Custom HotRod Strat Build.

[Simon Barden]

Plus our biggest earthquake has been about 4 on the Richter scale and loosened some dust. Rather nasty events in NZ in the past few days. Not as bad as the ones that did so much damage to Christchurch, but still, bad enough.

[DrNomis_44]

As far as I know, there haven't been any serious earthquakes in Australia, or where I currently live, but I may be totally wrong, where I live is not far from one of the Tropical Equators, I think it's either the Tropic of Capricorn, or the Tropic of Cancer, I was never that great at Geography when we studied it in Social Studies class during my secondary years at school, I was never great at maths either, but I managed to pass my engineering calculations module while doing my tech for my fitting and machining apprenticeship, not sure exactly how I did it without even studying for it before hand, I was good at spelling though, during year 8 English class, we used to be given a list of 22 words to learn, then the next day we would be tested, I used to be able to get the whole lot right without even bothering to do my homework, I enjoyed Science class a lot, maybe cause the experiments piqued my curious mind, I remember the first time Computers were available at school, the first one was a Commodore 64 home Computer, after that, the school I attended bought some Microbees, and then eventually came some IBM 286 computers, when I moved to Darwin in 2000, I ended up with an old 300Mhz IBM 386, then I managed to score an IBM 486, after that, I ended up with a 933Mhz Pentium III, then a 2.14Ghz Core 2 Duo running Windows XP, and now I have my current PC which uses a 3.3Ghz i5 CPU (I'm using it at the moment to get online), running Windows 10 Home 64 Bit, the years have definitely gone by very quickly, I think I was about 32 years old when I first moved to Darwin in 2000, and I'm 47 now, older, but not necessarily wiser...lol.

[DrNomis_44]

Incidentally, I have just found out why the high B and E-Strings on my HotRod Strat were buzzing like a sitar, the cause is definitely the Chrome Schaller R2 Locking nut, so I'm definitely replacing it with a Gotoh Locking Nut for sure, I've temporarily installed the Black Gotoh Locking nut that was on my white Ibanez RG350DXZ guitar.

[FrankenWashie]

Plus our biggest earthquake has been about 4 on the Richter scale and loosened some dust. Rather nasty events in NZ in the past few days. Not as bad as the ones that did so much damage to Christchurch, but still, bad enough.

One of the perils of living on the pacific rim, unfortunately. The edges of the pacific plate and the Australian plate bisect the South Island and create some very active geothermal spots though the middle of the North Island.

Australia by comparison sits smack bang in the middle of its very own plate being all ancient and weathered and geologically stable. Boring really. Which is probably why so much of the wildlife is fantastically lethal and in cases (Tasmanian Devils, Salt Water Crocs, Taipans) perpetually grumpy.

[DrNomis_44]

Yep, Taipans are one of the most lethal snakes in Australia, they don't just strike once, they strike multiple times, I think they are found in the Northern Territory, where I live, but fortunately I have never seen any, we also have the King Brown snake, definitely one to avoid, we also have a tiny jellyfish called the Irukandji, you don't want to get stung by one of them cause they are known as one of the most venomous creatures on earth, they are pretty small so they are hard to see in water, it has been identified as the cause of Irukandji Syndrome, the sting is 100 times as potent as Cobra venom, and 1,000 times more potent than Tarantula venom.

[FrankenWashie]

Yep, Taipans are one of the most lethal snakes in Australia, they don't just strike once, they strike multiple times, I think they are found in the Northern Territory, where I live, but fortunately I have never seen any, we also have the King Brown snake, definitely one to avoid, we also have a tiny jellyfish called the Irukandji, you don't want to get stung by one of them cause they are known as one of the most venomous creatures on earth, they are pretty small so they are hard to see in water, it has been identified as the cause of Irukandji Syndrome, the sting is 100 times as potent as Cobra venom, and 1,000 times more potent than Tarantula venom.

The elderly couple that sadly passed away yesterday while snorkelling on the Barrier were apparently stung by Irukandji. Authorities believe this resulted in at least one them having cardiac issues and tragically drowning.

The worst we get down our way are blue bottles, and they are a big enough pain. I am kind of happy that I have a pool at home and at my inlaws around the corner, though you still need to be wary of the occasional funnel web in the water and for some reason German and Dutch backpackers.

[wazkelly]

I am kind of happy that I have a pool at home, though you still need to be wary of the occasional funnel web in the water and for some reason German and Dutch backpackers.

What, random backpackers just cruising through using your swimming pool? Clothed or sans clothing? Being from that part of Europe tends to suggest birthday suits only. Would love to see their reactions if a funnel web was in the water with them. They are also one very aggressive critter. Don't see many of them up here but their close cousin the Brown Trapdoor Spider does live up here mainly in the scrubby acreage and hinterland districts and very hard to tell them apart from one another. Massive fangs almost the size of fish hooks.

[Simon Barden]

The next thing I'm going to have to figure out is how to make a headstock logo for the HotRod Strat, been looking in a few places in Darwin for the Waterslide Decal film I need for printing-out custom decals, no luck so far, but I'm not about to give up yet.

There's always this method. I'm tempted to do something similar myself on the EX-1 for a body illustration (when it comes): http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=6536

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


Finally got the new pickups, pots and etc ordered from Realtone Music for the HotRod Strat, here's a list of what I ordered:


X1 Tonerider Rocksong Black Bridge Humbucking Pickup.

X2 Kent Armstrong Black Dual Blade Single-Coil Sized Humbucking Pickups.

X1 500k Log Mini CTS Pot (for the volume control).

X2 250k Log Mini CTS Pots (for the two tone controls).

X1 .1uF Black Bee Paper In Oil Cap (for the tone cap).

X1 Gotoh FGR-1 1-5/8" Locking Nut Assembly - Chrome.

X1 Gotoh SG381 Tuning Key Set - Chrome.

X3 Tremolo Tension Spring - Stainless Steel.


I also paid for the express delivery option for my order, Realtone Music quote 1 to 2 business days for express delivery, so hopefully I'll get all the bits I ordered, in the post by this coming Friday at the least, if all goes well, I'll see if I can get a demo track together so you can hear what the HotRod Strat sounds like in action.....stay tuned.

[Simon Barden]

Good, all moving forward. I hope you've got the strings already sorted.