MIM Strat weight reduction

[GuitarDoc]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

It's NOT going to weaken anything. At all.

JB, go for it. Sounds like you've got a fun project ahead of you. Purple will look great. Keep us up to date on the progress of this project (with pics...lots of pics).

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

I’m terrible about remembering to take pics. Here’s the current state:

[ehdwuld]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

I would sand the wings down to make the body thinner to the edges
Think Ibanez S series

Do the back side
The PRS is thinner all over

[GuitarDoc]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

Yes, thinner. More comfortable and lighter.

[PFDarkside]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

My worst sounding strats have been swimming pool, my best either HSH or SSS. It must have more to do with the wood itself than the routing.

Strats are heavy from all the metal they need for the bridge. I like the thicker steel blocks, but that’s more weight. I like locking tuners, but that’s more weight. It’s funny, you start assembling a Strat and think “this body is pretty light” and by the end it’s “man, it’s heavier than I thought I would be.”

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

[ehdwuld]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

There ya go

Score it round the bottom so it will have a line to break out to

[ItsaBass]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

I can understand wanting to weight relieve a Strat, as they can get quite heavy (they usually have at least a pound on them in hardware weight alone). But a swimming pool rout won't do much.

Lightweight tuners and an aluminum vibrato block are the fastest and easiest ways to get some bolt-on weight reduction.

There isn't a lot of meat that you can carve out of a Strat. There are too many things in the way: vibrato cavity, belly cut, forearm contour, a relatively complex and spread out control/pickup cavity. And you can't just plane a quarter inch off the back like you can on a Tele for an approx. 1/7th weight reduction.

If it comes to carving, your best bet is to rout/drill/saw some circle plugs out of the lower horn area under the guard. But even then, you're not talking about a ton of weight removal.

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

Done “routing.”

Gonna throw it back together for now so it’s playable to try the new bridge pickup when I get home. When I go to do whatever refinish I decide on, I’ll use my Dremel to clean up the cavity.

In hindsight, in addition to more pictures, I should’ve weighed it beforehand.

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

Having second thoughts on staining it... might just do a bunch of tung oil.





Before:

[ItsaBass]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

The bare wood color makes me think it'd look really good in Shoreline Gold, like my AV '65.

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

That does look nice.

I’m gonna play it as is for awhile, and see what jumps out at me when I’m not obsessing over it.

[GuitarStv]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

I've used a chisel to surprisingly easily change a single coil route to a humbucker, and it worked out great. Whole heartedly approve of your screwdriver approach. :P

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

No chisels at work, but I did sharpen the screwdriver first

[GuitarStv]

Re: MIM Strat weight reduction

Did you sand the paint off, or use a heat gun?