MichaelW
Well-known member
Well, if you've been following all of my Strat-o-tomfoolery threads and having been keeping up then you're doing better than me....I'm getting sooooo confused that I wasn't sure where to put this thread..... 
This guitar started out as this.....
Then I wasn't happy with either the body or the neck so I it morphed into this.... MJT nitro Candy Apple Red body and a new neck.
Then in my toanz chasing I redid the pickups and wound up with this set.
I was getting really close to what I wanted to hear out of this Strat but something still wasn't quite there.
So I've mentioned that I'm a big fan of Jeff Senn, although I'll never own one of his guitars, I'm always gleaning whatever tidbits I can find about how he builds.
One of the things he mentions in his video with Tom Bukovac about how he built Tom's strat was the use of a lightweight swamp ash body paired with the custom Lollar pickup set to get the end result of Tom's "Fat Strat". So essentially I've copied what he did on Tom's strat to see if that was what I wanted in my own "Fat Strat" project.
So I've been keeping an eye out for another lighter weight swamp ash body. Well, it didn't take long for me to find one at Bloomdoom Guitars.
I got my Firemist Gold strat body from Dustin and have been extremely happy with it.
He had listed a solid swamp ash body in a blonde/Mary Kaye finish that clocked in a 3lb 5 oz!
Now I'm not a "lighter is always better" kind of guy, It depends on the wood, the pickups, and the desired end result but in my incessant tinkering I decided to take one more swipe at my "Fat Strat" project and try the lighter body.
All I can say is WOW. What a difference! I basically migrated everything from the Red Strat over to the new body, same pickups, same trem, I just moved the loaded pickguard over and moved the neck over. But it sounds like a completely different guitar.
I put it all together this morning and have not been able to stop playing it. Every once in a while, all the stars align and between the woods, the pickups, the setup, the neck profile, and whatever intangibles that I haven't quite figured out, you wind up with a very special instrument. This might be my ultimate vintage style strat. It's got the "fatness" I've been looking for yet also the chime, bell like tone and piano like bass of a mid 60's strat. The body is extremely lively and contributes to the sound. There are some folks that claim the woods make no difference to the tone and it's all in the pickups. I call total B.S. (yes, I'm talking to you Mr. Paul Reed Smith).
I've been blessed with a couple of guitars that I just can't seem to put down. My new SG that pretty much came out of the box that way.
And this strat that took a rather long and circuitous route to get to its final (and I do mean final, I don't think there's anything I can do to improve this) configuration.
Double satisfaction that it was one of my own builds!
So stay tuned, coming to a demo near you at some point
Here's the body.
Just mocking up some pickguard colors here.
I ended up going with a mint green guard since it was already on the Red strat.
I was chatting with szukalski about this and I think we both agreed that the Mary Kaye White kinda begs for a maple fingerboard but I really wanted rosewood for this project. I was afraid it might look a bit out of place but I think it wound up looking ok.
This is by far the lightest strat I've ever picked up. I don't have an accurate scale but it's got to be either at or under 7 lbs.
It's probably a full pound lighter than in it's Candy Apple Red configuration.
It's also my only Swamp Ash strat. All my other Strats are Alder and Swamp Ash has it's own unique tone (in my MOST HUMBLE opinion...)
So I'm working on another neck at the moment and waiting for a backordered trem to show up but I'll be building out the Candy Apple Red strat again once I have all the parts. Not exactly sure what pickups to put in it yet but it might be a straight up 60's strat. I may try some Wolfetone Strat pickups, which I have not tried yet. Stay tuned for that one.
This guitar started out as this.....
Then I wasn't happy with either the body or the neck so I it morphed into this.... MJT nitro Candy Apple Red body and a new neck.
Then in my toanz chasing I redid the pickups and wound up with this set.
I was getting really close to what I wanted to hear out of this Strat but something still wasn't quite there.
So I've mentioned that I'm a big fan of Jeff Senn, although I'll never own one of his guitars, I'm always gleaning whatever tidbits I can find about how he builds.
One of the things he mentions in his video with Tom Bukovac about how he built Tom's strat was the use of a lightweight swamp ash body paired with the custom Lollar pickup set to get the end result of Tom's "Fat Strat". So essentially I've copied what he did on Tom's strat to see if that was what I wanted in my own "Fat Strat" project.
So I've been keeping an eye out for another lighter weight swamp ash body. Well, it didn't take long for me to find one at Bloomdoom Guitars.
I got my Firemist Gold strat body from Dustin and have been extremely happy with it.
He had listed a solid swamp ash body in a blonde/Mary Kaye finish that clocked in a 3lb 5 oz!
Now I'm not a "lighter is always better" kind of guy, It depends on the wood, the pickups, and the desired end result but in my incessant tinkering I decided to take one more swipe at my "Fat Strat" project and try the lighter body.
All I can say is WOW. What a difference! I basically migrated everything from the Red Strat over to the new body, same pickups, same trem, I just moved the loaded pickguard over and moved the neck over. But it sounds like a completely different guitar.
I put it all together this morning and have not been able to stop playing it. Every once in a while, all the stars align and between the woods, the pickups, the setup, the neck profile, and whatever intangibles that I haven't quite figured out, you wind up with a very special instrument. This might be my ultimate vintage style strat. It's got the "fatness" I've been looking for yet also the chime, bell like tone and piano like bass of a mid 60's strat. The body is extremely lively and contributes to the sound. There are some folks that claim the woods make no difference to the tone and it's all in the pickups. I call total B.S. (yes, I'm talking to you Mr. Paul Reed Smith).
I've been blessed with a couple of guitars that I just can't seem to put down. My new SG that pretty much came out of the box that way.
And this strat that took a rather long and circuitous route to get to its final (and I do mean final, I don't think there's anything I can do to improve this) configuration.
Double satisfaction that it was one of my own builds!
So stay tuned, coming to a demo near you at some point
Here's the body.
Just mocking up some pickguard colors here.
I ended up going with a mint green guard since it was already on the Red strat.
I was chatting with szukalski about this and I think we both agreed that the Mary Kaye White kinda begs for a maple fingerboard but I really wanted rosewood for this project. I was afraid it might look a bit out of place but I think it wound up looking ok.
This is by far the lightest strat I've ever picked up. I don't have an accurate scale but it's got to be either at or under 7 lbs.
It's probably a full pound lighter than in it's Candy Apple Red configuration.
It's also my only Swamp Ash strat. All my other Strats are Alder and Swamp Ash has it's own unique tone (in my MOST HUMBLE opinion...
)So I'm working on another neck at the moment and waiting for a backordered trem to show up but I'll be building out the Candy Apple Red strat again once I have all the parts. Not exactly sure what pickups to put in it yet but it might be a straight up 60's strat. I may try some Wolfetone Strat pickups, which I have not tried yet. Stay tuned for that one.
