Thursday, August 25, 2011

Project "Black Strat" Completed

So I've my Fender 'Project Black Strat' (or as some would call it a 'Partscaster' - though really the only thing 'non-fender' is the pickguard so to me it's a Fender Stratocaster ;) ) together for a few days now. To summarize it was put together from the following parts:
 I've tried to take some pictures with my phone, but the Matte Black really seems to be hard to photograph - so you will have to do with these two mediocre pictures:





At this point I would almost say it's my best looking guitar I have (no disrespect to my Jem or Tungsten Deluxe). The Matte Black body with matching pickguard just looks DAMN good !

Sound wise I have my 2 other Deluxe strats to compare it to and to me this one actually sounds the most like a Stratocaster Should - though it does sometimes hum like crazy (need to add that copper tape to my pickguard one of these days). The SCN pickups in my None-More-Black in comparsion sound a little sterile (though if I didn't have them side-by-side to compare I would be hard-pressed to hear the difference). The N3s in the Tungsted definitely are an improvement over the SCN and sound like a little warmer, but miss just a little bit of that 'bell' sound when using the neck or neck+middle pickup combination. Also playing a Stratocaster just always feels like coming home - like holding a sexy curvy woman (whilst a Les Paul always reminds me of someone with just too much 'junk in the trunk' ;) ). I can definitely see this being my main 'go-to' guitar for now.

I did already think of possibly switching out the pickups for something else, but then I thought: Why not built a 'twin' with the different pickup configuration in it? So i just may get another Black Highway One (whole guitar this time & keep the original neck - i've got 3 V-necks now so that's good enough for now ;) ), swap the pickguard etc again and go with a black set of DiMarzio Injectors/67 - the new Paul Gilbert Pickup set..Someone please hide my wallet from me , because I'm on a roll! ;-)


3 comments:

  1. I was wondering if you had any problems fitting the Japanese neck to the US body

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  2. No problems whatsoever, bolted right up! If anything this is probably my favorite guitar at the moment (even more so than the new Les Paul, or my Deluxe Strats!)

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  3. Thanks man, and it looks fantastic! I love the matte body WITH the matte 'guard. Awesome job.

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