Author Topic: Building a strat...a pictorial guide (Read 7693 times)

horsehead · « **on:** July 24, 2007, 08:15:42 AM »

found this when I was looking around the net. Don't know if it's been posted before, but I thought it was pretty helpful
http://www.desopolis.com/midwest/Strat1.htm

indysmith · « **Reply #1 on:** July 24, 2007, 09:58:20 AM »

i have NEVER seen a 50s strat with the join in the wood perfectly in the centre. awesome guide though!

Elliot · « **Reply #2 on:** July 24, 2007, 11:37:18 AM »

That was pretty cool, thanks.

WezV · « **Reply #3 on:** July 24, 2007, 11:41:48 AM »

It a great tutorial that makes it seem really breaks down a strat into managable chunks - then suddenly they start using a duplicarver for everything!!

TwilightOdyssey · « **Reply #4 on:** July 24, 2007, 02:14:16 PM »

Very interesting, but ... I'd still rather buy my guitars than make em. PDT_008

As the Dream Theater song says
Better to save the mystery
Than to surrender to the secret

I've never had a desire to have the mysteries of guitar building explained. If it looks nice and plays nice and sounds nice, I'm happy. I really couldn't care less how the pieces fit together!!

WezV · « **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2007, 03:06:18 PM »

i have always needed to know what was going on inside. When i got my first guitar at 13 i had taken it apart with a month - and i really had no clue how to put it back together!!!!

For me its got to sound nice, play nice, be well built and look good - pretty much in that order.

noodleplugerine · « **Reply #6 on:** July 24, 2007, 03:56:59 PM »

Quote from: WezV

i have always needed to know what was going on inside. When i got my first guitar at 13 i had taken it apart with a month - and i really had no clue how to put it back together!!!!

For me its got to sound nice, play nice, be well built and look good - pretty much in that order.

I took apart my Squier strat with a Power Drill and destroyed all the threads.

had to be repaired at the local for about 2 weeks.

Philly Q · « **Reply #7 on:** July 24, 2007, 04:25:14 PM »

Quote from: WezV

i have always needed to know what was going on inside. When i got my first guitar at 13 i had taken it apart with a month - and i really had no clue how to put it back together!!!!

Me too. One of the very first things you learn is how to repair the horrible mistakes you've just made.... then hopefully the mistakes get less over the years. I've never had the get-up-and-go to build anything from scratch like you do, though.

Quote from: TwilightOdyssey

I've never had a desire to have the mysteries of guitar building explained. If it looks nice and plays nice and sounds nice, I'm happy. I really couldn't care less how the pieces fit together!!

And perhaps that partially explains why Ben can actually play guitar and I can't :( ... don't know about you, Wez?

WezV · « **Reply #8 on:** July 24, 2007, 04:51:31 PM »

My playing gets worse by the day, and it was never that good to begin with - no time to practice anymore!!

ToneMonkey · « **Reply #9 on:** July 24, 2007, 05:12:09 PM »

Count me into that. cr@p on the guitar 'cause I spend too much time guitar fiddling (well, when I'm not sitting on my arse being bone idle)

dave_mc · « **Reply #10 on:** July 24, 2007, 06:45:39 PM »

that was sweet, thanks! Especially the lasers...

I always like to know how something works, so I can be too lazy to put it into practice. :lol:

38thBeatle · « **Reply #11 on:** July 24, 2007, 07:33:30 PM »

That was great- thanks for posting.

Nadz1lla · « **Reply #12 on:** July 24, 2007, 07:47:26 PM »

Yeah it was a great tutorial, thanks for posting Horsehead! But I was somewhat perplexed by the duplicarver. It seems like laziness to me. Am I the only one? Also, can't help but wonder if some of what they were doing was really that necessary, mainly around the part where they are fretting the neck.

All these things I will learn in time when I get to that point making my own Axe and go "OOooh, I see now why they did that" and chuck my now useless piece of timber in the bin, lol! :lol:

Wez, did any of that tutorial seem overkill on the technology they used to you? I always imagined making guitars to rely more on traditional methods and a lot more manual hard work on the builder's part. What's your opinion on the duplicarver?

WezV · « **Reply #13 on:** July 24, 2007, 08:37:36 PM »

If i was making large batches of identical guitars i would probably build myself a duplicarver. I think i would still rather do necks by hand - its one of my favorite bits. i owuldnt mind a duplicarver for doing carved tops though!!!

Even better would be a CNC - but its gotta take all the fun out of it!!!!

the fretting method was slightly overkill but would certainly give a good fretjob. I approve of them gluing the frets in place with wood glue because it just fills the gaps around the tang and swells the wood slightly to hold it better. But the hammering them sideways is unneccisary and would make the fretboard a lot more likely to chip when the frets were removed for a re-fret.

It was unneccisary since they used a press to push the frets in place anway - with slightly over-radiused fretwire the edges get pushed straight down into the slot first, then as the middle section goes into the slot the edges are pushed sideways anyway which is more than enough to stop the fret popping out of its own accord

fender used to push its frets in from the side with a special pulley operated machine - absolute bar-stewards to refret because you have to individually push each fret back out the way it came in - if you try and do it the normal way ,i.e. pulling them out - you can destroy the fretboard

Nadz1lla · « **Reply #14 on:** July 24, 2007, 11:18:25 PM »

Hmmm, yeah seems more trouble than its worth, but I agree the gluing is a good idea. Just seeing the overkill kinda daunted me about fretting and making a neck, but now you've said yourself that it is overkill I'm not as worried. I guess they are just trying to get the best end result possible, but I am sure half the effort would still turn out a product fit for the public market.