Making a vintage style strat...

[MrFoster]

As you can tell from the title I'm building a vintage style strat, brilliant fun indeed

It's going to be a really warm sounding guitar, really natural looking as well
Mahogany body with a maple pick guard, yet to decide on the pickups

Anyway, the reason I made this thread is because I'm after a bridge. Would it be a better choice to go with the more expensive Fender Vintage Trem or should I go with an aftermarket one? If so, which do you reccommend?

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Don't know much about the different bridges available but if you are looking for warmth, get a brass block with your bridge.

 

[MrFoster]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

I'll be sure to add one to the list

I was always told brass made it all sound brighter, would a brass nut work better than bone in this case?

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Seems like a major misnomer; it simply ain't a vintage style Strat if it has a mahogany body. A low number of production Teles were made with mahogany in the early '60's, but not any production Strats TMK.

So, I'm kun-fusededed. What is it that you are really going for, because it doesn't sound like it's a vintage style Strat to me.

 

[MrFoster]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Sorry about that.
It's more vintage-esque I guess

Essentially it's a strat with vintage dimensions and hardware with (possibly) Antiquity Texas Hot set from SD, somewhat hard to explain the idea of what I have in mind

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

I see. Do you plan on making significant use of the vibrato? If not, I'd just go with a Gotoh, Wilkinson, or a used Fender old-style bridge. They do fine for most stuff. There are also some improved bridges out there that basically look old school, like the ones made by Callaham. They'll cost you a pretty penny, though. And then there are bridges that are much improved, but don't look (or sound, or feel) like a classic Strat vibrato.

I'd say that if you're gonna spend over a hundred bucks for a brand new Fender brand vibrato unit, just say screw it and go straight for the Callaham. But if you want to keep it under 100 bucks, go for the Wilkinson or Gotoh.

 

[Stratovarious]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Wilkinson vintage style trem for the win , has a huge block and sounds good .

 

[MrFoster]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Still can't make up my mind

I'll do a bit of sniffing around WIlkinson, Gotoh and especially Callaham

Though I'm REALLY liking the look of Callaham

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Never got the Wallaham fetish...think they sound like crap!!
Unpleasent and all that...nice finish though.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Why mahogany? I made a Strat from a beautiful piece of Honduras mahogany about 30 years ago and didn't like the tone at all. It was NOT warm - that's for sure. It was bright. And heavy.

I think it's incorrect to think of mahogany as being a warm mellow tone wood. My two '95 Taylor 512 acoustic guitars are both brighter than my rosewood bodied acoustic guitars.

Personally, I'd go with light weight alder or swamp ash for that Strat.

 

[Frogman]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

I think it's incorrect to think of mahogany as being a warm mellow tone wood.

I will agree and disagree with you here.

I believe it honestly comes down to each piece of wood.
Some mahogany I've handled is less porous than others (less porous, IME, would result in a brighter tone.)

IME with building 4 guitars and owning 12-14, I've come to my own conclusion/hypothesis that scale length affects perceived brightness/warmth more than wood choice.
Second would be wood choice, and third would be bridge type and material.

For example, the all maple "Raw Power" Les Paul still sounded warm like other Les Pauls. More cut? Yes, but I attribute this to the fretboard material honestly.
It sure as hell didn't sound like an all maple superstrat.

Are there always outliers? Yes. But I would say as a whole, the majority of real mahogany tends to be on the warmer side than the brighter.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

I would say as a whole, the majority of real mahogany tends to be on the warmer side than the brighter.

All we can really go by is our own experience, and that was not my experience with the Honduras Mahogany Strat I built.

Nor is it what I think most experienced owners of mahogany bodied acoustic guitars would say.

However, I have owned some solid mahogany Les Paul Specials and Juniors and those did seem to sound more mid rangey than the maple topped Les Paul Standards I've owned.

IMO, it's really a question of the proportion of bass to mids to treble in a guitar.

If guitar #1 is compared to guitar #2 and guitar #2 sounds "brighter" it's usually because guitar #2 has less bass than guitar #1.

Or if guitar #2 has less midrange than guitar #2, then guitar #1 might seem both brighter and bassier...or worse, be described as sounding scooped!

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Brass rolls off the highs a bit, it doesn't brighten up the sound.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Brass rolls off the highs a bit, it doesn't brighten up the sound.

This is exactly the point I was making. IMO, brass thickens up the tone (adds bass and mids) and the result is that we hear that sound as having less highs or treble. It's all a matter of the proportion of bass to midrange to treble.

I've used a brass saddle for the high E on my Stratocaster to thicken or fatten up the tone - got the idea from Eric Johnson. Made it sound less thin and twangy...more bass and mids and less treble proportionally.

Adds "body" to a skinny high E string.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Why mahogany? I made a Strat from a beautiful piece of Honduras mahogany about 30 years ago and didn't like the tone at all. It was NOT warm - that's for sure. It was bright. And heavy.
.

This is my experience as well. I built a strat for somebody five or more years ago and he wanted mahogony. It turned out good in the end but it had a brass block, rosewood fretboard, A2 pickups, and 250k pots. For some reason maple tops on mahogony warm things up. Don't know why?

BTW, according to a Strat book I have, there were some very few mahogony strats in the early 60's.

 

[MrFoster]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Sorry about the late reply, guys! Got back from a trip in the city, what a time.

But after reading the experiences and info from everyone, I've decided to keep the mahogany for a later project and get either Swamp Ash or Alder!
Which would be the warmer out of the two?

 

[AlexR]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Technically the alder will. It has a balanced tonal response in general. The theme of this thread is (of course) every bit of wood is different.
Ash has quite hard areas and a solid grain structure. This tends to bring out the highs and lows. This isn't always the case though....I has an early 90's Ash G&L which was dull irrespective of pickups. I think extra-light ash would be the way to go if you went for that wood.

......where are you planning to get the body from?? There are some good US builders with reasonable shipping rates to Aus.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

As you can tell from the title I'm building a vintage style strat, brilliant fun indeed

It's going to be a really warm sounding guitar, really natural looking as well
Mahogany body with a maple pick guard, yet to decide on the pickups

Anyway, the reason I made this thread is because I'm after a bridge. Would it be a better choice to go with the more expensive Fender Vintage Trem or should I go with an aftermarket one? If so, which do you reccommend?

I wouldn't use mahogany but thats me...

Tremolo...here is the question for you.

Do you use the tremolo or do you just tighten all 5 springs, deck it and never touch it??

 

[Metalblaze]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

Sorry about the late reply, guys! Got back from a trip in the city, what a time.

But after reading the experiences and info from everyone, I've decided to keep the mahogany for a later project and get either Swamp Ash or Alder!
Which would be the warmer out of the two?

To me ash has great sounding highs but alder has more low mids which makes it fuller sounding.

There's also a video somewhere of Joe Satriani talking about his one alder Ibanez JS and he describes it as a warmer tone than what he's used to.

 

[verbotenco]

Re: Making a vintage style strat...

So Strats actually started out with humbuckers and Floyd Rose, 24 frets...the Superstrat...and now you want to make it vintage?