Billy Corgan "Mellon Collie" replica

So... to anyone that knows me, it's no secret that I'm a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan so when a friend gave me a cheap eBay strat that he was going to throw away I had an idea to do a tribute to the infamous Mellon Collie guitar.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...psd5hu4rss.jpg

The original (above) is a 1975 Fender Stratocaster that was painted yellow with the words "I LOVE MY MOM" across it in the early 90s.
In the mid-90s it was painted blue and had Lace sensors in it, was retired from touring around 1996.
Around 2011 it appeared again, the lace sensors were removed & replaced with BC DiMarzio pickups (amazing pickups BTW) and a few stickers were added (a ghost, 2 pumpkins, and some glittery stars)

So I had this cheap strat knockoff I wanted to make fun... I plugged the wiggle box hole so I could put a hardtail on it and then cue some specific masking tape placement/blue paint and sticker making.

The main 'sound' I was trying to hit (without spending many hundreds of $$ on the BC DiMarzios) was that slightly hotter, fuller sound so I found a loaded pickguard online with Mighty Mite hot rails in it... and for $80 how could I resist!

The result?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...pstxs8nzsa.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...psqr5zyxic.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...psewtvvzjt.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...psy5gjzhx2.jpg

Wow mate, that looks amazing. I too have a throwaway strat from gumtree that I was going to Billy up. It's even got the exact same headstock as yours. Was just going to get a larger CBS style headstock neck for it but found a real cheap strat copy that already has the exact headstock on it. Just waiting for some spare cash to do the electronics and I'll make it more Billy.

I saw the Smashing Pumpkins at Soundwaves last year and Billy used this guitar (amongst others). Was great to see it again. I see he's now got a signature Reverend out but it looks really weird. Great job on the Strat it looks so good.

Cheers man, yeah the neck on this is pretty s**t, it sounds good and the body is cool so the plan is to get a new neck for it one day (with the larger 70’s headstock)

Yeah I seen the Reverend.. it’s growing on me and if its half as good as the sig strat he had (I’ve got one, love it more than possible) I might bite the bullet and get one.

nice copy Mick, have you got pics of how it originally looked ?

how good do the mighty mite pups sound ?

Nice work MICK, it looks like it's been on tour with the pumpkins

Sure do Wokkaboy...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...psl0hsbcu5.jpg

The mighty mites sounds really good... they have all the humbucker 'oomph' in a single coil sized package and no hummm

Metallica strat hey, you have done a great job to transform the axe so much

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Metallica strat hey, you have done a great job to transform the axe so mych

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cheers bloke!