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Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 1:33 pm
by markleton
Wouldn't it be grand if there were one of these 'super stratocasters' for sale outside eBay and guitar shops...

I like it! I've realised I'm not a massive fan of tremolols, I totally lack the skill to make them sound musical. Will looks banging when it's painted though.

Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 2:26 pm
by Doog
NickD has come through on this for me and picked it up, PROPER GENT. I consider it payback for all the times he was allowed to share a comfy bed with Mikey at Doogfest..

Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 2:27 pm
by Mike
i.e. This is your Pimp Fund

Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 2:31 pm
by Doog
*doffs 'Dipsy' hat*

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Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 2:57 pm
by Fran
Awesome.

The Squier Stagemaster would have been a good choice considering your criteria but this looks a bargain at £51 squid. This spec is pretty decent, the body alone is worth more than £51..

Jackson Kelly neck. 24 fret.
Charvel Ash body. VERY heavy!
PURPLE DiMarzio PAF Pro Pickup with red surround.
DiMarzio 500k Pot with red control knob.
Licensed Floyd Rose Original Locking Tremolo.

Dr Know from Bad Brains mostly uses a Charvel w/colored DiM's :wink:

Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 3:30 pm
by Doog
Fran wrote:The Squier Stagemaster would have been a good choice considering your criteria but this looks a bargain at £51 squid. This spec is pretty decent, the body alone is worth more than £51..
Yeah, I was thinking about that and looking at the Stagemasters and Showmasters; I just don't dig the reverse headstock really and most of the ones I saw were set/thru-neck, meaning I'd be stuck with it..

Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 4:24 pm
by rps-10
:shock: wow excellent buy!!

Don't want to swap the Paf Pro for a Tone Zone do you? tis blue you know :wink:

- pickup alone is 50 quid or more (we're running out of £50+ parts to mention on this geetar)

Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 4:38 pm
by Doog
I'll be probably selling off the pickup as I'm going for some passive EMGs for this rockbeast; I'll give you first refusal though!

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 12:08 pm
by NickD
Fran is right, it's the heaviest strat based guitar I've seen.

It's a definite bargain, expert ebaying skills from Doog.

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 1:55 pm
by Doog
Cheers mate, and THANKS AGAIN!

(nb: I've said "thank you" to Nick about 3239048 times)

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 2:56 pm
by rps-10
Has the seller filled up the entire middle pickup hole? Gonna be fun getting 2 'buckers in there if so.

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 3:21 pm
by Doog
Looks like he has, but why would that make a difference?

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 4:40 pm
by rps-10
No hole to poke the wire through from the neck pickup.

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 4:54 pm
by Doog
Ah, gotcha. I think I'll be able to drill a little tunnel between the neck pickup route and the control cavity, but we'll see.

Worst coming to worst, I could probably route out a little channel between the neck and bridge pickup routes, stick a small piece of plastic tubing in there, then slap some plastic wood over the top- instant tunnel for mah wirez.

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 5:21 pm
by rps-10
TOP BODGE!! 8)

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:20 pm
by Doog
BAM, The Beast arrived a few hours ago:

[youtube][/youtube]
Despite the neck/body mismatch (old holes filled/new holes drilled), it seems to intonate fine, but it definitely needs a fair bit of tweaking beyond the shimming I did.

MEGA thanks to NickD, the packing job was superb.

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:44 pm
by Fran
Haha, "a fun button to press" :lol:

The Superstrat looks bags of fun, good score.

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:41 pm
by rps-10
need a set of metric allen keys perhaps? Looks tidy, safe as !!

edit >> get lovckign nut on then MOAR WINDMILLs :lol:

Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 7:18 pm
by Doog
Well, I picked up a set of (yes indeedy, metric!) allen keys a few days ago and have time to generally monkey about with The Beast a LOT.

Despite the angled neck pocket (designed to reduced the need for shimming), the neck still needs substantial shimming to level it out, but I've got it playing pretty good.

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I LOVE THIS: the locking nut actually has 2 grub screws to set and balance the whole thing and therefore the nut slots. Very impressed, it's the first time I've seen one of these; it's definitely not the stock nut to the Jackson neck but I DO know it'll certainly end up on whatever neck this project features.

The truss rod needs a specific tool to adjust it (rather than the standard allen key), but I was fortunate enough to pinch a socket wrench fitting and right-angled "holder" to tweak away until I can pick up the right tool.

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:29 pm
by Doog
So, my mega-cheap (£11 plus p&p) EMG Select finally turned up from Ebay and, despite the TINY AMOUNT OF CABLE LEFT, I plumbed it into The Beast.

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To my surprise, it holds up reasonably well against the DiMarzio PAF Pro that was in there already, check da sounds:

Considering I picked it up for purely superficial cosmetic and budgetary reasons, it's not half bad! It's not even microphonic with high gains like most cheapo pickups tend to be.

Annoyingly, the neck with its overhanging 24th fret won't allow me to put a neck pickup mounting ring in, so it'll stay like this for a lil' while. Might try and file the bottom of the overhanging fret actually, it's only a little too big:

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