LP Freak
Well-known member
Nope 25 1/4
Massarea Whippins
Member
I don't know about "high end" but it has a story and it's the only Partscaster I own:
My SO commented on this guitar after noticing it on a mutual-acquaintance's FB page. A couple weeks later it arrived gratis on our doorstep unannounced and unsolicited. The body is about 3/16" thinner than standard, the neck looks fairly Fender, likely isn't, but feels great. The neck pickup (unmarked) sounds remarkably like a late 50s Byrdland.
Gold hardware compliments a toothpaste-blue body finish.
My SO commented on this guitar after noticing it on a mutual-acquaintance's FB page. A couple weeks later it arrived gratis on our doorstep unannounced and unsolicited. The body is about 3/16" thinner than standard, the neck looks fairly Fender, likely isn't, but feels great. The neck pickup (unmarked) sounds remarkably like a late 50s Byrdland.
Gold hardware compliments a toothpaste-blue body finish.
Fusionbear
Well-known member
I finished this one today while I am recovering from a cold....
It plays and sounds amazing. Suhr Thornbuckers,roasted Swamp Ash body, Roasted Maple neck with Indian Rosewood fretboard. Gibson conversion.
I have parts for one more. But it will be a while before I'll have time to assemble...
I have some shoes that I think will go well with it...lol
What do you think? @VonBonfire
It plays and sounds amazing. Suhr Thornbuckers,roasted Swamp Ash body, Roasted Maple neck with Indian Rosewood fretboard. Gibson conversion.
I have parts for one more. But it will be a while before I'll have time to assemble...
I have some shoes that I think will go well with it...lol
What do you think? @VonBonfire
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eero
Active member
classy!
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Scot
Well-known member
Purple's not my thing but I have considered assembling an Ultra body and a 60's neck, but instead I'm dumb and will likely get a used '61 AVII and route that baby for humbuckers. Nonetheless, if building an Ultra I'd put a vegatrem on it. That trem looks pretty legit to me.
edit to clarify: the purple on your Ultra body is gorgeous & the black pg is on point - that purple looks incredibly deep. I hadn't considered FSR bodies and otherwise would just default to texas tea for a strat body. Lots of choices out there.
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Geo
Well-known member
Thanks, I never heard of that trem, but I already picked up a USA made Fender trem.
I already built a Texas Tea one, so I was looking for something different. The metallic plum color, as they call it, is an old hot rod color.
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Findthetone1
Well-known member
You guys have certainly posted enough to give me inspiration and confidence to do the build. Thanks folks!!
DistortED
Well-known member
Here's a few of my builds and a 70's style Strat that I'm currently working on. For me it's about getting all of my favorites specs and parts, not to mention the fun.
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Findthetone1
Well-known member
Have any of you done the threaded inserts for the neck on a build?
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Scot
Well-known member
Nope, but it strikes me as one of those things that takes much longer to setup than it does to drill the holes (unless there's a drill fixture on the market luthiers use??). What's your plan?
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Findthetone1
Well-known member
No set plan yet. Was mostly thinking out loud. The necks I order will already have holes drilled at Musikraft and I like the truss rod adjustment at the head so there's really not much reason to remove the neck once it's mounted.
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Scot
Well-known member
Having them drill the holes is definitely the way, but not too bad if you have to do it yourself, but there is a good bit of geometry happening in that area.
@Geo: here's a picture of the vegatrem, nice and clean and lots of wiggle room. Some people complain they need too many tools (ie: they are locking saddles). It looks clean and well designed (eg: their knife edge is strong). None of that implies there's anything wrong with Fenders stock trem.
@Geo: here's a picture of the vegatrem, nice and clean and lots of wiggle room. Some people complain they need too many tools (ie: they are locking saddles). It looks clean and well designed (eg: their knife edge is strong). None of that implies there's anything wrong with Fenders stock trem.
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Geo
Well-known member
Looks like a real nice trem, I will have to try one soon.
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Scot
Well-known member
To be clear: I've never put my hands on one of these but from what I gather, it's made of stainless. That's appealing b/c there are a plethora of SS variants which are incredibly tough (ie: that's good in this context). I wouldn't hesitate if I were building something high end although I should mention one person commented (somewhere) the trem bottoms-out on the trem route edge, closest to the headstock. I'd relieve that spot in a second if I wanted to use the trem.
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Findthetone1
Well-known member
I actually had some time to look into them. Apparently, they have a very light movement so if you ever have a heavy right hand, it may not be the best option. I can get somewhat heavy handed at times so it may not be the best for me.
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Scot
Well-known member
Roger that - I don't seem to have trouble with bent saddles or block saddles, it's my fretting hand needing better control for fluidity sometimes (ie: pushing notes sharp). If I'm getting the name right, I think 'babicz'? comes to mind?? - their saddles have a nice cam-action for string height adjustments, but the hardware supporting the cam stands like 3/4" off the trem plate if I read the basic schematic right. I float my trem and that would be a nightmare. The other downside as some may see it with the vega, is the seemingly 'vega' specific hardware.
Harry Dunne
Active member
I built a beautiful Warmoth 7/8 guitar, but in the end I was never fully satisfied with it and sold it to help fund another guitar. It played like butter, but the tone had an unpleasant harshness in the upper mids that I could never get rid of, even after pickup swaps and experimenting with different sustain blocks for the Floyd.
Speaking of the Floyd, I could never get it to be fully stable, despite several professional setups and trying all of the usual troubleshooting. It was the high-end German OFR too.
All in, after paying for assembly, setups, and pickup swaps, I had spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $3K. In retrospect, I should have saved the money and bought a nice Suhr or Tom Anderson instead.
Speaking of the Floyd, I could never get it to be fully stable, despite several professional setups and trying all of the usual troubleshooting. It was the high-end German OFR too.
All in, after paying for assembly, setups, and pickup swaps, I had spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $3K. In retrospect, I should have saved the money and bought a nice Suhr or Tom Anderson instead.
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Findthetone1
Well-known member
I get it. And if Andersons were remotely still close to 3K that would be the direction I'd go. But prices are getting pretty high.
LP Freak
Well-known member
Unfortunately there’s no guarantee what it’ll sound like after it’s all done regardless how much money you spend on parts. I had a Strat build that had an Allparts neck and Warmoth body when I got it and sounded very flat. I decided to swap out the neck with a Warmoth and it completely transformed the guitar. I never thought a neck swap would make much of a difference tonally but it was obvious it did.
