I'm a good ol' rock and roll fan, everything from the Stones, Zep, Pink Floyd, etc., to SRV and ZZ Top to Seattle Grunge and 80s hair metal.

I stumbled over here when I decided that it was time to start rebuilding my guitar collection after selling most of it off when I'd been told I'd never play again. Glad the docs were wrong, but wish I hadn't sold my gear..... Anyway, first order of business is a new Strat but when I saw what Fender was asking for theirs these days, I decided that if I'm paying that much to begin with I might as well just build it myself from scratch. I was passingly familiar with Warmoth from years ago, so I started researching Warmoth builds and found my way here. And let me just say, I've already learned a lot just from reading over posts from the last few years.

So the Strat build is now in the planning stages. Unless something unexpected happens I should have the money to build it by mid-summer at the latest. I've got some questions that so far my searches of the forum haven't uncovered answers to, so I'll post them in the approriate areas.

Looking forward to getting more good stuff out of this nice little community you've got here, and hopefully giving a little something back when I can.

 

[dmraco]

Welcom aboard...this is a great place to learn and be social!

Looking forward to your build!

 

[smjenkins]

+1 on the welcome.  I'm glad to hear that you'll be able to keep playing.  Do you have any initial ideas for your strat build?

 

[Damon]

+1 on the welcome.  I'm glad to hear that you'll be able to keep playing.  Do you have any initial ideas for your strat build?

Thanks! And yes, I do:

Overall goal is a slightly hot strat akin to the Stevie Ray sound (not that I'll ever sound like Stevie, but I'd like the guitar to be acceptable to him if his ghost came knocking on my door looking to borrow a guitar).

Neck: Trying to preserve a maple/rosewood tone, but wanting a raw wood neck, so I'm thinking pau ferro/brasilian rosewood. I put a post in the neck woods section last night asking for input as to wheter a PF neck and a maple neck sound similar enough to pull it off. Also figuring on paying the upcharge to get the warhead headstock. I figure if it's not going to be a fender, why should it look like one? Also, there'll be no fret markers. Why ugly up the brasilian?

Body: Since this may be the only guitar I can talk my wife into letting me build for a few years, I'm pulling out all the stops. It'll be quilt maple over swamp ash - probably. Still considering alder. Honestly, to my ear, the difference in tone is minimal. But definitly leaning toward ash.

Finish will be tiger's eye with trans brown back, done by Warmoth because I don't have the facilities to properly paint a body. I live in the desert and don't have space to create a clean room or even a clean booth, so the dust is a huge problem. Haven't fully decided if I want binding or not. Generally not a fan of it, but I think ivroid binding might look good with the color scheme I'm thinking of.

Even with the fancy top, I'm going top-route with a vintage pearl pg. Part of the strat look to me is the pickguard, and I just can't see me not having a pg on a s-s-s strat.

I'm looking at putting the jack on the side instead of the top. I've never really cared for Leo's tendency to face-mount jacks. All of my current guitars and basses have side jacks, so all of my instrument cables have angled plugs and I don't really want to go buy a straight cable just for the strat. Plus, it'll show a little more of that curly maple top.

Was planning on fralin blues set pups, but after reading some posts here and doing a little digging, I think I'm going to go with a set of Roadhouse Fatboys. The clips sound great and it'll save me $100-ish.

Controls will be simple. Master vol and standard 5-way. I may add a master tone, but it's highly unlikely. I've never found a guitar that sounded better with the tone rolled off than it does wide open, but for no more effort than it would be to add a master tone it kinda falls in the category of "just in case."

Probably going with the new wilk 401 bridge. Everything I've seen about it makes it look like the improvements are worth the extra $30 or so.

Hardware will likely be gold, as will frets, mostly because my wife likes the gold hardware on my les paul and she thinks it would look best with the tiger's eye and pau ferro. And I have to keep her happy.

I guess my planning stage is 90%+ complete. I just need to get on with the saving money phase. Of course, my wife and daughter both have birthdays in the next three months, so it might take a little while.....

 

[Volitions Advocate]

Welcome to the forum.  I think its gotten a little more rowdy than usual in 2010 but for the most part I think you'll find this to be the most helpful and community minded corner of the internet.

as per your build.  Colour schemes are important. but take a second thought about your frets.  I've become a convert to stainless steel.  The best 30 dollar upgrade you could buy.  All my W guitars come with it, you never have to worry about it wearing down and you'll never have to refret.  You wont have the gold colour with it.  But I think the utility in this case outweighs the aesthetics.  But thats just my opinion. 


Welcome again and happy 2011

 

[Damon]

Thanks for the tip. Already a fan of stainless frets. But according to W's site, the gold frets are nearly as hard as the stainless (HV230 for gold, 250 for stainless, 170 for nickel/silver) and my guitar tech said that's been his experience with the gold fretwire he uses, as well. Seems like gold both fits the asthetic and the performance aspects. Of course, if the gold hardware on this guitar wears like the gold hardware on my les paul, the frets will be the only thing that look gold in a decade or so......

 

[B3Guy]

Neck: Trying to preserve a maple/rosewood tone, but wanting a raw wood neck, so I'm thinking pau ferro/brasilian rosewood. I put a post in the neck woods section last night asking for input as to wheter a PF neck and a maple neck sound similar enough to pull it off. Also figuring on paying the upcharge to get the warhead headstock. I figure if it's not going to be a fender, why should it look like one? Also, there'll be no fret markers. Why ugly up the brasilian?

dude . . . just build a 7/8? they come standard with a Warhead, have 24 freteroos, and are smaller and lighter