Blacktoped my strat

[Philly Q]

On a side note, does anyone PQMustSellMePartsToMakeAStratAtAMassivelydiscountedRate believe that subliminal messaging works?

No.

I might have some parts to sell though (ButNotAtAMassivelyDiscountedRate).

[Ian Price]

I'm actually starting to like this strat now. Think it's growing on me. Maybe I need to get out of my vintage mindset!

[tomjackson]

I'm actually like you Ian , I like strats to be vintage correct but that's actually why this one has always bugged me... that big swimming pool route and 2 point trem.  My strat OCD meant it has never ticked the right boxes for my perfect strat.  So now it's a different guitar almost I'm a lot happier with it...it's not trying to be what it's not now it just is what it is.  And it means I can have a humbucker guitar until I can afford something else in a few years.

Phil King, that is an amazing collection of strats!

Re the Knobs, I was going to go for Fender amp ones like the actual blacktop strats but Gretch buttons are the best for swells and as I use swells a lot I went for them.

[Philly Q]

I'm actually starting to like this strat now. Think it's growing on me. Maybe I need to get out of my vintage mindset!

I'm almost going the reverse direction - I always favoured 22 frets, modern hardware etc but in recent years I've started to prefer some aspects of vintage stuff, especially the bridges and tuners.  I don't think I'll ever get into a 7.25" radius and tiny frets though!

[Telerocker]

I'm actually starting to like this strat now. Think it's growing on me. Maybe I need to get out of my vintage mindset!

I'm almost going the reverse direction - I always favoured 22 frets, modern hardware etc but in recent years I've started to prefer some aspects of vintage stuff, especially the bridges and tuners.  I don't think I'll ever get into a 7.25" radius and tiny frets though!

Played recently some old strats and customshops at stujos (stujos.nl if you want to check out), and I experience the same. The 7.25 radius doesn't fit my playingtechnique/style. And I don't like the tiny frets too.

[XxpapertigerxX]

I like it. It's always nice to see a non-traditional strat. It would get boring if they were all "vintage-correct!"  :)

[gwEm]

I don't think I'll ever get into a 7.25" radius and tiny frets though!

I think its fine (quite nice in some ways even), but the setup/fret dress needs to be right. I think people are scared of it when they hear horror stories of fretting out, which I've still yet to experience on the Bravewood.

[Philly Q]

I don't think I'll ever get into a 7.25" radius and tiny frets though!

I think its fine (quite nice in some ways even), but the setup/fret dress needs to be right. I think people are scared of it when they hear horror stories of fretting out, which I've still yet to experience on the Bravewood.

I've owned a few vintage spec Strats and never got on with them at all, they just seemed hard work.  To be fair, it might be the frets more than the radius - bigger frets on the 7.25" would give more to dig into, I think.

[AndyR]

It's weird, I'm reasonably happy with any radius, but I do seem to gravitate towards 7.25".

I'll agree on the small frets though - my CIJ/MIJ strat and teles have the leetle frets, and it takes 20 minutes of "getting to know you" time if I've been playing something with bigger frets. I am seriously considering getting the strat refretted now so that it matches my Roadworn strats...

Funnily enough, the biggest "getting to know you" time I need is when I pick up my Baja tele. The huge frets I put on it are great, but the radius (9.5 I think) is flatter than I'm expecting and it just feels "odd" at first. Jonathan did offer to reprofile it to 7.25 when he refretted it, but I dedided not to. I have trouble getting used to it regardless of whether I've just come from 7.25 Fenders or from flatter Gibsons... no idea why. But after half an hour or so, when I do get used to it, it's perfect... glad I didn't change the profile. It's strange, though, I can go straight to 7.25 with medium frets from this (or from Gibson) without even batting an eyelid.


On Tom's black-topped strat... I held off commenting at first because I felt fairly negative about it. I didn't even think it looked pretty... :lol:

But it's kinda grown on me, and I can fully understand the reasoning... I've even been wondering about doing something similar... except none of my strats are obvious candidates for this heinous butchery :lol: (none has the swimming-pool rout, and the Fiesta Red CIJ, the one least "doing the job", has far too much sentimental value).