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Other Stuff => Guitars => Topic started by: catnine on July 10, 2011, 08:51:27 pm

Title: Here is the first strat I ever built .
Post by: catnine on July 10, 2011, 08:51:27 pm

 I did 4 others but this is the first and my favorite one. I had a router and table top drill press and a 9 inch smoothing plane from the early 1900's and a spoke shave and a rasp file and a drum sander from sears that fit in the drill press. And a hand made 24" sanding bar and a wooden 3 x 12 sanding block and a good jig saw. I made the fret saw out of an exacto blade . I bought used strat Ibanez PU's , bass sized jumbo frets , a left over fender left handed trem and a new Pick guard and gotoh tuners likie the originals .

 I went to a hardwood place here and got alder for two piece body and maple for the neck and a given to me length of very old rosewood for the finger board and bought a U channel truss rod from a local guitar builder.

 At first I tried the three tone sunburst but it did not look quite right so i scraped the finish off and did it in off white .  I did this in 1989.

Title: Re: Here is the first strat I ever built .
Post by: Frankenamp on July 10, 2011, 09:28:39 pm

Impressive. The level of talent here never ceases to amaze me.

Title: Re: Here is the first strat I ever built .
Post by: gmoon on July 11, 2011, 04:45:24 pm

Sweet! The left-handed tremolo is a nice touch, too.

Anyone who fabricates a neck gets my admiration.

Title: Re: Here is the first strat I ever built .
Post by: catnine on July 11, 2011, 06:21:40 pm

 Thank you . The best part of building your own especially the neck is you can make it just how you want it. I made the neck 1 7/8 " wide across the nut. I was lucky enough at the time to know a fellow who used to work for fender so he had an exact template of a 57 strat body that he traced out for me to make my own.

Title: Re: Here is the first strat I ever built .
Post by: jjasilli on July 15, 2011, 09:27:47 pm

 :smiley:

Title: Re: Here is the first strat I ever built .
Post by: Ritchie200 on July 16, 2011, 07:55:01 pm

Very nice!  I agree with Frankenamp, I am blown away with the talent here!

Oh, I've got an early 70's body, missing neck - if anyone is interested (see pic at left). :icon_biggrin:

Jim