Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

[STLMTLHD79]

So, i bought a cheap black 2006 Mexican Strat that i want to mod into an 80s Alex Lifeson inspired tone. The guitar is in decent shape just needs a little fret leveling/crowning and it will be good to go. Its not going to be exact, but here is what my plans are for this build-

-Black pickguard-HSS
-Black single coil pickup covers
-One Tone, One Volume
-3 way Gibson Style switch on the lower "horn"

A few mods that I am going to do that were not on the original-
-Seymour Duncan SH-9 Silverbird bridge Pickup instead of Bill Lawrence L500L
-Super Vee bridge instead of OFR Non-locking
-Fender direct replacement locking tuners
-Graphtech nut

I am about to order a bunch of these parts from Amazon and the pickguard from Warmoth.



Please feel free to chime in with any suggestions or places to get parts. Are there any other vendors of custom pickguards other than Warmoth?

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

So you plan on routing a spot for the Gibson pickup selector
Under the pickguard

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

Have you tried a Silverbird or are you going based off of appearance? I'm not trying to be critical, just wondering of you have actually encountered this elusive beast in the wild.

What do you have planned for the neck and middle?

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

So you plan on routing a spot for the Gibson pickup selector
Under the pickguard

Yes i will route for this pickup selector.

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

Have you tried a Silverbird or are you going based off of appearance? I'm not trying to be critical, just wondering of you have actually encountered this elusive beast in the wild.

What do you have planned for the neck and middle?

Yes i have tried the Silverbird and it does give a very bright tone with its double Alnico 2 magnet blades. I think it will work perfectly for the tone actually. I bought an old Korean Kramer that had this elusive pickup in it (there is a thread on that here on the forum). The neck and middle will be stock Fender Mexican standard single coils.

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

Not much progress has been made on the build. I took the entire guitar apart down to a neck and body. I did install the new Fender locking tuners, ordered the Super-Vee, 3 way switch and custom Warmoth pickguard. I will put it together this weekend and take some pics!

 

[greekdude]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

ordered the Super-Vee

I have tried the super-vee on two strats. On the already poor sounding strat it sounded poor. On the already good sounding strat it sounded good. Also I managed to break the trem arm, which the dealer was kind enough to fix/replace at no cost. As most problems with tuning stability in non-floating non-locking trems IMHO come from the nut, I think the price of the super vee is way to high for what it gives.

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

I have tried the super-vee on two strats. On the already poor sounding strat it sounded poor. On the already good sounding strat it sounded good. Also I managed to break the trem arm, which the dealer was kind enough to fix/replace at no cost. As most problems with tuning stability in non-floating non-locking trems IMHO come from the nut, I think the price of the super vee is way to high for what it gives.

I want to give it a fair shot because the 6 screw fulcrum trem is not going to do well playing 80s Rush tunes with lots of trem use. I am not going to go crazy on the arm (no divebombs, pull-ups, etc) so i dont plan for the arm to fail. I bought 2 different nuts, a black tusq and a graphite one. Which would give me better tuning stability?

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

I would think graphite and tusq are interchangeable in this case
But I have read that a tusq nut is just the manmade bone material
And the
tusqXL is the material with the graphite

 

[greekdude]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

I want to give it a fair shot because the 6 screw fulcrum trem is not going to do well playing 80s Rush tunes with lots of trem use. I am not going to go crazy on the arm (no divebombs, pull-ups, etc) so i dont plan for the arm to fail. I bought 2 different nuts, a black tusq and a graphite one. Which would give me better tuning stability?

I have black tusq on my arz800 which needs lubricating after each change. I use a super vee paste for this. https://www.super-vee.com/super-glide-nut-evolution-and-lubricant

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

Set the trem up properly and it should be fine. My belief is non-locking trems should float.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

I have a Bladerunner, which I really like. It stays in tune even with a lot of abuse. I have never tried the original Super Vee, though.

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

I have a Bladerunner, which I really like. It stays in tune even with a lot of abuse. I have never tried the original Super Vee, though.

Yea, i should have stated that i got the Bladerunner version. I'm looking forward to it getting here on saturday! Pickguard should arrive on the same day as well.

I will then seek out somebody that can route a part of the body to accommodate For Lerxt's 3-way les paul style switch on the lower horn.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

I think you'll like the Bladerunner- it is a smart design. I wanna see this guitar when it is finished.

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

Making some progress on this project. I got the pickguard a few days ago and mounted the needed pickups onto it. I had no issue getting the Silverbird onto the pickguard. I was worried i would have had to modify it to compensate for the width of this pickup. Unfortunately, Warmoth sent me the wrong pots-way too tall.

Here are a few pics of the project so far.

 

[mst]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

So, i bought a cheap black 2006 Mexican Strat that i want to mod into an 80s Alex Lifeson inspired tone. The guitar is in decent shape just needs a little fret leveling/crowning and it will be good to go. Its not going to be exact, but here is what my plans are for this build-

-Black pickguard-HSS
-Black single coil pickup covers
-One Tone, One Volume
-3 way Gibson Style switch on the lower "horn"

A few mods that I am going to do that were not on the original-
-Seymour Duncan SH-9 Silverbird bridge Pickup instead of Bill Lawrence L500L
-Super Vee bridge instead of OFR Non-locking
-Fender direct replacement locking tuners
-Graphtech nut

I am about to order a bunch of these parts from Amazon and the pickguard from Warmoth.



Please feel free to chime in with any suggestions or places to get parts. Are there any other vendors of custom pickguards other than Warmoth?

Hello!

Totally digging your project!

I would suggest a slightly more powerful neck pickup and a 5 Way Superswitch selector as nice additions!
Graphtecck nut is great, i would suggest a bone one though. It makes great difference in open string thing!

I would have gone with total black tuners as well!

Keep going!

waiting for more pics!!

 

[Mincer]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

I am loving the in-progress pics. Keep em coming!

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

Thread alive!

I decided to scrap this 2006 MIM Strat in favor of a 2015 Floyd Rose one in white. the 2006 had too many issues. I will now be modeling his white strat from the same era. I know he used the non-fine tuner version of the OFR, which will be basically the main difference. I had to re-order a pickguard to fit for the floyd cut. other than that, it will have the same setup.

I will post pics in the coming days.

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

So fast forward a few months. I recently moved to the Denver area and had to put the project on hold till i got out here. I have a tech/Luthier friend that helped me make the build. He is really good.

Here are a few pics of the guitar. the pickup selector isn't quite exactly where Alex had his but it is very close.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Alex Lifeson inspired Strat build

It is good to see this project finally completed. What a cool guitar!