Members Floyd Rosenbomb Posted December 4, 2013 Members Share Posted December 4, 2013 "Build" meaning that you bought parts from different distributors. Built a Strat 5 years ago. My budget was $800 and had several things in mind that I wanted the guitar to have. With an $800 budget I learned pretty quickly that buying a body with a sweet finish was not going to be an option. Really wanted to do a Candy Apple Red finish, and still might. So, here is my Strat. I really like this guitar. Learned a lot about set up in the 20 years that I have been playing and it was nice to be able to take something from 0 to 60 and end up with a guitar that has a feel and sound that I really enjoy, and it is something that I could not buy anywhere with these features. So this is her, "Big Poo" Her name is "Big Poo" because in the wood grain on the top half of the body appears the patron saint of Big Poo, much like when the likeness of Jesus is seen in burnt toast. I thank KNE guitars for that. So some specs if you are interested, KNE made two piece Charvel San Dimas alder body finished in tung oil. This body is pretty much like a Strat except the lower horn has a deeper cut away. Warmoth Wolfgang pro neck with stainless steel standard Strat size frets, 10-16 compound radius with light tru oil finish. This is an asymmetrical neck, fat on top and thinner on the bottom, it's an EVH design. Pickups are direct mounted Dimarzio Neck: Area 67 Middle: FS-1 Bridge: Virtual Solo. Single tone and volume for all pickups. Pots are 500k and the cap is .22. These values are not standard strat values, but they are actually what Dimarzo recommends, and after some experimentation I found them to be more satisfying then the standard 250K pot and .47 cap for Strats. I think it simply sounds more modern. I love the DiMarzio FS-1 and think it makes a tremendous middle pickup, it was a pickup made famous by David Gilmour and Mark Knopfler. An older design, but a real winner in my book, it likes 500K too. The Virtual Solo is mean a SOB with distortion and or overdrive, I really love it. It is also nice clean. The Area 67 is a good pickup imo. It distorts well and the clean is a bit vintage, so a nice versatility there and when I'm in the 4 position with neck and middle pickups I'm in heaven. The trem is a GFS steel American spaced trem with a fat Floyd type arm. It has been a really good trem for me, it has a nice fat block too. The nut is Graph tx with Teflon in the nut so that it is really slippy. Guitar stays in tune great with the help of Carl Verheyen's advice on claw angle. Tuners: Fender locking with staggered heights, so no need for a string tree. Anywho, what did you build and how did it turn out?? And for anyone considering building a parts Strat, I say go for it, you can always get help here if you run into problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kayd_mon Posted December 4, 2013 Members Share Posted December 4, 2013 I have built two, still own one. I'm about to sort of build another one, but the project might have to wait until summer. The one that worked best was really just Fender USA parts purchased off eBay. It's got Texas Specials for the neck and middle and a JB Jr in the bridge. It used to be my #1 as we say, but it's been out of the rotation for a while. I'll post pics later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ugameus Posted December 4, 2013 Members Share Posted December 4, 2013 I just finished putting one together. It is a MIM body, ocean tourqoise maybe. It has some battle scars, but I don't really care about that. It has an Allparts neck with rosewood board and light gun oil finish. The pickups are BG Pups Pure 90's in black with a les paul toggle switch and volume control. The bridge is GFS saddles and trem with a no name bridge plate. Pickguard is parchment. I am going to redrill the neck mounting holes for better alignment. Other than that it sounds and plays amazing. It is my official open G guitar. The Pure 90's sound great in open G. I will get a pic at some point and post it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PorscheDad Posted December 5, 2013 Members Share Posted December 5, 2013 I'm happy with my build... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chordite Posted December 5, 2013 Members Share Posted December 5, 2013 That's good. A guitar that sits in the middle of the Bristol stool scale should play in a well balanced way with no straining or mushy sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Floyd Rosenbomb Posted December 5, 2013 Author Members Share Posted December 5, 2013 Bristol stool scale, ....who knew. You guys keep a tab on total cost of your builds? I really hoped to do it for under $700, but it seems too many corners start to get cut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.