How about a PBG kit based on my HotRod Strat build?

[stan]

Pretty cool idea, super strat with many options, nice one Doc

[DrNomis_44]

A reversed-headstock option would be cool too.

[dave.king1]

Just in the process of replacing the standard pups in my STA with the stacked Seymour Duncans and for those who are interested can report it is routed HSH from the factory so the only mods from standard would be for the FR & the locking nut

[Simon Barden]

Good to know, Dave, thanks for that.

Whilst we are still in the design phase, has anyone got any comments about the size of the standard control cavity (having no experience with the kit)? Big enough to fit a 5-way super switch with extra caps and resistors, or a battery if anyone wants to go active? Or would a little more space be appreciated by some?

[wokkaboy]

Hi Simon I have put in a larger 5 way switch (Allparts CRL 5 way from memory) in a STA kit and had to make the cavity a bit deeper below the switch. Think a battery would be tight in the existing cavity so you would probably need to allow to route a separate battery box cavity.

[Simon Barden]

So, maybe a deeper rout in the switch area and an option for a battery box cavity rout? We'd have to pick a standard battery box for the rout idea to work.

Gotoh make a good robust one that I'd be happy with, but it's for a sideways mounting battery so quite deep (but relatively narrow). The shallower flat mounting battery boxes I've come across so far are all cheap things with less than ideal battery connections, though someone else may have found a better flat type than I have.

[DrNomis_44]

Good to know, Dave, thanks for that.

Whilst we are still in the design phase, has anyone got any comments about the size of the standard control cavity (having no experience with the kit)? Big enough to fit a 5-way super switch with extra caps and resistors, or a battery if anyone wants to go active? Or would a little more space be appreciated by some?

Personally, I can't see why you couldn't do something radical, like installing a set of Active EMG pickups, I think that this would have been a popular mod back in the 80's, which reminds me, I have a Guitar Handbook that has a project in it for a simple preamp that can be installed in a Strat, under the scratchplate, it uses a single TLO71 IC and a few resistors and caps, looks relatively easy to make on a piece of Vero/stripboard, in fact, i seem to remember making one and it did work pretty well too.

Maybe that's a good project for the DIY section?

[Simon Barden]

I'm trying to think of any other areas that could be improved. What do people think about a cutaway heel? Here's Fender's own version on an American Elite Strat.



Would something like that be worth it, or do people feel it would be too small a change to make any real difference to upper fret access?

There is of course nothing stopping anyone from doing this themselves and buying a 3rd party neck plate, as long as the neck came undrilled, otherwise the original neck-end high E side screw hole would be visible.

Any takers for this as standard, or leave as a DIY option (as long as an undrilled neck was available)?

[Simon Barden]

Personally, I can't see why you couldn't do something radical, like installing a set of Active EMG pickups, I think that this would have been a popular mod back in the 80's.

It was, some of the most famous ones being Dave Gilmour's red Strats fitted with EMGs which he used as his main guitars from '85 through most of the '90s and still uses for some of the songs .



Even I succumbed - here's my 1987 white Chandler custom super-Strat (with Kahler trem split coil EMG 89 + 2 x EMG SA, and SPC presence boost) being played in 1994. Chandlers was a great guitar shop in Kew, London (sadly it shut down a few months ago due to the landlord doubling the rent) used by a lot of pro guitarists to maintain or modify their guitars (one of the DG red Strats came from Chandlers).

[DrNomis_44]

I've just emailed Adam a new pic of my HotRod Strat, he's going to show it to the workers in the Factory in China, so, it looks like this kit idea will become an official PBG kit......awesome.