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.

Guitar Trade Day: Fender Stratocaster, Part 2

Part 1:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2015/10/guitar-trade-day-fender-stratocaster.html

So here is the Stratocaster that I traded for:

I was looking for a black Stratocaster since I had a tortoiseshell pickguard with three Dimarzio pickups in it.  It has the Blue Velvet neck, FS-1 middle RW/RP, and Heavy Blues 2 in the bridge.

So last night I changed it all out, set up the guitar, and this is what she looks like now.

I was only able to play it through my Rocktron amp out in the garage, instead of one of my higher end amps, but she sounded really good.

I adjustment that I did make was to make sure the tone knob worked with the bridge pickup.  They usually don't come wired like that.  I was given some of the new D'Addario NY XL strings in a giveaway at Sam Ash.  So I put them on this guitar to see how they perform. 

So, I look forward to playing out with her when I am feeling better.  This guitar seems like she's going to be a lot of fun.

Guitar Trade Day: Fender Stratocaster

Read here to understand a bit of what's going on in this post.

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2015/09/new-guitar-day-dean-gran-sport.html

So I bought the Dean Gran Sport with the intention of selling it.  Namely, I don't care for the active pickups that it comes with, not to mention it's not really my style.  So, I tried to sell it on Craigslist and Reverb.com.  However, with the economy being what it is most musicians are equipment heavy, and cash poor.  In other words, musicians are trying to sell equipment, but no one has any money to buy.  So we end up trading instead of buying/selling. 

The last time I tried to move out some guitars, I ended up trading for other musical equipment and only managed to sell one.  And the one I sold, the guy wanted to return it like I was Guitar Center or something.  Really, I can't make that up.  In the end I had put five guitars up for sale, and only sold the one. 

So this time, I put an ad on Craigslist saying that I was more than willing to trade.  I listed some specific things I was interested in.  One of them being a Black Fender Stratocaster.  Well, to make a long story short, one guy had one and offered to trade it for the Dean. 

We met at Guitar Center which was halfway between us, and we were both happy.  Now for the guitar pron.

I've had a tortoiseshell pickguard sitting in my parts drawer with three Dimarzio pickups in it.  I think they will look nice on this guitar.  So look forward to me blogging about that. 

Check, check. Microphone, microphone.

Lately I have been writing about how the guitar market is terrible.  I mean, it is worst than terrible.  I don't know what that word would be, but let's just say it's "even below terrible."  At the beginning of the year I made it my mission to sell four guitars.  I already had way too many guitars, so getting rid of five of them wasn't going to make much of a dent into my collection. 

Out of the five, I only sold one.  And then that guy wanted to return the guitar the next day.  That did not go over well.  Here's the hilarious adventure of everything that happened (short version.)

1.  Traded an Ibanez Artcore for a 99 Fender Stratocaster with case.  Great deal!  (I kept the Strat.)

2.  Traded a 2008 Fender Stratocaster for a Japanese Jackson DNKY.  I then traded the Jackson for a Dean ML 79 Bubinga Guitar.  (I kept the Dean.)

3.  I sold the 1993 Stratocaster with tons of upgrades.  That's the one the guy wanted to return to me.

4.  I traded the Rosewood Telecaster I built for a Dimarzio Super Distortion, M-Audio Interface, and Shure SM-81 microphone.

5.  Since no one knew what the Luna Andromeda was I did two things.  I took the EMG pickups out of it, and sold them on Ebay.  I actually made a good deal on that.  I then took the Luna to Sam Ash where they weren't sure what to do with it.  There's not much info on it if you aren't a Dean fan.  So I told the guy I would trade it straight up for a Sennheiser 835 microphone.  Since they have a fair mark-up on Pro Audio items, it made it worthwhile for him to say yes.

So this brings me to the meat of my blog.  I've never really had that much Pro Audio equipment.  True story.  I once bought a microphone on sale for $20 back in 1994.  It made it through six band practices until it came apart. 

So I never had a good one before.  So now I have two.  I know a lot of non-musicians are wondering why two?  Well, one is for recording, and one is for live use.

Here's the write up on the first one:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/condenser-microphones/shure-sm81-condenser-mic

Eventually I will want to record, and the Shure SM-81 is the way to go.  I wandered through Guitar Center, and noticed it's about the most expensive microphone of it's kind.  To get any better you really have to start paying some big bucks.  So I'm glad to have it.

The Sennheiser 835 was recommend to me by a few Pro Audio guys.

http://www.fullcompass.com/product/304221.html

I tested it out versus my friend's time tested Shure SM-58.  The Sennheiser was much more clear with a spike in the treble frequencies.  The Shure had a more pronounced bass, but was not as clear.  I guess it's like ice cream.  It depends upon what flavor you like.  Only you can tell you what you like. 

So after five months I have finally traded all the guitars I was planning to.  But I can't actually say I actually pared myself down.  I mean, I traded for two other guitars, traded for microphones, and actually bought a bass with the sale of the pickups.  So I think I am right back to where I started.

And where is that?  Remember at the beginning when I said that the market was terrible?  Well it certainly is for selling/buying.  However, for trading it's surprisingly okay.  I may have to stick on the trading train for a while.  At least until the economy improves. 

My Five Strats

Well, something happened that kind of surprised me.  I ended up with another Stratocaster.  Here's the full story here:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2014/02/awesome-guitar-weekend.html

And because of that, I am now up to five Stratocasters.  Which is funny because I always thought I was more of a Les Paul type of guy.  But I am into modding, and Fender's are easy and awesome to mod.  I will say this.  I've gotten some pretty darn good deals on all of them.

Here's the pictures.

From left to right:

1.  The sonic blue Partscaster.  It's made of a lot of parts from my overseas distributor, and a Squier neck.  It just so happens to be the best playing one that I've ever encountered.  I consider myself really lucky to have come across this.  Even though this is considered my "cheapest" guitar, it's probably the nicest playing. 

2.  The newest one I've picked up, a 1999 MIM Strat.  I usually don't like sunburst Strats, but this one has some mojo going on.  I have some pickups on order for it.  I just re-fretted it, and it plays nicely.  Oh, I didn't re-fret just for the heck of it.  I fret-dressed it first, and there wasn't enough frets left to be playable.  So I yanked them out, and re-fretted it.

3.  This is the one I like to call Smokey.  It started out life as a 1993 Olympic White MIM Strat, but whoever owned it smoked like a chimney, and gave it a tobacco patina.  When I got it I knew I was going to have to do something with the frets as they were chewed up.  So I re-fretted it as well.  I also have a new tremolo on order as the old one is rusted up and can't be adjusted. 

4.  I bought this one at a pawn shop after much haggling.  I bought it in 2009, and it's a 2008 MIM Strat.  I didn't know it at the time, but there's a reason why a new Strat would be hanging in a pawn shop.  It's due to it's the screwed up warping of it's neck.  But I took care of it with a fret-dress, and adjusting the strings up higher. 

5.  My oldest, and most costly.  I spent 9 months getting the money and parts together for this one.  I thought up every awesome thing I could put on a guitar, and made it a reality.  I still love the custom paint job on it. 

So as I close this out, I think to myself, "Man, I've got to slow down."  I'm going to end up with another five Strats.  I'm running out of room.