Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project

[Surf Whammy]

Last year (Summer 2008) I decided to have a bit of FUN doing a variety of modifications to a Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster®, and after a bit of research it was obvious that Seymour Duncan pickups offered a virtual festival of possibilities, and initially I focused on the "Lipstick" single-coil pickups and the Little 59™ humbucker, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

And since I love elaborate sets of external effects pedals, it occurred to me that I could have more than one circuit, with the current configuration being two separate circuits--one circuit for the neck position "Lipstick" pickup and another circuit for the middle position "Lipstick" pickup and the bridge position Little 59™, where all the pickups are "bridge output" . . .

With two output channels, one needs more controls and knobs, so I did a bit of wood routing in the lower-front of the guitar body underneath the pickguard area, which provides a reasonable amount of additional space for a lot of stuff, with this extra space being all the more optimized by using a Fender Vintage 62' Jazz Bass® style double concentric potentiometer, which handles the volume and Black Ice overdrive unit . . .

I replaced all the stock TONE controls with Rothstein "mid-scoop" TONE controls, with one being a Varitone-style rotary TONE control, and I replaced the Fender 5-way selector switch with a Megaswitch "E-Model", which is used for the middle-position "Lipstick" and bridge position Little 59™ circuit . . .

The output jack is a TRS-style connector, and I use a TRS-style "stereo to monaural splits" cord, which gets me two standard connectors that I run to the two separate sets of external effects pedals, each of which has stereo outputs, so from one guitar I currently get four tracks of output in real-time, which creates what I call a Wall of Guitars™, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

Recently, after having a lot of FUN with two channels for a while, I have decided to do an additional set of even more elaborate modifications toward the goal of having five separate circuits and a grand total of six Seymour Duncan Pickups for Strat®--since I have several more pickups and want to use them, as well (JB Jr.™, Duckbuckers™, and Hot Rails™)--where one circuit will have two pickups and the other four circuits will be one-pickup each, which as best as I can determine at present is the maximum number of regular-size pickups that will fit into the available space when the bridge pickup(s) are angled . . .

The current plan is to use Switchcraft TINI Q-G™ 5-conductor mini-XLR style connectors with a 5-conductor shielded cable, so that there is just one master cable and connector on the guitar, with the other end of the cable running to a 5-way "splitter" box that has 5 monaural output jacks for connecting everything to 5 separate sets of stereo effects pedals . . .

Being able to control five separate sets of stereo effects via mini-toggle switches located conveniently on the pickguard is a key aspect of the design, which makes sense when you ponder it for a while . . .

This is the guitar in its current configuration, and I call it The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster™, which is fabulous . . .

The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster™

Fabulous!

P. S. All the research and various building and assembling steps are documented in a very detailed topic in the GuitarZone.com FORUM, complete with detailed photographs, and diagrams, including links to MP3 songs by my pretend band, The Surf Whammys™, which actually is me playing all the instruments and doing the singing for original songs that I composed, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project (GuitarZone.com FORUM)

Fabulous!

And this is the link to the MP3 for the latest Surf Whammys song, "I'm In The Mood For Christmas", which features The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster and has a grand total of two guitar parts (one rhythm guitar part and one lead guitar part), although it sounds like a Wall of Guitars, since among other things there is an echo unit for each of the two separate sets of effects, which is as fabulous as it is mixed expressly for listening with iPod earphones or studio-quality headphones like the SONY MDR-7506 . . .

"I'm In The Mood For Christmas" (The Surf Whammys) -- MP3

Fabulous!

 

[MasterKtulu]

Re: Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project

It must have been a fun project, but that's too much knobs for even me. With my playing style, I would always be hitting at least three of those knobs all the time with my picking hand...

 

[Diocletian]

Re: Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project

I wouldn't use more than one of those knobs (the volume) but it looks cool and it's a great project!

 

[brrmich]

Re: Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project

Alright... I aill be "that guy"

Fabulous!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project

Man...you don't strum much do you? :cool2: With all those knobs in the way I'd be spending more time avoiding bumping into them than actually playing.

I used to spend time dreaming up stuff like that when I was younger.

I've since learned that less is more - in pretty much all things.

My favorite homebrew Strat has two knobs. One volume and one tone.

 

[metlking]

Re: Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project

While it may not be for me, I applaud your sense of creativity! Way to think outside the box!

 

[Surf Whammy]

Re: Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project

Thanks for the comments!

Regarding the knobs getting in the way of strumming, over the years I have learned how to control the way I strum so that the motions are focused on the strings, since the reality is that on an electric guitar there is not much utility in strumming anywhere else, really . . .

Really!

All the knobs in the lower-front section are filed so that they are lower, and the whammy bar is adjusted so that it can rotate in a full circle and not hit the Really Big Knob™, which is taller and works the Rothstein "mid-scoop" Varitone-style TONE control, so it works nicely for the way I play . . .

I do a lot of whammying, so even if there were no knobs in the lower-front section, I would strum rhythm guitar chords the same way, since I nearly always keep the whammy bar parked where it is shown in the photograph, although sometimes I move it downward an inch or so, approximately in the area above the knobs in the lower-right section . . .

And from years of playing bass guitar, I tend to prefer to play bass lines when I play rhythm guitar chords, so this maps to putting more emphasis on the lowest-pitch four strings ("E", "A", "D", "G") and the middle-pitch four strings ("A", "D", "G", "b"), which I play as groups or whatever, and when I play higher-pitch chords, I focus on the highest-pitch four strings ("D", "G", "b", "e"), with the general strategy at present being to play chord phrases like one might use in some styles of Jazz . . .

This is an MP3 of the drums, bass, rhythm guitar, and lead guitar for a recent Surf Whammys song, and it is the most complex set of chord phrases I have done in a while, where there are approximately 37 different chords and a lot of motion in the various phrases, which is as fabulous as it is mixed expressly for listening with iPod earphones or studio-quality headphones like the SONY MDR-7506 . . .

"Starlight" (The Surf Whammys) -- Instrumental -- MP3

Fabulous!

If I were doing this type of modification for someone who strummed differently, there are quite a few ways to make the knobs less obtrusive, including using recessed roller-type controls like the ones used in the top section of a Fender Jaguar®, with the limiting factor being the available space underneath the pickguard, since there are thousands of types of potentiometers, switches, and knobs . . .

But the primary reason there are additonal knobs is that the guitar has two separate circuits, each with its own independent output signal, so there is a separate set of controls and knobs for each of the two circuits . . .

For the 5-circuit version with 6-pickups, I will be using mini-dual concentric potentiometers ("stacked pots", if you prefer) and smaller knobs, since this is the only practical way to have 5 volume controls and 5 tone controls . . .

And no matter what I might plan to do at the moment, it tends to be revised a bit once I start doing experimental layouts, since a lot of stuff appears to be great on paper but is not so practical when you actually implement it, so there certainly is merit to keeping everything as simple as possible . . .

The reality so far is that once I have the various controls set, I do not change them when I am playing--other than the 5-way selector switch and the Varitone-style rotary switch--which overall is a key part of the design, since it is not practical to mess with all the various controls and switches constantly . . .

In other words, I like to have everything setup and controllable from the guitar, so that I can focus on playing guitar and operating a few motion pedals (DigiTech Whammy and wah-wah), which is plenty of stuff to do at one time, for sure . . .

For sure!

 

[Surf Whammy]

Re: Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project

I did a very silly but FUN music video on New Year's Day 2010 with some DISCO party lights and a fog machine, and it has clips of The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster® as it currently is configured with two Seymour Duncan® Lipstick Tube for Strat pickups in the middle and neck positions and a Little 59™ in the bridge position, which is fabulous . . .

"(I Want) Angela Gossow's Underpants (Ya-Ya-Ya) -- YouTube video

Fabulous!

The audio is a lot better than when I was doing headphone-only mixing, since I switched to doing loudspeaker mixing at the end of 2009 after watching a training video on how to do mastering with IK Multimedia T-RackS 3 Deluxe, which emphasized the importance of doing loudspeaker mixing . . .

There is one rhythm guitar part and one lead guitar part, both of which are played on The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster, with the rhythm guitar being run directly to MOTU 828mkII, while the lead guitar is run through two sets of external stereo effects pedals (one for each channel of the guitar, which maps to a total of four tracks, since each set of effects pedals is stereo) and then to the MOTU 828mkII, so from one dual-channel Stratocaster I get two tracks of rhythm guitar and four tracks of lead guitar but only need to play one rhythm guitar part and one lead guitar part, which is fantastic . . .

Fantastic!

Once I finish the modifications to the Stratocaster--which involves adding three more Seymour Duncan pickups (JB Jr.™, Duckbuckers™, Hot Rails™) to the existing three Seymour Duncan pickups for a total of six pickups and five separate and independent output signals--I am going to modify the Fender® American Vintage ’62 Jazz Bass® by upgrading it to Seymour Duncan pickups to get a deeper bass TONE, perhaps adding a third pickup and some Rothstein "mid-scoop" TONE controls, since I like the idea of having dual output channels, which I currently emulate by splitting the single output of the bass guitar and running one of the split channels through an echo unit (single-repeat, approximately 350 to 500 milliseconds) to get a bit more spatial spread on the bass. And I want to add a chrome pick guard for a bit of sparkle, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

 

[MikeM]

Re: Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project

Nice work there Bruno

 

[Surf Whammy]

Re: Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project

Nice work there Bruno

Glad you enjoyed it!

All I need is one hit song, and if it requires singing about ladies' underpants and acting like a complete and total fool, then I'm there, for sure . . .

For sure! :banghead: