Kicking around the humbucker Strat

[Pete Galati]

This is along the general idea of what I was thinking of for a single humbucker Strat. Just kind of pasted together with parts I have sitting around. That red body weighs a ton though so I'm not about to use that, but I wanted to mess around with how things fit together.

Probably not with a pickup ring but that has the humbucker hole, so it's in there.

This would give me the Strat pickguard shape, while allowing me to get at the electronics easily like EVH can with his Frankenstein.

And actually, if I made the pickguard myself from scratch, the pickup ring would have to be there because pickup holes are hard to cut. But I could have someone like Warmoth make the basic pickguard, and I could carefully cut the control area, and add screw holes.

Pete

 

[danglybanger]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

...I've always thought a Jag/Mustang/tele control plate made more sense than anything. Clever.

Personally I think the gap created by putting a humbucker in a fender pickguard without a ring is worse than looking up a nostril. Keep the ring :smokin:

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

Hey Pete,

the picture doesn't show...

Pepe aka Lt. Kojak
Milano, Italy

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

...I've always thought a Jag/Mustang/tele control plate made more sense than anything. Clever.

Personally I think the gap created by putting a humbucker in a fender pickguard without a ring is worse than looking up a nostril. Keep the ring :smokin:

Yeah, I think you're right. I have the one humbucker Tele with uncovered pickups, and the pickguard hole doesn't look as good as the earlier version that had a pickup ring. But the ones with covered humbuckers, it looks normal.

I don't want to rule out using a humbucker cover though.

Maybe I'll pull out the blue guitar, and do a pasteup with a chrome cover.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

Hey Pete,

the picture doesn't show...

Pepe aka Lt. Kojak
Milano, Italy

Sorry about that. It might be an internet routing thing, and Comcast isn't all that good for hosting images.

I'll try attaching it.

 

[theodie]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

This is along the general idea of what I was thinking of for a single humbucker Strat. Just kind of pasted together with parts I have sitting around. That red body weighs a ton though so I'm not about to use that, but I wanted to mess around with how things fit together.

Probably not with a pickup ring but that has the humbucker hole, so it's in there.

This would give me the Strat pickguard shape, while allowing me to get at the electronics easily like EVH can with his Frankenstein.

And actually, if I made the pickguard myself from scratch, the pickup ring would have to be there because pickup holes are hard to cut. But I could have someone like Warmoth make the basic pickguard, and I could carefully cut the control area, and add screw holes.

Pete

I really like that. I like the separate control plate too! Good job.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

I really like that. I like the separate control plate too! Good job.

Thanks. So far it's just a photoshopped together concept though.

Someone in this forum started giving me Charvel GAS! I'm not likely to actually buy one, but I might try sticking something together.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

This is a quick pasteup I did this morning. I might skip the whole idea of a separate control plate. Unless I do what EVH did, and just use a cutoff pickguard, and leave those extra pickup routes hanging open. Hard to say. This project is still a bit down the road.

This is a DiMarzio Super II that I bought back in the '70s, and put a cover on it. It was sitting in the neck position of my Les Paul for years. It might even be a good choice for this kind of guitar. I never heard a Super II in the bridge position though.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

What does everyone think looks better? A straight, or a tilted pickup?

I'm not sure if I got the angle right. The Strat pickup seems to be at about 10 degrees, but with the picture at this perspective, when I copy the pickup to a separate image and tilt it 10 degrees, it becomes very exaggerated. This looks a little more normal.

I brightened the pickup on the separate image this time so it'd look shinier.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

I'm thinking a little more along these lines by now. Probably with Tele knobs though.

Actually, I have a Strat pickguard with three humbucker holes, so I could throw this whole thing together pretty quickly, and just leave the middle pickup empty.

Now that X-mas shipping should be over & done with, it should be a good time to have a pickguard made & shipped to me. So I might just have everything mounted in a pickguard, and the whole thing'll look slicker.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

I wasn't going to borrow quite this heavily from EVH's Frankenstein, but there's an inescapable logic to how he put it together. And I realized that the pickup with the chrome cover was significantly heavier than an uncovered one, so I decided against two pickups.

I haven't decided whether to just cut down the mint green GFS pickguard that was on the guitar, or if I should cut a new one. I have some very old B/W/B and some W/B/W material. It'll angle up to the corner of the pickup ring though. I started messing with the Cheerio box template before finding out where everything would sit.

Haven't cut any wood yet.

I found one Tele knob in my parts bin with really good gripping knurls. Rivals Callaham knobs. I have no idea why I only have one though!

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

Have to work on the pickup route a little more before the humbucker'll fit in there the way I want. It's a real tight fit right now.

It looks like I'm gonna cut down an age mother of toilet set pickguard for this. It should work ok with the cream pickup and pickup ring color.

The mint green pickguard from GFS just looked cheap when I pulled the knobs off because it has those extra little holes for the tab on Alpha pots.

 

[Stratovarious]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

i love that
its ****in mad =D

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

Keep the Cheerio guard :9:

Seriously, I can't wait to see where this'll get to!

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

It's definitely gonna loose some mojo when I replace the Cheerio pickguard! I kind of hate to do it.

I need to find the key thingamajig to put in my bandsaw's switch to turn it on so I can rough cut the pickguard down. Then I'll mark where I want to make the final cuts.

I suppose I could just do it with a hack saw.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

It looks like a 1-3/8" radius will sweep around from the bottom edge of the pickguard, to the corner of the pickup ring. I'll have to see if I like the shape with another Cheerio box mockup.

I'm kind of planning to stretch the middle hole as much as the Tele knob diameter will let me without showing, to get the knob a little closer to the strings.

I haven't decided if I should try to plug that one pothole. I wonder if the carparts store has something chrome that'll work without adding weight. This guitar seems a bit lighter without 3 pickups.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

That shape ought to work ok. Kind of a pesty shape to cut though. My bandsaw cuts straight lines, and that's about it, so I guess I'll have to draw several lines through the curve, and sand it to shape.

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

I like it but you might want to see if it'd look sharper with a more square/triangular top left corner (the one closer to the middle route). Just an idea...

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

I like it but you might want to see if it'd look sharper with a more square/triangular top left corner (the one closer to the middle route). Just an idea...

Like the shape of the EVH Frankenstein?

That would be a lot easier to cut. I'll have to try that in Cheerio box first.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Kicking around the humbucker Strat

I want to like this one better because it'd be a lot easier to cut! But actually I like the rounded off one better.

I photoshopped out the masking tape on this one. That's still there because I still need to work on the pickup route.