MIM Plus Top w/ KWS Neck & Fat 50's Pickups

So I had finally gotten all my parts I needed to put this build together. It's nothing over the top, but should be a nice combination:

• Body: MIM Standard Stratocaster Plus Top - Flame Maple in Tobacco Sunburst
• Neck: MIM Kenny Wayne Shepherd Model
• Pickups: US Fat 50's that come out of my Mystic Blue US Body.

What I would end up with, visually at least, is basically what is depicted on the fender site:

Plus Top Standard Stratocaster

With the difference naturally being the pickups (+ they're 'parchment' or whatever this 'off-white' color is called nowadays), and the neck. So let's get building:

All the parts ready to go

I had to order the bridge, jackplate etc separate so the first step was to install the bridge.
For a couple of days I toyed with the idea of going with KWS bridge, but I settled on a standard MIM for now. 

Bridge Installed

Test fit of the springs

After the bridge I figured it was a good time to put some new leads on to the pickguard electronics, since I had cut them out of the USA Body (which received a Dimarzio Pickguard) . Now my first mistake was using the wrong soldering iron. I was using a tiny 15 watt , and that barely got anything moving. I switched to my 30 watt and that worked SO much better!

 I noticed that the screw in the middle of the cavity that nowadays holds an extra ground wire was missing too, so I put a new one in and tied a ground wire to it . Also fed a ground wire to the back Tremolo cavity and of course the signal + ground wire to the Jack Plate hole.
 

Just using some paper towels to protect the body before soldering

Jack Plug attached

Ground wire attached and springs installed

 Now an issue I ran into was that I did not have any correct screws to mount the pickguard. Since I did not feel like ordering them and then waiting another week or so, I found some screws locally that would fit. They are not 'oval head' like the normal pickguard screws, but I don't mind them. I can always swap them out once I do get some 'official' screws. But for now - these guys would have to do.

Having soldered everything up and all screws put in, gave me this beautiful looking finished body.

Next was to simply bolt on the neck. I had noticed in transportation the neck tuning pegs had gotten a little loose, but simply tightening the screws a bit solved that. So 4 neck screws later I had a beautiful guitar, ready to be played (well.. once i put some strings on it..)

Mexican Stratocaster Build

So while I was waiting for my Moses Graphite neck for the Mystic Blue build (Still at least another 2 weeks or so I'm told), I started to 'itch' for something else. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to build another Stratocaster using the Fat 50's pickguard that I pulled from the Mystic Blue Body. It being white, I figured it probably would be a nice color contrast to actually go and try a rosewood neck for a change.

Deciding what kind of neck to go with is obviously problematic enough (Radius, Back Contour, Tuners etc) - on top of that I knew I couldn't splurge like I had on my previous items. This would have to be a bit more of a budget build. I DID know I wanted a 'thick' neck e.g. a 'FatBack' or 'Thick C' or whatever they're called.  I started looking at an All-Parts SRO-FAT. Reason I was interested in this one was because I had gotten the V-Shaped Telecaster neck before and love the oil finish on it. However, I don't think Brian from Mason Guitars, who did my neck, does any more guitar work lately, so I would have to learn to do it.. Doesn't sound hard, but it was more than I was willing to take on at this time.

American Fender necks were out because of the cost, so that basically left  basic 3rd Party Necks like Warmoth, MIM (Made in Mexico) Fender Necks, or other 'finished' Japanese etc clones.Also for a body I REALLY wanted a hardtail if I could help it.

Looking on the Warmoth site I quickly found a decent neck that I really liked with a Pau Ferro Fretboard. They also had some decent bodies in stock. They did however not accept paypal which unfortunately meant I had to look elsewhere. So off to the old standby: Ebay.

After doing some digging around I figured that both the Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Robert Cray Signature Models (MIM) had 'thicker' necks. After a lot of reading I decided on a KWS neck. I missed the tail end of 1 auction, but luckily a second posting was listed a few days later which IMHO looked even better so I was able to pick that one up.

For the body I looked for a decent hard-tail that didn't cost a lot, and could simply NOT find one. Since I wanted to get going on this project I finally gave in and started to look at standard Stratocaster bodies. I always liked the Ocean Blue, but for some reason it didn't click with me with the white pickguard/rosewood neck. It IS VERY striking though and I would love to someday do a build with it with maybe some black DiMarzio Injectors and a nice maple neck.

Ocean Blue Body

After a couple of days of digging around on EBay I came across a fairly 'fresh' listing for a MIM 'plus' top which means it has a Maple Flame Top. I went onto the Fender site to see a bit more and there they actually had a nice image of the stock guitar which is basically what mine would look like all put together.

 I thought that it looked really sharp, so I didn't hesitate any longer and ordered the body

For the misc. parts and bridge etc, I toyed with the idea of getting the KWS GraphTech Bridge, but looking at my budget I realized that wasn't in the cards and went with the Stock Mexican Bridge. Maybe on the next build I'll get fancier.

Now it's just a matter of it all getting here and putting it together - I Can't wait!

Observation about Ibanez Headstocks

So I'm going to let the proverbial cat partially/mostly out of the bag and state that for my blue Stratocaster build I'm going with a neck that has an 'Ibanez' style headstock. I'm actually debating getting 2 necks, and just seeing which one works better and then I'd have a 2nd neck for another project, but we'll see how that turns out...

Anyway - as I was looking at some Ibanez headstocks out there I started to notice a peculiar difference between different version. Obviously they come in 'straight' (think Stratocaster style)  and angled/tilt-back, but that aside I started to notice a pattern in regards to the 'CheckMark' Ibanez Logo

Look at these:

6 String - S Series

6 String - RG Series

6 String - RG Series

Notice how for all these 6 string versions, the logo starts between the 2nd and 3rd Tuning peg and points at the 2nd (Starting from the left / Low E). Next let's look at the 7 strings

7 String - RG Series

 

7 String Universe

Obviously the headstock is longer with the extra tuning peg etc, but again here they have it lined up between the 2nd and 3rd tuning peg, pointing at the 2nd, while the line going to the tip of the headstock is obviously longer. Nice and consistent right? Right - until Mr. Satriani comes along..

Wait what? These are 6 strings, but start between the 1st and 2nd tuning peg (closer to the 2nd).
Maybe it has something to do with the fact there is no truss-rod cover on the JS Series, but while it's a 'small' difference - probably half an inch / 1cm close to the nut - I think it looks a LOT better. I'm guessing Joe is quite the stickler for details because why would they move the decal over by half an inch if they didn't really have to?

Anyway - why am I talking about any of this? While some will cry blasphemy, it looks like I will be needing a nice Ibanez Logo for my new neck. It's still being made, but will look 'somewhat' like this (but better ;) )

Graphite Neck

It's going to be a Moses Graphite, with custom inlays and everything... I'm guessing if I get a nice 7 string logo I can place it like the JS headstock and simply cut off the excess..

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...