The Creation of Frank

This blog has been created to follow the progress of upgrading my 50s Reissue Fender Stratocaster. When I bought the guitar (used) for £280 it was completely stock. My aim was to spend around a further £400 to turn it into a Strat that could stand up against any out there....It's also proved to be a great learning exercise in guitar DIY. To see what happened and in what order, start at the bottom of the page.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Body Double

As predicted in the last blog entry, I have made the final upgrade possible to Frank - I replaced the body with a custom strat body from Warmoth. The full specs are as follows:

Chambered alder body
5A flame maple top
Black dye top finish
Black gloss back
Hardtail bridge
Heel contour
Cream drop-top binding
Routed for single coils

The body weighs in at a featherweight 3lbs exactly, and fully constructed, the guitar weighs a mere 5lbs 11ozs. That's very light, but it's perfectly balanced. Tonally the guitar sounds great, noticably fatter sounding than the old body. Visually, it's exactly what I was hoping for, which is a big relief seeing as the body was ordered over the phone.

The body cost £400 from Warmoth, plus £100 import duty and VAT. It's difficult to place an exact cost on Frank now, as it doesn't really exist at all in it's original form, but regardless of price, it's a fantastic guitar.