Custom HotRod Strat Build.

[Simon Barden]

I'm lucky to have a mate, Max, who used to have his own music shop, and was then a Fender demonstrator until a car accident (someone else running a red light at 70mph) almost killed him and smashed him up pretty bad, stopping him from playing for a long while. After that he became a studio acoustics expert, plus some pro-level mixing (he worked on most of the Playststion Guitar Hero stuff) and is a part-owner of (but no longer directly involved in) a small studio in Oxford.

So there's very little he doesn't know from experience or hasn't been taught by manufacturers, and he's always telling me things (like some of the above). Unfortunately he's just had to get a job outside the music industry because no-one pays their bills any more and he needs to pay the rent. He's recovering from a 2nd operation to cure some carpal tunnel issues with his wrists, and is about 50% of the way to getting full use of his left hand again. Unfortunately he is a fearsome shredder and I'm not a great fan of constant 200mph notes. It's very difficult to get him to slow down at all and put some emotion and feel into his playing.

[Simon Barden]

Cheers mate, I used to own an Ibanez S420WK (Weathered Black) Superstrat Guitar, it featured Ibanez's then-new ZR Trem system ( basically a re-designed Double-Locking Floyd system) which used a ball-bearing system instead of knife-edges for the bridge pivots, Ibanez said that the new system included features designed to improve tuning-stability, well try as I might, I could never get the S420WK's trem to reliably come back perfectly in tune, if I did a dive bomb, the strings would come back flat, if I did a pull-up the strings came back sharp, I tried disabling the ZR system and the result was only marginally better, this was with a ball-bearing pivot system that should have eliminated any of the issues with knife-edge pivot systems.

My mate Max (see above) has a whole range of Ibanez S types of different ages (he moved to them from Jems and RGs because of a worsening bad back and their reduced weight), so has a mixture of Edge, Edge Pro, LoPro and ZR trems. He prefers playing the Edge style ones over the ZR, but the one he plays the most does have a ZR on it and it stays in tune for him. I'll ask him if there are any special tips on setting it up.

[DrNomis_44]

My mate Max (see above) has a whole range of Ibanez S types of different ages (he moved to them from Jems and RGs because of a worsening bad back and their reduced weight), so has a mixture of Edge, Edge Pro, LoPro and ZR trems. He prefers playing the Edge style ones over the ZR, but the one he plays the most does have a ZR on it and it stays in tune for him. I'll ask him if there are any special tips on setting it up.

Cheers mate, that would be much appreciated because I have a white Ibanez RG350DXZ which features the ZR system, but it uses knife-edge pivots and it tends to come back flat after a dive-bomb, and sharp after a pull-up, I've tried lubricating the knife-edges with lip-eze but it makes no difference, there is very little wear on the knife edges, I also tried replacing the locking nut, tried making sure the neck screws were tight, and also tried making sure the string-retainer bar was adjusted properly, the locking nut screws are nice and tight too.

[FrankenWashie]

Cheers mate, I used to own an Ibanez S420WK (Weathered Black) Superstrat Guitar, it featured Ibanez's then-new ZR Trem system ( basically a re-designed Double-Locking Floyd system) which used a ball-bearing system instead of knife-edges for the bridge pivots, Ibanez said that the new system included features designed to improve tuning-stability, well try as I might, I could never get the S420WK's trem to reliably come back perfectly in tune, if I did a dive bomb, the strings would come back flat, if I did a pull-up the strings came back sharp, I tried disabling the ZR system and the result was only marginally better, this was with a ball-bearing pivot system that should have eliminated any of the issues with knife-edge pivot systems.


@ FrankenWashie If you want, I could do a mini-tutorial of sorts, documenting exactly how I went about setting-up the trem system on my HotRod Strat, there's a couple of tools that will make the job of setting it up a lot easier, one is a special tool you can buy from Stewmac, called "The Key", it makes setting the individual string intonation so much easier, the other tool, which you can easily make, is a specially-shaped piece of wood which blocks-off the bridge so that it rigidly sits parallel to the guitar body, once the piece of wood is in place, you simply tighten the tension on the Trem springs, when I go to put some new strings on my Hot Rod Strat after installing the new pickups, etc, I will take some pics as I do the setup on my Hot Rod Strat, and I'll explain exactly what I do, step by step, hopefully that will be useful for other forum members who are building guitar kits that feature a double-locking trem.

Thats not a bad idea at all Doc, i think it would be handy for other builders as well.

[DrNomis_44]

Thats not a bad idea at all Doc, i think it would be handy for other builders as well.

No worries, I just found a interesting forum thread article on the internet, it deals with all the possible causes of tuning stability issues with double-locking trem systems, so as I thought that maybe some builders might be interested in reading the article, I'll post a link to it here:


http://forum.ibanez.com/yaf_postst69...REM-GUIDE.aspx

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

I checked the postal tracking on my latest order from Realtone Music, and going by what I have read, I should be getting it in the post tomorrow, feeling pretty excited about it because once I have all the new bits and pieces installed, and the HotRod Strat is strung-up and tuned, I'll be able to call the HotRod Strat project officially completed.

I haven't clear-coated the body of the guitar yet, I may do that later on next year, but for now, I am really liking the raw finish on the body, hopefully on Friday I can get a demo track sorted out for you guys, I might use my Squire P-Bass, and the white Ibanez RG350DXZ to record the demo, plus some of my pedals, I'm still thinking about how I could do the demo though, might see if I can use Ableton Live 9 Standard to record it, since I can just record riffs as loops, we'll see....stay tuned.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


Woohoo!! I just checked the postal tracking for my Realtone Music order and it says this:


In transit With Australia Post for delivery today 4:35am Thu 24 Nov Winnellie, NT


So, I will be receiving all the new bits for my HotRod Strat in the post either this morning if the parcel is being delivered to my front door, or, when I go to collect the parcel from the Winnellie Post Office this afternoon at 5:00pm, either way I'm a happy chappy.

[Simon Barden]

Woohoo indeed! Hope all the bits are in full working order.

My EX-1 kit will be arriving tomorrow. It got to the UK last Thursday and was sent off on the Monday. So again, it takes far longer for it to travel from Australia to the UK than it does the 25 miles from London Heathrow airport to my house.

[DrNomis_44]

Woohoo indeed! Hope all the bits are in full working order.

My EX-1 kit will be arriving tomorrow. It got to the UK last Thursday and was sent off on the Monday. So again, it takes far longer for it to travel from Australia to the UK than it does the 25 miles from London Heathrow airport to my house.

Cheers, I'm pretty interested in finding out what the new pickups will sound like, I haven't tried Toneriders or Kent Armstrongs before, so this will be new to me, I went to the post office a few minutes ago to see if they would let me collect my parcel early, as it turned out, I have to wait till 5:00pm this afternoon to collect it, no drama though cause I have a few things to do in the meantime.

What kind of finish are you going to go with for your EX-1 kit build?, I've decided to defer ordering a 51 Telecaster kit till next year, but when I get round to doing the order, I'm going to see if I can order some Dingotone TV Yellow finish from Dingobass, I have previously talked to him about it and he said that he could make up a batch of TV Yellow.

There's a set of three compensated Telecaster String Saddles I'll also be ordering for the 51 Telecaster kit, but it is manufactured by an online company called SuperVee.com, the String-Saddles are specially machined so that they will intonate more accurately, the bonus is that they still retain the look of a 51 vintage Telecaster.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


Yeehaa!!! The parcel containing all the new bits for the HotRod Strat has finally arrived, I can now begin working on it again.


Update 2:


So far I have installed the new Gotoh Locking Nut with it's String Retainer-Bar, and the new Gotoh Tuners, and they all fit perfectly, I didn't need to use any of the Brass Shims that came with the Locking Nut, the Tuners all seem to work nice and smoothly, the next thing I am going to do is install all the new pots, pickups, and the tone-cap on the scratchplate, the last parts I will install before checking that all the pickups work, are the three new Stainless Steel Trem springs, once I know that the pickups are all working, I will go ahead with the process of installing the new set of Ernie Ball Super Slinky Strings in 42-09 gauge, and after that, I will perform a complete setup on the guitar, which I will document by taking pics of the whole setup process, stay tuned.