Super Satchurator Build (Oak)

[Drak]

So, it's not 100% done, but it's 98% done.
You can see the piece of wood holding the trem in place yet.
10 minutes of wiring then I gotta string it up and put the retainer bar on it and its done.

Fred bridge, Fast Track 2 middle (on a series/parallel p/p switch) Satch Track neck.
The goal with the FT2 was to give me a secondary lead tone and different from the Fred.

This is one of my hybridized passive-active things.
The pickups are passive, tone & volume passive, then it goes into EMG active hardware.
The last yellow knob is an EMG EXG (happy face EQ) pot, and the black knob is an EMG SPC (frown face) pot (mid-boost).

The body is Oak, and everything under the pickguard is routed out.

 

[Drak]

Inside Shot.
I distressed the finish a bit in places to give the Oak a sort of 'old furniture' look.
You can see lighter and darker sections here and there.
This (and a Tele brother) was made from an old Oak tabletop I had sitting around for years.

 

[Drak]

Different angle.

 

[Kac]

That thing is freaking gorgeous!! I want a guitar with an oak body and finish like that now!!!

 

[JB_From_Hell]

I dig it

 

[Drak]

Thanks Guys!
Thought I would mention it has a Warmoth double-expanding neck, Macassar Ebony over Maple.
But I had a roll of Oak woodworking veneer sitting here for years that I had no use for until this build came along, just sitting in a drawer doing nothing.
So the headstock veneer is Oak veneer, which is backed with heat-reactive adhesive, which is designed for an iron-on application.
So the headstock veneer is ironed on, the fastest headstock veneer I've ever done.
Took longer to cut it out and prep it than it did to iron it on, which was about 2 minutes.
And by the time I dyed it, was a dead-ringer match for the body.
I also distressed that finish too a bit.

 

[Drak]

This is the tabletop they started from, and both together.
They're 1.5" thick, which is good for Oak, cuz that shit is heavy.
Both are heavily chambered under the guards.

 

[Drak]

This is the cavity route.
I routed out every damn thing I could in and around the rear spring cavity 'box'.
It has a rear control cavity cover too so I could mount the additional EMG hardware in it.
Which allowed me to route even an extra bit out from the back too.
So although its real Oak, which is heavy, its now been shaved down to a very normal weight.

 

[Top-L]

This is the cavity route.
I routed out every damn thing I could in and around the rear spring cavity 'box'.
It has a rear control cavity cover too so I could mount the additional EMG hardware in it.
Which allowed me to route even an extra bit out from the back too.
So although its real Oak, which is heavy, its now been shaved down to a very normal weight.

This really makes me appreciate your build.

Would you recommend people buy routers / band saws and do their own bodies? It looks like it is totally doable, although probably at least 1K in tools.

 

[Drak]

Would you recommend people buy routers / band saws and do their own bodies?
It looks like it is totally doable, although probably at least 1K in tools.

I can't answer that one, I was somehow driven to do it, there was no 'not' doing it for me.
It's fun as hell tho, so if you have the inclination, by all means do it.
The on-line instruction couldn't be any better than it is now with the available wealth of information on the web and all the various parts suppliers around.

 

[Mincer]

Wow, that is a very unique guitar! Is oak heavy? What does oak sound like?

 

[jeremy]

looks very cool! and yes, oak is heavy

 

[Drak]

Wow, that is a very unique guitar! Is oak heavy? What does oak sound like?

Yes, Oak is heavy as hell, which is why they're both heavily routed.
They're both pretty normal guitar weight now.

I haven't finished it up yet, but it's brother, the straight Tele, has been finished for a few months now.
Sounds great to me.
Not overly bright, nice full solid core bass tone, sounds just like a good Tele should so I expect no different from the Satch build.

 

[Mincer]

Yes, Oak is heavy as hell, which is why they're both heavily routed.
They're both pretty normal guitar weight now.

I haven't finished it up yet, but it's brother, the straight Tele, has been finished for a few months now.
Sounds great to me.
Not overly bright, nice full solid core bass tone, sounds just like a good Tele should so I expect no different from the Satch build.

Good to know! They look wonderful!

 

[Drak]

So I never quite completed this one, it was 98% done, then I started working on other things.
So I finally got back around to it to finish it.
I decided to add in an Afterburner pre-amp to the other EMG pots already on it (RPC and SPC).
Strung it up and its finally done and playing now.
Putting the Fast Track 2 in the middle was a bit of a gamble, I wasn't sure how that would work out.
My idea was to do 2 separate lead sounds instead of ignoring the middle pickup...Totally Worked.
Sounds louder and fuller than the Fred does in the bridge. Love it.
It's on a P/P to coil split it, so I can get the regular middle sounds too, but I love it full-on.

 

[dave74]

Are all the EMG pots the qquick-connect type? I've been wanting a couple of the older style SPC pots but all I could find was the QC which are very pricey.

 

[Drak]

No, actually both the RPC and SPC are from the very first iteration they made with the little PC board glued to the back.
I've been using the EMG pots for probably +/- 25 years and had a bunch of them in a drawer bought at different times.
There were three different 'types' as I remember through the years, these I'm pretty sure were the first 'type' they made.
The back-supply is nearly cleaned out now as I just built 4 active guitars this year.
This one just happened to get both pots from the 'old' era.