MichaelW
Well-known member
While I'm waiting for some parts to finish my "last" Tele build, I turned my attention to a small project I've been wanting to do ever since I built my Red Strat.
Since I have a pretty killer 60's style strat, I decided to convert my 2 tone sunburst strat back to its 50's roots. It's been sort of a hybrid with a Pau Ferro neck, 3 ply mint pickguard,
I wanted to put a maple neck back on it. It all began with upgrading the Trem to a Wudtone tremolo......damn that @SillyOctpuss for turning my onto those.
I bought just the vintage style bridge plate and screws since I had everything else. The body on this Strat began life as a Squeir Classic Vibe 50's strat.
It was back when they were made in China and still using alder bodies. I really like this body but it is the typical thinner import style.
Thus the standard Wudtone trem sustain block would not fit without protruding out that back of the body.
Here's a "before" pic....Fender neck, GFS trem with Highwood Saddles. Lollar Dirty Blonde pickup set. There was something really special about the way this guitar sounded and I was a bit hesitant to mess with it. Hmmm, I must have added the mini green 60's guard to it later.
Starting with the Wudtone trem. I guess I forgot to snap some pics of the process but I did some aging on it because it comes only with a bright nickel finish.
Here's how it ended up. I can for sure that Nickel plating is MUCH easier to work with than chrome...It came out pretty nice. But the HighWood saddle set I had for this plate needed some work. It was a bit of a pain in the butt trying to scuff these with a Dremel. I shot a couple across the garage at least a few times. Luckily I was able to find them heh.
They came out pretty nice with a bit of patina on them. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this method of aging hardware.
So one issue I was afraid I would run into was that the new Wudtone bridge plate would not line up with the "shorty" brass sustain block that was on the previous trem. I could not find any other short block that would match the Wudtone. Sure enough the trem arm hole did not line up. I flirted with the idea of ordering the Wudtone brass block and cutting it down. But they're pretty pricy and only available from the UK.
I decided to mod the bridge plate to make it work with the block I had. So with a Dremel I elongated the trem arm hole.
It's a bit ghetto but less noticeable once the arm is in.
I used the Xtotic Raw trem springs.
Next was the neck. So I found an Ebay seller from China (actually several, but I think it's the same guy). He had 100% feedback and some nice "looking" necks at wholesale prices. Most of his necks are in the $40-50. So I decided to take a gamble and order one. I got a roasted flame maple neck with allegedly a satin nitro finish.
The neck is absolutely gorgeous.
Continued in next post......
Since I have a pretty killer 60's style strat, I decided to convert my 2 tone sunburst strat back to its 50's roots. It's been sort of a hybrid with a Pau Ferro neck, 3 ply mint pickguard,
I wanted to put a maple neck back on it. It all began with upgrading the Trem to a Wudtone tremolo......damn that @SillyOctpuss for turning my onto those.
I bought just the vintage style bridge plate and screws since I had everything else. The body on this Strat began life as a Squeir Classic Vibe 50's strat.
It was back when they were made in China and still using alder bodies. I really like this body but it is the typical thinner import style.
Thus the standard Wudtone trem sustain block would not fit without protruding out that back of the body.
Here's a "before" pic....Fender neck, GFS trem with Highwood Saddles. Lollar Dirty Blonde pickup set. There was something really special about the way this guitar sounded and I was a bit hesitant to mess with it. Hmmm, I must have added the mini green 60's guard to it later.
Starting with the Wudtone trem. I guess I forgot to snap some pics of the process but I did some aging on it because it comes only with a bright nickel finish.
Here's how it ended up. I can for sure that Nickel plating is MUCH easier to work with than chrome...It came out pretty nice. But the HighWood saddle set I had for this plate needed some work. It was a bit of a pain in the butt trying to scuff these with a Dremel. I shot a couple across the garage at least a few times. Luckily I was able to find them heh.
They came out pretty nice with a bit of patina on them. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this method of aging hardware.
So one issue I was afraid I would run into was that the new Wudtone bridge plate would not line up with the "shorty" brass sustain block that was on the previous trem. I could not find any other short block that would match the Wudtone. Sure enough the trem arm hole did not line up. I flirted with the idea of ordering the Wudtone brass block and cutting it down. But they're pretty pricy and only available from the UK.
I decided to mod the bridge plate to make it work with the block I had. So with a Dremel I elongated the trem arm hole.
It's a bit ghetto but less noticeable once the arm is in.
I used the Xtotic Raw trem springs.
Next was the neck. So I found an Ebay seller from China (actually several, but I think it's the same guy). He had 100% feedback and some nice "looking" necks at wholesale prices. Most of his necks are in the $40-50. So I decided to take a gamble and order one. I got a roasted flame maple neck with allegedly a satin nitro finish.
The neck is absolutely gorgeous.
Continued in next post......
. With that said your threads did inspire me to try my hand at doing some of my own fret work and touching parts of my guitars that I wouldn't have ordinarily messed with.
)
