NoOnes First build - A standard strat!

So here we are.

For my first build I wanted something totally different to my two existing guitars (a LP and a Blueshawk) so naturally I went with a strat. Single coils, floating bridge, maple neck. Why not.

I was also up against the clock for this one, which will hopefully forgive a few shortcuts I made, as I was meant to become a dad on Saturday (but so far the little wriggler is refusing to come out!).

Lets start at the start....

I was impressed when I opened up the box and found everything in there, right down to a set of string and a pick!

The body, sanded and ready to go. It arrived in great shape, as did the neck, and everything seemed to fit together as it should.
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Originally I had a bunch of fancy ideas for the headstock but a lack of tools/proper workshop and a fear of destroying it before I had begun put an end to that. maybe next time.
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I wanted a golden colour for the body to show off the grain and went with the Coolangatta Gold. This turned out to be less yellow than i was expecting on the ash body. on the neck though the pale maple made it much more yellow. At first the contrast freaked me out a bit but with more coats and the intensifying coats the colour turned out really nice. The neck did need a lot more staining than the body, I guess because of the much tighter grain. You can't really see in the photos (everything is horribly skewed to orange!) here but the neck ended up with a nice 3D depth to it.

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Masking off the fretboard worked well and the tape came off easily after the month of so it was on there. I did the finishing coats next, with a light sanding between each coat. after that and after 3 weeks i gave it all a wet sand with 1200 grit paper and that made a massive difference to the overall smoothness.
Sadly this is where one thing didn't work out so well. I wanted to buff it out to a nice shiny finish but after trying for a while to find a what to use I was out of time.

If anyone has any advice on how to polish it up then I'm all ears as I'd like to go back and finish it off some day!

Next - the electronics and learning how to solder!

ok so after the body and neck were 'done' I got to work on the electronics.

I had already gone with the tuner upgrade to locking ones and bought a set of tonerider pickups to replace the stock ones, and i had also ordered a black pick guard as i didn't want the black and white ply that is standard so I was already half way there to replacing everything.

Once I looked at the stock pots and switch I decided to upgrade all that as well because, well, why not. So i got an upgrade set and some of these little rings which you slip over the pot when fixing to the pick guard and it gives you something to solder to that isn't the back of the pot. i had heard a lot of tales of buggering up your pot by over heating it trying to fix the ground wire so I thought I'd remove the issue.

As I'd never done any soldering before this thing was a life saver - the extra hands! Made fixing everything a breeze and would recommend it everyone!

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The earthing fixings - one for each pot - ready to go.

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One thing I found is with the replacement pick guard the holes for the pots were slightly too small for the replacement pots, so I had to drill them out slightly larger. also the holes for the pick guard screws weren't counter sunk enough so I had to re-drill them as well. A small point but unexpected.
I kept all the screws from the stock kit to re use as I wanted it all black.
Also worth a note is the stock pickup covers don't fit the toneriders - the pole spacing is different, so you can't reuse them.

I used the copper tape to shield the pick guard, screwed everything in, carefully soldered everything (pre bend the ends of your wires into little hooks before you tin them, then using the 'extra-hands' you can lock them onto whatever it is you are fixing them too and have free hands for the solder and iron).

In this photo you can see all the earth wires fixed to another one of those little rings. I then ran one wire from this to the jack to ground everything. Don't forget the earth wire from the trem claw!

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rather messy!

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Next - putting it all together!

This was the most nerve shredding part of the process.

I stressed for a long time about how to correctly locate the neck and bridge. Finally after posting on here my confidence was boosted enough to just get on with it.

I think now if i was to do it again i'd just fix the neck into the pocket and only really worry about the exact bridge placement. The neck needs a nice snug fit so that tends to dictate where it will sit. I think I over thought it far too much!

Other than stressing about this there were no real problems. once the neck was on i fixed the high and low E tuners and used the string method to locate the bridge and fixed it down.

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Before fixing the pick guard i shielded the cavity with te rest of the copper tape. I could probably have done with maybe 15 extra cm of tape!

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Naturally not everything went smoothly. Even after checking the spacing when I came to fit the pick guard the bridge was oh so slightly too close to the neck and it wouldn't fit. I sanded down the bridge cutout with a dremel enough for the trem to work and not risk catching on anything.

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I used a ruler to align the tuners before fixing them and even though the holes look in line the tuners are slightly off.

Then on went the strings, messed around alot with the trem claw tention to get this set right (so i ever so slightly pull up) and thats about it!

Attachment 19761

I may try and take a few better photos of it!

At the moment my problem is the thing will not stay in tune in any shape or form. you only have to look at it and it goes off. I give the trem a light press and everything goes sharp. I think it might be the nut, although i got a bone replacement and have given it a drop of lube. Any ideas?!

Anyway thats it. Thanks for reading!

NoOne

Looks good; I like the black against the natural wood, eh!

The tuning thing could be because standard strat bridges don't really like up bends... All of my strat type bridges are set to dive only and never have less than 4 springs; mind you I use the vibrato sparingly and only go nuts on locking bridges!!

I'm sure the blokes will be along directly to sort this one out, eh!!

Oh I like that, I like that a LOT. Clean. Simple. Elegant. Wonderful job there NoONe, i hope you can sort your tuning issues out. It may be something as simple as retensioning the claw or something silly like that. It will take a while for it to settle in as well.

Are you using the kit strings or have you put on a better set?

A classic strat NoOne you have done a great job. Sorry unable to comment on tuning issues as I've blocked every strat bridge in my possession for same reasons


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nice and simple and clean. Me likey!

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Sorry unable to comment on tuning issues as I've blocked every strat bridge in my possession for same reasons

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Which is a comment in and of itself really. NoOne, Doc_Nomis did a trem troubleshooting set up guide some time ago in the how tos, you might try to find that one.

Ah yes FW! NoOne - this guide may help

https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/...itar-properly-

nice strat, super clean , super cool.

Not sure if this helps, but for proper trem setup with 3 springs, they should be parallel , not cranked in at the claw. Claw is typically located about 25mm out from the edge of the rout

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Originally Posted by stan

nice strat, super clean , super cool.

Not sure if this helps, but for proper trem setup with 3 springs, they should be parallel , not cranked in at the claw. Claw is typically located about 25mm out from the edge of the rout

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Stan I can't recall any similar trem set up I've ever seen with them parallel, isn't that weird? Probably one of those things that people do because they saw someone else do it, but no one knows why its done!

If they are not parallel the outside springs are under more tension than the middle due to the change in length. Don't ask me it was Pythagoras's theory.

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

Stan I can't recall any similar trem set up I've ever seen with them parallel, isn't that weird? Probably one of those things that people do because they saw someone else do it, but no one knows why its done!

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Yes, some people do stuff without knowing why...

You are right Dikky, it gives uneven tension, since the outside springs are now over a longer distance than the centre one, and with some enthusiastic trem use the middle spring can drop out - that's why you dont do it.

If you are using 2 springs then angled is correct. Outside lugs on the block and either side of centre at the claw.

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Originally Posted by stan

Yes, some people do stuff without knowing why...

You are right Dikky, it gives uneven tension, since the outside springs are now over a longer distance than the centre one, and with some enthusiastic trem use the middle spring can drop out - that's why you dont do it.

If you are using 2 springs then angled is correct. Outside lugs on the block and either side of centre at the claw.

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Well. I've two trem equipped in process, so now I know how to do it right. Thanks Stan!:)

Edit: Apologies for the more or less on -topic Thread Jack NoOne!

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Originally Posted by NoOneSaidItWasEasy

This was the most nerve shredding part of the process.

I stressed for a long time about how to correctly locate the neck and bridge. Finally after posting on here my confidence was boosted enough to just get on with it.

I think now if i was to do it again i'd just fix the neck into the pocket and only really worry about the exact bridge placement. The neck needs a nice snug fit so that tends to dictate where it will sit. I think I over thought it far too much!

Other than stressing about this there were no real problems. once the neck was on i fixed the high and low E tuners and used the string method to locate the bridge and fixed it down.

Attachment 19757

Before fixing the pick guard i shielded the cavity with te rest of the copper tape. I could probably have done with maybe 15 extra cm of tape!

Attachment 19758

Naturally not everything went smoothly. Even after checking the spacing when I came to fit the pick guard the bridge was oh so slightly too close to the neck and it wouldn't fit. I sanded down the bridge cutout with a dremel enough for the trem to work and not risk catching on anything.

Attachment 19759

Attachment 19760

I used a ruler to align the tuners before fixing them and even though the holes look in line the tuners are slightly off.

Then on went the strings, messed around alot with the trem claw tention to get this set right (so i ever so slightly pull up) and thats about it!

Attachment 19761

I may try and take a few better photos of it!

At the moment my problem is the thing will not stay in tune in any shape or form. you only have to look at it and it goes off. I give the trem a light press and everything goes sharp. I think it might be the nut, although i got a bone replacement and have given it a drop of lube. Any ideas?!

Anyway thats it. Thanks for reading!

NoOne

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For what it's worth, I've had no end of trouble trying to get my Gold Strat to stay in tune, tried replacing the stock nut with a bone one, tried replacing the stock tuners with a set of Grover Rotomatic Locking Tuners, even tried a set of Gold Sperzels (supposed to be the best Locking Tuners you can buy, and they were a set of staggered height tuners too so I didn't need a string tree), tried setting the bridge so that it sat flat on the body, tried putting lubricant in the nut slots, tried making sure the trem springs were installed parallel to each other, even tried setting it up to Fender Strat setup specs, nothing worked.

That is a very nice piece of craftsmanship. Anyone would be proud to own that. Fine job Sir. Good luck with the new addition to the family

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