a new project

[david C]

rather like stratmangler I've never been able to pass a guitar shop, now with the internet everything is much worse

I bought a mighty mite neck for my SRV instead of putting it on ebay when it became redundant I bought this to go with it



I'm using this for the finish http://www.wudtone.com/

anybody got any ideas on what hardware to fit?

[The Stratmangler]

A bridge might help, along with a few other bits and bobs

[The Stratmangler]

http://www.axesrus.com/ look to have some decent parts.
They have Strat bridges with steel blocks at around £35.00, which looks to be good VFM.

I do like the idea of a Callaham bridge with their virtual pop in arm, but they're a lot dearer than anyone else's bridge - just one look at the web site and you can see their superior standard of machining.

[david C]

I must say that Axesrus are really good to deal with they've been very helpful with information and bits for the SRV,

they do a nice vintage style tremolo with the correct string spacing, I find on the modern ones the strings are a bit too close, Wilkinson's budget ones are like that,
Gotoh make a nice vintage one but it's not that cheap at 90 quid,as you say the Callaham one is beautiful, there is a Wilkinson one made by Gotoh sadly it's 120 quid

getting bits for the SRV I have gotton a good relationship with a US Fender Dealer so possibly it'll be a vintage Fender if I can get a good deal,

I'm quite confused about pickups I keep looking at these http://www.ironstone-pickups.co.uk/
they are not expensive and are talked about a lot on line,
I'm also looking at Tonerider at more money, a friend has them on a Tele and is very pleased,
Axesrus do some very good deals on loaded pickguards so that's another idea
then you can buy loaded Fender ones stripped from Strats on ebay

it's no wonder I'm confused, I can't justify expensive ones for this guitar

at least I've got some nice wilkinson locking tuners

[david C]

a quick update, the body after 4 coats of stain after a couple more coats I'll put a few coats of clear gloss on, it's oil based rather like finishing oil I've used on speakers, I think it looks a bit like a 70s stratocaster



sorry about the bathroom it's the only place I can hang it

I've ordered some Tonerider classic blues pickups after hours of listening on youtube

[david C]

got the pickguard all wired up
using tonerider pickups and a push pull volume pot to switch the bridge pickup on despite where the selector switch is set, should give some interesting combinations, also wired the bottom tone control to the bridge pickup

[Paul Barker]

I was reading the BYOB guys stuff again (hasn't changed in 10 years) after refreshing my thoughts on tone from his pages, seems to me the weakness of strats and teles is the plastic pic guard. Maybe thin ply would be worth trying?BYOB

[ed]

I was reading the BYOB guys stuff again (hasn't changed in 10 years) after refreshing my thoughts on tone from his pages, seems to me the weakness of strats and teles is the plastic pic guard. Maybe thin ply would be worth trying?BYOB

I'm struggling here, just for clarification Paul, are you saying that the tone of the Fenders is not up to scratch and that by replacing the plastic pick guard you might improve the tone???

[Paul Barker]

No I am just pointing to a man who suggests plastic pic guards affect sound adversley. A Fender may sound great, and might sound great Plus 1 if he is right.

[david C]

I must admit that I have never heard this before, if it's a question of stiffness then the original 1 ply pickguards might be suspect but the 3 and 4 ply ones are very stiff,

the strat is always a bit subject to vibration because the pickups are mounted on the pickguard but the tele has them mounted on the body and the pickguard does nothing,

there are a number of exotic wood pickguards on the market but are far too expensive to experiment with,

there are also metal ones available I wonder if he'd approve of them

[The Stratmangler]

there are also metal ones available I wonder if he'd approve of them

David Gilmour's 0001 Strat has an anodised aluminium scratchplate.

[david C]

that does look good considering it's age,

nice that the pickguard is pre 60 with 8 holes, it must go back a fair way too,

you would think that if there was anything in it that Fender's custom shop at least would be using something different to plastic

[The Stratmangler]

They changed to plastic in the early 60s when they realised that the celluloid scratchplates they'd been using were flammable, and that the quantity they had in the storeroom actually constituted a bomb risk

[ed]

No I am just pointing to a man who suggests plastic pic guards affect sound adversley. A Fender may sound great, and might sound great Plus 1 if he is right.

forgive me, I was just coming over a bit righteous......the man you refer to seems to want best part of 1000 euros for a tiny amp(BYOB) which appears to have about £10 parts in it, and no box.......so my credibility alarm went off and I wondered if he might be related to Russ Andrews or Peter Belt...

maybe I better go and read the website again, I must have made some mistake

[Paul Barker]

I agree the ss gear it's over priced. But he has diy ideas also such as the tone arm (Altmann) and vinyl spinner. His talk about natural resins like c41 is backed up in other places, and he isn't the only person to value paper cones in speakers. Overall what he has written has been one of the influences behind my thinking all along. All of the material on his site is a good 10 years old.