A new kit from PBG is probably your best bet Doc. StewMac are doing 10% off their ‘63 Strat body at the moment but that’s still $175.14 plus shipping.
A new kit from PBG is probably your best bet Doc. StewMac are doing 10% off their ‘63 Strat body at the moment but that’s still $175.14 plus shipping.
FrankenLab
Hand crafting guitars, because Death Rays are expensive.
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
Funnily enough, I just got some emails from Stewmac that was advertising some un-finished guitar bodies and necks that they had in stock, I may consider buying a Mighty Mite Strat neck and 60's Golden age Strat Body next year some time, but I'll definitely buy an STF-1 kit for sure, it'll be a good excuse to see what they're like in practice cause the STF-1 kit is actually based on the Hot Rod Strat, or at least inspired by it.
I saw some nice Charvel San Dimas Bodies and necks on the Stratosphere going for some reasonable prices, would be cool to build a Charvel San Dimas Super Strat.
Here's an example of what they look like, I reckon a Pitbull Guitars kit that is similar to these would be cool:
https://riffsofwisdom.wordpress.com/...hh-snow-white/
I seem to gravitate to 80's style Superstrats, I would probably blame that on me growing up in the 80's and seeing a lot of guitars like that in my guitar magazines, and wishing I could afford them...lol.
Last edited by DrNomis_44; 21-12-2017 at 07:50 AM.
Doc, four words......new Ash Strat kit
Build #1 - ST-1 - Completed
Build #2 - LP-1SS - Completed
Build #3 - TLA-1R - Completed
Build #4 - SGD-612 - Completed
Build #5 - ES-1G - Completed
Build #6 - STA-1HT | Completed
Build #7 - ST1JR - Completed
Current Build #8 - JBA-4
Build #9 - Semi-scratch build Tele x 2 - Completed
Current Build #10 - PRS-1H
Current Build #11 - AGJR-1 - Completed
Current Build #12 - ATL-1SB
Current Build #13 - GST-1
Current Build #14 - FBM-1
Doc, four words......new Ash Strat kit
Yep, my thoughts exactly, but I'm sorely tempted to get one of those new Swamp Ash (I'm assuming it is Swamp Ash) Strat/Tele kits that Adam just showed us in the new kits section, they look really nice.
They're actually the American Ash body kits, the body of my Fender USA Strat is apparently made from Alder and the neck is all Maple.
Last edited by DrNomis_44; 28-12-2017 at 06:11 PM.
Update:
As a way of confirming my serious suspicions of where the Floyd Rose bridge-routing was placed on the body of my Hot Rod Strat, I got out my tape-measure, set it to 25.5 Inches (it measures in both mm and inches) as per Fender Scale-length, and placed the tape measure on my Hot Rod Strat with the zero lined-up at the end of the fretboard, you can see in the pic where the 25.5 inch mark ends up over the bridge route, it definitely looks like the bridge route is a bit too close to the bridge pickup, I'm guessing it should have been positioned an extra 5-10mm away from the bridge pickup:
As a comparison, I did the same check with my Fender USA Strat, since it uses the exact same scale-length as my Hot Rod Strat, as far as I know the intonation on the Fender Strat is set accurately:
Notice where the 25.5 inch mark ends up in relation to the string-saddles on the Fender strat's bridge.
Last edited by DrNomis_44; 06-01-2018 at 01:17 PM.
I wouldn't worry too much about it, Doc. According to the StewMac fret calculator, an original FR should have the post centres at 25", a FR II and Schaller Floyd Rose at 24.937". So your posts look to be very slightly too far back, rather than too far forwards!
The important thing is where the saddles end up, and they are positioned further back on a FR compared to a standard Strat trem plate in order to provide a larger arc of travel when the trem is operated, allowing for a greater pitch change range. The saddles will end up in the right position for a 25.5" scale length.
Also, if you look at the distance the pickup is from the bridge, the trem end of the humbucker is about 62cm from the nut, whilst the middle of the trem end of the Strat pickup is also 62cm from the edge. So the average Strat pickup position edge is the same as the humbucker. In fact, as the humbucker coils are thicker, the screw pole pieces are slightly nearer the neck than the trem-side rail of the USA Strat.
I really don't think there's anything to worry about. Any differences are down to the different trem designs.
Last edited by Simon Barden; 07-01-2018 at 05:05 PM.
Hmmmm....that's interesting, when I tried installing the Schaller Lockmeister bridge (it's same like an original Floyd Rose, or supposed to be), and when I try to set each string's 12th fret intonation there doesn't appear to be enough range to move the low E-String saddle back enough to lengthen the string, the Gotoh Floyd Rose bridge seems to have more adjustment range, but when I try installing the Gotoh Floyd Rose bridge, I run into a couple of issues, firstly the brass sustain block is too long to provide enough clearance for the trem spring rout cover, secondly the bridge routing doesn't have enough clearance for the string clamp screws, I tried fitting a shorter sustain block to the Gotoh Floyd but that didn't work because the mounting screw holes on the shorter sustain block weren't in the correct positions, I think I may need to shorten the Gotoh Floyd's sustain block by at least 5mm in order to fix the problem, the Gotoh's sustain block is 40mm and the shorter sustain block I tried was about 34mm.
I guess I could try ordering one of the Floyd Rose bridges that Pitbull Guitars sell and see if that works better.
So, for the time-being it looks like I'm a bit stymied with the Hot Rod Strat, I need to order some new locking nut mounting screws from Realtone Music anyway, since the only two good ones I had have threads on them that are a bit chewed up and stripped.
So, I'm going to leave the Hot Rod Strat for now till I can come up with a solution to get it back in a playable condition again.
Last edited by DrNomis_44; 07-01-2018 at 09:44 AM.
FYI Gotoh do variants of that trem with 36mm and 33mm high trem blocks. CE1996T(36) and GE1996T933) respectively. https://g-gotoh.com/international/product/ge1996t.html
But that won't help if you've still got routing issues.
Just out of curiosity I decided to check the bridge positioning on my Gibson USA LP Studio guitar, I know that it uses the standard Gibson 24.75 Inch scale length so I got out my tape measure and set it up so that it was locked on 24.75 Inches, interestingly my tape measure seems to show that the bridge is positioned a bit too close to the bridge pickup, I'll post a pic shortly.
Here we go:
Before taking the pic, I adjusted the position of each of the string saddles so that the 24.75Inch mark on my tape measure lined up with the top of the saddle, the guitar is going to be getting some new bridge hardware, tuners, and a new nut fitted soon anyway.
Does that look like the bridge is a bit too close to the bridge pickup, or is it pretty much normal?
Last edited by DrNomis_44; 13-01-2018 at 09:26 AM.
What's the nut to 12th fret distance? I'd never trust a flexible tape measure for accurate readings as the metal end is always out by a bit. If you haven't got a long metal rule, then try measuring again but start from say the 10" mark (so you are looking at 34.75" in total) as I find it's a lot easier to just add 10 to all the dimensions rather than any other integer.
But measure to the 12th fret. Gibson have changed their scale length and although it's been close to 24.75", a lot of the time it's been slightly different. Paul Reed Smith said that he took a ruler and measured a lot of old and new LPs and said it's 24 9/16", rather than 4 12/16" (which would bring the saddles further forward). Don't assume it is 24.75".
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