Find Pierre a Strat!

[Pierre]

Fingerboard radius: from 9.5 to 12, maybe a bit flatter, but that'd be ideal.
21 or 22 frets, no biggie either way
Three decent single coils, scratchplate
Maple or rosewood fingerboard, I ain't fussy
RESONANT body. That's the most important part. I want a guitar that sounds great accoustically before I go tweaking it
soft V to D neck, not too thin
42mm nut
Alder or Ash body
Big frets. No need for them to be HUGE, but bigger than the tiny vintage ones. Those on the Custom Classic were good

And well the rest doesn't matter as much as I tweak the electronics to hell anyway. String trees, saddles, bridge... doesn't really matter. The bridge will get flattened to the body and used as a hardtail, I'll perhaps remove one of the string trees and replace it with a roller one, and of course try different saddles until I get da best tone of them all

Cheapest possible I just want to see what options i have out there.

So far:

Mex Strat
LiteAsh Strat with the Duncans (strong contender that one)
Classic Custom 50
Classic Custom 60
Second hand US Standard

I left the options wide as I'm not THAT picky... since I'll remove everything but neck and body basically :laugh2:

I hate the sometimes thin or shrill bridge (and sometimes all..) pickup sound you get from bad strats, so an ideal strat for me wouldn't have this issue, or at least would perform as I want it with a change of pickup at the most. I like a thick tone. Not a LP (yuck) tone, but a thick Strat tone is what this should bring me

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

a Mexican strat can be quite nice if all you want is the neck and body and it's the cheapist way.... i have to say the 2006 MIM Standard strat i bought surprised the hell out of me at the thick tone and the body wood loves being a guitar in this one!!!!... so far i've left it stock as i don't want to lose the sound i get with it, even with stock Ceramic PU's!!! But i have to say it is slightly better then most MIM strats i've picked up to play at the local shop....

 

[Pierre]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Cool thanks! Indeed that's the main choice as it's way cheaper than others on my list... A MIM Strat with maple board could be awesome if I get a good one.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Cool thanks! Indeed that's the main choice as it's way cheaper than others on my list... A MIM Strat with maple board could be awesome if I get a good one.

it's weird, i have been using a 1999 MIM Standard with Duncans in it for ages thinking it was one great yet cheap strat.... then i found this 2006 MIM strat and the tone difference is day and night.... the 2006 one i have is much deeper in tone.... side by side sound tests it puts my older MIM strats to shame... in my hands unplugged i can feel the difference in the body vibrations... I have a 1999 MIM Tele that is very simular to the 2006 strat i have...

That 06 MIM strat sounds better then some guitars i paid 3 times the price...

go figure....

 

[Pierre]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Dunno... say... 450 quid/700 euros. I don't want budget to be a constraint for this though as I can always sell stuff.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

You just asked for a Highway One Strat

 

[Pierre]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Oooops I forgot... SMALL headstock. That monstruosity doesn't get nowhere near me :laugh2:


Apart from that it's actually a good idea, I hadn't considered one... I'll try one out Thanks!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Oooops I forgot... SMALL headstock. That monstruosity doesn't get nowhere near me :laugh2:
Apart from that it's actually a good idea, I hadn't considered one... I'll try one out Thanks!

The older HW1's have the small headstock...

 

[Pierre]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Yep I'll be on the lookout for these. I'm buying new or at least trying before I buy for this one though, which diminishes my chances of finding an old Highway1.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

my local shop has a bunch of HWY1's in for a discount..... with the larger headstocks mind ya... but just last year they also had a sale on a batch of older HWY1's they brought in... Fender had a bunch left over at a warehouse somewhere.....

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

The Carvin Bolts are good guitars with excellent hardware and atrocious resale value. Look for a used one.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Classic Custom 50

Gotoh bridge, Gotoh tuners, soft V neck....what is not to like, plus my mate who has a guitar store says that they play great!
Tend to agree with him, I tried bot the 60s and the 50s...very nice guitars!

 

[Tor]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Considering a Lite Ash?

And you do like to mod a lot?

Stay away from it, is my suggestion.. I have one, I like, but it's terrible to mod. Props to the Koreans for making a cool guitar, but I got seriously frustrated of all the peculiar measurements they use for the parts to that guitar.

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Salut, Pierre!

If you need a good body and neck, look at those:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,...es/Flametop-S_Front-routed_Guitar_Bodies.html

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,...guitar:_Necks/Replacement_Neck_for_Strat.html

The company's service is as good as it gets. Fastest delivery ever. Prices are very interesting due to the weak dollar. Thay ship to Europe with DHL, which cleared all customs for me. Time from charging the credit card to being delivered to my door all customs cleared USA to Itay, five days.

Here in Italy my luthier is using'em as their most reliable source for parts. They beat all the other Italian guitar parts suppliers hands down, both in prices and in delivery.

A couple of my friends have a parts strat and tele made out of their parts and they're both solid, very playable instruments. The only thing that had to be done in both of them was to have their fretwork leveled (which I consider standard procedure for any new custom guitar build anyway) after the guitar's assembly. If you don't already have the hardware you want, chances are they have it in catalog at a better price than any european supplier.

I was going to build me one strat from their parts for this Christmas, but I just found an amazing sounding Squier Std strat for € 120,00, so I couldn't pass it up.

HTH,

Pepe aka Lt. kojak
Milano, Italy

 

[Pierre]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Thanks! Yeah I was also thinking about getting a seperate body and neck and buy the rest either locally or progressively.


I wanted to go the warmoth route but I wouldn't be able to afford warmoth neck AND body, and I'd have no idea if I should go warmoth body and mac or whatever neck, or the opposite... If I go all out on a neck I may not like it after, whereas if I go for a nice body I can't be guaranteed it'll be great woods and will sound good.



THE most important thing is that I get to play it first and chose the best I can. Which in practical terms actually means I'm limited to MIM and classic customs actually... but I haven't given up hope

No G&L suggestions: they're not for me?

And yes that custom classic 50 was an awesome guitar for sure... I'll see if I can save up or sell that Kramer for her.

 

[Jazz Rock]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Go to guitarguitar, play the hell out of the zounds of Strat they have in stock in your price range (should take you 2 solid days already :18 Come back with a resonant strat. Surely they have one that will sing to your ears!

 

[Brow]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

I got my 1993 USA Fender Strat with Lace Sensors for £450, so your budget should be able to stretch to USA Fender if you look hard enough

 

[Sprinter]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Used USA built G&L's can be found in the $450 to $600 price range. Look for a S-500, it's a strat with balls!

Sprinter

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Salut, Pierre!

If you need a good body and neck, look at those:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,...es/Flametop-S_Front-routed_Guitar_Bodies.html

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,...guitar:_Necks/Replacement_Neck_for_Strat.html

The company's service is as good as it gets. Fastest delivery ever. Prices are very interesting due to the weak dollar. Thay ship to Europe with DHL, which cleared all customs for me. Time from charging the credit card to being delivered to my door all customs cleared USA to Itay, five days.

Here in Italy my luthier is using'em as their most reliable source for parts. They beat all the other Italian guitar parts suppliers hands down, both in prices and in delivery.

A couple of my friends have a parts strat and tele made out of their parts and they're both solid, very playable instruments. The only thing that had to be done in both of them was to have their fretwork leveled (which I consider standard procedure for any new custom guitar build anyway) after the guitar's assembly. If you don't already have the hardware you want, chances are they have it in catalog at a better price than any european supplier.

I was going to build me one strat from their parts for this Christmas, but I just found an amazing sounding Squier Std strat for € 120,00, so I couldn't pass it up.

HTH,

Pepe aka Lt. kojak
Milano, Italy

i've been debating trying those Stew Mac parts for a while now... i have all the hardware and pickups for a few guitars sitting here that came off other guitars or i bought them and never used them... all i need is bodies and necks..

 

[Pierre]

Re: Find Pierre a Strat!

Well tomorrow I believe I should head to boulevard Sebastopole to Paris' biggest guitar shop and try Strats, loads of them