Q4 22 Challenge Pauln57

paulnb57

Great! Another challenge…
I was in the planing stage when the challenge announcement was made, so thats a result!

So, whats it to be? Deep down Im a Fender sort of a chap, Strats mostly, not a Fender necessarily, but Strats and to a lesser extent Teles, but Strats is pretty much where Im at..
I have several, all but two are Partscaters, bitsas, abominations, but Strats at heart, ish, if you squint, in the dark.
The “real” Fenders are modded, with pickup changes to reflect what I dislike about Strats, those that have trems are decked, all but one have a high output or humbucking pickup at the bridge, all have the middle tone moved to the bridge.

I suppose I should share photos a my little fucked up family of Strats

Rosie, GSP/WD
All Rosewood sublime, weighs as much as a family hatchback (and its weight relived) its get very little use, no idea why, but its lovely, I should really sell it, but….



Cray, Fender
Hardtail, lovely neck, didn't like the pickups, so it has a JB Jr at the bridge and Creamery SC size P90’s elsewhere




Performer Plus 2020, Fender
The less said about the noisless pickups the better, didnt like them, lots of folk do, but I dont, so they’ve gone.
New scratchplate, JB at the bridge, Iron Gear SC at the neck, lovely neck


Mary Rose Guitarbuild/ WD
One piece Swamp Ash body in Mary Kaye White Blonde, WD Rosewood Tele neck, Steinberger tuners, decent pickups (cant remember what) probably a Sinner neck at the bridge



Coppercaster, Guitarbuild/GSP
Nitro Copper, light relic, relic hardwear, 60’s wind pickups



Eleven*
GSP/Squier
Swamp Ash body/Squier LH neck, Scratchplate from GigInk, decent pickups, reverse slant bridge pickup



Thing
@FatePete body, Booboo neck, Iron Gear Blues Engine
From the sublime to the ridiculous….



*after the character in Stranger Things as its “Upside Down”

So after all that waffle, I bet none of you will guess what the next project will be?

OK…its another bloody Strat shaped object

Subject to minor change

I have a body blank that Ive never had the bottle to have a hack at, Ive had a few scary moments with routers to convince myself that I should leave them well alone, I also have a bookmatched, London Plain top…..@FatPete has agreed to make the body, I just need to mail the wood to him.

Neck is from my first ever partcaster and is left handed, supplied many years ago by Brandoni, currently fretless as I have removed them to fit Med Jumbos. I have a set of tuners

Body will have no comfort carves (maybe a belly carve as I had a few too many pies during lockdown) and the pickups direct mounted, no scratchplate, single push/push or pull push volume to select either neck SC or Bridge HB, no tone, although the control cavity will be big enough to accommodate one, if I decide I need one further on down the road..

Tele half bridge

First for me a stained burst finish, oiled….

Proposed body



So thats the background, all set up for some progress…..What could possibly go wrong…
More inane ramblings from the South Island soon

paulnb57

Bloody Hell!
First post proper and already a change!
I thought I had a set of LH tuners to go on the Tele neck, that’ll be “no!” then

So I forgot I had this Strat neck, that I refretted and inlaid some time ago, so I installed the RH tuners that I thought were LH and Bobs your mothers brother…we are off! I’m pretty sure I have gold string tree, Ive found a jack plate and ordered a Gold Tele half bridge….
 I may well inlay a Star into the top of the body, if I can find some bottle, that’ll tie it in to the neck.

Very tasteful!…..

benvall

Oooo I like Eleven. 

I’ve not see one like that. 

DrBob

I think the lh tuners were the ones you sent me with that Tele neck, did you want them back ?

paulnb57

DrBob said:

I think the lh tuners were the ones you sent me with that Tele neck, did you want them back ?

No thanks Bob, I’m settled on this neck now, erm probably!
Appreciate the offer though

paulnb57

Ok, so a bit of an update, not much to tell really…

The body, the wood is packed and ready to put in the mail today, I was rummaging in the loft and came across a Sapele (probably) body blank, that I forgot I had, so that and a bookmatched pair of London Plain for the top with be on their way to @FatPete to work his magic.

The neck
I saw a post on here about Mex Strat necks on offer from GuitarGuitar, at 150 quid it was a no brainer, so I got one for this project and another for “just in case”, (as you do) ituses the type of tuner with two pins on the rear. I really wanted the Fender Deluxe ones with pearl buttons, but everywhere is out of stock, or in the US, and mail costs were ridiculous, so I settled on Fender lockers, then a response to a wanted ad on here, highlighted a set with Pearl buttons had come up on eBay, in the UK, so they are also in the mail.
Id like to swap the buttons over, so that the Pearl buttons are on the lockers, when they get here Ill see if they will swap, if they are not compatible then the Pearl will go on this and the lockers on the spare neck..

So thanks to
@FatPete for making the body
@Mark123 for the heads up on the necks
@CasperCaster for the heads up on the Deluxe tuners
@Rabs for the wood for the top, I bet Ive had it a couple of years, at last its getting used…

CasperCaster

@paulnb57 good to see your project progressing. If the Fender lockers are recent-ish (<10yrs old? - after Schallers contract with Fender ceased) they will be made by Ping Well and the buttons should fit fine. Many far eastern made brands use the same type/ size fitting for the buttons on their modern style tuners, so Hipshot, Gotoh, Ping Well (Fender) are generally cross compatible. I have some Hipshot buttons from Axesrus on a set of Fender lockers.

Rabs

@paulnb57 ; Nice..  I look forward to seeing the build progress...  I stopped work at the wood place almost two years ago now. Cant remember what the tops looked like as I made quite a few but I know London Plane and I know that its gonna look good   

paulnb57

Pete just sent a few photos of the top, in different orientations, chose this, I think it has potential…

Im just a bit excited!

Rabs

paulnb57 said:

Pete just sent a few photos of the top, in different orientations, chose this, I think it has potential…

Im just a bit excited!

I thought you were using London Plane?

paulnb57

Rabs said:

paulnb57 said:

Pete just sent a few photos of the top, in different orientations, chose this, I think it has potential…

Im just a bit excited!

I thought you were using London Plane?

I thought it was!
I wonder what it is?
I could swear I got it from you…..
But then Im not sure what I did yesterday!

Rabs

paulnb57 said:

Rabs said:

paulnb57 said:

Pete just sent a few photos of the top, in different orientations, chose this, I think it has potential…

Im just a bit excited!

I thought you were using London Plane?

I thought it was!
I wonder what it is?
I could swear I got it from you…..
But then Im not sure what I did yesterday!

You may have done. I cant remember either    But thats not plane.. That looks like Flamed Maple or possibly Ash (we did have some nice flamed Ash at one point)..  Still very very nice..

TTony

That's a tasty looking top.

eSully

That top looks wonderful. Looking forward to seeing how this build goes

paulnb57

@CasperCaster was correct, the tuner buttons are interchangeable, the Pearl topped tuners arrived today, so I swapped the Pearl for the gold on the lockers and now have lockers with pearl tops.

I did consider using them to make Mrs nb57 a necklace, but Ill have to rethink that….