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Posted by: Mudbone Oct 21 2010, 09:58 PM

This is the second installment of the budget USA Strat series, if you haven't read the first part, you can find it http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=36780.

In the original post I said the plan was to install the RS Guitarworks electronics kit, but that plan has been scrapped. I ended up getting the Specialty Guitars Strat upgrade kit that was tuned to have vintage/modern SRV sound. I saved about $25 going with this kit. The RS Guitarworks kit had a paper and oil capacitor, which was a big portion of the cost. I just couldn't justify dishing out that kind of money for something that makes little, if any difference in tone.

Also, I ended up going with the Guitar Fetish tuners instead of the Sperzels, and saved $30 in the process. These two changes saved me $55, which goes to show you if you don't keep a level head the price of your project can skyrocket. If I ad in the the savings from getting the Tonerider pickups instead of the Texas Specials, the savings expand to $135. Remember, this is a budget project, keeping costs down is absolutely essential.

The tuners were too big for the holes, so now I have to bore out the holes to 10mm. I was gonna do it with a reamer, but they're expensive, so I'm just going to drill out the holes. I'll start off with a 6mm bit then work up to a 10mm, at least thats the plan for now.

Anyways, enough yapping, on with the pictures.

Edit: All the pics didn't fit in one posting, so here are the links to all four posts:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=36780
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=36977
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=36978
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=36979



- This is what I started with


- All the parts laid out


- Steel wool and tape used to buff out the gloss and give to guitar a satin finish


- Tremolo Kit


- Pickguard and black screws


- Electronics Upgrade Kit


- Straplocks, felt pads, and Pickup selector cap


- Tonerider City Limits Pickups


- Tuners


- Orange Drop Capacitor


- I put the cap next to a quarter just so you can get an idea of how big it is. It was actually a lot bigger that I thought it was gonna be.


- Pickup Selector. I had to push down the little metal tabs to make sure they made contact with the sliding plate, they were slightly bent up upon arrival.


- The crappy ass loaded stock pickguard.


- A ceramic bar going across the pole pieces, pretty shitty if you ask me, you can see where Peavey cut corners.


- 500K pots? Aren't single coils supposed to have 250k pots? The stock pickups must be really dark sounding.


- Stock capacitor.


- New CTS pot.


- A side by side comparison between old and new caps.


- Almost empty guitar

Posted by: Fran Oct 21 2010, 10:37 PM

Wow these posts are awesome. Picture quality is great too!

I'd love to put this stuff into a nice wiki article, would you like me to?

Posted by: Mudbone Oct 21 2010, 11:29 PM

Thanks dude, actually the picture quality would have been even better if my damn camera wasn't acting up Some pics came out a little dark and slightly out of focus, but most of them came out pretty good.

Feel free to put this in a Wiki article, I actually documented all this because I didn't find anything similar to this on the internet, and wanted to share it with people who were looking to do the same thing. I just hope after you post it I can go back and polish it up a little bit

Posted by: Adrian Figallo Oct 22 2010, 02:32 AM

amazing man, thanks for sharing this!!
maybe you can make a nice demo video?, i'm a strat geek!

Posted by: Mudbone Oct 22 2010, 03:17 AM

Thanks dude, I hope somebody can benefit from this post one day I'll post a demo after I completely finish this project and get it running in top condition. This may take a while, as this stuff takes a lot of time, and thats something that gonna be in short supply the next few weeks

Also, I got to learn some clean stuff to play on it, I've been playing metal forever The other thing I have to mention is the fact that I'm so used to the compressed sound of EMGs, that my picking dynamic skills haven't developed. These new pickups are so dynamic, every nuance of my playing is picked up and amplified. Its fair to say that Strats require a certain playing technique to get that "Stratiness" out, if that makes any sense. You play a Strat so I'm sure you understand.

Posted by: emirb Oct 22 2010, 08:04 AM

Great stuff ! I love DIY and this is really sweet project. Wanted for a long time to build/rebuild a guitar myself and I'm gonna do it soon I'm sure. Just a quick comment, orange (drop) capacitors are great caps but you don't needed here for this application. You can read on it that is for 400V and these are usually used for tube amps (or high voltage for that matter). It's a high quality cap, but you could same a few buck by buying metal film cap (of the same capacity) at smallbearelec.com or pedalpartsplus.com or effectsconnection.com or similar DIY sites. Generally for electronics supply aimed for guitar/effects.

Good job & Keep it on! Post some more pics!

Posted by: Fran Oct 22 2010, 03:46 PM

Sure man, the article will be there for you to add/change/tweak anything you see fit