DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

[Wattage]

Picked this up about a month ago, I was looking for a Strat to mod on the cheap'

These Slick Guitars make pretty decent platforms to screw around with. This one already had GFS Gold Foils that I wanted to try and it came with the upgraded GFS brass block trem. The neck was decent but I wanted a reverse headstock so I sold it off and put the money towards a lefty AXL Headliner I found for a good cheap neck donor.

I threw out the original guts and re-wired with a Fender 5 way, a CTS pot 500k vol and a 250k no load tone with a .047 mylar cap.

The AXL neck was pretty good so I threw it together to see what I had. It was OK, needed a little shim to get the neck angle where I wanted it. I did a little fret filing on the ends and knocked down one fret that was a little too proud. Then I rounded the edges of the board a bit so it felt a little less new MIC. It played well once I got it dialed in but the tuners were just so-so helped of course by the lefty nut flipped righty :guilty:. I found a set of Hipshot staggered open gears on Reverb for a really good price and got a proper righty nut to correct that situation. I put them on and installed the nut today and voila! It's a Strat!

The pickups are fairly groovy. They're jangly but you can get some spanky bottom end out of them. I really like the Hipshot tuners, they're beautiful and they work very well.

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

Looks pretty darn cool.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

I'm looking at the same tuners in chrome for my Strat. They look classy as hell.

 

[SrDeMaFp]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

I'm looking at the same tuners in chrome for my Strat. They look classy as hell.

Concidentally enough, so am I LOL. I have a set of their locking tuners and on my Les Paul and they're great. Nice feel, high-ratio and they're light weight. Can't really go wrong with Hipshot's stuff.
Nice work on that guitar, Wattage! I've been curious absolutely those Slick guitars. Might have to pick one up to putz around with.

 

[Wattage]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

The Slick as it was when I got it was fine, it weighs a ton though not sure if all there bodies are like that.

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

Sometimes your best sounding and best playing guitars are ones built by yourself with miscellaneous and mismatched parts sourced from wherever...
Leastwise for me, when I go into a build I expect the least, and Im most times thrilled with it when im done, (in fact I have a mutt going together right now).

I think that turned out great, and I especially like the reverse headstock as well as the color and wear marks.
Did you do that yourself? Kinda looks like Ash to me (going from the exposed grain)
Nice job Sir!

 

[Wattage]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

It is ash, the body is shot by the factory with one coat of automotive lacquer

I'll likely sand it back a bit more

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

Nice! Take some pics when you're done with it, Id love to see it.

 

[SrDeMaFp]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

So it has a standard Strat-sized neck pocket? There's a high chance that I'd swap the neck out. Wanna make sure a Warmoth, USACG, etc. would fit.

 

[Wattage]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

Yup standard pocket

 

[daan]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

I just saw those pups online the other day, and was wondering if anybody had them in a guitar yet. What do you think, are they good, or more a "novelty" thing? Like, are you gonna keep them, or move on to something else?

 

[Wattage]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

Good being relative, yes they are pretty good. They are not a high end pickup but I think you get what they're supposed to be about and they do get into "that" sound.

I don't think that I'll be replacing them anytime soon but I wouldn't mind getting an HSS guard and trying the humbucker (or even the P-90 if I had the right guard) in the bridge. They claim these are more "Mini" than Strat but I'll stick with saying they sound like single coils with a little something going on. My only first hand experience with OG foils is limited to a Teisco that was setup for slide so I can't give a great comparison other than saying they have a similar vibe to my mind. They have the gritty bite you'd want just maybe not as much of it, but that could be the guitar too? I've only run it into my smaller practice amps I haven't had it thru my Orange yet which would give me a better idea.

Construction wise the gold foil tape lays across the top of the flat pole mags and then throw on the plastic cover, you can get them pretty close without messing with string pull or anything. They seem well made and are supposedly scatter-wound which might make as much difference as the tape.

 

[daan]

Re: DING! Strat's Done (Slick SL-57/AXL)

Thank you! I've had a couple gold foils, mostly because of the internet hype about them, and ended up moving them on. So I was wondering if these had "that sumthin' sumthin' " worth getting some.

Oh, and that guitar looks super cool, great job!