S-Paul - done! (NOW WITH CLIPS)

dbw

Master Member
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My goal was to make a Strat-shaped guitar with a big LP-style sound.  I mostly play hard rock bordering on metal, and sometimes when noodling around at home I play a little clean blues bordering on rock.  I'm extremely happy with it, though if you look closely there are a few signs of my amateur work.  That's all cosmetic, though, and it sounds like a million bucks.  Unfortunately the bridge pickup is a little harsh-sounding for my tastes but the neck and neck+bridge positions sound very LP-like.  I may replace the bridge pickup at some point.

This is my first Warmoth project.  Thanks to everyone at unofficialwarmoth.com and everyone at Warmoth, especially Gregg and Spike.  :headbang:

Parts

Black korina/black korina hollow Strat, recessed string-through TOM bridge, SD Custom 5 and SD '59 pickups, contoured heel, all chrome hardware, vol/tone/3-way (rotary).  I actually like the back of the body better than the front, which is unusually dark and stripey, but it's nicely bookmatched so it looks just fine.

Ebony fingerboard, rosewood neck, Strat headstock, Schaller locking tuners, Warmoth pro construction, compound radius, corian nut, stainless frets.

Body and neck both came from the showcase.

Electronics

I wanted the controls to look very minimal.  There are simply three chrome knobs in a line parallel to the neck, a la Telecaster.

The volume pot is push/push and will be used to tap the humbies.  The switch is a 4P3T rotary affair from Mouser (part # CK1062).  It has a long, plastic shaft.  I trimmed the shaft and drilled a hole through it for the chrome knob's set screw.  The pots are 500K and the tone cap is .22 uF.

The circuit is fairly straightforward.  I contacted Seymour Duncan to confirm that the schematic they list on their site is hum-cancelling when both pickups are on and tapped; turns out you have to swap which coil gets tapped out to get the cancelling to work.

Finishing

I bought some "natural" colored grain-filler and some pure tung oil from Woodcraft, and a chunk of red oak to test it on.  It seems "natural" means "white".  I tried darkening it up with some acrylic paint but it took a whole lot of paint so that it became difficult to sand off.

So I went back to Woodcraft and got some "mahogany" grain filler.  When I got home and opened it up I was dismayed to find that it has the color of Pepto-Bismol.  I tried it out on my oak and it dries to a reddish color.  By adding just a little black acrylic I could change the color of the wet filler to a nasty greyish purple, which dries to a dark brown.  The tung oil warms up the color further so I decided I'd roll with it.

I sanded the body to 400 grit, which revealed a little flame in the wood.  I applied grain filler, perhaps too thickly, and it took a ton of 220 sanding to get it off.  I smoothed it out to 320 and the grain seemed quite well-filled, so I decided one coat was enough.  (Turned out I was wrong there; the oil really shows every bit of unfilled grain, so it doesn't look completely filled.  I don't mind.)  I sanded it to 400 again and began applying tung oil.

The first two coats were 50% tung oil and 50% mineral spirits.  The other two coats were pure tung oil.  Each coat was applied by rubbing the body with paper towels dipped in the oil.  Between each coat I waited 24 hours and scuffed the finish with 0000 steel wool.

It could use some more oil to get a glossier finish, but I've always preferred satin, and anyway I'm not patient enough to spend weeks oiling it!

Assembly

I installed the tuners a little inexpertly so they're not perfectly aligned with each other.  Only one of them was sufficiently "off" that I redrilled the hole to reposition it.  Without close inspection they're basically in line now.  I added a chrome Warmoth logo to the headstock.  Bling!

I shielded the control cavity and its cover and wired it up.  Unfortunately I was a little drunk when I did this so the solders are a bit messy, but it all works and is very quiet even when tapped.

The setup was done by Spruce Tree Music in Madison, WI.  The intonation is perfect and the action is good.

New, I added tru-oil to the body... it's glossier now.  I've got some MUCH nicer pictures, too, now that I borrowed a real digital camera:

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New, sound clip!!  Recorded with the built-in mic on my Boss BR-600.  No effects, straight into my Carvin V3 into a Mesa 4x12.  The neck and bridge samples are on the same channel, the "split" (by which I mean both pickups tapped) is on the clean channel.  (Don't hate, I know it's not great music, it's just so you can hear the sound.)
 
Looks real clean, I like it.  I like the recessed TOM too, I wanna try it for my second build  :icon_thumright:
 
Very nice...  Yeah, the recessed TOM is very cool.  Thinking about trying it was well at some point. Well done!
 
Looks awesome.  I really want to use korina on a future build.
About how high does the bridge actually sit on the body?
 
briny001 said:
Looks awesome.  I really want to use korina on a future build.
About how high does the bridge actually sit on the body?
On the bass side, the bottom of the bridge is about 1/16" off the body.  On the treble side, it's almost flush.
 
Before you swap out that Custom 5 in the bridge, change the magnet for an AlNiCo II.  It should smooth out the rough edges a bit and make it less harsh.
 
Thanks for the tip!  But won't that bring the output of the pickup way down?  :help:
 
looks really sweet with the recessed TOM. i see one in my future.
 
I like it a lot!! also love the woods combo (basically the same as my VIP)

I am planning a recessed tom on my upcoming warmoth, but had one last question, and hopefully you can answer it :)
I like to rest my hand on the bridge of my guitars, and was wondering if the recessed tom is suitable for that..
also, does it work well for 'palm muting'?

thanks!
Marko
 
dbw said:
Thanks for the tip!  But won't that bring the output of the pickup way down?   :help:

I'm about 95% sure it won't.  The magnet you use doesn't determine output, the type wire/number of windings does, I think...
 
doesn't the strength of the magnet also factor in,
so unless the magnet you plan on replacing it with has the same magnetic pull, blah blah blah, you get the picture.






oh,and if it does, then whats the point?
 
m4rk0 said:
I like it a lot!! also love the woods combo (basically the same as my VIP)

I am planning a recessed tom on my upcoming warmoth, but had one last question, and hopefully you can answer it :)
I like to rest my hand on the bridge of my guitars, and was wondering if the recessed tom is suitable for that..
also, does it work well for 'palm muting'?

thanks!
Marko
Thanks Marko :)

The bridge is quite comfortable to rest your hand on.  I rest my hand on the strings between the bridge and the ferrules.  I suppose if you used really light strings or leaned hard on that hand, you could sharp all your strings, but I don't do either of those things so it stays in tune perfectly.

It's really nice for palm muting, actually!  I think it's much easier to mute this thing than a Strat-style bridge, probably because it's easier for me to feel where the saddles are.  But this is the same on any TOM.

Anyway, you can try out a recessed TOM at a Guitar Center... look for a Schecter C1 Plus, or a similar Schecter model... they make like 8 billion types of C1, many of which have string-through TOMs.
 
dbw said:
m4rk0 said:
I like it a lot!! also love the woods combo (basically the same as my VIP)

I am planning a recessed tom on my upcoming warmoth, but had one last question, and hopefully you can answer it :)
I like to rest my hand on the bridge of my guitars, and was wondering if the recessed tom is suitable for that..
also, does it work well for 'palm muting'?

thanks!
Marko
Thanks Marko :)

The bridge is quite comfortable to rest your hand on.  I rest my hand on the strings between the bridge and the ferrules.  I suppose if you used really light strings or leaned hard on that hand, you could sharp all your strings, but I don't do either of those things so it stays in tune perfectly.

It's really nice for palm muting, actually!  I think it's much easier to mute this thing than a Strat-style bridge, probably because it's easier for me to feel where the saddles are.  But this is the same on any TOM.

Anyway, you can try out a recessed TOM at a Guitar Center... look for a Schecter C1 Plus, or a similar Schecter model... they make like 8 billion types of C1, many of which have string-through TOMs.

I can attest to that.  I have a Schecter C-1 and it's pretty comfortable to palm mute.  About the same as a regular TOM/Stop Tail.  I just wonder if the recessed version would bring my hand too close to the body, but I'm probably just paranoid.  I still wanna try it  :laughing7:
 
Sweet!  I'm building one right now that will be a twin to yours except I have a hardtail strat bridge instead of a TOM.  I love recessed TOM bridges too - My Godin has one and its awesome.  That will be part of a future build for me as well!  I'm gonna try the texas and barbecue pickups from Rio Grande.

RK
 
Nice guitar, mate! Black korina is gorgeous.....one of my faves.  I have recessed tune-o-matic on my tele and love it.
 
dudesweet157 said:
Before you swap out that Custom 5 in the bridge, change the magnet for an AlNiCo II.  It should smooth out the rough edges a bit and make it less harsh.

that's exactly what they changed it from...
Developed by contributors to our web user group who replaced the ceramic or Alnico 2 magnet in an SH-5 Custom or SH-11 Custom Custom with an Alnico 5. Compared to the SH-5 and SH-11, the Custom 5's tone is more vintage, with less distortion, but it's still very strong and powerful. Clean sounds are rich and full with enhanced presence.
 
That is a beautiful strat! I showed the pictures to my father a few days ago and I think it turned him into planing the making his own Warmoth. And it didn`t make it any better when he saw  the LP i got today:) Nice work :icon_thumright:
 
dbw said:
I bought some "natural" colored grain-filler and some pure tung oil from Woodcraft, and a chunk of red oak to test it on.  It seems "natural" means "white".  I tried darkening it up with some acrylic paint but it took a whole lot of paint so that it became difficult to sand off.

So I went back to Woodcraft and got some "mahogany" grain filler.  When I got home and opened it up I was dismayed to find that it has the color of Pepto-Bismol.  I tried it out on my oak and it dries to a reddish color.  By adding just a little black acrylic I could change the color of the wet filler to a nasty greyish purple, which dries to a dark brown.  The tung oil warms up the color further so I decided I'd roll with it.

I wish read this part when I first read this topic!! I bought both the white and the pepto variations and decided that they were useless for my project :(
I just received the "clear" filler from Stewmac, that is supposedly really actually clear! :) I hope it works..and didn't waste anymore money on fillers..
 
Nice looking axe!  If you're going to swap out that bridge pup, consider a Seymour JB.  I'm not sure what kind of music you play, but you can get everything from jazz to metal with it.
 
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