Switch Tip: Aged White, Fender “Pure Vintage”.String Nut: TusqXL, Teflon coated nut (Black).Jack Plate: Fender “Boat” Jack plate (Gold).
Bridge: Fender Original USA Vintage series bridge, (Gold) with upgraded steel sustain block.Tuners: Fender, Vintage Kluson style tuners (Gold).Hardware: Genuine Fender, Gold plated screw set, (with stainless steel alternatives for screws not included in standard set).Tone Capacitor: Fender 0.1 ♟ “Phonebook” Reproduction, Paper in Oil Capacitor.Pots: Volume – 1 x CTS Custom Taper “SuperPot” 280k, Tone – 2 x CTS TVT (“True Vintage Taper”) 250k.Controls: “ Gibson style 50’s wiring modification” – Master Volume, Tone 1.Pickup Switching: CRL, Sprung 5-Position Blade – Position 1.Neck Pickup: Bareknuckle Apache, Single Coil, Alnico 3 Poles, 5.6K.Middle Pickup: Bareknuckle Apache, Single Coil, Alnico 3 Poles, 5.6K.Bridge Pickup: Bareknuckle Apache, Single Coil, Alnico 3 Poles, 6.4K.Body Shielding: Heavy grade, copper sheet, with conductive adhesive backing.Neck Plate: Reproduction, Stamped, 4 Bolt, Chrome Neckplate.Strings – D’Addario, Nickel Wound – EXL140 –.Number of Frets: 22, Medium Jumbo fretwire.Body Finish: Gloss Polyester / Urethane lacquer over colour coat.Body: 2003 Fender “Classic 50’s” Stratocaster Body.Go to site "Stratocaster a True Thoroughbred of Electric Guitars".Read for yourself:The company bigs came down with a mandate in the mid/late '50's to use alder wood(ash if required for see thru only).Tavares and everybody knew ash sounded better and stated so but had to go by the mandate(probably Randall as He ruined Fender).I have a heavy MIJ '52 reissue ash(heavy)telecaster and it sounds wonderful(punchy like a Les Paul).I am currently building 2 custom strats with swamp ash bodies and they ring like a mo acoustically,so I know they'll be good electrically.Also 2 of the biggest quartersawn maple necks available.A V and a U(ungodly huge).I have never owned an alder body strat that sounded worth a s.t,including my for real '59 strat.I'll never use alder again(Fender wouldn't have either except for the mandate).Please don't comment if you don't have a decent tube amp or muck up your tone with a lot of effects.A Mexi strat is fine for you. see what difference a slab of wood makes even in the 21st century I use relatively heavy strings - 11-49 D'Addario when I can get them.Īnyway, have a listen.How can you compare guitar sounds if you introduce a valve amp, volume settings, mikes etc. I D.I.ed the guitar straight into the computer.I wasn't about to spend hours fiddling about to get the settings just right before stripping it all apart again to paint and rebuild, so I left it like that. the neck pocket on the new body was slightly deeper, which resulted in the action being so low that the strings buzzed nervously every time I picked up a plectrum.Then I recorded again so I could compare the two. When my new guitar body arrived, I was desperate to convince myself that the cost would make a significant difference, so I recorded Hank, then stripped it down and screwed and bolted all the bits onto the new body.
I hunted around for research on what are known as 'tonewoods' and after swithering over Ash and Swamp Ash - both woods that Leo Fender used, I plumped for Alder (I found very helpful - although the link doesn't seem to be working now). What would happen if I replaced it with Alder, the traditional Strat body wood? If I replaced the Basswood body on Hank with a slab of foam it would certainly sound different.
Most guitarists tend to upgrade their guitars to improve the sound by replacing the pickups, but the pickups can only reproduce what's there already (and anyway, I'd already upgraded my pickups) and it seemed obvious to me that the guitar body wood had a significant impact on the sound. So I decided to add the elusive quality to 'Hank' that would turn him from yet-another-guitar into what I remember one writer calling the sound of 'silk and barbed wire'. It didn't sound fantastic, but it felt just right. To re-iterate: I had a Japanese 'Hank Marvin' Squier Strat which I loved. My delighted apologies if this post seems garbled. I've also been working on WURK until around 3am every day this week, so tonight, in an attempt to blast it out of my system before having a cool weekend with my family, I appear to have drunk half a bottle of whisky. I threatened in the last post to supply some audio files which would help to illustrate the process of building the James Bisset 50th Anniversary Strat.