New guitar

[Brow]

Hey guys.

Here's a few (bad) pics of a guitar I picked up yesterday.

It's a Fender Jap Strat manufactured between 1984-1987 (going by the 'E' serial number) with a Floyd Rose II bridge and bridge humbucker (a Dimarzio apparently) fitted by a previous owner.

I got it with a fitted Fender hardcase for £200 :)




What I'm planning on doing is taking the Cold Sweat and Trilogy out of my Charvel Fusion Special, and then seeing if Tim could swap the bobbin colours to aged white so that they'd match this guitar, fitting a 2nd Trilogy and then mounting it on a Tortoise Shell Scratchplate possibly with a series/parallel switch for the Cold Sweat and 'auto shunt' wiring to split the Cold Sweat in position 2 of the switch.

If this all goes to plan I'll probably put the bridge humbucker and a single coil from this guitar into the Charvel and then sell it on, as I prefer the feel and look of this guitar anyway :)

[Woogie]

I really like that. If it had a black humbucker it would look better imo.

[_tom_]

I'd keep the white pickguard, but thats just my preference as I've never liked tortoiseshell. Mint green looks nice with aged white strats as well I think :)

I tried the "auto-shunt" thing for position 2 on my strat and it always sounds really thin to me, my Charvel didnt have it and it sounded much better having the full bridge bucker and middle single rather than splitting the hum.

[TwilightOdyssey]

That guitar is beautiful!

Please use it for what God intended and play some classic metal on that guitar, or I'm going to your house and confiscating it!!!

[noodleplugerine]

That just screams Maiden.

[WezV]

It still surprises me that you can get these 80's MIJ fenders so cheap.  I recently set up a 84 contemporary strat and the guy said he had payed £175.  It was in a practically unplayable condition but it only took normal set-up stuff and a light fret dress to turn it into a very nice playing guitar.

That had the kahler sytem I trem and side mounted jack - yours confuses me because i would expect to see a kahler on it but either way its gotta be worth more than £200

[Davey]

please put 3 trilogies in that baby

pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaseeeeeeeeeee

or next time i'm around your neck of the woods, it's going with me

[indysmith]

with the tortoiseshell guard that's gonna look VERY mick mars

man that baby was bargain!

[Brow]

Cheers for the posts guys :)

It originally had a 6 point Vintage trem on it (you can see some of the original screw holes if u look underneath the Floyd), but from what I can see it's a very good job and the guitar has no playabiliy issues at all.

I was thinking about going for a VHII in the bridge instead of the Cold Sweat I currently have, but I know Ben would give me a hard time about it and say I was wimping out  :roll:

I've been playing the guitar alot today and I'm quite likely going to stay with an aged white scratchplate instead of my original idea of a Tortoise shell 1. Although as you all know, I change my mind every other minute when it comes to guitar stuff!  :lol:

[gingataff]

Nice! Almost identical to an idea I had for a Warmoth build recently (damn that Kisekae!)

 seeing if Tim could swap the bobbin colours to aged white so that they'd match this guitar,

Not sure if changing the bobbins on a humbucker is really practical, you'd have to completely unpot, disassemble and unwind it and then rewind and reassmble and repot on new bobbins. If I were Tim I'd charge double the cost of a new pickup as there's almost twice as much labour involved compared to making one from scratch.
If I were you I'd try the pickups as they are, if they sound right in that guitar and you really want a different colour then buy a new HB and stick the old one back in the Charvel.

[Brow]

The main reason I was considering talking to Tim about changing the bobbin is that the CS and Trilogy I currently have in my Charvel have black bobbins, and I don't think they'd look right in this guitar.

I'm also a little against selling the Charvel with it's current BKPs as I wouldn't get the money back from them that I spent on them, when those pickups could be better used on this guitar.

If Tim advises against changing the bobbin colours, then I'll just have to buy a new black Trilogy to match the other 1 and the CS, and just have black pickups on this guitar.

The current bridge humbucker is useable, but the neck and middle pickups sound horrid. I'll have to speak to Tim and see what he suggests.

He may say that a CS/Trilogy/Trilogy set is wrong for this guitar anyway!  :roll:

[badgermark]

That it awesome. I have a new found love for HSS strats, and maple necks make me wee a little. Never used a Floyd before though. Nice find though, I gotta find me some cheap JP made guitars now...

[Philly Q]

Nice guitar!  A regular Strat that's been made "super" is much cooler than a Superstrat (if that makes any sense at all).

[Crazy_Joe]

Looks well nice!

Original Floyd would be awesome on that to go with the BKP's :D

[HTH AMPS]

I see you're asking about matching the bobbin colours - surely it'd be easier to get Tim to rewind the existing humbucker then the colour would match perfectly.  Rewinds are cheaper than brand-new BKPs too.

 :twisted: