Project "Mystic Blue Strat": Step 4 - The Pickups Installed - Sort Of...

So as I mentioned in Step 2 of this build I ended up going with the 'Dimarzio High Power Strat Pickguard' (Part # FG2108A7) in black. It finally got delivered so I was off to install.
The basic premise is simple - you cut your existing pickguard, leaving only the wires to the output jack (and whatever other ground wires there are), and screw those into a special connector on the pickguard.

The kit came nicely packaged from Music123 and included a small Dimarzio screwdriver to use on the solder-less connector. The pickguard itself is a traditional 3-ply of Black/White/Black with beveled edges. The thing I noticed was that compared your basic Fender pickguards, the wiring coming from the pickups looks on the thin side. But as long as it sounds good right?

Now, from what I heard most people have either 1 or at most 2 ground (black) wires once they take out their pickguard. As I was taking mine off I noticed I had 3 : 1x to the output jack, 1x to the back cavity/tremelo and 1x to a tab that was screwed into the body. A quick search shows this is supposedly for the 'shielding paint' in the cavity so I figured I best rewire all 3 just to be safe.

Pickguard Removed - Notice 3x Black Wires

Stock Pickguard with Fat 50s

 The Dimarzio pickguard has the 'instructions' conveniently located on the back of pickguard so any one with half a brain, including yours truly, can wire this thing up.

New Pickguard ready to wire up

And all wired up - Took a whole minute or so

 Next it's a simple matter of dropping it into place and putting the screws back in the pickguard.
As I started lining things up I noticed some screw holes were not lining up properly. Shifted things a bit, and now others dont' line up... hmmmm Looks like either Dimarzio needs to pay 'Bob' or whoever mans the drill press a bit more to stay awake, or their template is just wrong (at least for an American Strat). That SUCKS Dimarzio! So now it's drilling new holes into the body, or going with a different pickguard. Being that I don't feel like order a new custom pickguard etc. I'll probably just drill the holes, but really for the money this kind of  problem should not even exist.

Once I take care of that it'll be all ready for the neck. I did order one.. I'm keeping it under wraps till I get it though (which may take a while). Meanwhile this is what the Mystic Blue body with the black pickguard looks like - Pretty sharp if you ask me!

Mystic Blue with Black Pickguard

Dont mind the finger prints or flash ;)

Project "Mystic Blue Strat": Step 3 - The Neck - Too many options

So now it was time to decide on a neck for this build. I knew I wanted a more 'modern'/flatter radius, preferably compound if possible. For Neck profile I figured I would end up going with a 'modern C' even though 'V' would be preferred. However I still wasn't sure if I was going to Maple or Rosewood though (or something else all together..). Good thing we can experiment with all kinds of different necks without even having to buy anything with Photoshop! Starting off with the Mystic Blue Body I had the 'original' full guitar images - Both Rosewood and Maple visually actually looked very good in my opinion.

American Standard Mystic Blue - Maple

American Standard Mystic Blue -Rosewood

However once I swapped out the white(ish) pickguard for the black Dimarzio pickguard, the rosewood seemed to get lost a little bit where it almost seemd to turn in a 'hodge-podge' of colors when looking at the whole guitar (blue/black/brown/amber) - see below

Should I go Maple Fender Neck?

or Rosewood Fender Neck? Or something completely different?

I think it comes down to the 'contrast' of it all that just doesn't seem right to me.. However further down I have a rosewood neck example with a black headstock that IMHO DOES look very nice!

Just to be thorough I figured I'd look at all (or at least some more) options for a neck:

Warmoth Custom Neck - They are local to me and in the past whenever I needed anything they have been very pleasant to deal with. I could pick the Neck Profile, The Tuners, the Finish (or none) etc. Almost too many options to pick from! It is VERY tempting to go this route and try to do the tru-oil approach like I have on my Mason Telecaster Neck. That neck is probably my favorite feeling neck of all my guitars. Definitely an option - but not sure how I feel about trying to finish it myself with a chance of screwing it up and needing to have the patience to actually do the work.

Moses Graphite Neck - I think I was looking through the Stew-Mac or Allparts site to see what necks they might have and I noticed these ultra-modern all graphite necks. Visually if I were to stick that on the body I'd end up with what would be very close to that 2005 FSR called 'Bad Boy Blue' with the addition of the headstock & back of the neck being pitch-black too. (So almost more like my 'None-more-black' Strat).  They come standard in a 16" radius (other options available) so that's VERY interesting as well. Again I notice myself not really liking a 'dark guitar/neck' with a light headstock like the BBB. (would rather have the black headstock in this case ) so going 'all black' is definitely an option.. I photoshopped my None-more-Black Neck on to the body to get a feel for what it would look like

The original FSR "Bad Boy Blue"

Concept with all Graphite Neck - Looking pretty sharp!

Then as I emailed with Steve (hey big surprise - he was a nice guy ;) ) at Moses Graphite he told me about a few more options such as inlays etc, so I went a little photoshop crazy and came up with this totally 'out there' concept. Basically Ibanez headstock, Vine of life inlay.. now THAT looks good!

Ibanez RG / JS Neck - Yes, probably blasphemy to some, but I actually toyed around with the idea of getting a 22-fret Ibanez Neck (Old RG or JS model - the ones that do NOT have the 'All Access Neck Joint' aka AANJ) and seeing if that would work on this Strat Body, but  a) it would mean having to get an OLD OLD neck and b) Or search the ends of the earth for a suitable neck and c) it would possibly be way too many headaches.  As a couple of quick concepts though it does look really sharp and I almost like the Ibanez headstocks better than the Fender ones... Hmmmmmmmm....

Played around with virtually 'chopping off' a 24-fret RG neck... not bad,but the blue would really have to match for it to be good looking

Concept of a Ibanez JS model neck on a Strat Body - looks good!

Tried photoshopping the Andy Timmons Neck -Think this is my favorite by far!

Fender Compound Radius Neck
If I was going with a Fender Neck I really wanted a flatter, 12" radius+ neck , or a compound radius neck which usually runs 9.5"-14". Looking at what necks Fender has that come in compound radius I found the following:

• Stratocaster Deluxe Compound Radius - Modern C
• Stratocaster Deluxe Compound Radius - Soft - V, Vintage Tint
• Stratocaster Deluxe Plus Compound Radius - Modern C  
• Stratocaster 'Hot Rod' Neck - 7.25" - 12" radius - Classic C

The Difference between the Deluxe & Deluxe Plus Necks seem to be that the 'Deluxe' has the 'silver' Fender logo & lettering and a 'Contoured Heel' joint, where as the 'Deluxe Plus' has a 'normal' logo, and the regular '4 bolt in a rectangle' joint. Also based on pictures the 'Deluxe' seem have a very light amber like tint , where as most (but not all) pictures from the new 'Deluxe Plus' seem to show a lighter color (though not nearly as light as for instance the 'Eric Clapton' necks - those things are practically white! I like'm though ). So based on the above , if I went with a Fender neck it would have to be the Deluxe or Deluxe Plus with the Modern C.

Deluxe with V Profile, Vintage Tint

Deluxe with C Profile

Deluxe Plus with C Profile

One other Fender neck I ran into was a 12" radius Japanese Hot-Rod 50's Neck. Since I really like my 57 RI Japanese neck on my other strat this could be an option as well.. I am just not a fan of the 'relic' factor with the dark spots on the neck.

Then there's also the 'other' 12" radius necks - Eric Johnsons models or "Deluxe Player MIM" necks. I was not really interested in either (I'm fickle.. while MIM Fenders are usually great I don't like putting a MIM neck on a MIA body for some reason.. MIJ I can do... lol) and what's up with the Gold accents on those deluxe players?? nasty looking.

Looking at the different mockups, I REALLY like the Ibanez necks the best , but I am not sure how I could make that work. (though JS100/JS1000's supposedly fit right on if they are specific years with a 56mm wide neck)  Graphite looks good, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to make the leap to that over a 'traditional' neck. Then there's the good old maple necks.

I'm going to need to think things over for a while...

Project "Mystic Blue Strat": Step 2 - The Pickups

As mentioned in the initial post, I already had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to take this build. I had gone with Seymour Duncan pickups in my latest telecaster build, so this time I wanted to go with some DiMarzio's - The Evolutions in my Jem are really nice and overall I do feel I'm more of a DiMarzio fan than SD's.

I had a few 'requirements' for these pickups:
a) "Modern"/Hum Cancelling
b) High Output
c) Available in black (or easy enough to swap out a pickup cover)
d) Did NOT really care if they still sounded like a typical Stratocaster.

Playing with the aptly named 'Pickup Picker' on the Dimarzio website I came up with several interesting choices, such as the: Fast Track, Pro Track, Chopper, Air Norton, Injectors, etc. Picking between these based on just description is almost impossible (at least for me) so I went on a 'listening spree' on their site and any youtube reviews I could find.That... didn't really help at all and I STILL couldn't decide..

While I would prefer a single ply pickguard like I put on my other black Strat, I noticed Dimarzio sold pre-wired Pickguards as well. This would definitely make things easier to install - and if anything, help (i.e. force) me to make a decision. I could just get one of these loaded pickguards and if I ever wasn't 100% happy with any one of these pickups I could just swap them out as I pleased.

Looking at the list that would meet my criteria I found the following sets:
"Billy Corgan", "High Power Strat", "HS Strat" and "Injector".
I found a thorough review of the "HS Strat" ones, which were being described as an 'Yngwie' set... to me both that one and the BCs didn't really click with me so it was down to the High Power Strat and Injector set. While the Injectors sounded very nice, I really wanted something a little 'heavier' and I liked the blade approach for something different, so I ended up settling on the 'High Power Strat' pickguard, aka FG2108A7.

DiMarzio FG2108 Fast Track Prewired Pickguard Black

The High Power Strat comes with (blatant copy & paste here):
"a Pro Track™ neck / Fast Track 1™ middle / Fast Track 2™ bridge pickup configuration. The Pro Track™ is warm and friendly, with a classic neck humbucker sound. The Fast Track 1™ is bright and clean, with enough power to keep up with the neck and bridge positions . The Fast Track 2™ is our heaviest-sounding Strat-size humbucker, with a huge mid-range and bass punch."

If I'm not happy with either the middle or Neck pickup I already have the 'Chopper' or 'Cruisers' selected as a possible replacement.

Really not much more to say on this besides that the pickguard is on it's way from Music123 (beats having to deal with Crap Center) so once it's here and installed I'll post up some pictures

Project "Mystic Blue Strat": Step 1 - The Body

So.. I got the bug again and wanted to get a new Strat - I had been looking at some online vendors like Sweetwater to get an idea of what was out there and one guitar that really stood out to me was the American Standard in Mystic Blue. It's a rich blue color with some metallic to it.. very sharp looking! It came in the 'usual' options of SSS or HSS configurations with the Single Coils being 'Fat 50's' and either a rosewood or maple neck (yes.. fretboard.. just like technically it's vibrato not tremolo..) and they actually BOTH looked very good to me!

I wanted to do more of a 'hot-rod' kind of Strat so I knew I was going to change out any pickups that would come with it for something way hotter. Also for the neck, I didn't really want the standard US neck with the 'Modern C' profile and 9.5" radius. I really wanted a compound radius, and preferably a 'V' shape, but I did NOT want a vintage tint this time like I ended up with my tungsten build. This would probably mean to get the compound radius I would have to settle for the modern 'C' shape anyway, since the only compound-V's out there are from the deluxe series and they come pre-tinted.  Based on these criteria I knew it'd be a waste to buy a whole stock guitar.

I started making some mock-ups in photoshop for how I wanted the guitar to look. I knew I was going to go with a black pickguard/pickups (as always right) , I just wasn't sure which ones. Previously I had looked at the Dimarzio Paul Gilbert pickups: The Injectors. This time I was looking at all their Hum-Cancelling Single Coils, especially the ones that came in a pre-wired pickguard. While it wasn't a 1-ply pickguard like I prefer, I figured it would at least be an easy way to drop in some new pickups. I basically was stuck between going with Injectors or the 'High Output' Set that held some FastTrack/ProTrack pickups that were blade-style. In the end I started leaning to the Fast tracks, so I dropped them in to the picture and came up with these 2 designs, depending on fretboard material since I still haven't decided if I'm going rosewood or maple. (Shocker I know!)

Concept 1 - Mystic Blue, Black Pickguard, Rosewood

Concept 2 - Mystic Blue, Black Pickguard, Maple

So to start this project I started looking at what I call my 'goto' place for Strat parts: The Stratosphere on Ebay. From what I've been able to gather in online discussions they actually buy new guitars and part them out. Some people take issue with this, but for people like me who like to 'combine' bits and pieces from different models etc it's a great way to get what you want. Yes their pricing isn't always (or usually) the cheapest, but it gets me what I want. I just keep an eye on when they have 10% off deals for the items I want which helps a great deal.

I noticed they had both 'bare' bodies (just the painted body with no hardware) for sale, and loaded bodies (just add a neck and strings and you're done!) in Mystic Blue. I had just missed a 10% discount on the loaded body so I started to add up all the parts for a bare body in Mystic blue to see what the cost would be for that. Adding in the Jack, The Tremolo system etc came literally within 20 bucks of the loaded body if I could get the discount and that would include the Fat 50's pickups! With that kind of math I figured that I could always put the pickups in my other Black Strat in case I get tired of the Texas-Specials in there. So the waiting game began for the discount to hopefully re-appear, and have no-one else buy it meanwhile.. luckily for me within a couple of weeks the loaded body went on special again and I immediately purchased it.

Listing Picture

After receiving & (partial) unwrapping!

This picture really shows off the color

Next up I'll get the pickups ordered and swap those out, and I'll have to decide on a neck.

No updates for a long time

Wow - it's been ages since I made any kind of post here. Not that anybody really reads these, but it's more for me.. I like to read back and look at what I was doing at a given time, thought process etc.. Anyway - the lack of updates was mostly because I haven't actually done anything noteworthy (ah... a musical pun...) in regards to my instruments in the last couple of years. Work/life etc all basically sucked up any time I had so unfortunately I've been neglecting things a bit. It did give me time to reflect on a few things:

A) I think I can officially label myself (even though I basically already knew the last 20+ years) as a 'Fender' or more specific a 'Stratocaster' Guy . I've had my Gibson Les Paul for a while now (wow - going on 3 years??), and I barely played it. It's a beautiful piece of work, and sounds good, but I just don't 'connect' with it... Comparing the shape etc to a Stratocaster I can't help but think that the Strat is a beautiful curvy woman, where as the Les Paul.. well.. it's like a woman who has got that big-booty thing going on and that's great... if you're into that... it's just not for me..

Another brand I have a soft spot for: Ibanez.. but that's probably because of my Jem...and for some reason I do really like their headstock design too..

B) I 'think' I figured out why I'm not usually a fan of rosewood.. It's not just the looks - I do prefer a lighter/maple neck. But after playing my bass and acoustic for a bit (both rosewood fretboard, and of course so does my les paul) and not spontaneously breaking out in hives, and some reflecting time I think my experience with rosewood was 'tainted' by that super crappy SG-like clone (see the guitar time-line post)I had way back when. That wood was so rough, smooth bends were practically impossible and I swear you could get splinters in your fingers if you tried! That's not to say I'm now going to swap everything to rosewood. I still think it's too porous and dark and a 'dirt magnet'.. BUT I probably will end up getting a Strat with rosewood just to add in some variety. As far as 'tone' difference. Whenever I've tried to play a maple vs rosewood back to back of the same guitar, I personally can't hear the difference so it all comes down to 'look & feel' to me and not tone.

That being said: I am starting a new 'build' project so I'll be posted a bit more frequently again.