Hi Gang,
Hope all is well. Looks like Operation Strat Project is complete! So the first guitar I got the other year was a 2000 Strat online. Didn’t have much of a clue of what I was doing so figured I’d go classic. While I liked it, I could tell something was a little off with the neck. My thumb kept on sliding up and it was very slippery feeling with the modern poly.
So I decided to get a new neck out on it by Robert Rusch who many people on here know. He put on a new neck a few months ago and the wood unfortunately warped. It was Stew Mac wood and imagine quality control at a place like that falls through the cracks sometimes. Robert said he’d replace it free of charge which was great.
I decided to source my own wood. I grabbed a vintage block of maple from Adam Buchwald at Allied Luthier. He’s the guy who made Trey Anastasio's new acoustic guitar. He has a stash of top quality vintage wood at https://alliedlutherie.com/
I also decided to upgrade the electronics. I got a 50’s style wiring harness and 54 Alnico 3 pickups made by Fralin.
I told Robert to go to town using 1954 Strat specs and to do what was best for this particular guitar. My big change was to put a 12” radius on it as I much prefer that to the 7.25” radius of older Strats. Also had him strip the poly off the body and just put a bit of nitro on it.
Now I’ll say that I have played a bunch of Strats in shops over the past year. Even bought a vintage one online, but sent it back. Most Strats seem to have a lot of fret buzzing and are too bright and jangly sounding. Not usually my cup of tea.
Got the guitar back last week and it exceeded all expectations. This is the Strat I’ve been looking for all this time! It plays wonderfully well and the tone is fantastic. Has lots of depth to it. I’ve been lucky enough to play a real 54 Strat before and this approaches that. It can easily get great Hendrix / Alligator type tones and loads of others.
Here are some before and after pics (after being the top pic) plus a quick tone video. Apologies for the bad playing and the too much reverb.
PS - if anyone knows how to make photos smaller just let me know!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb_QlqZuf6s
Hope all is well. Looks like Operation Strat Project is complete! So the first guitar I got the other year was a 2000 Strat online. Didn’t have much of a clue of what I was doing so figured I’d go classic. While I liked it, I could tell something was a little off with the neck. My thumb kept on sliding up and it was very slippery feeling with the modern poly.
So I decided to get a new neck out on it by Robert Rusch who many people on here know. He put on a new neck a few months ago and the wood unfortunately warped. It was Stew Mac wood and imagine quality control at a place like that falls through the cracks sometimes. Robert said he’d replace it free of charge which was great.
I decided to source my own wood. I grabbed a vintage block of maple from Adam Buchwald at Allied Luthier. He’s the guy who made Trey Anastasio's new acoustic guitar. He has a stash of top quality vintage wood at https://alliedlutherie.com/
I also decided to upgrade the electronics. I got a 50’s style wiring harness and 54 Alnico 3 pickups made by Fralin.
I told Robert to go to town using 1954 Strat specs and to do what was best for this particular guitar. My big change was to put a 12” radius on it as I much prefer that to the 7.25” radius of older Strats. Also had him strip the poly off the body and just put a bit of nitro on it.
Now I’ll say that I have played a bunch of Strats in shops over the past year. Even bought a vintage one online, but sent it back. Most Strats seem to have a lot of fret buzzing and are too bright and jangly sounding. Not usually my cup of tea.
Got the guitar back last week and it exceeded all expectations. This is the Strat I’ve been looking for all this time! It plays wonderfully well and the tone is fantastic. Has lots of depth to it. I’ve been lucky enough to play a real 54 Strat before and this approaches that. It can easily get great Hendrix / Alligator type tones and loads of others.
Here are some before and after pics (after being the top pic) plus a quick tone video. Apologies for the bad playing and the too much reverb.
PS - if anyone knows how to make photos smaller just let me know!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb_QlqZuf6s
Last edited by Slewfoot2000 on Tue Nov 22, 2022 2:22 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Gr8fulCadi liked this
) single coil bridge PUP in my ‘67 made in Sweden Hagstrom Viking 1 that Lindy rewound for me years ago. I asked him to wind it slightly hotter than stock while retaining its signature spank. Lindy delivered in spades!
Ill let yall know how this works out. I just need 3 neck pickups for 3 of my wolfs and ill be content.