Tobacco Burst Black Korina Strat

[Cagey]

Coming soon to a Stratocaster near me

It's in UPS' hot little hands even as we speak.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Coming soon to a Stratocaster near me

It's in UPS' hot little hands even as we speak.

Well that one is coming soon to a Tele near me, but either way it sounds like I'll have two pretty necks to play with soon! Did I already say, "It's a great time to be alive"?
:turtle:

 

[Cagey]

Oh! I didn't even notice that's the Strat version of your Tele neck. You bought that too? Gracious!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Oh! I didn't even notice that's the Strat version of your Tele neck. You bought that too? Gracious!

I blacked out for a minute, and when I came-to I had a confirmation e-mail...  :toothy12:  Evidently I have a bit of a thing for this figured Mahogany they've been hanging on the hook lately. Who knew?

 

[Cagey]

Hehe! I got a one-piece Ziricote neck that ended up in my lap much the same way. I didn't have any cats/dogs/kids/etc. in that house, so I'm thinking there may have been gremlins living in the furnace room...

That figured 'hog is fantastic, though. You're gonna love that Tele neck.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

The neck was hung up in an extended QC, but it ultimately met approval and will be en route tomorrow! Props on Warmoth for taking the time to make sure it was right.

I ordered a set of Gotoh Magnum Locks in Cosmo Black for it, but they have been backordered since 5/25 with no definite date for availability as yet. Sent an e-mail off to Stew-Mac to get the scoop...

 

[BigSteve22]

I blacked out for a minute, and when I came-to I had a confirmation e-mail...

Don't ya just love when that happens!  :headbang:

Hehe! I got a one-piece Ziricote neck that ended up in my lap much the same way. I didn't have any cats/dogs/kids/etc. in that house, so I'm thinking there may have been gremlins living in the furnace room...

I prefer to call it "temporary fiscal insanity". That way I can take the blame, but still not be responsible for my actions!  :evil4:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Oooh, pretty!

This would be a flamed mahogany neck with a gorgeous rosewood fretboard and a flamed Koa o) headstock veneer. Yowza! Again I apologize for the lackluster pictures, they don't do it justice. Of late my only opportunity to indulge in my guitars has been after the rest of the house is in bed. Good lighting is in short supply around midnight!

An aesthetic feature of this neck that has really grabbed me (one aesthetic feature among so many!) is the presence of this really distinct line running the length of the back of the neck. It goes all the way to the headstock and in fact carries on over the top of the headstock. I am assuming that it is not structural, and given that criteria, I like it. It's unique. It doesn't really come through in the pictures above so I snapped a couple of detail shots:

This is my first neck to feature one of these, so a little learning will be in order...

Here you can see the Strat and the new neck getting to know each other a little bit. The existing Fender neck is looking understandably miffed.

While I'm under the hood, I'm going to address a controls configuration issue as well. A while back I installed a push/pull in the rear tone position to add the neck pickup for the 7-sound setup. While I like the sounds quite a bit, I'm not very happy with how the push/pull gets along with the tremolo arm:

So I'm going to do something about that.

More to come!

 

[fuzznut]

Gorgeous!!! Get the Fender S-1 switch.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Gorgeous!!! Get the Fender S-1 switch.

Thanks! I feel pretty fortunate to have found it in the showcase and reeled it in. I actually posted it in the "GAS" thread when I first saw it, then immediately regretted it  :laughing7:

Interesting idea, I've actually never messed with the S1. I think I'm going to go a different route though. Despite having played around with all of it's different configurations, the Two-Tone-Controls-For-Three-Pickups control scheme still just feels... futzy? Is "futzy" a word? At any rate, I think I'm going to go to a master volume/master tone setup and put a toggle in that rear spot for the neck-add.

 

[bagman67]

Two-Tone-Controls-For-Three-Pickups control scheme still just feels... futzy?

I am with you, generally, but then I got my preloaded Eric Johnson Strat pickguard and it now totally makes sense.  Instead of the neck and middle pups being on separate tone controls, with the bridge having none, the EJ strat is wired with the bridge and neck having tone controls, and the middle pup being uncontrolled (except in positions 2 and 4).  Makes so much more sense to me to be able to cut down on the icepicky bridge pup a little without having to accept the more pronounced tonal variation that comes from adding another coil further along the sounding length of the string.  And then when I switch to the other single-pickup positions, I need not screw around with the tone knob to get the chime back.


Anyway, something to think about, if you haven't already. 

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I am with you, generally, but then I got my preloaded Eric Johnson Strat pickguard and it now totally makes sense.  Instead of the neck and middle pups being on separate tone controls, with the bridge having none, the EJ strat is wired with the bridge and neck having tone controls, and the middle pup being uncontrolled (except in positions 2 and 4).

I didn't know that the EJ Strats were wired that way. I know that configuration as "Jimmy Vaughan Wiring". It is a versatile configuration! I've been running mine with the bridge on the rear tone and the neck and middle on the forward tone, which lets me roll the tone off of the neck and leave the bridge wide open. Just a hop, skip and/or jump from that one, really.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Gotoh Magnum Locking Tuners in "Cosmo Black". They are not to be confused with Nigel Tufnel's tuners which are, of course, "None Mo' Black"....  :doh:

This is my first foray into tuners that aren't chrome. This Cosmo Black finish is a pretty sweet departure from the straight black, and in this application I think I like it a lot.

As was the case with the the stellar neck that I recently put on my on-going "Accidental Telecaster" build, I find this headstock far too pretty to mar with a decal. She'll be staying as-is.

 

[rgand]

That really is an amazing neck. :icon_thumright:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

That really is an amazing neck. :icon_thumright:

Warmoth never fails to impress me, but man alive these last couple of necks I've received have been up on another level! Here's hoping I can do them justice...

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Ok, back to work!

Here is the existing wiring with the push/pull. The Super Switch is there because I have a tapped bridge pickup and I wired both tone pots for output loading/50's wiring. Required three poles of the switch. As it turns out I'll still need the Super Switch to support the tapped bridge pickup and the neck-add switch. As an aside, I went with the neck-add rather than the bridge-add because it allows me to still have the neck pickup by itself when the switch is on.

It is unavoidable that a 1/4" mounting bushing in a 3/8" hole creates the dreaded "Hotdog In A Hallway" effect. In order to compensate for it I put a lift kit on its truck used a few 1/4" ID x 3/8" OD nylon washers to center it and prevent it moving around. I'm not sure why this particular hole is so chewed up? Clearly I encountered some difficulty at some point. (edit: I remembered: The push pull was not clearing the back corner of the route and needed to move ever so slightly. I didn't want to increase the diameter of the whole hole, so I gave it some "targeted wallering"...) Generally this makes for a really nice fit. No worries, everything is going to be fine, fine. Just fine.

And here she is! I still have setup work to do on the neck, haven't even touched the nut yet, but I'm leaving for a while tomorrow and wanted to see her together before I go. What a beaut!

I will see about getting some better pictures and some sound samples when I get back.
ccasion14:

 

[Logrinn]

Indeed. What a beauty! Absolutely gorgeous.  ccasion14:

 

[rgand]

That really is an amazing neck. :icon_thumright:

Warmoth never fails to impress me, but man alive these last couple of necks I've received have been up on another level! Here's hoping I can do them justice...

Of that, I have no doubts. :icon_thumright: