Members woude Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 After eight months of waiting, my custom stratocaster is finished! It's made by a local luthier in the Netherlands called Vox Humana. The concept was to take an 1963 stratocaster (alder body, rosewood fretboard, 3ply pickguard) paint it in an authentic custom colour (inca silver metallic) and to give it some serious twists to accomodate my taste! This was the concept: Some things changed overtime; the tremolo is changed for the new wilkinson vintage style with the drop-in arm. This was the better choise, the modern wilkinsons give a slightly different tone and feel which I found out didn't match the sound I was going for. The dots are now silver abalone to match he body paint. I changed the 1963 logo to my own name. In the end the luthier made it in black and I like that even better, although it was actually a mistake. some pictures: Specs: -alder body, inca silver metallic -high gloss birdseye / flame maple neck, indian rosewood board, reversed headstock with graphtec nut and carbonfiber trussrod 10"-16"compound radius, 22 frets -kinman traditional mk2 in the neck -kinman woodstock middle -seymour duncan alnico 2 pro in the bridge, splittable -all contours are super smooth -neck pu. can be on in all combinations via 2nd toneknob, so also bridge-neck and all pu's together giving 16 possibilities. -master tone -wilkinson vintage bridge with drop-in arm -no backplate for the tremol-no to come -sperze locking tuners I'm very happy with the result! The neck plays wonderful and the sustain is huge due to the carbonfiber trussrod. The wilkinson bridge is solid and sperzel tuners feel smooth. The kinman in the neck gives wonderful warm, open, smooth vintage tone but it sounds absolutely huge! The low end is thunderous for a single coil! The woodstock middle pickup has balls and sounds tight. This one is not polite but 'explodes'! I love it! :-) Both kinmans sound really nice with overdrive. They keep their defenition and are never muddy. Position 4 (both on) is my favorite sound, but I'm still experimenting with pickup height as do all other owners of kinmans I understand. The seymour duncan alnico 2 pro is in balance with the kinmans, there is no volume difference between the single coils and the humbucker. I like it clean and I *love* it with some overdrive or distortion! Its not so dynamic as the kinmans and it reacts different to your pick attack, but with distortion, these are perfect with that little bit of compression. I needed a bridge that could give me a cutting distortion rythem & lead tone without sounding thin or icepicky and this humbucker has that sound. With all the switching options I can get 16 different tones, some of the humbucker / neck combinations sound especially nice. Think telecaster, but not that raw / sharp. I played with the band last sunday and what immediately struck me was how easy it was to get a nice sound out of it. My other stratocaster (mexican) could be harsh, muddy, ' jumpy', out of balance, had an icepcky bridge and could seriously hum sometimes. Not with this guitar! Everything was balanced and even and never harsh. Overdrive and distortion was solid as a rock and chords have a wonderful sustain when you play clean. A lot of people commented on the sound and my bandmates love the new sound. Last but not least; no hum!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LeftyTom Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Congrats on the finely (and finally) finished project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members silverkw Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 sweeet!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CrackerD Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Super nice!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members supercow3 Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 looks really pretty especially the birdseye neck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members woude Posted May 16, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tiger roach Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Gorgeous. +1 on the birdseye neck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alchemist Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Very nice, reminds me of certain Suhr's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Overture Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 It's beautiful, I like the finish and the uniqueness, at least unique from my point of view as I haven't encountered any customs really. The neck is especially nice. Much nicer than the horrible finish that Fender put on their necks at the moment. I would actually love to get a luthier to build me my own custom guitar from scratch. It must be pretty amazing to play a guitar that is exactly what you want. I'm also curious, if you don't mind my asking, how much is it or was it to get a guitar like that built for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ColourOfFire Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 How much did it set you back? I thought about having them make me a guitar once, but I figured out it would be {censored}ing expensive, and my playing wouldn't really be worth it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Quarter Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Very Nice Loving the Inca Silver and that B Eye neck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scott_335 Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Sexy! I really like the finish with al the chrome, especially the humbucker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sufidancer Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 One of the most exciting moments when finishing a custom is the first plug in. I bet that thing sounds as good as it looks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stanbog Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 awesome looking, especially the neck and you had to pay ....... ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blazingblake Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Looks great plays great i'm sure your on top of the world now with your new custom strat rock on man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gotboostvr Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 killer dude. I bet your gonna be happy with that for a long time.hughe improvment from the mexi-strat isnt it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peavey_impact Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Purdy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardson Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members woude Posted May 16, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Originally posted by Overture It's beautiful, I like the finish and the uniqueness, at least unique from my point of view as I haven't encountered any customs really. The neck is especially nice. Much nicer than the horrible finish that Fender put on their necks at the moment.I would actually love to get a luthier to build me my own custom guitar from scratch. It must be pretty amazing to play a guitar that is exactly what you want.I'm also curious, if you don't mind my asking, how much is it or was it to get a guitar like that built for you? It is amazing to play! The neck plays very nice and the photo's don't do the finish justice, it's much nicer in person! the guitar itself, without case was about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members woude Posted May 16, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Originally posted by gotboostvr killer dude.I bet your gonna be happy with that for a long time.hughe improvment from the mexi-strat isnt it? I have to tell you, my mexi strat has a replacement neck from the same luthier. Birdseye mape neck, ebony fretboard, carbonfiber trussrod, graphtec nut, sperzel locking tuners, and a profile that is even small compared to an ibanez wizard neck. I got it really cheap ( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members woude Posted May 16, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Originally posted by stanbog awesome looking, especially the neck and you had to pay ....... ? the guitar itself, without case was about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members woude Posted May 16, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Originally posted by Quarter Very Nice Loving the Inca Silver and that B Eye neck! I had some color samples of the inca silver and some photographs of authentic 1963 stratocasters with inca silver finish on them and they really nailed it. The photo's don't do it justice, it's green, brown or blue according to the sort of light it's in. It's a color that was used for the cadillacs in that era and I think cadillacs need some CHROME! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members superpoo Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 that's a cool axe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Overture Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Originally posted by woude It is amazing to play! The neck plays very nice and the photo's don't do the finish justice, it's much nicer in person! the guitar itself, without case was about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Moveable Beast Posted May 17, 2006 Members Share Posted May 17, 2006 Beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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