Opinions

[szulc]

Anybody used Seymour Vintage Rails or little 59?
I am building a new Warmoth Custom Strat with a scalloped neck and want (for the first time) to use a standard SSS pickguard.
I have bought a Little 59 for the bridge and a Vintage rail for the neck, but I want to find the right pickup for the middle position. So far, I can't find any kind of noiseless pickup that is reverse wound? Does any body have any experience with these pickups or know of a suitable complemetary middle pickup? I don't really want to use a traditional single coil bcause I don't want to introduce any additional noise. I spent last night covering the cavity and pickguard completely with copper foil!
I want to be able to get the classic strat tone. When I looked at the specs the little 59 had the same frequency response as a vintage strat single coil but more output. I like the idea or a rail pickup in the neck and middle because the string is getting more side to side motion there and will always be ove a magnet.

[EricV]

Hey James,

does the middle-PU have to be by Seymour Duncan, too ?
I would recommend a DiMarzio HS2 or HS3.
I am using the latter myself, it´s a stacked humbucker, so there´s no hum, and it sounds like a Strat-Pu with a bit less treble. Here´s some INFO (http://www.dimarzio.com/hs_3.html)

Or maybe the HS2 would be the even better choice. Here´s some info about that one: SITE (http://www.dimarzio.com/hs_2.html)

Hope this helps
Eric

[Bongo Boy]

As is my custom...a little topical diversion:

What components of the guitar have you purchased assembled, what are you removing (if anything), and what are you adding as 3rd party or 'aftermarket' components? For example, did you get a complete guitar then start replacing stuff, or do you get a body-neck assembly with no electronics, etc?

I'm just curious about how you're going about this, and how others have built custom guitars as well. I'm somewhat familiar with the "build from scratch" process and the "off the rack" process, but nothing in-between.

[EricV]

Interesting point...

When I was like 15 or 16, I bought a really cheap white Stratocaster. It had some absolutely inferior components... bad pickups, frets too low, whammy bar didn´t stay in tune at all.
But I figured I could modify it a bit, and also, it was the only thing I could afford.
First thing I did was I took out the bridge-singlecoil, cut the pickguard and installed a good humbucker ( no routing required, cuz the body-cavity was big ).
One day, I was in a weird mood ( also, I was in my second "Van Halen-wannabe"-phase ), so I painted black stripes on it, like the ones Eddie had on that old guitar he used on the early Van Halen-albums.
After a while, I didn´t like the look anymore, and also, I didn´t want it to be a big rip-off, so I tried to get the paint off again. Unfortuantely, I used the wrong stuff, and the guitar now was purple.
For some odd reason, I sprayed some lighter fluid over it, and burned the body. Guess what ? It looked awesome. It was like "purple marble", looked like some expensive paint job.

Now I got all crazy, and I replaced the pickguard. I took out the remaining two singlecoils and closed the holes left by them in the pickguard.
Took out all knobs but the volume knob ( I replaced the existing one with a... hold on tight... pink one ). Replaced the 5 way switch ( there was onl the humbucker left anyway ) with a two way-toggle which now worked like an on-off switch.
Removed the nut and installed an LSR-roller nut, which drastically improved the tuning-stability of the guitar.

Well, in th next two years the guitar went through several bad ( my fault ) paintjobs ( spraycans, guys ! ), until I finally used some paint remover and a file.
What came out ? YOu can see the results below.
It looks like sh**, but I love it... plays great, sounds cool, has survived all my "Tool Time"-experiments.
Bedtime-stories, huh ? :)

Looking forward to see others tell us about their experiences
Eric

[szulc]

I bought a black fender strat body (from fender).
I bought a Warmoth Scalloped strat neck.
THen I bought all the rest of the stuff and assembeled it.

[Bongo Boy]

Great story. Hey, at least from the photo, it looks one hell of a lot better than some current production models I've seen. The pink knob is a particularly nice touch, I think. Does it respond well to black light? That would make it functional as well as attractive!!

[Bizarro]

Well...

For a middle pickup I would try a Bill Lawrence L-280 or L-290. They are inexpensive ($40), noiseless, and they can sound very much like a stock strat pickup. (I can get some great Mark Knopfer tones, plus get some decent most Kenny Wayne Shepherd and SRV tones too) Bill Lawrence (http://www.billlawrence.com/)

For a custom guitar... I bought a USA Custom Guitar body and neck, did all the finishing and so on in my garage, and bought all the hardware from the Warmoth web site (locking tuners, bridge, jacks, pots, etc). I bought a Graph-tech pre-cut nut which is very nice. I have a Duncan Scorcher rails pickup in the bridge, which I like very much. I have some junker pickups in the other positions, since I can't afford anything else for the next year or so.

Guitar projects are not for the faint of heart! It is time consuming, expensive, but ultimately very rewarding.

[EricV]

Originally posted by Bongo Boy
Great story. Hey, at least from the photo, it looks one hell of a lot better than some current production models I've seen. The pink knob is a particularly nice touch, I think. Does it respond well to black light? That would make it functional as well as attractive!!

Hi there,

well thanks... but I guess you´ll change your mind once you see a close up pf the finish :rolleyes: :)

Anyway, about the pink knob, I still am stuck in the 80´s sometimes when it comes to guitars ( hence my red Vandenberg with green pickups ), so the pink knob was obvious.
It does not respond to black light, but I wrote down that idea of yours, and once I quit playing guitars and open up my company "Weird 80s-style guitars" ( Slogan "Feel Your Eyeballs Dry Out Once You Look At These Color Combinations !" ), I might get in touch with you as my creative consultant.
And if you take a look at the pic below, you might see where I got the idea... ( l. to r.: Steve Vai´s "burnt Ibanez", Steve Vai´s Universe, Desert Yellow Ibanez JEM, my formerly white homegrown Strat... )
Eric

[szulc]

I have finalized my Strat pickup configuration.
It has a Lil 59 in the bridge, a Vintage Rail in the neck and a DiMarzio virtual vintage in the middle. I must admit this is the best sounding dimarzio pickup I have ever heard, I almost wish I had three of these in that strat. The guy at the store said the Dimarzio revamped his business 4 years ago and now they offer a guarentee and with swap the pickup out until you are happy (For shipping costs). I also played through a Dr Z amp (The guy at the store said it is what Brad Paisley uses, now I am not a big country fan but I live in Nashville, and I must admit I like the way that guy plays and especially his tone). I played some 200$ Aria strat throught this thing. It was 18 watts or maybe 30 watts. First of all the Aria Strat is way better than the real fenders in tone and playability, for 200 $ I was surprised, it barked like a tele on the lead pickup. The amp was great straight ahead Volume tone and Cut control which was some kind of fancy filter. This is a straight ahead amp no gain circuits but great clean tone. The are expensive though, I think 1700$ for this one.