NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

[Kac]

Picked up a decent 2004 MIM Fender Strat from guitar center a week or two ago and put some serious work into it.

Changed out the pickguard & all 3 pickups
Added DiMarzio Chopper from eBay
Swapped necks to go from rosewood to maple fretboard (maple neck w/ rosewood fretboard now for sale)
Changed out the tremolo block to a larger mass block

And right now I'm definitely loving it.

Of all of the strats I've had, this is my first purple one. The finish had a completely different feel than I'm used to so I got some fine grit sandpaper and smoothed it out a little.

This one is staying in my arsenal for a while anyway.


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[TheLivingDead]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

Noice!

How ya likin' that Chopper in the bridge? I've only ever used it in the neck and loved it there.

 

[Kac]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

I wanted to get some more crunch since my other strat is just single coils. It certainly gets the job done. It's just tight and percussive enough for me to turn up the gain and rock out.


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[Laughing Kookaburra]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

I love the Chopper! Had one in my Tele bridge. I also had a push pull volume in order to go from series to parallel, which gave me a sort of generic stock sound when needed.

A tech a DMZ told me that a coil split would be too glassy, and to go with parallel instead.

Enjoy that Strat!

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

:headbang:

 

[Kac]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

I put in a switch to make the Chopper into a single coil. I continue to dig it. Might need to swap out the neck pickup. Still tweaking everything.


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[ErikH]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

Very nice. The color looks more like the midnight blue from the early 2000's. I've got a MIM body from that era, same color. Maple/maple Warmoth neck on it. It's a complete partsocaster. Bridge is the GFS MIM spaced bridge and I changed out the saddles for Gotoh's. SD STK-S4 neck/middle and STK-S9b in the bridge. It's taken some tweaking here and there but it came out pretty darn good.

 

[Kac]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

I think the color looks more blue in the pictures. In real life it is very much purple. If they called this color midnight blue, that would be something, because I would definitely call it some kind of purple, but it does work. it's a decent color. Definitely a guitar that has taken a little tweaking and I'm not done tweaking yet.

 

[ErikH]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

This is mine. I need to take a new pic. This one has the original bridge saddles and Lil Screamin Demon in it.

 

[Kac]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

Beautiful, what model year is that? It's probably from the flash, but yours looks more glossy than mine did.

 

[ErikH]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

I'm guessing the body is from around 2000. I bought it off eBay with the pickguard. I had almost everything else for the body and had to get the neck. It's got the boatneck contour, 6105 frets, Schaller tuners that I had laying around and a bone nut. I'm thinking of swapping the trem block out for brass. It's definitely more glossy than yours. Someone took yours and made it look relic'd. They didn't come that way in 2004 and definitely not in that color.

 

[Kac]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

I'm the one who relic'ed it. The finish was very satin and not glossy at all, the sanding actually made it more smooth, rubbed it down with a little oil and I like the feel of the finish better. That purple is the stock paint color though.


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[ErikH]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

Interesting. Just Googled, "MIM satin purple", and sure enough, got some results. Apparently a limited color. Can't say I've seen one of those in person. Then again, in 2004 I wasn't really hunting much in the market. It looks cool though.

 

[Kac]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

Thank you. It was a nice find for around $200 at Guitar Center.


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[ErikH]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

Heck yeah it is. They're a good value even new but used, just a plain steal of a deal.

 

[Kac]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

New Look! Double the DiMarzios.

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[Laughing Kookaburra]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

Another chopper?

 

[Kac]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

Fast track actually


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[Laughing Kookaburra]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

Cool. At some point in the future I'd like to drop some sort of combination of DMZ rails in a Strat.

FT 1 I presume? How do you like it? Besides the Chopper, I've only used the FT 2.

 

[Kac]

Re: NGD Fender Strat *DiMarzio content

Yeah it's the Fast Track 1. I like it quite a bit. Gives me the lead tone I was looking for in the neck position. I'm installing the same pickup in the middle position of my RG in a day or two.


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