New Straterday

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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HNB
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New Straterday

Post by HNB » Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:22 am

Was in Guitar Center killing time waiting for my wife to visit coworkers. I found a couple different strats that looked cool and one Baja Telecaster. My favorite two strats were both Mexican made. (I didn't like the thick neck on the Baja Telecaster.) One of them had a gloss neck with a black body, black guard, and white pickup covers and knobs. Very Gillmour. I liked the look of it, but I didn't really enjoy the feel of the guitar. The other strat was a white with a all maple neck and mint guard with white pickup covers and knobs. (Kind of had a Hendrix vibe to it.) That one had a satin finish neck instead of gloss. I liked the feel a bit more and plugged it in to a Deluxe Reverb they had on display. Sounded pretty good. :) Each position had a pretty solid and unique sound. Knobs worked. The tremolo floats a little higher than I normally see strats set up, but that should be able to be fixed with spring placement or adding springs for more tension. I decided to go for it and brought it home.

Image20170729_101147 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Image20170729_101230 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Image20170729_101237 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Image20170729_101253 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Image20170729_101301 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Image20170729_101313 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Image20170729_101645 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr
Christopher
Lilith Guitars

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Re: New Straterday

Post by HNB » Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:23 am

I am guessing the stock pickups are ceramic? I think they sound pretty good. :D
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Re: New Straterday

Post by FightingPlankton » Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:05 am

2 starts in a row? Looks nice. It's white. ;)
What is acoustic? Oh, you means a grandpa's guitars? A grandpa's guitars? That's for pussies and grandpas. I think you know it.

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Re: New Straterday

Post by HNB » Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:34 am

Christopher
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Re: New Straterday

Post by thisisnickpaige » Sat Jul 29, 2017 12:42 pm

That’s great dude, I’m glad to see you on a strat kick. I myself am also on one too. Though, I must say I’m envious, this set up is my dream strat look; great buy!

How’s the profile on it?
Jesus

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Re: New Straterday

Post by HNB » Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:29 pm

Feels like a thin C. Probably 9.5 radius I am guessing. :D
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Re: New Straterday

Post by sookwinder » Sun Jul 30, 2017 1:10 am

when the wall goes up they will cost $10k !

nice looking strat I must say.
relaxing alternative to doing actual work ...

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Re: New Straterday

Post by HNB » Fri Aug 04, 2017 7:43 pm

Listened to different pickups to possibly replace the stock ceramic ones. I ended up going for these. Not too expensive and have a sound I dig.

Image20170804_163413 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

I got to work removing the old ones.

Image20170804_164955 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Image20170804_165202_HDR by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Image20170804_165001 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Surprised to see CTS pots and a nice three way switch. Shielding paint and shielding on the pickguard. The lame thing is I broke the switch trying to get the old pickup wires off the switch. I HATE how Fender takes the wire and wraps it through the hole and around. Makes the wires a bitch to take off. Now I am delayed in getting it back together because I had to order a new switch.

I think I need more springs anyways because the bridge floats too high for my taste with the strings that were on it and I am going to put thicker strings on it which would make it sit even higher.

Any suggestions on spring setting? I am not very used to strat tremolos. It was in a usual configuration with one spring in the middle and the other two made a V shape. I have a feeling the stock strings I just took off were 9's and I am going to put 11's on it.

In the mean time I put the Tex-Mex pickups in the guard. I changed the tubing out for springs. The tubing feels too stiff and hard to raise for my taste. I worry about stripping the holes out because of the tube pressure.

Image2017-08-04_08-33-24 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr
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Re: New Straterday

Post by thisisnickpaige » Sat Aug 05, 2017 5:20 am

I was always told if you wanted to still use the trem to use three really stiff ones; one center claw to the center of the block, one to the left and one to the right to the center claw going to the far points of the block, to make a sort of triangle. Or put four relatively straight across if you’re here wavy handed.

I’ve heard it said that with the triangle style you may have tuning issues, and the middle spring may become more slack and cause more reverbation or jangling inside the body. I can’t personally comment to that; it’s been years since I’ve had a strat. I always did the triangle or if I wanted to ‘lock it’ five springs and a piece of wood behind the block.
Jesus

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Re: New Straterday

Post by hardtail01 » Sat Aug 05, 2017 10:48 am

For .010s or .011s, putting in four springs allows a lot of flexibility for adjustments. I like to keep the trem right on the body instead of floating. You can then adjust the tension on the springs in the back to what feels good to you.

On the top, the six screws would need to be adjusted properly. This is easy though. The two outer screws should be just barely touching the trem plate when the trem is flat against the body. The other four in the middle can be a half turn or so above that.

You can also put a little spring from a clicky-top pen(cut down a bit to maybe 1/2" or so, maybe less) to keep the trem bar from having any play. Or you could use teflon tape or something similar as well.

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Re: New Straterday

Post by HNB » Sat Aug 05, 2017 6:29 pm

hardtail01 wrote:On the top, the six screws would need to be adjusted properly. This is easy though. The two outer screws should be just barely touching the trem plate when the trem is flat against the body. The other four in the middle can be a half turn or so above that.
I always heard the opposite? The outer two screws up a little and the inner ones more flush with the plate?

Ahh I just watched a video and you are right. :D
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Re: New Straterday

Post by Fiddy » Sun Aug 06, 2017 1:37 am

I only do the two outer springs on a Strat trem.

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Re: New Straterday

Post by HNB » Tue Aug 08, 2017 8:30 pm

Got the new switch in and pickups installed. I put in four springs and it seems to let the bridge float, but not so high which is what I was hoping for. Pickups sound good. I spent a good amount of time raising and lowering them until they had a sound I liked. At first I had them too low and they sounded kind of wimpy/trebly. Up higher the neck and the middle have much more middle and bass and the bridge isn't too ice picky.

Image20170808_203807 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Image20170808_203701 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Image20170808_203757 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Image20170808_195229 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr
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