Strat Renovation - Beaten & Battered (Pics on page 2!)

[KaosCill8r]

I'm loving that green and looking forward to see her all together!

Any plans to tap into switching options in the humbuckers?

Did it really take that long to shield the cavity? I bought some copper tape for my build, but its really quiet right now so if it's that much headache I'll probably skip it.

Thanks man! The bridge humbucker is the only one that's 4 wire, and to be honest it's been a while since I've soldered anything. So I'm gonna keep it simple this time, and just wire it on a on/off/on switch for humbucker/off/single coil. Maybe if this goes well, I may come back to it later and do more fun switching stuff.

The shielding didn't take long, I was just being melodramatic It was a bit tricky because of the routing I did for the neck pickup, it was a really weird square ridge to do. Plus, the body has weird lumps and holes and stuff on the inside. I got the whole thing done in the space of an evening, and for the different that shielding makes, I'd say it definitely worth it! It depends on how loud your guitar is, if there's a shit ton of noticeable buzz/hum when you're not playing, then shield it. If it's super quiet and there's only the tiniest bit of hum/noise, then whilst it will improve things, it might not be as dramatic as on other guitars

YEah, pop those bubbles with a needle and they will go right down...

I managed to get some of them done last night whilst watching TV, but I've still go a bit of a ways to go yet!

Yeah I shielded all the cavities on an old ibanez tele copy. Almost sounds like there are noiseless pickups in it now. Well worth the money and effort.

[Moose]

Good news! I finished it today, it's all been wired up and assembled

All I need to do now is string it and intonate it, once that's done I'll post up pics and see if I can do a demo of it


Watch this space...

[Moose]

Apologies for the delay in finished pictures, I've been enjoying playing it too much!

I got some pictures whilst the sun was out just after I finished wiring it all up, but prior to putting strings (yeah I know, not exactly "finished" but you get the picture).

The whole thing:


Close up of the body:



So the top toggle is on/off for the toaster, the middle toggle is on/off for the middle, and the bottom toggle is humbucker/off/single coil.

However, a few issues have arisen .

• I appear to have accidentally wired the middle pickup out of phase with the other two. Kinda weird as when I removed it from the original wiring setup, I labeled which wire was hot. I've decided I'm keeping it this way as I like being able to suddenly choke the bass frequencies out of my guitar.
• Because of the staggered pole pieces on the middle pickup, some strings get drawn to individual poles when picking, making the notes substantially louder. The pole pieces are not adjustable, so I've had to readjust all the pickup heights/angles to try and compensate for this without losing too much volume overall.
• This thing will not intonate for shit. No matter what method I use to intonate (open string vs 12th fret/open string vs 12th fret harmonic/12th fret vs 12th fret harmonic), the note difference wants me to move some saddles (notably the low E) further from the bridge than is capable with the screw. The relief of the neck LOOKS fine, but I may have to see if the truss rod needs adjusting. If that fails, I may have to look into a new bridge/saddles/nut. But it's not tooooo big a deal at the moment as I'm not gigging, so I'll leave it for now.
• I swear these strings bend way more than they should when playing. There is such little tension there it's not true Might have to look in remedying that as well.

I am open to other suggestions from anyone about the intonation issue, because I have no idea what to do about this.



But aside from all that, this thing plays and sounds like a fucking dream! I am utterly astounded by how good it both sounds and plays! Despite the non-intonation haha.

[skullservant]

Yeah I'd look at the truss rod. I just set up my Strat with a fairly similar bridge and it was fairly easy to hit the intonation quickly

[Moose]

I reckon it's probably the truss rod, as you say strat bridges are usually piss simple to intonate, it's only the Gibson style ones that can be a bit of a problem.

Never had to adjust a truss rod before so this should be interesting!


I'll see if I can get a vid demo of it up soon as well, the sound of this is awesome

[skullservant]

Yeah, I usually don't screw with truss rods cause I'm a scaredy cat but I messed with the one on my strat to get the fetboard completely flat to take out the little bit of relief it had and it made it perfect

[Moose]

Good news! Truss rod didn't need adjusting!

I stretched the strings a bit, and set the intonation via open string vs 12th fret harmonic, and that appears to have done the trick

Nowhere on the neck sounds out to my ears, and everything seems A-OK.



Although now the out of phase middle pickup is starting to annoy me because I keep forgetting I wired it that way :lol; I'll change that the next time I change the strings on it!

[Chankgeez]

Looks groovy.

Is that a DeArmond toaster?

[Moose]

Thanks man!

It's not a DeArmond one, it's a cheap (ish) pickup I managed to get from a supplier here in the UK. The place does their own versions of loads of pickups, and I saw they had a toaster model.

Despite going for it just for aesthetics originally, I really dig the sound, it's nice and clear as a neck pickup, not too boomy in regards to bass response.

[Chankgeez]

Very nice. If it sounds anything like the DeArmond I've got in my Harmony, you're doing OK.

[Moose]

At some point I'll try and do a demo with it, it really sings with a slide!

So glad I've gotten into trying out open tunings.


And thanks man!

[Chankgeez]

When I bought my Harmony it had a busted bridge and rusty strings, but I plugged it in anyway. When I heard it, I immediately knew I had to have it. That's how good those pickups sound.

[Moose]

I want an experience like that with a guitar, I don't think I've found "the one" yet.

I kind of end up having guitars by accident, only one of my guitars was an intentional purchase, plus one of my basses.


The rest just kind of...happened

[Moose]

So I've been playing around with the guitar more and more, listening to how it sounds and responds.

I'm not convinced that my initial thinking was right with middle pickup being out of phase.


I'll try to describe it first, if this fails then I might just have to do some demos, and maybe some of you guys can help me out?

Neck pickup: On it's own sounds massive, bassy and thick. Noticeable volume drop when combined with other pickups. Sounds very tinny with the middle pickup, and ridiculously tinny with all three selected. When put with the bridge, it loses it's bass response.... I think.

Middle pickup: Sounds like any other single coil middle on it's own. Sounds alright with the bridge pickup, and is definitely humbucking when using the bridge as a single coil. Doesn't quite get that strat "quack" sound, but I figure that's because I'm using a humbucker that's being split rather than a true single coil.


Now, from what I've described just now, it seems to me that the neck pickup is likely to be the one out of phase. But I know I wired it as it should be, as the wire is one of those black cloth ones with a braided shield on it used for ground.


Anyone have any thoughts? I'm completely clueless on this and it's really bugging me

[spacelordmother]

Could be out of phase even though "wired correctly?" When I wired mine up they were definitely out of phase so I looked around and found out online that SD and Fender pups are out of phase with each other stock, so I just flipped the black and white wires on the mustang single coil and all better!

Hope it helps you out, but I'm just learning all this stuff so I could be completely wrong. YMMV!