Custom HotRod Strat Build.

[DrNomis_44]

Hey Doc. I reckon a black bridge route Will look cool. Go for it!

Cheers, but I'll wait till I'm ready to start doing the clear-coating, and will spray the Bridge-Route Matt Black beforehand.

[stan]

coming along well, Doc

[DrNomis_44]

coming along well, Doc

Cheers mate, I'm very happy with the results I'm getting so far, it's looking alot like how I pictured it in my mind, I tried attaching the neck to the body temporarily so I could see what it would look like, then I placed the Gold Strat scratchplate on the body and it did look great, might take a pic of it later on so you can see what it looked like.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


Here's a pic of the HotRod Strat with it's neck attached with it's new Chrome Neckplate and Mounting-Screws, it's new White Pearlid Scratchplate is only being held loosely in place by the neck, it also has it's new Black Strat Knobs and pickup switch tip placed in their relative positions, and the new Chrome Jackplate is placed in it's position too, this is to give you a better idea what the guitar is going to look like once it's finished:

[Dedman]

waaay cool Doc!

[DrNomis_44]

waaay cool Doc!

Cheers mate, I also have a set of three white strat knobs and pickup switch tip, but I elected to go with the black ones to match the black hardware I'll be using later on, although I could switch to the white ones too, I reckon it looks more 80's with the black knobs though.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Just got back home from helping a mate out with some stuff, we stopped by a local Darwin Luthier's place, and while I was there I picked up the Chrome Schaller Lockmeister Floyd Trem, that was going to be installed on my PRS SE Custom 24 guitar, I'm going to be installing it on my Custom HotRod Strat instead since I can always buy another one at a later date, anyway, I'm going to be doing some more work on the HotRod Strat over the next couple of fortnights to take my mind off the Gold Strat, the HotRod Strat body probably needs only a few more coats of paint before it's ready for clear-coating, so it looks like I might end up finishing this project first.

One thing I need to do is cut away some of the plastic from the Scratchplate so that it clears the bridge route, this will enable me to install the Schaller Lockmeister bridge, another thing I need to do is buy a set of new chrome tuners for the Hot Rod Strat, I might end up going with a set of Chrome Grover Non-Locking Mini Rotomatics, depending on whether I can buy a set from my local music stores.

After that, I'll need to buy some pickups and a set of new pots, I may end up going with some mini CTS pots, I think I've got a couple of good 5-Way pickup switches I can use, who knows, this guitar could be up and running in a playable-state early next year.

[wazkelly]

Hi Doc, good to see you are feeling a bit better and making some progress with one of your projects.

Just wondering if you need to spend any more money on hardware as it would seem that you probably have plenty hanging around from most of the brand name axes you have and possibly the quality may not be so bad and allow some to be recycled? Hear you pain with tuning issues and hope you can find a decent set of tuners amongst what you already have, and just like yourself, many of us have only limited budgets to pursue our musical interests. Maybe using the tremolo is contributing to things going out of tune as they are notorious for that. Would feel bad to see you throw more money at it for very little gain.

I sense you are a bit like me and always strive for perfection, which is a good thing. In fact those who know me well would probably label me a bit OCD but over time I have come to realise that perfection is sometimes near but can also be just out of reach thus forcing you to reassess goals, achievements, and outcomes where compromises to those high standards may be required. Sometimes near enough is way past good enough for many others in that pursuit of continuous improvement where just a small amount of fine tuning something might be all that is required.

Hope you see this as words of encouragement and to help you give yourself some strokes for the big things that you have already achieved and accomplished.

[DrNomis_44]

Hi Doc, good to see you are feeling a bit better and making some progress with one of your projects.

Just wondering if you need to spend any more money on hardware as it would seem that you probably have plenty hanging around from most of the brand name axes you have and possibly the quality may not be so bad and allow some to be recycled? Hear you pain with tuning issues and hope you can find a decent set of tuners amongst what you already have, and just like yourself, many of us have only limited budgets to pursue our musical interests. Maybe using the tremolo is contributing to things going out of tune as they are notorious for that. Would feel bad to see you throw more money at it for very little gain.

I sense you are a bit like me and always strive for perfection, which is a good thing. In fact those who know me well would probably label me a bit OCD but over time I have come to realise that perfection is sometimes near but can also be just out of reach thus forcing you to reassess goals, achievements, and outcomes where compromises to those high standards may be required. Sometimes near enough is way past good enough for many others in that pursuit of continuous improvement where just a small amount of fine tuning something might be all that is required.

Hope you see this as words of encouragement and to help you give yourself some strokes for the big things that you have already achieved and accomplished.

Hi Wazkelly, I will admit that I can get a bit OCD with perfection too mate, i blame that on me being a Virgo (well known for their pursuit of what they believe is perfection), especially when getting a guitar in tune, if a guitar is even the slightest bit out of tune it tends to irritate me, anyway, I probably do have hardware on some of my other guitars I could use, but as some of the hardware is definitely getting a bit worn out and I actually have a limited amount of good hardware in stock, sometimes I don't have many other options other than ordering stuff online, I'm going to try and reign-in my spending a bit over the Christmas season cause I want to do some house-cleaning during the Christmas holidays so I can get rid of some stuff I no longer want/need, I'll need to do it anyway prior to doing the move to Cairns, cheers for the words of encouragement mate.

[wazkelly]

All good buddy.

Hearing an axe slightly out of tune for you is probably like the sound of someone dragging fingernails down a chalk board as both are quite annoying and irritating. I know if I am out and about and there is live music any pitch issues, whether vocally or instrumental are hard to ignore and many mere mortals, or rather those non-musical beings amongst us just don't seem to hear what is really going on. Clearly blissfully ignorant whilst downing more of their preferred beverage.