OttoMatick
New member
I want to give a shout out about the Blacktop Stratocaster, especially the HH model. Big huge swimming pool route! Excellent for modification!
Playing as well as any strat I have ever played the guitar is perfect from FMIC. The Mint Green pick guard looks very cool on the candy apple red giving the guitar a cool funky nature on the vine vibe. The maple neck feels chunky making sustain all day long. The only con is a urethane rather than nitrocellulose finish but by no means a show stopper.
The stock electronics and wiring are what really sets this apart from other Stratocasters. With two 4 wire standard sized covered humbuckers, single hole pick guard mounts, a five way super switch provides coil split of the bridge humbucker in position 2 and selection of the inner coils of both humbuckers in position 4. Switch position 1, 3 and 5 provide normal N,N+B, and B humbucker selections. The stock pickups provide both single coil jangle and PAF humbuckers tones allowing you to use one guitar for everything but acoustic sounds. The guitar obtains its unique humbucker growl by wiring the coils in series on each pickup with no S1 switch to flip between parallel or series.
Like my 97 Am Std this has the big swimming pool route under the pick guard. This provides room for use of any combination of pickups that will fit in a strat pick guard. I personally wish the route was a 1/8th to ¼ inch deeper or maybe as deep as the control cavity to make it easier to stuff wires or a circuit board.
I did make a few modifications to make my guitar mine. I upgraded:
Replaced tuning machines with Fender Deluxe Chrome Locking machines.
Replaced string guide with Fender American Standard String Guide.
Added Fender Black Felt Washers between the strap retainers and guitar body.
Replaced plain blank ugly neck plate with sexy Fender '70s 'F' Style Neck Plate.
Replaced skirted black amp knobs with black chrome knurled dome knobs.
Replaced pickups with Seymour Duncan Jazz 2 neck and Pearly Gates Bridge. I used the same wring ideology wiring coils in series for each Seymour Duncan humbucker. The switch works exactly as a stock Blacktop HH Stratocaster. Very cool is the neck pickup is Alnico II Magnets and the bridge pickup has Alnico V magnets.
My heart races at the thought of a strat pick guard with 5 single coil holes on it populated with Seymour Duncan single coil sized humbuckers. Think of it, 5 coil splits, 5 humbuckers, HHHHH, SSSSS, HSHSH, SSSSH, HSSSS, the possibilities are endless with a big swimming pool route.
Playing as well as any strat I have ever played the guitar is perfect from FMIC. The Mint Green pick guard looks very cool on the candy apple red giving the guitar a cool funky nature on the vine vibe. The maple neck feels chunky making sustain all day long. The only con is a urethane rather than nitrocellulose finish but by no means a show stopper.
The stock electronics and wiring are what really sets this apart from other Stratocasters. With two 4 wire standard sized covered humbuckers, single hole pick guard mounts, a five way super switch provides coil split of the bridge humbucker in position 2 and selection of the inner coils of both humbuckers in position 4. Switch position 1, 3 and 5 provide normal N,N+B, and B humbucker selections. The stock pickups provide both single coil jangle and PAF humbuckers tones allowing you to use one guitar for everything but acoustic sounds. The guitar obtains its unique humbucker growl by wiring the coils in series on each pickup with no S1 switch to flip between parallel or series.
Like my 97 Am Std this has the big swimming pool route under the pick guard. This provides room for use of any combination of pickups that will fit in a strat pick guard. I personally wish the route was a 1/8th to ¼ inch deeper or maybe as deep as the control cavity to make it easier to stuff wires or a circuit board.
I did make a few modifications to make my guitar mine. I upgraded:
Replaced tuning machines with Fender Deluxe Chrome Locking machines.
Replaced string guide with Fender American Standard String Guide.
Added Fender Black Felt Washers between the strap retainers and guitar body.
Replaced plain blank ugly neck plate with sexy Fender '70s 'F' Style Neck Plate.
Replaced skirted black amp knobs with black chrome knurled dome knobs.
Replaced pickups with Seymour Duncan Jazz 2 neck and Pearly Gates Bridge. I used the same wring ideology wiring coils in series for each Seymour Duncan humbucker. The switch works exactly as a stock Blacktop HH Stratocaster. Very cool is the neck pickup is Alnico II Magnets and the bridge pickup has Alnico V magnets.
My heart races at the thought of a strat pick guard with 5 single coil holes on it populated with Seymour Duncan single coil sized humbuckers. Think of it, 5 coil splits, 5 humbuckers, HHHHH, SSSSS, HSHSH, SSSSH, HSSSS, the possibilities are endless with a big swimming pool route.
