Members hangwire Posted June 8, 2011 Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 I am a neck position guy for sure. I dig the look of that! I am not normally a Strat kinda guy, but I am so broke these days, that I have to find something decent for under a hundred bucks to mess around with at home/recording...my band broke up last month. I think the issue with strats is that they are pretty decent moding platforms... but you rarely see any "different" ideas on one... so they get branded as boring. Plus you can't do much with the bridge/body cut for bridge than the typcial stock stuff without lots of money or really going overboard... so they tend to look the same from that perspective too... I'd love a Maestro vibrola or bigsby type system on a strat but the tones of a neck pickup on a decent strat is great... classic, but open to new avenues... so I guess I'm saying broing people make strats boring have fun with it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted June 8, 2011 Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 guitarfetish has those xaviere strats on closeout that are pretty cheap too and have some nice color options... if I did do another strat project... it would be black with tort pickguard... non maple neck [maybe block inlays? who knows] with oversized headstock... whatever neck pickup dick dale is using, and a jazzmaster or dearmond style pickup angled in the bridge position ... white covers and knobs... same 3 way switching system... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members goodhonk Posted June 8, 2011 Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 pick up a squier, they sound good and feel great. $70 or trade for pedals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xautumnsashesx Posted June 8, 2011 Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 I have one, that I have had since the mid 90's. Stock they are pretty crap, but seem to play nicely, at least the Strat style ones, which is what I have. I would stack mine up against any guitar in the sub $500 range, I have modded the crap out of mine, though. New tuners are a must. Pickup changes are a bit tricky, the stock pickups are wider than Fender single coils, and standard Fender pick guards don't line up with the drilled holes in the body. The do have the "swimming pool" route, and a fender guard can be fitted if you are willing to drill new holes. Mine is a 3 piece body, that I remember being solid wood. It has a nice strong unplugged tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted June 8, 2011 Author Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 pick up a squier, they sound good and feel great.$70 or trade for pedals yeah, saw that one. I haven't liked a Squire I have played yet, but always try them if I see them just in case. I have to sell my Hamer Eclipse before I get anything, but I am always looking.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted June 8, 2011 Author Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 I have one, that I have had since the mid 90's. Stock they are pretty crap, but seem to play nicely, at least the Strat style ones, which is what I have. I would stack mine up against any guitar in the sub $500 range, I have modded the crap out of mine, though. New tuners are a must. Pickup changes are a bit tricky, the stock pickups are wider than Fender single coils, and standard Fender pick guards don't line up with the drilled holes in the body. The do have the "swimming pool" route, and a fender guard can be fitted if you are willing to drill new holes. Mine is a 3 piece body, that I remember being solid wood. It has a nice strong unplugged tone. all these things are good to know thanks! I am thinking about just getting a loaded pickguard from GFS at some point.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members duderanimous Posted June 8, 2011 Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 oh man, I had a Lotus Strat copy back in like 1985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted June 8, 2011 Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 I have one, that I have had since the mid 90's. Stock they are pretty crap, but seem to play nicely, at least the Strat style ones, which is what I have. I would stack mine up against any guitar in the sub $500 range, I have modded the crap out of mine, though. New tuners are a must. Pickup changes are a bit tricky, the stock pickups are wider than Fender single coils, and standard Fender pick guards don't line up with the drilled holes in the body. The do have the "swimming pool" route, and a fender guard can be fitted if you are willing to drill new holes. Mine is a 3 piece body, that I remember being solid wood. It has a nice strong unplugged tone. obviously styles and taste are personal for a reason, but: sunburst, no neck pickup, bridge humbucker = I would have no use for that guitar in any way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted June 8, 2011 Author Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 hahaha^....my same thought....but the guitar itself doesn't look bad. My main reason for considering a Strat after all of these years of not wanting one, is I'll be damned if they aren't the most comfortable guitars to play, sitting down and standing up. My Hamer Eclipse is fine playing standing, but really uncomfortable to play sitting down, which is what I'll be doing until another band comes together. The sound of single coils doesn't thrill me, thus my dream of a GFS pickguard loaded with Firebird pickups with a master volume, master tone and the middle pickup wired directly to it's own volume so I can bring it in and out, like how a Firebird VII is wired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jisatsu Posted June 8, 2011 Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 The last existing picture of my old lotus guitar. I bought it brand new in 1993 from the Trading Musician in Seattle. The body was a solid peice of ash, and the guitar weighed quite a bit. The neck was fine, but I broke the plastic nut on it in about 03. I replaced the nut with a bone one and it really brought the guitar back to life. The pickups were horrible, and were changed out with some cheap fenders that were laying around a local music shop. I can't remember which ones they were, but they were better than the stock ones. I beat the crap out of that guitar, dropped it so many times, put bad stickers all over it, and deployed with it twice. I had it fixed up and worked on in 2007 but it suffered from an angry ex girl friend attack and is now in peices in it's case in my closet. If I could find another one like it, I'd buy it in a heart beat because it really was a great guitar after a little work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xautumnsashesx Posted June 8, 2011 Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 obviously styles and taste are personal for a reason, but: sunburst, no neck pickup, bridge humbucker = I would have no use for that guitar in any way Each to their own, right? One major selling point of this guitar is that it is a great modding platform. The swimming pool route make it accept just about any pickup combo if you are willing to redrill some holes for a real Fender sized pickguard. For me, I had it setup with the JB, and the stock middle and neck pickup. I only ever used the JB and the volume control. I like it simple and stripped down. The sunburst I am not crazy about, but I loved it when I got it at 14. If you can find on for less than $100, pick it up. I've seen them go for as low as $50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted June 9, 2011 Author Members Share Posted June 9, 2011 Each to their own, right? One major selling point of this guitar is that it is a great modding platform. The swimming pool route make it accept just about any pickup combo if you are willing to redrill some holes for a real Fender sized pickguard. For me, I had it setup with the JB, and the stock middle and neck pickup. I only ever used the JB and the volume control. I like it simple and stripped down. The sunburst I am not crazy about, but I loved it when I got it at 14. If you can find on for less than $100, pick it up. I've seen them go for as low as $50. yeah man, the swimming pool route is appealing to me for the flexibility with pickup types, I wouldn't mind drilling a few holes in a sub $100 guitar at all. What I am after is a comfortable players guitar that sounds decent. My needs require no more at the moment.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tvvoodoo Posted September 11, 2011 Members Share Posted September 11, 2011 Ressurecting an ancient history thread for an update on Lotus gits. This is my mom-in-law Diane, who works in a thrift type shop and came to visit us bearing an... um.... something black notice that she's holding it upside down. Yeah, she's a playah! And a lefty. Without stripping it down or opening it up, there are very few clues as to what it is, or what it is made of. But at the very least she's got very much mojo. Looks like it has been played, and that is rosewood under there, I believe. Thanks to some sharp guys on AGF, we were able to determine it is indeed a Lotus, even though there is no brand on this thing anywhere. This is as-received. No bridge, but I ha enough parts around to get it going, eventually. Few more pics. It's got three types of mismatched tuners! Pretty hilarious unless you are the new owner Ugh.... she needs some deep cleaning. Apparently it was owned by a Mormon fellow, so perhaps she's seen a lot of stage time in worship type performances. I won't hold that against her. :grin: But if cleanliness is next to Godliness, well... 'nuf said. Total cost, including shipping, $5 Canadian. One thing I immediately noticed was how extremely thin this thing is. It's super skinny body wise, like less than an inch and a quarter, but the neck is SUPER chunky, more so than my gibson. Very curious. I'm calling it "The Spade," for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tvvoodoo Posted September 11, 2011 Members Share Posted September 11, 2011 Had a bit of time later on today with "The Spade." Here's what happens when a doofus loses the screws to his cavity cover... Yeah, good old scotch tape. Nice. there was a lot of glue and other questionable residue all over this thing... so I hit it good with the goo gone... and put some screws in. the large rubber washer for the jack is hiding a repair. Looks like it was torn out at some point, and the guy tried to use epoxy to repair it. The pocket showing all that humungously expensive and gorgeous multi-ply tonewood Here's the bridge pup pulled. I hope nobody paid for humbuckers! Something is missing here. so after a general cleanup and the installation of a bad-ass type bridge I had kicking around, (I needed to hit the bottom of the stud slots just ever so slightly with a file so it would fit onto the posts), i tightened all the loose tuner screws and strung it up with a cheap set of Alice strings waiting just to meet a guitar like this. The nut is plastic, but not bad. I've seen worse. The high E tuner is stripped. Will not grab, so the tuners need to be changed out. No big, I have a suitable set from my old stellar that'll be perfect - they weren't bad, I just went gold. plugged it into my rig, and the most horrible squealing imaginable ensued. wiggled around with the jack, and eventually was able to get guitar-like tones out of this. Both pups work, knobs and switch does what they are supposed to do, but only when you have the cable wrapped back, pulling up on the jack. By some miracle, perhaps divine intervention the pots weren't even scratchy. Was I blown away? nope. Was it awful? nope. Actually kind of dug the neck pup - that one might stay. I have yet to dick around with intonation or pup height. The frets are a bit worn in the cowboy chord section, as you can see by the board, and they are dirty and scratchy. The action was on the high side, so no buzz, but the TR has not been touched, and was rattling around (stopped when strung) so I assume it is fully relieved. If I can put just a touch of back bow into it, I believe I can actually get a pretty nice action out of this one. So, it's going to take some elbow grease, already has, but for low $ I got me a pretty HNUGD, and a pretty nifty winter project that ain't going to cost me an arm and a leg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members echoman Posted October 28, 2013 Members Share Posted October 28, 2013 I have 3 of these and they are an excellent bargain. Not much info on the web but I believe they were made in India and are good quality....The neck and body are rock solid as the guitar is one of the heavier strats I've hefted. I have a really old one in which the body is made of laminate (not the plywood from the hardware store) of about 10 ply - the other two are heavier and made from a solid piece of wood. The neck is solid and straight with nice fat frets, maple with rosewood fingerboard. The electrics are of good quality and I've noticed the pots are 500k (most strats have 250k pots for single coil pickups) which would explain why they have been described as trebly. The pickguard, bridge, and pickups are not the standard strat size and are not 'hot swappable' with off the shelf strat style replacements without work. Although I like them the way they are I've replaced the tuners, the nut(they come with a black plastic one that is expoxied in and is tedious to remove but well worth replacing) and have covered the inside of the pickguard with aluminum foil tape. Because the pots are 500k that makes them suitable for humbuckers like the seymour duncan one that fits in the bridge. Rock solid and great fun to play.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kolapsar Posted November 9, 2013 Members Share Posted November 9, 2013 tvvoodoo wrote: Here's the bridge pup pulled. I hope nobody paid for humbuckers! Something is missing here. Is that just transmitting sound by pure capacitance? What is that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members starky Posted February 27, 2021 Members Share Posted February 27, 2021 Yes I just inherited a black 1970 L555 lotus and I wouldn't trade this guitar for a brand new any thing. Beautiful action on it ,it plays like a big fat wet dream.the pick ups are now humbuckers because the originals are junk. The tone I get out of this guitar with my 1985 alvarez tube screamer is unmatched by todays standards. Till death do us part and not a minute earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members James pitts Posted March 19, 2021 Members Share Posted March 19, 2021 I have a lotus my gf got me and I don't know the value ,but I'm looking for set parts to get it playing,I'll send a pick,tell me what's the best parts I can buy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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