Tobacco Burst Black Korina Strat

[Verne Bunsen]

So, recently I borrowed a Fender Strat neck from my dad to help me with some fit-up on a build. He ultimately told me to keep it, as it seemed I had more use for it than he did. What a guy! There's some nice figuring on the headstock, but my photography skills were not sufficient to capture it. The rosewood board is gorgeous! The neck originally belonged to his American Standard Strat.

As I pondered where to store it so that it would remain safe, it occurred to me that the best place to store a guitar neck is.... attached directly to a guitar body! Of course!

Black Korina on Alder, Tobacco Burst on front, Transparent Brown on the back. Hot diggity! The Tobacco burst on the Black Korina seems almost to glow from within, it's a little stunning. I was a bit iffy on the transparent brown, but I am very glad I went with it. It's a surprisingly "deep" finish, with an almost Tigers Eye like effect when the light plays off of it. There's a word for that, but I forget....

I think it will make an excellent storage location for this neck!

It's getting a black anodized pickguard from Tone Guard. Eventually. I hope. I ordered it at the same time as the body, but it turns out that it takes longer to make a pickguard than a Strat body.....

 

[musicispeace]

I really like that. The back is a great compliment to the front and the front is certainly a statement. I am a big fan of Rosewood and cameras rarely capture the full look of a nice fretboard but I think you have a great combo there.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I am a big fan of Rosewood and cameras rarely capture the full look of a nice fretboard...

When I'm holding the camera, that's a fact, haha! I agree with you, the rear finish is a perfect compliment for the front. I wouldn't have been likely to pick it from all of the options myself, but it was their recommendation and I've come to trust their recommendations. With good reason!

 

[Fat Pete]

Very nice indeed! Tobacco burst over black korina = instant win. Transparent brown may not sound like the most exciting finish, but every example I've seen (of Warmoth's) has looked great.

Is that a UC top or pot luck?

 

[Great Ape]

Great stuff...GREAT STUFF!!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Very nice indeed! Tobacco burst over black korina = instant win.

I'm coming to realize this! I settled on the combo after being knocked out by the Tobacco Burst Black Korina body on the Jazzmaster we recently saw from Glimmer.

Is that a UC top or pot luck?

Blind stinkin' luck!

Great stuff...GREAT STUFF!!

Thanks! Warmoth sure does good work, I'm floored every time.

 

[Glimmer]

Verne that looks great!

And I must agree with Fat Pete: transparent brown burst is also beautiful. It seems a more "neutral" burst in that it doesn't add the "glow" that tobacco does.

 

[rgand]

Beautiful. That body is a real score.  :icon_thumright:

 

[treyhaislip]

Awesome! Would love to do a Korina project someday soon!

Enjoy!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Thanks fellers! Finally getting to give this project a little attention. Between a job that has me away more than I'm home, an 8 year old son, a new young'n on the way, and, of course, tax season upon us, Guitar Project time has been right hard to come by!

So I have a lot of thinks about Strat pickups, and I stewed on all of them long and hard as I planned out what I wanted to wind for this guitar. The high points of my considerations were:

• I like a low output neck pickup.
• I do NOT like a low output Strat bridge pickup.
• I enjoy the interaction of the pickups in the 2 and 4 positions when the pickups in question are wound the same.

So, mildly hot bridge, cool neck, and all pickups wound the same. Huh.  :icon_scratch:

I've never wound a tapped pickup before, so I guess it's time to get that figured out. The plan is to wind the neck and middle to the same low wind count, then wind the bridge with a tap at that number, then add a few percent to that for extra beef. I'm going to wire it up with a Super Switch so that I can have the full bridge in position 1 (bridge only) and then the tapped bridge in position 2 (bridge + middle) without fumbling. I'll use the rear tone control for the position 1 full bridge, and the forward tone control for the rest. I am also batting around the idea of a phase-reversing push/pull for the middle pickup. We'll see.

So, I typically buy my flatwork from MojoTone and it comes with two eyelets, like so:

That's 33% too few eyelets for this bridge pickup. So I drilled and I pressed and I punched and I ended up with:

That will do nicely. Three bobbins ready to go.

For low wind count pickups, I loves the double build Formvar wire. 42AWG in this case. The extra thickness of the insulation allows you to build a nice full coil even with low winds, which helps keep things from sounding anemic. To keep the coil from getting too big, the overwind portion (from the tap to the full output) will be wound with 43AWG Plain Enamel wire.

One of the things I identified in the "planning" stages of this pickup was that if I let both the tap and the full output leads feed straight off the coil, then the wire going to the inner eyelet would pass right over the outer eyelet. Like so:

That would make it all but impossible to get things soldered up without destroying something. So my fix was to bring the tap in toward the middle of the coil, secure it with some coil tape, and then bring it straight out, avoiding the outer eyelet altogether. Worked out nicely.

What I failed to think of or to notice at the time was that after starting the new wire, it ran straight over the lead pass-through hole on it's way back to the coil. It wasn't until I was taping the coil after I got done winding it that I noticed. I had to loosen things up at the eyelet and try to coax enough out to let that piece of wire nestle back into the coil. I wish I had gotten a picture of it, as well as the coil itself after finishing the winding, but I was very eager at this point to get things soldered up and see if it had survived all of that manhandling. It did.

Neck spec'd out at 6.06k and 2.65H.
Middle was 6.04k and 2.64H.
Bridge was 6.03k/6.62k and 2.57H/2.94H.
Just looking at the numbers, I'm happy with how they measure up. Frankly, they could sound like garbage and I'd still be proud of that bridge pickup, haha!

So, now I suppose it's time to go send my once-daily e-mail to Wayne@Tone-guard to ask about the status of my pickguard. That I ordered 4 months ago. He won't answer it, but at least I can say I sent it.

 

[GilgaFrank]

That is a nice piece of wood. I'm not usually a fan of sunburst Strats but that korina really makes for a nice guitar.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Yeah, I kind of suspect that the Black Korina would look pretty good just about no matter what you did to it.

 

[DangerousR6]

That's pretty kick ass to be able to wind your own pup...While I don't have that capability, I do have some named after me.... :icon_biggrin:

These are DR6's, custom wound and my idea for BHCS...They're extremely crunchy, like eatin Capt 'n Crunch with peanut brittle...

 

[Glimmer]

I'm impressed! Really interesting.

I've got so much to learn...

 

[Logrinn]

BHCS?

 

[treyhaislip]

Agreed that it is awesome you wind your own pickups!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I really enjoy winding pickups, it's a lot of fun to have an idea and be able to just act on it. Also there's a lot of satisfaction in learning and tweaking the variables and actually being able to chase a certain characteristic. The pickup winder has definitely been a good purchase.

That's pretty kick ass to be able to wind your own pup...While I don't have that capability, I do have some named after me.... :icon_biggrin:

These are DR6's, custom wound and my idea for BHCS...They're extremely crunchy, like eatin Capt 'n Crunch with peanut brittle...

How cool! They definitely look like they fit your description! I  Googled BHCS and got either Bishop Hoffman Catholic School or Behavioral Health Care Services... Who is that?

 

[DangerousR6]

I really enjoy winding pickups, it's a lot of fun to have an idea and be able to just act on it. Also there's a lot of satisfaction in learning and tweaking the variables and actually being able to chase a certain characteristic. The pickup winder has definitely been a good purchase.

That's pretty kick ass to be able to wind your own pup...While I don't have that capability, I do have some named after me.... :icon_biggrin:

These are DR6's, custom wound and my idea for BHCS...They're extremely crunchy, like eatin Capt 'n Crunch with peanut brittle...

How cool! They definitely look like they fit your description! I  Googled BHCS and got either Bishop Hoffman Catholic School or Behavioral Health Care Services... Who is that?

LOL...BHCS stands for Button Head Cap Screw, the type of screws that are in place of poles...

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Ah! I interpreted it as the pickups were your idea and "BHCS" wound them for you. Makes more sense now!

 

[DangerousR6]

Ah! I interpreted it as the pickups were your idea and "BHCS" wound them for you. Makes more sense now!

They were made for me by a guy on this forum he has a pickup business...Roadhouse pickups...