Faker Startocaster

Finally!  It lives!

Actually, I’ve been a bit slack; it’s been alive for the last month or so…

I was down to play Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing” at the annual UKMG National in Buxton and *really* needed a Strat.  So, with only the wiring and a setup to do, I dedicated a couple of hours one evening and…

<fanfare>TA-DA!!!!!!</fanfare>

Well, it’s a Strat – what did you expect?  “Three single-coil pickups and a whammy bar,” to quote Tia Carrere in “Wayne’s World”.  Although I’ve made a couple of additional tweaks:

• Bridge pickup is also connected to the middle- tone control, to enable me to tame the highs a bit.
• Middle/Bridge tone control has a push/pull switch to add the middle pickup in series to the bridge or neck pickup (positions 1 and 5) and route the signal via an additional capacitor for a tone roll-off (positions 2, 3 and 4)

So, am I pleased?  You betcha!  The neck has a 12″ radius, so there’s no choking on bends.  The Fender Tex-Mex pickups are really “Stratty”, as you’d expect, with plenty of bite from the bridge and quack in the “inbetween” positions.  I’m also dead chuffed with the shielding… This thing is bereft of interference; even playing in a room with two dimmer switches.

A couple of videos of me playing “No 1.”, as she’ll no doubt be called, are already on YouTube:

Sultans of Swing (unrehearsed!)

 I Wish I Knew How (It Would Feel To Be Free) – unrehearsed (and it shows!)

So what’s next?  Well, I’ve got a Squier Stratocaster and a few tins of nitrocellulose in the garage…

Project 0001 - the body

Well, the replacement body turned up – a three-piece alder body with SSH routing, undrilled, finished in Vintage White.  Initially, I thought that either I or they had cocked up with the colour; as it’s definitely cream, not white.  However, checking against Fender’s standard colour chart, I can see that it’s as specified… My bad!

Still, in my mind it looks pretty good against the gold anodized scratchplate (and appears to be a pretty good match to the original).  The ‘plate, incidentally, is the real deal – a Fender ’57-style.  The original one, bought from eBay, looked great face-on but otherwise appeared silver…  Not the effect I was looking for!  Thankfully, I managed to lose that one via the ‘Bay so I’ve virtually broken even there.

Since the body was undrilled, copious measurements were taken, drawings made and photos referred to to ensure that everything went in the right place.  It was then that I realised that the neck pocket had to be reshaped slightly to accommodate the square-heeled neck that I’d already prepped (note to self – buy a router and templates.  Quicker and easier than playing with chisels and miniature sanding drums!).  Of course, this reshaping also necessitated some alteration to the scratchplate, too.  It’s not the tidiest of jobs, but it will be hidden by the 22nd-fret overhang.  Before anyone flames me for being a “bodgit and leggit”, don’t forget that this is both a personal project and a learning curve for me!

Anyway, centre lines were marked, neck was offered up, string positions calculated and the final bridge position determined.  I used the Power8 Workshop‘s pillar drill to bore the bridge screw holes…  I’d already established that the centre two holes would need to be drilled free-hand, as the throat on the Power8 isn’t huge.  Large carpenters squares and spirit levels are incredibly useful in this scenario!  Additional screw holes were marked, punched and drilled and all parts screwed to the body using a good ol’-fashioned screwdriver.  I’ve heard too many tales of wandering bits and snapped screws to risk using anything powered!

So far, so good – everything fits and, through my eyes, looks pretty good.  Next step – fixing the neck.  Then on to shielding the cavities and wiring.

I’m aiming to get this finished by the time I hit the UKMG National at Buxton in November… Time will tell!

It’s made by Johnson and has own-branded pickups, made by EMG.  It’s as purchased (I haven’t even plugged it in) and is still boxed.  The paint job is a very dark blue metallic – I suppose “midnight blue” would be an apt description.

The pics below aren’t brilliant, but they’ll give you an idea.  Anyone want to make an offer?  I’m ideally looking for around UK£65, plus shipping (charge tbc).  If you’re interested, please drop me a line.

As mentioned a while ago, I’m collating the parts to assemble a copy of a Fender Stratocaster; specifically a copy of David Gilmour’s (Pink Floyd) 1954 Strat with the serial number 0001. Huge tracts of information exist on this guitar, so I won’t go into details on the original – suffice to say that it wasn’t actually the first Strat off of the production line, and I happen to think that it looks rather fine…

Anyway, on to the meat of this post.

Although I’ve still yet to obtain all of the parts, I decided that the headstock was looking a little bare… So how did I do it?

After a bit of messing around with Inkscape and GIMP, I came up with the logo I wanted – it looks like the Real Thing(TM) from a distance, but there’s no danger of confusing it close up

I then printed (in reverse) onto some dry-rub transfer paper from Crafty Computer Paper. I had toyed with the idea of using the water-slide decal paper, but couldn’t be certain that I could apply the decal in reverse.

A quick colour in with a metallic gold marker from WHSmith and things were good to go. I left the transfer to dry overnight, then applied the sticky backing (per the instructions). I actually printed two logos; just in case one went wrong. This was a Good Thing(TM) as I inadvertently peeled off the wrong sheet when checking; thereby screwing it up totally.

Again, I left the backing sheet to work its magic overnight, before cutting the two transfers out. Application was done very carefully to avoid any bubbles in the transfer, and the completed logo was gently burnished with some soft tissue paper.

Success! And I’m really pleased with the outcome.

Next step – stripping/refinishing the body… Watch this space!

There’s been quite a bit of discussion over on UKMG recently about building/assembling/customising Fender Stratocasters (or copies thereof), and it’s fired my enthusiasm for finishing something I started a while back – something like this:

The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot the striking similarity to David Gilmour’s “0001″ Strat (plenty more info via Google). Although I’d never dream of sticking a bootleg Fender decal on it, I’m sorely tempted to add one of my own:

(incidentally, if anyone wants these I still have the GIMP .xcf files to hand – drop me an email).

I’m still not convinced about going through the whole “relic-ing” process, but with aged plastic parts and the “vintage tinted” neck, the vibe will be there.

So, the spec will be:

• Alder/ash body (not sure what it is until I strip the old finish… think it’s ash), finished in a cream/off-white/ivory type colour (I think Vauxhall “Vintage White” may do the job).
• 22 fret Maple neck (no skunk stripe)
• Gold anodised scratchplate and hardware
• Fender Tex-Mex single-coil pickups (as fitted to the Jimmy Vaughan model)
• 5-way selector switch
• Volume and two tones (modified to enable tone on the bridge pickup)
• Push/pull pot for series/parallel switching of the middle pickup
• “Parchment” aged plastic parts

So, not a real “historically accurate” replica then!
I’m slowly building up the collection of parts (thanks eBay!) but still need to get the bridge, tuners, jack plate, neck plate and screws. I’m trying to fund this all from eBay sales, so it’s going to take some time!

Rest assured, once I’ve got all the bits, I’ll chronicle the whole assembly process right here.

This time, it’s a strat copy – a bit battered but a prime candidate for one of my next projects – a close copy of David Gilmour’s ’54 “0001″ Strat.

It’s not going to be a completely historically-correct copy, and I certainly won’t be putting a bootleg decal on it, but it will have the general look and vibe.

Guess I’ll have to start scouring for the other bits ‘n’ pieces…