Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Gooby on January 01, 2012, 12:41:37 PM
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This has been my first build from parts. I have a few Strats over the years and never quite liked the radius of the fretboard and what with the lacking stock Fender pickups always parted with the guitars.
Most of the parts are from Warmoth, which in my opinion give great value for such quality, even when taking into account import duty etc into the UK.
Pickups: Irish Tours in a prewired BK scratchplate
Body: Alder sealed with Tru Oil
Neck: Compound Radius Sealed with tru oil
Fingerboard: Pau Ferro 6100 frets
Tuners: Sperzel locking (The staggered heights of the tuners do away with the need for string trees)
Nut: Graphtech BLACK TUSQ XL (Ivoroid/cream would be more in keeping with the look but I went for function over form)
Bridge: Wilkinson
For my personal tastes it's the perfect Strat. DAM those pickups sound perfect and are so quiet, all five positions inspire something new.
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Looks very nice. Simple and honoust, yet not unrefined.
The PUs not bein a clear white is something I am torn about though. On one hand that way the whole guitar looks homogenic, but I still wanne see it in real life to see if it realyl works for me. It seems to work nicely blending in with the rest a bit, making it very woody.
Well all in all: Gratz on having made your perfect start, that is pretty darn cool!
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That looks nice, the body makes it a bit a strat from the seventies. I personally like the cream pu's on a white plate. Hope it serves you well. I have IT's already a couple of years and still find them very good and versatile.
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That looks great, I do love the honest, non-nonsense of this one. If it were me, I'd have put a vintage bridge and Kluson tuners on it but that's just me. Awesome guitar.
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Thanks guys
The scratcplate is actually parchment white which doesn't come across in the pics but does make a nice difference. I went with the Wilkinson as I think it is a much better knife edge trem than the fender equivalent. The neck was a show case item, the spec otherwise would have been out of my range so I compromised on the dot inlay colour, with that in mind I think the cream parts work well with body and neck inlay position marker colours.
Martin
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That's rather nice!
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I like that, quite a bit (although I would have gone for a vintage bridge!)
Irish Tours have interested me before and perhaps it is something I would consider if I ever got a strat again.
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You could argue the bridge is a tad to modern for the looks, but it's easy to replace. Maybe it works great, though. vintagebridge can be quite stable too. The vintagetrembridge on my strat is actually better then the ABM on my other strat.
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Very nice! the neck in particular looks gorgeous.
If I owned that I'd be bashing out the chords to "walk on hot coals" for days on end.
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That's a great guitar. I have to agree on the warmoth parts - the ones I've had have always been great quality. Love the compound radius necks too.
You've got me thinking about putting together a strat like that as well...
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You've got me thinking about putting together a strat like that as well...
Me too! A dangerous game and one that I can't really afford at the moment!
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I can't afford it either really, but that hasn't stopped me in the past :lol:
I might have to save up for a few months first.
I don't think I've ever played a guitar with a Tru Oil finish - I guess it just feels like bare-ish wood. Does it help with the sound at all? I've heard about thin finishes sounding better then thick poly finishes, but I don't know whether this is significant, or barely noticeable. If true I guess an oiled finish like this would be better still...
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looks great, much better than that 4 grand tele.love the bridge too and of course i'm an irish tour owner/lover.
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VERY NICE build man !!! 8)
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I agree with all the favorable comments- looks workmanlike. Congrats.
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Looks cool! I must do an Tru-Oil finish some day (if I ever get round to it!)
I like the parchment scratchplate, it's hard to find a colour which matches a natural finish so I think simple is best in this case! :D
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It looks really nice, well done. You will love Irish Tours, they sound lovely through a good valve amp.
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The Tru Oil finish on the neck is lovely to play. For those interested:
1. Applied one coat a day with a lint free cloth
2. After each coat had dried for a day I used 0000 wire wool (remember to thoroughly blow away the dust from the wire wool before next coat - while wearing glasses it's a bitch in the eye). Did this for 6 or 7 days.
3. After last coat I left it a week to fully polymerise before using wire wool.
4. Then used a rough face cloth to buff to finish. (using this method you can go from Matt through to Silk or Gloss)
I can't recommend a B.K. fully loaded scratchplate enough. Planned to build a faraday cage with copper or aluminum foil, however as I heard it can effect the tone of pickups I tried it without first. These B.K. ready shielded Pickguards are sooo quiet it doesn't need extra shielding.
I wanted the guitar to be workman like, so it's cool to read I have achieved that. I would have possibly bought pre painted/finished neck and body, but finances would not stretch. I would in a future build go with the same Tru oil method on a neck, I find it very natural to play and saves quite a bit of cash.
Martin
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Sounds good Martin. I have removed the finish from most of the playable part of the neck of my Baja, it was a thick sticky poly finish previously. Now pretty much bare wood and I do wonder if I should put some Tru-Oil on it or not. Perhaps I'll give it a go.
Also, it was the luddite in me that said go for a vintage bridge. Each time I look at your guitar now I'm liking the more modern style a little more.
A good job well done by the looks of it. Will you be adding any clips?
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Very nice guitar, I'm putting together a very similar guitar together at the moment, you can't beat a barebones stripped down start.....
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body finish looks really nice in fact, come out very well!
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I'm finishing the guitar I'm building for a friend with Tru-Oil, nice stuff but STINKING!!!
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Just want to echo what everyone else has said; that looks great. It really has that "all-business" look to it, definitely in line with the Rory Gallagher vibe implied by the pickup choice.