New hardware being ordered for my two Fender guitars.

Hey everyone,

I'm currently in the process of ordering some new hardware for my two Fender guitars, so that I can do some upgrading/modding work on them, here's a list of the hardware I'm ordering online:


* Two Fender LSR roller-bearing nuts.

* Two sets of chrome 6-in-line staggered-height Hipshot Griplock locking tuning-machines.

* One chrome Babicz FCH Telecaster bridge.


I ordered the two Fender LSR nuts from Warmoth Guitars last fortnight, and the two sets of Hipshot Griplock tuners this morning.


I'm going to be upgrading/modding my Fender USA standard Strat to Jeff Beck Strat specs, it already has a set of Fender N4 noiseless pickups on it, all it needs now are the Fender LSR nut and locking tuners, the bridge is a SuperVee Bladerunner and is still good.

My Mexican Telecaster will be getting a Fender LSR nut, set of Hipshot Griplock tuners, and a Babicz FCH Telecaster bridge installed on it, I'm replacing the stock bridge because the bridge plate has some corrosion on it, and the string-saddles are a bit pitted, so I thought that I would just replace the stock bridge with something better.

Both Fender guitars have standard Fender tuners on them, which don't seem to be holding tune very well, will post some pics once I've got all the new hardware.

Update:

Both the new Fender LSR nuts and locking-tuners are now on there way in the post, I'll be ordering the new Babicz Telecaster bridge next fortnight.

Last night, the un-thinkable happened, while testing-out a mod I did to the Super Vee Bladerunner bridge to eliminate a squeaking-noise, I pushed the trem-arm down to the body and heard a loud bang, I looked down at the bridge of the guitar and saw that the trem-arm had broken-off with the threaded part of it still in the threaded socket on the bridge, I said a few swear-words which I won't repeat in this thread....I'll leave it up to your imagination as to which swear-words I said, and then I closed the lid on the guitar's case and decided to leave it till the morning after I'd gotten a good sleep.

Anyway, I had a look at the guitar this afternoon and managed to extract the broken-off piece from the threaded socket, I'll post a pic so you can see where the break occurred.


Here we go:

Attachment 37515


So, I thought to myself, "How am I going to fix this", then while browsing on The Stratosphere website, I realized that the official Fender Strat Ultra bridges would be a virtual drop-in fit for the Fender USA Standard Stratocaster, what's more, the trem arm on the Strat Ultra bridge simply pushes-in rather than screws-in, and, the bridge on the Jeff Beck signature strat looks practically identical to the Strat Ultra bridge, so, I'm going to go ahead and order one of these official Fender Strat Ultra hardware packs as soon as I can:

https://stratosphereparts.com/fender...dpIyxY_cSN_ysw

So you have to order more Fender parts! Is this the "official" cover story. It seems very well planned.:rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trevor Davies

So you have to order more Fender parts! Is this the "official" cover story. It seems very well planned.:rolleyes:

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Yeah....I know....lol.


Unofficially....it's officially, official, but we already knew that...um...er....officially......

Update:


Just ordered a new Chrome Babicz FCH Telecaster bridge as a replacement for the bridge that came stock on my Fender Mexican Telecaster, looking forward to installing it and seeing how well it works, I've read plenty of good reviews about it.

Yeah their good stuff Doc. Easy to setup and I would definitely use again on builds

Update:


According to Australia Post tracking, the new Chrome Babicz FCH Telecaster bridge is at the Darwin Post facility and should be due for delivery tomorrow, still waiting on the other bits of hardware I ordered to arrive in the post.

Update:


Just received the new chrome Babicz FCH Telecaster bridge in the post this afternoon, and I finished installing it on my Fender Mexican Telecaster before doing a rough setup, I was pleasantly surprised at just how easy it was to install and set up, it was literally a drop-in fit for my Mexican Telecaster, I had practically no issues whatsoever installing it, definitely worth the money, after doing a quick play-test I noticed that the strings do sound a bit more even in tone, there seems to be a bit more sustain, I like the attack I get when picking notes especially on the G, B, and high E-String, I also noticed that the bridge felt nicer when palm-muting the strings, no roughness or sharp-edges, the saddles on the old bridge had some slight pitting, the new bridge felt noticeably lighter than the old one, but I didn't hear any negative effects on tone, I'd definitely recommend buying these Babicz FCH Telecaster bridges if you're after something decent to replace an old worn-out Telecaster bridge, definitely happy with it so it's a keeper, plus it does look cool.


I'll post a pic of the new chrome Babicz FCH Telecaster bridge installed on my Mexican Telecaster tomorrow morning, I've given the setup of the guitar a bit of a tweak and it seems to be playing pretty well now, no fret-buzz anywhere on the neck, the action at the 17th fret is set to typical Fender specs...4/64 Inch, or 2/32 Inch at the 17th fret for all the strings, I think the Mexican Telecaster will turn out great once the new Fender LSR Roller Bearing nut, and staggered-height Hipshot Griplock locking-tuners are installed.

I'll need to order two more 6-packs of new GHS Big Boomers 42-09 gauge strings from Stewmac soon, I'm totally out of new strings.


Here's a pic I took of the new Babicz FCH Telecaster bridge after I installed it on my Mexican Telecaster:

Attachment 37640

Update:

I ordered the new bridge for my Fender USA Stratocaster today from an online website called The Stratosphere, the new bridge I ordered was an official Fender Jeff Beck Stratocaster bridge which uses two pivot posts, as far as I can see, it should be a drop-in fit for my Fender USA Stratocaster, it comes with all the necessary hardware, plus springs and whammy bar, can't wait to play it after all the mods are done.

Note: I'm still waiting on all the other bits of hardware to arrive in the post.

Update:

The two Fender LSR roller-bearing nuts I ordered from Warmoth Guitars arrived in the post yesterday, will post some pics later on.


Here we go, pics of the new Fender LSR roller bearing nuts I ordered from Warmoth Guitars:

Attachment 37769

Attachment 37770

Update:


Woohoo!!!......check out what turned-up in the post this after noon, a new genuine Fender USA Jeff Beck Stratocaster bridge for my Fender USA Stratocaster, it uses the same two-post pivot system so it should be a virtual drop-in fit, I'm just in the process of installing it now.

Attachment 37804


And here's a pic of the new Jeff Beck Stratocaster installed on my Fender USA Stratocaster.

Attachment 37806

Are the guitars already roller equipped or do you need to modify the fret board for that roller nut?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain

Are the guitars already roller equipped or do you need to modify the fret board for that roller nut?

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No, the Fender USA Strat originally came with a plastic nut on it, I need to widen the nut-slot in order to fit the new Fender LSR nut to the neck, in order to do that, I need to cut-away some wood from the front of the nut-slot that's facing the first-fret, the reason for this is because the center of the ball-bearings is supposed to line-up with where the front of the nut-slot is to ensure accurate intonation, the center lines of the ball-bearings then becomes the zero-point for the scale-length of the neck, same for the Fender Mexican Telecaster.


This diagram shows where the wood needs to be removed from to enable the LSR nut to fit on the neck:

Attachment 37807

Yeah cool, that’s what I was thinking re the centre line of the rollers. Might be fun to use one of these on a build at some point.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain

Yeah cool, that’s what I was thinking re the centre line of the rollers. Might be fun to use one of these on a build at some point.

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You can order them online from Warmoth Guitars, just remember that those Fender LSR roller nuts are designed to fit necks with a 9.5 inch radius.

https://www.warmoth.com/

Update:


Ok, so the two sets of Hipshot griplock tuners arrived in the post this afternoon, and I wasted no time in installing them on my two Fender guitars, yesterday I went ahead and installed one of the two new Fender LSR nuts on my Mexican Telecaster, up to this point in time, all the mods to the Mexican Telecaster have been done and I am very pleased with the results I'm getting, I'll post some pics soon so stay tuned......


Here we go, some pics of my modded Fender Mexican Telecaster:

Attachment 37898

Attachment 37899

Attachment 37900


As far as I can tell with my ears, the Fender LSR nut I installed does not seem to be imposing any negative impact on the tone of the guitar, all strings ring cleanly with no sitar-buzzing at all, in fact, I think the new LSR nut has actually improved the tone of the guitar when the open-strings are plucked, tuning seems pretty stable too, those Hipshot Griplock locking-tuners are very smooth, and seem to hold the pitch of the strings well, the new chrome Babicz FCH bridge seems to be doing what it's supposed to do, the sustain on all the strings is good, over all, I'm very pleased with the results I got with the new hardware I installed, just need to finish modding my USA Strat and then all the work will be finished.


You've probably noticed that there is no string-tree for the high B and E strings on the headstock of my Mexican Telecaster, it's not needed, especially with the Hipshot Griplock locking-tuners, they are staggered-height types, the tuners for the high B and E strings have the shortest shafts, this helps create a better back-angle so that the strings ring cleanly, just behind each pair of hardened steel ball bearings in the LSR nut, there's a small piece of neoprene rubber which dampens-out any sympathetic string vibrations behind the LSR nut.


So, how difficult was it to install the LSR nut?, it actually wasn't very difficult at all, just a little time-consuming, but if you keep your patience, and stay focused, it is entirely do-able by hand, I would suggest getting the following tools first:


* A good Digital Vernier caliper, you can buy them from Jaycar electronics, cat. number TD 2082.

* A thin bladed saw, like for example a Dovetail joint saw.

* Some G-Clamps to hold the guitar neck on the workbench.

* And some blue low-tack painters masking tape.

I'll do a write-up later on explaining how I went-about installing a Fender LSR nut.

Attachment 37921

Attachment 37922

Attachment 37923

So that's all the mods to my two fender guitars finally completed, and I'm very pleased with the results I'm getting, those new chrome 6-in-line Hipshot Griplock locking-tuners are some of the best locking-tuners I've ever tried so far, I've tried Sperzels, Fenders, Schallers, and Grovers, the Hipshots are by far the best of the bunch, the UMP (Universal Mounting Plate) that comes with the Hipshot Griplocks make installing them a real breeze....you do not need to drill any mounting-screw holes in the back of the headstock, tuning is very smooth, I think the gear-ratio is 18:1, the new Fender LSR roller ball-bearing nuts do seem to be helping to make keeping the guitars in tune much easier, there seems to be a very minimal amount of friction in the nut-slots due to the ball bearings being made out of hardened steel and providing a very small string-contact area, because I'm using locking-tuners, I no longer need to wrap the string round the tuner-shaft to secure it in place, only about half a turn is needed since the string is secured via a pin in the centre of the tuner-shaft, this gives two benefits, firstly it speeds-up re-stringing, secondly there's no extra windings to loosen and tighten making the strings go sharp or flat, that has been eliminated.

Since the Hipshot Griplock tuners are staggered-height types, the string back-angle for each string is a bit more consistent, helping the strings to ring cleanly.


I would say that it was definitely worth the money I spent on the new hardware.


The trem on my USA Strat seems to be very sensitive, you don't need to move the trem bar much to get a lot out of it, I can even get Jeff Beck flutter effects out of it too, the strings come back up to pitch when dive-bombing, something which was hard to achieve with the USA Strat's stock trem, often the low E-string would come back sharp.