Partscaster! A Little Buying, Selling, And Rearranging For the Perfect Stratocaster

I know, I know.  I need another guitar like I need a hole in my head.  But I had been wanting to put together another Stratocaster for a while.  It all started when Fender's Mexican line of Stratocasters started being built with two point tremolos.  This, of course, had been reserved for their U.S. made instruments.

I wanted one of the new Strats, but I couldn't justify buying another guitar.  Especially a new one at full price.  I already had a good number of parts in my parts bin, so it's not like I needed to buy a complete guitar.

I happened to come across this deal on Facebook Marketplace.  A seller had a Partscaster type Strat up for sale for the low price of $80.  I contacted them, and while they had many people making offers, those people were lowballing them or wanted them to drive over to their place.

I said I wouldn't jerk them around for that price.  I also said I would drive over, pick up the guitar, and be out of their hair.  Since they could see I was serious, they said I could come over.  I did, bought the guitar, and got out of their hair.

Here's what I bought.  Note:  It was assembled.  I only remembered to take photos of it after I had disassembled it.

So here's what was going on with the guitar.  The good news, is that, the neck was a Mighty Mite brand.  It was in great shape, and very straight.  The pickups were GFS Lil' Killers.  Even better was that they were the three different types: 6K, 10K, 15K.  I'll end up using them for a project down the road.

The wiring was horrific, and the pots were 500K ohms.  So that was disappointing.  There was also a Black Ice Overdrive module.  The knobs were UFO style.  It also had a pearloid pickguard that was really nice.

So I had to decide what parts to keep, and which to sell off.  The one thing I knew I could sell was the body.  I didn't care for it, so I listed it on Craigslist.  I ended up selling it for $40, so I made half my money back just selling the body.

Next, I ordered a blue body from Guitar Fetish.  Their XGP line is awesome.  I would put it up against any other guitar bodies out there.

And while I liked it, there appeared to be something off with it.  To me, it looked purple.  I asked family members what they thought, and to some it appeared Cobalt Blue, like it was listed, and to others it was purple.  So I sent it back.

As I was looking over GFS's offerings a thought occurred to me.  Why didn't I choose the silver colored body?  If I ordered it, I could put together a Stratocaster that resembled Eric Clapton's 1989 Strat.  For reference, here is a photo of Fender's Eric Clapton 1989 Stratocaster.

Here's the link to Fender's website:

https://shop.fender.com/en-US/electric-guitars/stratocaster/eric-clapton-stratocaster/0117602843.html

I always liked that Strat.  So it was settled.  I returned the blue body, and ordered the silver body.

Remember what I said earlier about wanting a two point tremolo?  Well, I've always like the Wilkinson style tremolos, so I ordered one.  Here's a photo of it lying in the tremolo cavity.

While I was waiting for the silver body to ship, I started on the electronics.  I had bought a number of Strat pickups over the years, but had never gotten to try them out.  This was the perfect opportunity to install them in an instrument.

I started over with all new (correct) 250K pots, 5 way switch, and a Mallory capacitor.  I kept the pearloid pickguard to use on the silver body.  Let's fast forward to where I put it all together.

I decided to use the following pickups:

Neck: Dimarzio True Velvet
Middle: Dimarzio SDS-1
Bridge: Seymour Duncan SSL-5

On a sidenote, I finally ordered a soldering station.  There's one company in China that manufacturers this model under a dozen names.  You can find them all over the internet.  I was extremely happy with the quality and usefulness of it.  If you do purchase one here's a bit of advice.  For guitar work don't use the super fine tip.  Use the wider, duller tip.  It works a lot better for applying solder to the back of the pots.

So now it was time to put it together.  The hardest part was to make sure I had the holes drilled correctly for the tremolo.

I have to say, I nailed it.  The alignment was perfect.  But, I've done this a time or two.  Once again, I'll fast-forward past all the usual work.  I do want to note that I kept the tuners that were on it.  They weren't name brand tuners, but they have been working great.  I don't see a need to replace them.

Once I set the guitar up she played beautifully.  Now that I think about it, there is one other thing I should note.  While I was waiting for the body to ship I fret dressed the neck.  It came out perfectly.  But then again, once you've done about 500 fret dressings, you tend to get pretty good at it.

Now the big question, what does she sound like?  The Dimarzio True Velvet pickup is a bit clearer than it's predecessor the Blue Velvet.  I know, everyone likes the original/vintage equipment better, but I have to stand my ground on this one.  I liked the sound of the Blue Velvet over the True Velvet.

Although, the True Velvet is a great vintage pickup.  To be honest, once a player's volume is turned up, most players won't be able to hear the difference between the two pickups.  The True Velvet is a bit crisper and doesn't have as much bass as the Blue Velvet.

The Dimarzio SDS-1 is a totally different type of animal.  It is supposed to be more of a bridge pickup, but I love it in the middle position.  Most middle pickups are kind of useless so I like to put something musically different in the middle slot.  The SDS-1 is without a doubt different.

The Dimarzio website says it's their take on a P-90 pickup for the Strat.  But what makes it different is it is much, much darker sounding than a Strat or P-90.  It's really chunky and thick.  Again, I love having it in the middle since it's so sonically different than a vintage Strat pickup.

I have the Seymour Duncan SSL-5 pickup in the bridge.  This pickup is well known and used by many players.  Most vintage bridge Strat pickups are crazy bright.  This pickup aims to balance out the EQ.  There are still plenty of highs, but the mids and bass are brought up what I would call a good middle ground.  Not too much, not too little.  I can see why players dig this pickup.

I've had great luck with the Wilkinson tremolo.  I wish the bar would screw in rather than slide in, but it had an extremely smooth movement.  There are more expensive tremolos, but I wouldn't say they are any better.  If you are looking for a tremolo, I whole heartedly endorse giving Wilkinson Tremolos a shot.

I've had so much fun jamming with this guitar.  It's been fun playing it through different amps.  It's a bit bright through my Genz Benz El Diablo 100, but I expected it to be.  I have a Mega (brand) Amp that has a Fender sound through the first channel.  That's where this guitar really shined.  I'm going to break out a few of my other amps to see what this guitar can do sonically.

Again, I know I need another guitar like I need six fingers on each hand.  However, this guitar just blows me away.  I was thinking of using it to try out different pickups, but the ones I have in it are awesome.  So I don't think I'll be making any modifications to it in the foreseeable future.  Everything just worked out perfectly on it.  Now, I have a great new guitar.  Sweet.

New Pedal Day: Tinkering With A Mouse So It Becomes A Rat!

I have written a number of blog posts about my favorite guitar pedal company Biyang.  They are a family company located in China that builds high quality guitar pedals for much less than other brands.

For those who don't know, Biyang also ghost-builds guitar pedals for other companies.  All the Guitar Fetish pedals?  Yep, those are built by Biyang.  The high end Akai pedals that go for $150?  Those are just rebranded Biyang pedals.  They have the exact same components and wiring that the original Biyang pedals do.  Only the Akai pedals cost three times as much.

Biyang also makes pedals for Cordovox.  In fact, they don't even change the look or model names for them.  They just put Cordovox instead of Biyang on the pedal.  So you can see my point, in that, Biyang is a dang good company, and you might be playing one of their pedals and not know it.

For the last year I had been reading up on the Rat Pro Co pedal.  It's famous for that 80's metal sound.  But it has many uses.  I mean, Blur's well known song, "Song 2" is a perfect example of the Rat Pro Co.  So it's not like the Rat is only designed for hair metal.

Biyang is known for using specs of other manufacturer's pedals, building with high end German parts, and coming out with a clone version of those pedals.  I was really interested in their version of the Rat.  Well, lo and behold, they have the "Biyang Mouse DS-8."

 
Unfortunately, unlike a lot of their other pedals, I hadn't heard good things about this one.  I guess it was so poorly liked, they took it off the market.  This made things a bit rough for me since I couldn't find one available in the states.  But then, I got to thinking.  Remember what I said about them building pedals for other manufactures?

Biyang made two versions of their pedals for themselves.  The Tonefancier series was encased in a chrome housing.  They would then make a second, more colorful version of that pedal.  So I started looking around.

I found a new-oldstock Biyang Distortion pedal on Reverb.com.  I thought to myself, "That's got to be the same pedal as the "Mouse."  I read up on the description, and it was the same as the Mouse.  So I pulled the trigger, and bought one.

But I also had a plan.  You see, in my research I came across a guitar forum user named "11 Gauge."  Note: That refers to a wire size, not a shotgun.  He talked about the Mouse, and how it was virtually the same as a Rat except for one thing.  They had installed a 56K ohm resistor where they should have installed a 560 ohm resistor.  Here's his photo:

So when my Biyang Distortion pedal arrived I tested I immediately tested it out.  I had to agree with the reviews.  It just wasn't that great sounding.

So I took it apart, and checked the circuit.  Guess what?  It was exactly the same as the Mouse.  Exactly.  Also, it had the same flaw as the Mouse.  It had that stupid 56K ohm resistor instead of a 560 ohm resistor.

Long story short, I bought a pack of 10 resistors so I could use one.  I took my sweet time, and changed out the incorrect resistor as per 11 Gauge's instructions.

I tested it out on the bench, and I have to say I noticed a few things.  First up, it had a lot more usable gain.  You could get that super crunchy gain if you wanted, but you could also get a slight breakup if that was the sound you were after.  The other thing I noticed was the three way switch was more effective.

It has three modes: (from top to bottom) Normal, Bright, Warm.  I always kept it on Bright.  The other two settings just cut the volume.  I didn't really notice any difference in sound on Normal or Warm.  Once I changed the resistor I did notice a bit of difference to the sound.  It still dropped the volume, but it wasn't as bad as it was.

I'll be honest, if I knew more about electronics I would just take the three way switch out.  I don't think it adds anything.  Honestly, I think it takes away more than it gives.  But that's just my thoughts.
I haven't had a chance to play around with it as much as I would like, but I was happy with the sound when I did play it.  I'm looking forward to hearing how it sounds with single coils, vintage humbuckers, hot pickups, and active pickups.  Again, like I tell other players, "Just have fun with it."  And that's what I'm going to do.  I'm going to have fun with it.