Nostalgic Distortion
New member
LOL, sorry about the corny title, I just couldn't resist!!!
View attachment 67428
So I finally got my Flame Top Strat's guard sorted Thursday, although it did take a little bit of trial and error before I got it right? The guitar started out with a stock guard, amazing I know? Anyway, the first thing I did after buying it was rip out the stock H/S/S guard & build my own with a Peg/Sent H/H pup configuration. That one actually sounded great but I already had a single Pegasus in a different Strat, plus another Pegasus/Sentient loaded guitar so I decided to let the set go & do something else with this particular guitar? I thought what I wanted was a completely Stacked Strat so I started buying up STK's like crazy! I ended up with a STK-S1, STK-S2B, STK-S2N, STK-S6, STK-S7, & a STK-S9! The S7 went in the neck of my H/S Strat & although the S9 is a awesome pickup I liked the S6 better as a bridge pup so I got rid of that too. The S2 bridge just wasn't my bag of chips so that just got returned?
Anyway, I get my "Stacked Guard" built & it was okay, but just okay? Dead quiet and it could take all the gain you could throw @ it but the cleans were a bit bland and it started to bother me after a couple weeks? Back to the drawing board!!! This time I knew I wanted true singles in the neck and middle slots & not having too much experience with Antiquity Strat pickups I thought I'd give them a try? The STK-S6 was exactly what I wanted in the bridge so I kept that where it was & sold of some of the other stacks to fund the new Antiquity's! I got it all wired up and I was completely blown away by how great it sounds now! The STK-S6 is dead quiet & ballsy as hell!!! The Antiquity's sweetness is a very nice compliment to the bridge pickup, so that one is staying exactly the way it is for the foreseeable future...
Last night I got bored and had my bag of tricks out so I threw together another H/H guard with a Screaming Demon TB-12, a SH-2 Jazz & some other swag that I had laying around. The pickups I used were going to be for a future project, the idea being that I was going to be covering the both of them with black powder coated covers but the thought of covering the Hex coil of the Demon just didn't sit well with me and finding a powder coated Trembucker cover is nearly impossible? I found someone who could order one but it could take up to 3 months before I get it & he wanted almost $50 for it! Plus it's a unique looking pup and without the cover you know it's a Demon as soon as you look at it!
I built a fairly interesting harness for it using a combination of pots, a 500K volume pot, a 250K neck tone pot & a 250K push/pull for the bridge tone wired up to tap the Humbuckers. The reason for this was when I used all 500k components it was a little too bright in the neck for my taste & although the Demon sounded good I thought lowering its resistance may actually make it sound better in Alder & if not, I can always change it back?
I tried it out this morning and once again it seems I've outdone myself once again! Originally the plan was to sell the guard after I built it but now that I've tried it, it's one of the best H/H Strat guards I've ever made! I'm not so sure that I want to sell anymore, lol!!! Now my biggest problem in this dept. is that I don't have a empty guitar to drop it in! I do have 7 Strat's but I'm pretty happy with their current puppy configurations?
View attachment 67429
I guess I could move everything to a black pickguard & drop it into my Blackout Strat? At least for a while & if I start to miss my single TB-14/Kill switch guard it's currently loaded with it can be reinstalled in less than 10 minutes, no harm no foul? No matter what I do with it for something I did on a whim it's pretty flipping amazing!!!
View attachment 67428
So I finally got my Flame Top Strat's guard sorted Thursday, although it did take a little bit of trial and error before I got it right? The guitar started out with a stock guard, amazing I know? Anyway, the first thing I did after buying it was rip out the stock H/S/S guard & build my own with a Peg/Sent H/H pup configuration. That one actually sounded great but I already had a single Pegasus in a different Strat, plus another Pegasus/Sentient loaded guitar so I decided to let the set go & do something else with this particular guitar? I thought what I wanted was a completely Stacked Strat so I started buying up STK's like crazy! I ended up with a STK-S1, STK-S2B, STK-S2N, STK-S6, STK-S7, & a STK-S9! The S7 went in the neck of my H/S Strat & although the S9 is a awesome pickup I liked the S6 better as a bridge pup so I got rid of that too. The S2 bridge just wasn't my bag of chips so that just got returned?
Anyway, I get my "Stacked Guard" built & it was okay, but just okay? Dead quiet and it could take all the gain you could throw @ it but the cleans were a bit bland and it started to bother me after a couple weeks? Back to the drawing board!!! This time I knew I wanted true singles in the neck and middle slots & not having too much experience with Antiquity Strat pickups I thought I'd give them a try? The STK-S6 was exactly what I wanted in the bridge so I kept that where it was & sold of some of the other stacks to fund the new Antiquity's! I got it all wired up and I was completely blown away by how great it sounds now! The STK-S6 is dead quiet & ballsy as hell!!! The Antiquity's sweetness is a very nice compliment to the bridge pickup, so that one is staying exactly the way it is for the foreseeable future...
Last night I got bored and had my bag of tricks out so I threw together another H/H guard with a Screaming Demon TB-12, a SH-2 Jazz & some other swag that I had laying around. The pickups I used were going to be for a future project, the idea being that I was going to be covering the both of them with black powder coated covers but the thought of covering the Hex coil of the Demon just didn't sit well with me and finding a powder coated Trembucker cover is nearly impossible? I found someone who could order one but it could take up to 3 months before I get it & he wanted almost $50 for it! Plus it's a unique looking pup and without the cover you know it's a Demon as soon as you look at it!
I built a fairly interesting harness for it using a combination of pots, a 500K volume pot, a 250K neck tone pot & a 250K push/pull for the bridge tone wired up to tap the Humbuckers. The reason for this was when I used all 500k components it was a little too bright in the neck for my taste & although the Demon sounded good I thought lowering its resistance may actually make it sound better in Alder & if not, I can always change it back?
I tried it out this morning and once again it seems I've outdone myself once again! Originally the plan was to sell the guard after I built it but now that I've tried it, it's one of the best H/H Strat guards I've ever made! I'm not so sure that I want to sell anymore, lol!!! Now my biggest problem in this dept. is that I don't have a empty guitar to drop it in! I do have 7 Strat's but I'm pretty happy with their current puppy configurations?
View attachment 67429
I guess I could move everything to a black pickguard & drop it into my Blackout Strat? At least for a while & if I start to miss my single TB-14/Kill switch guard it's currently loaded with it can be reinstalled in less than 10 minutes, no harm no foul? No matter what I do with it for something I did on a whim it's pretty flipping amazing!!!
