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.

Off With His Neck

It's been a while, and in my last blog post 9 months ago I wrote "...the only possible upgrade I can see in the future is maybe to replace the neck with a Warmoth compound radius model, but it would cost so much I don't think it would be worthwhile...".

With that in mind, say hello to Frank's new neck, from Warmoth. It has all the features I was after and remedies everything that I didn't quite get on with in the original 'vintage' neck.

The new neck features: 6150 stainless steel frets, a compound 10-16" radius, standard thin profile, vintage tint satin finish, 22 frets, new graphtech nut and some excellent flaming and birdseye maple. It cost £200 from Warmoth, then another £50 for import duty and tax, so £250 in all (which is much cheaper than the quotes I got from several UK builders). That pushes the total cost of Frank up to £876. Still, not bad given the quality of the guitar, and in my opinion infinitely better than a standard Fender USA Strat which would cost similar...

I didn't fit the neck myself, but I made a small truss rod tweak a couple of days after fitting and everything seems to be settled in place. I've played a few gigs already with the new neck and it's perfect. It has everything I was wanting, and has really elevated the overall feel of the guitar. I also think the lack of any logo on the headstock adds a certain mystique to the guitar ;-)

I'll admit now that I'm considering replacing the body with a Warmoth hollowbody model later in the year, so maybe the next post will be for that - after all, the body is now the only original part remaining from the guitar I bought off ebay 11 months ago!

The Finished Article

Well, I've played everything I can think of over the past few days in an attempt to see how versatile the guitar is, and there's not much it doesn't like. The Apache pickups are the lowest output of all the Bare Knuckle range, yet they're more than capable of handling everything I could throw at it. With the Rivera's pre-amp cranked and the master volume up as loud as I can handle indoors, they can even cope with a scooped metal sound(!). Great stuff all-round, the clarity between strings is what really strikes me about these pickups - and the clean sounds (to me) totally define what a Strat should sound like. Anyway, enough about the pickups, suffice to say they were money very well spent.

The guitar as a whole plays and feels great. The combination of sperzel tuners, graphtech nut and saddles, five trem springs and a nearly-flush claw means the guitar stays in tune great, and has (compared to some Strats I've played) impressive sustain. Although the guitar has been in a playable state from day one, it now feels 'finished'. The only possible upgrade I can see in the future is maybe to replace the neck with a Warmoth compound radius model, but it would cost so much I don't think it would be worthwhile.

Has it replaced the Wolfgang as my main electric? Absolutely, and I'd never have thought I'd say that. It seems stupid to have an ex-collectors Wolfgang sat in the cupboard, but there's nothing it can do that this Strat can't. And having made all of the upgrades myself, I've got a great sense of 'ownership' about Frank....definitely a keeper. Here's a complete list of the upgrades I made:

Fender 50s Reissue Strat: £280
Graphtech nut: £5
Extra trem springs: £5
Schaller strap buttons: £5
Callaham trem block: £50
Parchment scratchplate: £6
Callaham aluminium shield: £18
Sperzel locking tuners: £53
Graphtech Ferraglide saddles: £39
Bare Knuckle Apache pickups: £165

Total Cost: £626

Obviously I'm biased, but that's pretty impressive. For a guitar that's had everything except the body and neck woods upgraded, and which sounds as good as Frank does, I'm pretty amazed it cost that little. I'd happily put it up against some of the 'relic' and custom shop Strats I've played (which easily cost three times that amount) and it'll be a close match for sustain, tuning stability, and above all tone.

So that's it....he's done. I'll post some sound clips as soon as I can. It's been great fun over the past two months, and I've learnt alot about guitar setup and maintenance.....Anyone want to buy a Peavey Wolfgang?

Bare Knuckle Pickups

The final upgrade was to install a set of Bare Knuckle Pickups. I went with the Apache set, with vintage stagger and reverse-wound-reverse-polarity, in parchment white. They cost £165. Big thanks to my bro who helped me with the soldering, it wasn't as easy as I'd expected! A few days ago I phoned BKP and spoke to Tim who runs the company and winds each pickup by hand. Top service, excellent advice, and delivered to my door less than 24 hours after I'd ordered them.

Amazingly the installation worked first time. It took a while, but they all work and there's no crackling etc, so I'm guessing the job's done! I've only given them a quick try out through my Rivera, but initial impressions are that they sound great. Really good tone throughout, and noticable seperation between strings. Are they the best pickups in the world? I don't know, as I haven't tried all the others, but I will say I'm very impressed with these. I can see why they've got the reputation and rave reviews surrounding them.

So that's it, Frank's done. I'll post another entry in a few days when I've played some more and can make a reasonable evaluation....

Saddle Up

The day after Frank's first gig the Graphtech Ferraglide saddles finally arrived - again claiming to be "the single most important upgrade for your guitar"(!). The saddles are stainless steel but have a graphite-like insert over which the string rests. They cost £39. Like the Graphtech nut I installed, the inserts are self lubricating to help stabalise tuning and reduce string breakage. The combination of Sperzel tuners, Graphtech nut and saddles, and flush bridge mean this guitar stays in tune better than any other I've played. The pictures below show the before and after with the original saddles and the new Ferraglides. Only the pickups left to change now.....

Name That Tuner

This is the only upgrade to the guitar that I haven't fitted myself, purely because I didn't have the drill bits needed. The new tuning pegs are Sperzel locking tuners, in the Satin Chrome finish, and cost £43. Because the tuning posts are staggered in height (getting progressively lower from low E to high E) I could remove the string tree while keeping the same string angle over the nut. In operation the tuners are great - I could literally restring all six strings and get to pitch within two minutes.

Lessons In Tone Control

Having not soldered anything since my last effort at making a radio in school (over 15 years ago) I decided to take on my biggest modification yet - made possible by the ever-thoughtful-girlfriend buying me a soldering iron for my birthday(!).

I performed a common Strat mod which is to move the 2nd tone control from the middle pickup to the bridge pickup, and leave the middle pickup 'wide-open'. To my surprise the mod worked perfectly, and I can now tame the overly-bright sounding bridge pickup. Technically, this modification didn't cost me anything. The pictures below show which wire was moved to where, and an 'after' shot.

Guards Down

As you probably noticed, the pickguard that came with the guitar was an aquired taste. I managed to get a great 2nd hand 'old-white' pickguard off of ebay for the bargain price of £5.99. I also fitted the Callaham aluminium pickguard shield underneath the new pickguard, which makes the guitar noticably more quiet, and cost £18. It's starting to look a lot more like the £1600 Eric Johnson Strat that I originally wanted(!).

Block Party

According to the sales blurb, the biggest tonal improvement you can make to a Strat is to install the Callaham trem block. I'm not sure I totally agree, but I'm very impressed with the results. The block cost £50 and was surprisingly easy to fit. It replaced the stock zinc block, which was a little lighter. The mass and hardness of the new stainless steel block feels much better - the guitar is surprisingly more clear unplugged, and the sustain is improved too. All things considered, money well spent.

Lock It Down

The most essential upgrade to any guitar - strap locks. These Schallers cost £5 for the buttons (I already had the strap halves) and are fitted to all my guitars.

Screw It In

The guitar came with 3 springs in the back, but not being a big trem user I decided I'd rather have sustain and tuning stability over a floating trem. To get this I put in another 2 springs and screwed the claw in a fair amount to get the bridge flat on the body. Total cost of £2.50 per spring. Very pleased with the results, trem-sag is all but gone.

The Shaving of the Nut

The first upgrade I made was to install a GraphTech nut, which cost £5. The graphite nut improves tuning stability and reduces string breakage due to the fact that it's self-lubricating, and therefore free from snags. Installation wasn't easy, and required several attempts at sanding the nut's sides and base before a snug fit was achieved. I won't comment too much on the nut I replaced, other than to say it broke into 3 pieces when I gave it a gentle tap to remove it.

The EBay Purchase

Meet Frank. £280 from the greatest store in the world. Ebay. The overall condition is 9/10. The guitar, which is a Fender 50s Strat Reissue (Made In Mexico) would have cost around £450 new. Nice pickguard. Let the upgrades begin.

Moving to the Darkside

Well, after years of disliking Strats in favour of humbucking guitars, I've finally succumbed to the idea that a mid-priced Strat would be a good idea for numerous reasons:

a) It'll provide a good base to learn about guitar DIY and to act as an upgrade project.
b) If it's awful, I can probably sell it again without having spent much.
c) It seems that nearly all of my favourite guitarists and sounds are Strat players...Eric Johnson, Carl Verheyen etc...

If money was no object, I'd plump for the Eric Johnson signature. However, this comes in at around £1600 and I'd still want to perform some upgrades to it such as locking tuners, and probably swap out the pickups.

So, what follows is my progress with the upgrades. I'm not sure how it'll go at the moment. My current main guitar is a USA Peavey Wolfgang Standard Deluxe, and I've always considered this to be the ultimate electric for me. Ultimately I'd like to build the Strat up to a point where it can become my number one electric.

Stay tuned....