My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

[Steve Mavronis]

My friend Dean Cascione of DC Custom Guitars built this SuperStrat for me to my own personal specifications. I received it in January 2017. The only DIY mod I made is the Graph Tech string tree. She's such a beauty and we call her Sunrazor. I just want to roll up in the quilts with her! The body is quilted maple ober basswood. The neck is scalloped birdseye maple. The volume knob is the Seymour Duncan YJM High-Speed Pot 500K. The pickups are generic mini rail humbuckers. Someday I'd like to swap them for a pair of Seymour Duncan mini rails I think.

Guitar specs: 25.5" scale DC Custom Guitars USA - YJM Style Scalloped Fretboard - 9.5" radius - Birdseye Maple 1 pc neck shank - Medium c back profile - Dunlop 6000 frets - Reverse Headstock - Hipshot graduated locking tuners - Dual acting truss rod at heel - Real shell abalone inlays - Graph Tech Tusq XL nut - Graph Tech Sleek Tusq XL string tree - 5A Curly Maple top over Basswood DC Custom Guitars body - 4 bolt heel with DC Custom Guitars USA Personalized Neckplate Etching - Rear Charvel style electronics cavity route - SS pickup configuration - Vintage tremolo route - Wilkinson steel block tremolo with offset drilled sustain block for improved intonation and push in tremolo arm - Floyd Rose noiseless tremolo springs - Side input jack - 3 way toggle - 1 volume Seymour Duncan YJM High-Speed Pot - Copper grounding backplane - Aluminum cavity cover - GuitarHeads rail pickups wound to Dean Cascione's specifications - All black hardware - Thin nitrocellulose finish - SIT Power Steel 9-46 strings - Fender tweed guitar case

 

[Demanic]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

Very pretty. Graph Tech string tree? I knew that they made nuts and saddles, but not trees.
And yes, someday you should get some Duncan's in there.

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[Steve Mavronis]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

Very pretty. Graph Tech string tree? I knew that they made nuts and saddles, but not trees.

Graph Tech Sleek TUSQ String Tree. The build already included their TUSQ XL Nut.

 

[Demanic]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

Locking tuners?

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[Steve Mavronis]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

Locking tuners?

Yes Hipshot graduated locking tuners.

 

[Demanic]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

I would imagine that it stays in tune even without a locking bridge and nut

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[JB_From_Hell]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

Cool guitar, but I have to ask... why generic pickups?

 

[Aceman]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

What was the philosophy behind each of these features:

1. Single slot near bridge
2. Standard Trem
3. What tuners?
4. Discuss scalloped and your playing

 

[Demanic]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

Or, just post a quick vid.

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[Steve Mavronis]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

Cool guitar, but I have to ask... why generic pickups?

They are mini rails by GuitarHeads. The builder and guitarist uses them for his own guitars at the time and I didn't specify other than mini rails. They are pretty much high output. I'm not sure how they compare to SD Hot Rails or something. I would prefer something noiseless but with a classic Strat rock and blues tone probably. I have YJM-Fury's in my other Satin Midnight Blue Strat and like the tone of those. Not sure what the equivalent SD mini rails version of that kind of tone would be closest to.

 

[Demanic]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

JB jr. For the bridge. Or maybe a hot stack.
Lil 59 for the neck. Or Vintage stack.
But really, play the GFS for a while. You might not want to change anything.

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[Mincer]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

That guitar needs 2 Furys.

I've always liked his scalloping work. Next guitar I get done is going to him.

 

[Steve Mavronis]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

That guitar needs 2 Furys.

I added the complete build specs to the original picture post.

He did ask me if I wanted those YJM-Fury pickups since I already had them in my MIM satin Strat, but I was curious about the mini rail pickups and like the look better than pole pieces. I like Dean Cascione's guitar tone on his 2nd self-produced album "Neoclassical Fire" plus he was using the scratch-built gray spec DOD 250 clone (that I made for both of us) for the recording. I pretty much get that same tone although instead of his Marshall YJM100 tube amp I'm only using either my little Blackstar HT-1R combo (Tung-Sol 12AX7) or VHT Special 6 Ultra combo (Tung-Sol 12AX7/EL34B) both with 8"/12" Celestion speakers, respectively.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

I would imagine that it stays in tune even without a locking bridge and nut

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I have a Strat with a Floyd Rose that stays in tune without a locking nut, it's well within reason that a 6-point bridge could stay in tune without one either.

 

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

There is nothing superstrat with that guitar: No Floyd, 22 frets, no humbucker, no locking nut, 9.5 inch radius.

And what's a mini rail? I reckon there must be regular-sized rail as well, no?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

There is nothing superstrat with that guitar: No Floyd, 22 frets, no humbucker, no locking nut, 9.5 inch radius.

And what's a mini rail? I reckon there must be regular-sized rail as well, no?

Reverse headstock, scalloped fretboard, two humbuckers, black hardware, flame top, locking tuners, no tone; how is it not a super strat?

 

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

^ FYI, scalloped fretboard doesn't make you play faster - which is what superstrat is all about - it merely makes the tone sound fuller.

 

[Samick Lover]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::fing2:

 

[Steve Mavronis]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

SuperStrat is a rather general loose term that includes a lot of extra features but they don't have to include everything possible:

"Superstrat is a name for an electric guitar design that resembles a Fender Stratocaster but with differences that clearly distinguish it from a standard Stratocaster, usually to cater to a different playing style. Differences typically include more pointed, aggressive-looking body and neck shapes, different woods, increased cutaways (resulting in deeper horns) to facilitate access to the higher fret, increased number of frets, contoured heel facilitating easier higher fret access, usage of humbucking pickups and locking tremolo systems, most commonly the Floyd Rose. There is no formal definition of a superstrat; the categorization is still largely left to popular opinion and depends greatly on the artist(s) associated with a particular model and how it is marketed." - Wikipedia

To me it's just a guitar that's basically a modified or upgraded features based on the Stratocaster design. Yeah most definitions mention locking nut and Floyd Rose but in the specs I gave for my custom build I didn't want that. I wanted to maintain some vintage design aspects as I respect the Strat as an innovative guitar in the history of stringed instruments. I don't have that big a problem staying in tune with a Strat based tremolo system. With a Strat the most basic trick to reset tuning is push down on the tremolo arm and release. It usually stabilizes the G string witch is the most prone to go out of tune when full bending it a lot. The locking tuners are great to me just for the benefit of fast easy string changing and not worrying about the string winding wrap. It's a more double hands free process. If you get the bridge intonation correct and string to spring tension just right and use a "slippery as teflon" type nut and string tree (Graph Tech) then you don't need a crutch like a locking nut or hair bands to dampen any stray open string noise (I hate seeing that especially) unless you don't have full control over your instrument. It should be a natural extension of you the player, not the other way around.

Someone asked what are mini rails? They are simply noise cancelling humbuckers in a single coil format. Seymour Duncan YJM-Fury pickups are humbuckers in a stacked coil design. Mini rails have coil windings around dual parallel blades in reverse polarity with each other to cancel noise. Humbuckers used in SuperStrats are generally hotter than stock single coil pickups as mine are. Mini rails also, theoretically at least, not prone to string volume tone dropout when bending since the blades or rails are continuous throughout the string bend travel, whereas individual poles might have marginally weaker magnetic fields in between - but I think that's probably unnoticeable and highly exaggerated for mini rail marketing purposes. I just like how they look as a modern update to the original vintage single coil pickup design.

The main takeaway is that it's up to the players discretion what features each want to include or not include. Depending on your style of music and hardware tastes, the combinations of design features selected are specialized for what works for you and aesthetics too!

 

[jeremy]

Re: My "Sunrazor" Custom Spec SuperStrat

^ FYI, scalloped fretboard doesn't make you play faster - it merely makes the tone sound fuller.

really? ive never noticed that before.