On Rory's strat. I read an interview with him in the 80s where he said that it turned out his wasn't alder. He said he was no expert himself, but the guitar man had told him that it was actually a maple body, and therefore rather unusual. Rory's conclusion seemed to be that that might explain one or two things, but he was happy with it anyway.
With all due respect, I think he was completely wrong! :P
It doesn't look anything like maple, it looks like dirty alder. And given the fact the Fender Custom Shop had extensive access to the original when they made the tribute models, I can't imaginine why they'd use alder if it was really maple.
I must admit, that is kind of my thoughts on it nowadays :lol:
To give him (Rory) his due, it was more of a "I don't know, and I don't really care, but I've been
told that... etc". I wonder if the guy who told him was the same tech who refinished his blonde 50s tele black as a "favour" without asking him!
But, on the custom shop version, one of the reasons I never GAS-ed about it much was because the colour was so different to the original. Up close, Rory's was a cold grey, no "colour" to it at all. All the CS versions I've seen (er, two!) had a warm, almost pinkish-brown tinge to them. Mebbe soak it in a bucket of salt and vinegar for a week and you might get lucky :lol:
Anyway, I never really answered tom's questions. If you can get the body dark enough, I'd personally go for my standard off-white (cream, parchment, or minty) strat preferences - do NOT put black knobs on this!!! :lol:
Otherwise I'd be thinking black-white-black sandwich with off-white knobs and pickups, or I reckon Philly's with the tortoiseshell is a cool look (his photo of the pearl one looks a bit "Good Ole Boys" to me...)
And I use the BKP bridge on one of mine - lovely piece of kit. Takes a bit of fettling like any, but it settled in really quickly and nowadays I use it without even thinking about the tuning.
