Jeff's Poor Man's GAS

Updated January 16, 2007

Building a Custom Stratocaster



Finished January 16, 2007 gold "Custom" neck plate finally arrived and installed.


Unfinished 3.8 lb., Ash, 3-piece body, Japan. December 15, 2006.


Finished with three different color stains and four coats of satin rub-on Min-Wax polyurethane finish. December 23, 2006.

Mighty-Mite Fender licensed birds-eye maple neck with abalone dot inlays. Sperzel Locking Tuners and Fender Tremolo.

Still to come, custom neck plate, electronics, decals for the headstock and fitting the Fender Tremolo..
Stay tuned for updates and the finished product.

Decaled headstock (faux abalone inlay), polyurethane coating. Inkjet decal paper with 3 sprayed on clear coats then applied to headstock. Logos created in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. January 1, 2007.


Sperzel locking tuners installed, January 1, 2007. Custom Shop Logo.

January 6th, 2007 almost finished. 25th Anniversary Lace Sensor 24kt Gold Pickups, signed by Don Lace and number matched,
3 ply black pickguard with abalone and gold knobs.
Waiting on Custom neck plate. Fender gig bag on its way as well. Can't wait to plug her in.

Almost finished, still have to get the gold neck plate. But it is together and all adjusted and sounds great.



January 11, 2007, waiting on gold neck plate.

Fender Stratocaster, a.k.a. E-Bayocaster or Stratebayocaster
Parts list and prices:
1. Pro Guitar Shop, New Fender Gold American Standard Tremolo for Stratocaster $124.95
2. Pro Guitar Shop, New Strat Natural Ash Body Japan $99.95
3. Pro Guitar Shop, New Sperzel 6 Inline Locking Tuners Gold $58.99
   a. Totals $283.89 shipping included.
4. JC Guitars, Mighty Mite Fender Licensed Strat Birds-Eye maple neck with Abalone dots $125.00
5. JC Guitars, Mighty Mite Fender strap locks $15.00
6. JC Guitars, Gold plug $9.00
   a. Shipping $14.00
   b. Totals $163.00
7. Greasy Groove, "Custom" Gold Neck Plate $25.60
8. Gold Fender Screws $19.00
9. Reliable Fender, Fender Gig bag $24.86
10. New Metal Shop Music, Don Lace 25th anniversary Gold Pickups, pick-guard, pots and switches $287.83 w/tax
11. Misc.
   a. Decal Paper $15
   b. Min-Wax Wipe-on Polyurethane $10.00
   c. Strings $5.00

Totals: $834.18 w/shipping and taxes

Build process:
1. Stained body, three different colors Min-wax oil stains December 15, 2006
2. Min-Wax wipe-on satin polyurethane, four coats
3. Mighty-Mite neck, #0000 steel wooled to remove rough finish including fingerboard, no other finish applied, smooth satin finish, feels great in your hands.
4. Scanned Fender logo from tremolo box, converted to Adobe Illustrator with Adobe Streamline
   a. Manipulated logo in Illustrator various colors, outlines, Abalone inlay pulled from Google search and layered into logo.
   b. Created Custom Shop logo, name and serial number in Illustrator
   c. Printed on decal paper
   d. Three coats of clear spray-on lacquer
   e. Cut out decals and applied to headstock
    f. Applied wipe-on poly over decals, two coats
5. Installed Sperzel tuners on neck, pilot holes drilled with Dremel tool
6. Clamped neck to body and used string/twine attached to tuners through nut to line up tremolo for install
   a. Made marks
   b. Drilled holes for tremolo posts
   c. Installed posts
7. Painted tremolo claw and hex head screws gold, installed in cavity with hex head screws for easy adjustment with ratchet wrench instead of screw driver.
8. Installed tremolo
9. Installed Mighty-Mite strap locks
10. Installed pick-guard with pickups, threaded wiring attached ground to tremolo block with screw
11. Installed gold plug-in, soldered wiring.
12. Clamped neck on, used sewing thread on outside tuners (strings) for alignment, drilled neck-plate holes, installed neck-plate
13. Installed Fender Silver Bullet Stainless Steel strings
14. Plugged into the microphone input on my 100AM acoustic Yorkville amp.
15. Spent at least an hour adjusting saddles, tremolo, trem springs, (so it stays in tune) and pickups to get perfect even sound on all strings with all pickup selections.
16. Sounds wonderful with a clean sound and sustain that goes on forever. January 11, 2007
17. Final weight is 6 lbs. 4 oz.



Guild
F47 MCE Rare Red Maple back and sides, AA solid Sitka Spruce top.









Over the past decade, Guild has refined the acoustic electric’s design to feature solid wood body construction, which provides superior acoustic response and tonal clarity, and is surprisingly lightweight in feel. The F47 models are mini jumbos with 16" in body width while the D50CE is a traditional dreadnought body design with cutaway. All three models have 25-5/8"scale lengths, are 1-11/16" wide at the nut, and feature AA solid Sitka Spruce tops with hand-scalloped bracing, Mahogany necks, Guild’s classic Chesterfield headstock logo, and incorporate the new compact Fishman® Prefix® PRO Blend system. All Guild guitars are accompanied by a deluxe archtop case. The F47 series was created with the fingerstyle artist in mind, but any style sounds great on this series of fine guitars. Both models were designed with the same carefully-considered body depth and bracing pattern of the D-50 CE. The F47MCE features solid flame Maple back and sides, creating a distinctly brighter acoustic timbre. Available in Blonde, Antique Burst or Black lacquer finishes.

Jeff's Notes: Purchased the F47MCE with a Guild case on E-Bay from a Performer. It was mint, like new condition
for $900 after it did not sell the first time listed. I changed the Grover 14:1 Chrome tuners for Grover 18:1 Gold tuners. Purchased on
E-Bay and sold the Chrome ones on E-Bay so the gold Grovers cost me a net $10.00.
Changed out the strap buttons, too.







Amp is a Yorkville AM100 now called a Traynor AM100T
http://www.traynoramps.com


www.guildguitars.com


Taylor 214 Year 2005
Grand Auditorium


The Grand Auditorium combines the width and depth of a Dreadnought with a narrower waist. Its sleek design yields a strong treble zing across the tonal spectrum and sharpens the definition of individual notes. The Grand Auditorium is a strong fingerpicking guitar that also adapts well to medium strumming.
6-String Grand Auditorium Back & Sides Sapele Top Sitka Spruce Soundhole Rosette Wood Fiber Neck Tropical American Mahogany Fretboard Ebony Fretboard Inlay Pearloid Dots Headstock Overlay Ebony Binding Black Plastic Bridge Ebony Nut & Saddle Tusq Tuning Machines Enclosed, 18:1 Die-Cast Gold Plated Scale Length 25 1/2 Inches, Body Depth 4 5/8 Inches, Body Length 20 Inches, Body Width 16 Inches, Overall Length 41 Inches Truss Rod Adjustable Neck Width at Nut 1 11/16 Inches Number of Frets 20 Bracing Scalloped, X-Brace Finish Varnish


www.taylorguitars.com

Link to a great Acoustic Guitar forum with a wealth of information:

www.acousticguitarforum.com

Click here to e-mail me:

E-Mail Jeff

I do my own setups learned from experience and many website searches.

Purchased the Taylor 214 on E-Bay for $500 plus shipping with a Taylor Hard Shell Case.
This is my "Beater" guitar.

Changed out chrome tuners with Gold 18:1 Taylor tuners from a very nice man on the Acoustic Guitar Forum.

Victoria, my 4 year old, took these pictures of me playing.





I also own 2 Greg Bennett Travel/Student acoustics that I take with me on trips. Fits in the smallest overheads.
Both are 36" long with gigbags. About $100 each.



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