Grateful Dead Music Forum

Europe '72 relic'd replica Frankenstein Strat for sale in Binghamton NY. PM if local and interested.

We are all aware now that Alligator was sold at auction and restored, it was actually a '55 Strat with Alnico III pickups and not a 57' with Alnico V pickups. Most people are familiar with the guitar at the end of it's short career. However, it was modified 3 different times during those few years. At the start of the infamous Europe '72 spring tour it had a prototype Alembic Stratoblaster made by Ron Wickersham and wired direct without a switch or trim pot. It had a wood pickgaurd patch, handmade brass tailpiece, standard tune o mattic bridge, hand hammered brass plate under the output jack, Raytheon knobs, Schaller tuners, a scalloped brass nut and a brass footman loop used for a string tree for the low E,A,D and G strings. It was adorned with Harley Davidson and Keep On Truckin' stickers. Before it was nicknamed the Alligator, the guys at Alembic guitars referred to it as the Frankenstein.

Full description
[https://youtu.be/mEPddJoA7ZY]

Middle pickup
[https://youtube.com/shorts/UjQF15wVR0w?feature=share]

Bridge pickup
[https://youtu.be/dc76ZEuXJeE]

Neck pickup
[https://youtu.be/25PTLrOXvT0]

Very nice job, BD! You usually don’t see the shielded PU covers or the wood backplate on Alligators. Very impressive! If I can ask, where did you find the Keep on Truckin’ sticker? Here’s a link to my first Alligator I built last year. I’m just about to start on #2.

Bill, tgo

https://reverb.com/item/37204718-jerry- ... _sold=true

I went to college at SUNY-B. Enjoyed all 4 years in the Tri-Cities (Binghamton-Endicott-Johnson City) area.

Very nice job! I am 16 years old and have a stratocatser myself but I would kill to have something like that in my up and coming collection.

"...both famous, und infamous." -Young Frankenstein

lbpesq wrote: ↑Sun May 09, 2021 11:35 pm Very nice job, BD! You usually don’t see the shielded PU covers or the wood backplate on Alligators. Very impressive! If I can ask, where did you find the Keep on Truckin’ sticker? Here’s a link to my first Alligator I built last year. I’m just about to start on #2.

Bill, tgo

https://reverb.com/item/37204718-jerry- ... _sold=true

Thanks. Nice job on your Alligator too. I had the Keep On Truckin' stickers made by a conpany online and have since lost the link. But I had to order 25, so I won't run out anytime soon. I opted to shield the pickup coils themselves rather than the covers so the covers could be replaced if need be without interrupting the wiring.

I painted the inside of the covers with shielding paint and ran a connection to ground on the copper shielding under the pick-guard. They can be replaced without doing anything to the PUs, but new covers would have to receive the same treatment.

Bill, tgo