70's Fender Strat Project

[Kais]

We all have our personal guitar hero's, and of course our certain styles/preferences of guitars. One of my hero's (if you look at my sig) is Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins. I've always loved his music, and more importantly, his collection of strats. Specifically, his 70's yellow strat that he recently painted a very nice blue.



When I saw a picture of that guitar, I wanted it. Later on I was disappointed that his signature strats only came in black and white. So now I figure its time to build the best looking strat I've ever seen. Now a real 70's strat would cost me a lot of $$$. And to buy an unfinished body from musikcraft or allparts would result in a lot of work to paint properly, and other tasks I have no experience in. And for whatever reason Fender has not produced that shade of blue (to my knowledge and research) to date. Until I saw this mim highway one body.

View attachment 51825

It's not the exact same shade of blue, but pretty close, don't you think? The next task was to buy a neck. I love the 70's strat headstocks. I took a look on fender.com and I noticed they were selling the 70's necks. Long story short, I ended up purchasing this neck




Thankfully, this neck comes with tuners and a pretty good nut. And it came off an American special. As far as pickups go, my favorite Pumpkin tones are off the album Siamese Dream. And Billy is somewhat famous for using the BSR Lace Sensors. Luckily enough, a member on this forum was selling the same set of lace sensor pickups. So now all that's left to acquire is the pickguard, other electronics, bridge, and tremelo system pieces. I'm very excited to finish my first strat project! :fingersx:

 

[PushedCrayon]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

That looks awesome! It's almost the exact idea I'm working with. May I ask how much you paid for the body? I dont know what a good reasonable offer is on an unfinished MIM :/.

I do love how these forums are so awesome for getting advice and even trading or selling parts. I absolutely love it all! Goodluck on your project

 

[Kais]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

That looks awesome! It's almost the exact idea I'm working with. May I ask how much you paid for the body? I dont know what a good reasonable offer is on an unfinished MIM :/.

I do love how these forums are so awesome for getting advice and even trading or selling parts. I absolutely love it all! Goodluck on your project

It was around $140 I believe. It has a couple scratches, otherwise a mint condition one would be around $190 I think. I was debating on the MIA vs MIM vs MIJ bodies, but this was the only body I could find in this color.

Allparts.com has a good selection of unfinished bodies, you could take a look there

 

[ex-250]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

Nice. Siamese Dream is one of my favoritest things ever. As are 70s Fender headstocks.

I might buy one of those Corgan sig strats one of these days. Its pretty much all my favorite features already there (hardtail, matte finish, maple board, 70s headstock), only I'd prefer SSL-1s.

 

[Kais]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

Nice. Siamese Dream is one of my favoritest things ever. As are 70s Fender headstocks.

I might buy one of those Corgan sig strats one of these days. Its pretty much all my favorite features already there (hardtail, matte finish, maple board, 70s headstock), only I'd prefer SSL-1s.

Never played SSL-1s, but would like to. I upgraded another strat I have to the corgan strat signature with the dimarzios. Only main difference is the neck on that one. Hard to come by an official corgan strat, but they do show up on ebay from time to time. Of course the price is probably no where near where it should be. Not sure why fender discontinued it.

 

[Adieu]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

We all have our personal guitar hero's, and of course our certain styles/preferences of guitars. One of my hero's (if you look at my sig) is Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins. I've always loved his music, and more importantly, his collection of strats. Specifically, his 70's yellow strat that he recently painted a very nice blue.

View attachment 51820

When I saw a picture of that guitar, I wanted it. Later on I was disappointed that his signature strats only came in black and white. So now I figure its time to build the best looking strat I've ever seen. Now a real 70's strat would cost me a lot of $$$. And to buy an unfinished body from musikcraft or allparts would result in a lot of work to paint properly, and other tasks I have no experience in. And for whatever reason Fender has not produced that shade of blue (to my knowledge and research) to date. Until I saw this mim highway one body.

View attachment 51825

It's not the exact same shade of blue, but pretty close, don't you think? The next task was to buy a neck. I love the 70's strat headstocks. I took a look on fender.com and I noticed they were selling the 70's necks. Long story short, I ended up purchasing this neck

View attachment 51826
View attachment 51827

Thankfully, this neck comes with tuners and a pretty good nut. And it came off an American special. As far as pickups go, my favorite Pumpkin tones are off the album Siamese Dream. And Billy is somewhat famous for using the BSR Lace Sensors. Luckily enough, a member on this forum was selling the same set of lace sensor pickups. So now all that's left to acquire is the pickguard, other electronics, bridge, and tremelo system pieces. I'm very excited to finish my first strat project! :fingersx:

MEXICAN highway1.....wtf??!!!

That aint right is it?

 

[Kais]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

MEXICAN highway1.....wtf??!!!

That aint right is it?

It's more of a guess than anything. You have any idea what it might be? I'm not even 100% sure the name of the color is cobalt blue, I'm just going by the ebay name.

 

[Kais]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

Anything fancy I could do with this?

Was thinking about adding a killswitch, but what else could I do?

 

[dystrust]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

I have my strat wired Master Vol - Master Tone (50s style) - Fralin blender. I've always found the typical 2 tone Strat setup just about useless and wanted to try something different. I really liked 50s wiring on my SG, so I decided to give it a go on the Strat and like it there too. If you're not familiar with the blender, it's disconnected when full up, but gradually fades in the neck pickup (pos 1/2) or the bridge pickup (pos 4/5) as you roll the knob down.

It's cool that you're building a Corgan Strat; about two years ago I helped longcat build a similar one based on Billy's 'Bat' Strat: alder body, 50s RI neck, and R/S/B Laces and it sounds great. Your Hwy 1 body should also be alder, so you should be in a similar ballpark. I hate to break it to you regarding Billy's blue / yellow Strat, but that guitar was a '74 hardtail with an Ash body.he didn't get that guitar until the SD tour; he actually recorded SD with two other Strats. The first (and primary) of these was a 57 RI that later became the famous 'bat' Strat. The other is the red psychedelic painted 70s Strat with trem.

 

[longcat]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

It's cool that you're building a Corgan Strat; about two years ago I helped longcat build a similar one based on Billy's 'Bat' Strat: alder body, 50s RI neck, and R/S/B Laces and it sounds great.

the bat strat-inspired partscaster ^^that guy^^ is talking about....

 

[Kais]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

I have my strat wired Master Vol - Master Tone (50s style) - Fralin blender. I've always found the typical 2 tone Strat setup just about useless and wanted to try something different. I really liked 50s wiring on my SG, so I decided to give it a go on the Strat and like it there too. If you're not familiar with the blender, it's disconnected when full up, but gradually fades in the neck pickup (pos 1/2) or the bridge pickup (pos 4/5) as you roll the knob down.

It's cool that you're building a Corgan Strat; about two years ago I helped longcat build a similar one based on Billy's 'Bat' Strat: alder body, 50s RI neck, and R/S/B Laces and it sounds great. Your Hwy 1 body should also be alder, so you should be in a similar ballpark. I hate to break it to you regarding Billy's blue / yellow Strat, but that guitar was a '74 hardtail with an Ash body.he didn't get that guitar until the SD tour; he actually recorded SD with two other Strats. The first (and primary) of these was a 57 RI that later became the famous 'bat' Strat. The other is the red psychedelic painted 70s Strat with trem.

That's a great idea! I would much rather have the blend pot than 2 tone pots. Just found the blend pot on ebay for $15, I should get one for my other strat as well.

I was thinking about building the bat strat, but I honestly do not like sunburst too much. And the 70's headstock is so much better than the 50's, in my opinion. Yeah this highway one is alder. Based on my research, alder and ash should sound similar tonally right? At least in the same ballpark? I know Billy has a few hardtail strats, but I prefer a tremolo for added functionality. Thinking about it now, I should've gotten ash since I have an alder already. But I couldn't find that blue anywhere! That was the closest I could find, and it's slightly different. BTW, I thought the yellow strat was used to record Muzzle and Bullet with Butterfly Wings? I read that somewhere, I'll see if I can find the article again...

the bat strat-inspired partscaster ^^that guy^^ is talking about....

That's really nice. Think I've seen it on here before, did you have alumitones on it? Or am I mistaken? Someone had a similar color with alumitones. How do you like the red in the bridge?

 

[longcat]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

That's really nice. Think I've seen it on here before, did you have alumitones on it? Or am I mistaken? Someone had a similar color with alumitones. How do you like the red in the bridge?

no, no alumitones. i like the red in the bridge. laces have a pretty unique sound...midrangy and kind of stratty but not; much fatter. not like a humbucker though. it's kind of hard to describe. the overdriven tone is phenomenal (to me)...lots of growl and bite, but more like a badger than a wolf, if that makes sense.

 

[dystrust]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

That's a great idea! I would much rather have the blend pot than 2 tone pots. Just found the blend pot on ebay for $15, I should get one for my other strat as well.

I was thinking about building the bat strat, but I honestly do not like sunburst too much. And the 70's headstock is so much better than the 50's, in my opinion. Yeah this highway one is alder. Based on my research, alder and ash should sound similar tonally right? At least in the same ballpark? I know Billy has a few hardtail strats, but I prefer a tremolo for added functionality. Thinking about it now, I should've gotten ash since I have an alder already. But I couldn't find that blue anywhere! That was the closest I could find, and it's slightly different. BTW, I thought the yellow strat was used to record Muzzle and Bullet with Butterfly Wings? I read that somewhere, I'll see if I can find the article again...

I don't know for sure with pickups this hot, but I can absolutely hear a difference between alder & ash with vintage output pickups like SSL-1s. With those pickups ash had slightly less midrange and was A LOT brighter than alder. Hardtail vs. trem will also make a difference, but I can't say for sure how much.

 

[Kais]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

no, no alumitones. i like the red in the bridge. laces have a pretty unique sound...midrangy and kind of stratty but not; much fatter. not like a humbucker though. it's kind of hard to describe. the overdriven tone is phenomenal (to me)...lots of growl and bite, but more like a badger than a wolf, if that makes sense.

I'm honestly sick of humbuckers, its gonna be nice to have single coil option in my arsenal. I know what you mean, I heard the red on youtube. The clean is nothing new, but the distorted tone is unreal. Can't wait to jam out

I don't know for sure with pickups this hot, but I can absolutely hear a difference between alder & ash with vintage output pickups like SSL-1s. With those pickups ash had slightly less midrange and was A LOT brighter than alder. Hardtail vs. trem will also make a difference, but I can't say for sure how much.

I see, makes sense to me now. I'd prefer the darker of the 2, that way I can add brightness if need be. I suppose hardtail has a bit more sustain, and maybe a bit more bass? That's my guess

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

You need a creamy dreamer fuzz.

 

[Kais]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

You need a creamy dreamer fuzz.

Haha, I have a standard NYC reissue big muff and a vintage deluxe big muff. And a Russian muff for my bass. I'm not satisfied yet.

I thought the creamy dreamer + Corgan was just a myth?
I'm thinking about getting one of the many opamp clones.

 

[dystrust]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

Haha, I have a standard NYC reissue big muff and a vintage deluxe big muff. And a Russian muff for my bass. I'm not satisfied yet.

I thought the creamy dreamer + Corgan was just a myth?
I'm thinking about getting one of the many opamp clones.

Corgan + Creamy Dreamer is a myth which is thoroughly debunked here. Scroll down to the 'mods' section for details, or read the entire page for everything you ever wanted to know about Big Muffs and more.

 

[Hecubus]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

Just say no to the Creamy Dreamer. Internet hype/myth created by a clever young man. Now, the Siamese Scream from El Musico Loco is the real deal. Op Amp Big Muff at its best. It has a dual band EQ for extra tone shaping too. I love mine.

 

[Adieu]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

highway line was supposedly USA-made according to fender.

though electronics were definitely mexican; don't recall about the hardware, which could at best have been japanese and at worst korean or chinese, but surely not USA (since even the higher up AmStd line's stuff has been Gotoh for ages and lower-end lines tend to sport various Ping models)

MIM's potentially pricier bodies might come from those eye-wateringly expensive historically styled models they name after the decade its supposed to symbolize...potentially. Surely though some'll swear by em and others will snub their noses and claim all mexi-bodies are made equally regardless of what model they went on. Who knows. America and Japan have churned out some radically different versions for different models and even different colors of the same model, not sure about the truth with Mexico.

It's more of a guess than anything. You have any idea what it might be? I'm not even 100% sure the name of the color is cobalt blue, I'm just going by the ebay name.

on pic: rout and 3 holes look kinda mexican, no reason I see to expect Highway 1 origin. probably a scammer exploiting borderline legality of "afaik" statements claimed to be made in good faith, as most parts sellers on the bay are. especially when it comes to fender.

USA (relevant last 20 years at least) should have inspection signoff stuff, not barcodes. japan would have neater, way tighter, and model-specific routs. 3 holes can be used to confirm nonUSA/nonMIJ, but don't remember if it can authenticate MIM vs the cheaper stuff.... price of parts vs bodies though, unless you're using everything else from the parts bin for "free" or stubbornly coming up just short of budget, why even touch MIM or potentially worse? it'll stubbornly be your "value bottleneck" (mexico's fender's #3, korea and indonesia share #4, china india come up #5 - as in fifth rate), for own feelings and for honest resale both

 

[Hecubus]

Re: 70's Fender Strat Project

So where are you on this project? Update please. I can't wait to see the results.