Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

Cool story. I like the zebras a lot.
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

i can't rebuild my highschool axe..... i trashed and burned it... i'm serious... all i have left is bag of parts and the beat up neck
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

WhoFan said:
i can't rebuild my highschool axe..... i trashed and burned it... i'm serious... all i have left is bag of parts and the beat up neck
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Sorry to hear that...:( Y'know, unless that was what you meant to do or whatever. :lol:
I'm also rebuilding the 2nd post high-school mongrel....it had a completely cool Charvel neck, but a nasal=sounding Maple body that had the pickup route too close to the bridge...replacing it with a Musikraft one-piece Swamp Ash body...

Worksinprogress6-10.jpg


But that could be a complete other thread...;)
 
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Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

Dunno man, if the neck is still serviceable I'd just get a new body for it (I mean, if it still means anything to you that is).

I don't have a "highschool" axe per se.

My Strat was my gift to myself when I entered University and that's when I started learning (yeah, what can I say, I'm a late bloomer :9:)

BTW, could you repost that photo man, it ain't showing :9:
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

KeeperOS said:
BTW, could you repost that photo man, it ain't showing :9:
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Not sure why...using the code as usual...

Ah, mystery solved...this board's software that auto-corrects words it thinks are "dirty" changed the file link name characters to *'s, fer cryin' out loud...


Anyway....:rolleyes:

[IMG]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h217/jhale667/twotogo.jpg

A neck and tuners for one, and a paint job for the other, coupla sets of Straplock's and I'm done...but again, the Charvel/Musikraft rebuild could be its' own thread...:D

Oh, and probably will paint the headstock on the forthcoming Explorer neck black, btw...:33:
 
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Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I already Big-Blocked the Floyd(s)...:lol:

bigblockinstalledunderside.jpg



(Reference pic only...)


Can you say MEATY? :D
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

From what I can gather. less of the "Floyditis" effect (as per "Stratitis" :9:) i.e. more sustain and more meat.

However I'm still debating how profound the difference/improvement is...
Kinda wondering whether the Titanium block is worth it too :D
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

jhale667 said:
Oh, and attention JeffB...for your perusal, currently going pretty cheap on Ebay...;)
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Thats a good price, thanks for the link! I'm def not a recessed Floyd Rose guy though. I'll go with either a string through TOM, or a Kahler.
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

jhale667 said:
Sorry to hear that...:( Y'know, unless that was what you meant to do or whatever. :lol:
I'm also rebuilding the 2nd post high-school mongrel....it had a completely cool Charvel neck, but a nasal=sounding Maple body that had the pickup route too close to the bridge...replacing it with a Musikraft one-piece Swamp Ash body...

Worksinprogress6-10.jpg


But that could be a complete other thread...;)
Click to expand...

ya i trashed that POS Kramer Striker guitar.... i got mad at my dad and trashed the thing acting like a spoiled kid back in the 80's... but then i stuck it together again and smashed it again... after doing so many times, spray painting it a few times, lighting it on fire... there was not much left... i had the remains hanging on my wall for years but tossed the body out when i moved 10 years ago...

some good came of it... i had to learn how to do my own repair work if i kept breaking stuff.... i could not afford the repair shops every few weeks... some of the lessons i learned doing that smash and repair stuff helped in many ways...
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

KeeperOS said:
From what I can gather. less of the "Floyditis" effect (as per "Stratitis" :9:) i.e. more sustain and more meat.

However I'm still debating how profound the difference/improvement is...
Kinda wondering whether the Titanium block is worth it too :D
Click to expand...

Haven't tried the Titanium one...yet. ;) But let's put it this way: I found the effect of the regular brass Big-Block so dramatic I instantly knew I had to do ALL my other Floyds. And I mean, I did it ASAP, too! It is a huge improvement. You can't begin to discuss the increase in sustain without sounding like a Nigel Tufnel routine! :lol: Overall note projection is improved - even acoustically, and there's a bass and mid-frequency kick I can only describe as "corpulent" compared to the standard (puny) block. All "thinness" is gone. You're left with a basic tone (this is before you even amp it, mind you!) that is like being hit in the head with a side of BEEF. :smash: It has to be heard to be believed, in a way...

Or, another example: I did my Koa Strat before I did my Northern Ash one...prior to changing them out, though they both sounded great - the Ash one had always sounded louder and punchier even acoustically. Once I'd put the Big Block in, the Ash guitar suddenly sounded like a GNAT in comparison.
Did them both, and the Ash one was equally enhanced. Doing a Swamp Ash one currently, and this Kramer puppy is Alder, I'm pretty sure (going off the look of the exposed wood in the neck pocket, and what historical data I could find via the serial number on VintageKramer.com)... I expect the Swamp Ash one to be as amazing as its' cousin, but I'm really curious to see what Big-Blocking will do for an Alder body...


Adam, the guy at Floydupgrades.com says basically the same thing (must hear to believe) about the Titanium...kinda friendly with him now that I've bought SIX 37mm and 42mm blocks total from him...LMAO...(he's a cool guy, btw) told him that's what I'm AFRAID of, that I'm gonna want to do five more Titanium ones after hearing the first ~ again! :D

I still have two more Floyds laying around here though, and I DO wanna try a Titanium one...:33:
 
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Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

Really cool guitar you've got going there. I don't normally go for the pointies like that, but that one has a very simplistic feel to it that so for seems to work. The zebras with the black hardware really compliment the body color very well. Good choices! I can't wait to see it all finished.

I still have my "high school sweetheart," too. Twice bastardized, I almost gave it a Viking funeral last summer, but it's still sitting in a case waiting for me to do something.
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

Well man, I'm REALLY interested in getting one.

You might have noticed my most ambitious "project" yet, a 300€ guitar that I simply fell in love with and ended spending an additional 700€ (give or take) to upgrade EVERYTHING.
I was not disappointed.

The first thing was to replace that cheap copy-of-a-Schaller-copy Floyd with a Gotoh one.
The Gotoh has a 41mm x 8mm brass block (at least, that's what I measure while installed though the specs say 40mm :dunno:) whereas the original had a 34mm cheap-metalish-alloy one.
It goes without saying that there's a GOOD 3-4mm where the new block sticks out of the back-route (thus the back-cover is off).

The acoustic difference between the POS floyd and the Gotoh one was truly profound but although it sounds like less of a mosquito now, there's still A LOT of room for improvement.
That's why I was debating a new 37mm (to be between the two) big block.

However I can't decide of WHICH.
Have you tried those L shaped ones? I was kinda leaning towards that instead of the "classic" one but I'm not sure whether there's a downside.
And then there's the Titanium one, honestly, if I were convinced that the difference was THAT dramatic I would probably justify the 5x price over the brass one...

BTW, did you also buy the new Block Mounting Screws? Is it worth it?
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

I actually didn't buy the new mounting screws, he JUST started offering them a few weeks ago, after I'd already made my purchases. :)

Not sure the 37mm Big-Block would actually FIT your Gotoh, though KeeperOS...you may want to shoot Adam an email to verify it...
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

Been wondering about that myself, although I don't see a reason why it wouldn't (after all, my string lock screws are from an OFR as the stock Gotoh were 1 or 2mm longer and touched the wall of the route).
Then again, you never know.

I will ask him when I can (what I did just find out is that the L shaped one is out, the Gotoh has a screw that controls the height of the arm so...)
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

Really cool that you've hung on to that for so long, looks very cool (in a big haired eighties metal kinda way).

Makes me wish I still had my high school guitar, which was a candy apple red Ibanez Destroyer, hardly the best guitar I've ever owned but it was just so very eighties.
 
Re: Rebuilding my High-School sweetheart

KeeperOS said:
Been wondering about that myself, although I don't see a reason why it wouldn't (after all, my string lock screws are from an OFR as the stock Gotoh were 1 or 2mm longer and touched the wall of the route).
Then again, you never know.

I will ask him when I can (what I did just find out is that the L shaped one is out, the Gotoh has a screw that controls the height of the arm so...)
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Yeah, and the new-style Floyd bars have the hex bolt on the bottom of the bar assembly, so the L-shaped one is out on those (for me at least), too...
I'm actually about to switch out the new-style bars for the older threaded ones, didn't even know they were still available...but I wonder even then if spot adjustments would be difficult with the L-shaped block...

Uk Ant said:
Really cool that you've hung on to that for so long, looks very cool (in a big haired eighties metal kinda way).

Makes me wish I still had my high school guitar, which was a candy apple red Ibanez Destroyer, hardly the best guitar I've ever owned but it was just so very eighties.
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Yeah, might be kind of cool to whip out at a cover gig for the metal tunes, but the gargantuan case it requires is still unfortunately on the other side of the country, at my parent's house...lol. Would be cheaper to just buy an Explorer case here than ship the stupid thing...:lol:
 
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