Strat build

[Grandturk]

I've got a neck coming to me from a 60's Roadworn Strat. I've been jonesing for a rosewood 60's style strat since I got my Dave Murray this past summer. I was originally thinking of building a replica of Dave's 60's rosewood boarded Strat - as seen in Live After Death - basically just like the Dave Murray Sig Fender except with a rosewood board and a gold Kahler. Anyway, I've moved past that since I already have two Iron Maiden guitars.

So now I'm thinking of building the ultimate "Fucked With" vintage Strat. My idea is thus: in 1983, Vinny from Long Island dreams of playing at LaMours and grabs his dad's 1962 Olympic White strat and proceeds to hack the shit out of it - adding a Floyd, humbuckers, switches, etc. Now, Vinny would probably also paint it pink or something - but I want to stop there (I'm not Budman).

So help me out with some ideas, pictures, horror stories - whatever you've got. Got a pic of a mutilated strat? I want to see 'em. I want something weird, weathered - broken, but still functional - like did Vinny put a Les Paul Custom pickguard on it for some reason? Did he move the jack to the side and fill in the top route with bottle caps?

Here's the must haves for my build - but show me anything:

- Rosewood Fender neck
- Floyd
- Full sized bridge hum
- Olympic or Vintage White

[DonP]

I'll have to watch Live After Death again (just got it last week). I didn't notice the gold Kahler.

Sorry, I'm in the camp of Fenders should be maple, Gibsons should be rosewood.

You can never have enough Iron maiden guitars. Now I want a Gold LP Deluxe and was that a Lado in the video?

[Grandturk]

You can never have enough Iron maiden guitars. Now I want a Gold LP Deluxe and was that a Lado in the video?

Yeah - I'll skip the shitty Gibson Deluxe routed for a Super-D at the bridge and raise you an Ibanez Destroyer.

Do you really need the black Dean Cadillac that Bruce plays on Revelations? I think not.

At some point the Kahler is on the black rosewood strat. I only remember the maple having the original trem, and then one of those Dimarzio fat block trems - you know the one where the back of the trem is a big block of brass (I don't mean the trem block).

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

I'm in for pics. I could use a laugh today...

[Grandturk]

There used to be horror stories about fucked up vintage guitars... Yet I've seen so few of them. I'm guessing they've been parted out or restored for the most part.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

I wish I had pics of my Kramer abortion from when I was a kid...

I took a Focus 1000, made the bridge pickup "straight" and added a middle humbucker with a chisel and a dremel (Nightswan!) and then discovered I didn't like it so I put a single humbucker pickguard on it.

It was candy red when I got it, which I didn't like, so I stripped it and painted it with epoxy garage floor paint (the hardware store would mix any color you wanted) using a brush, and then sanded it level. This is the same one that ended up with the Reb Beach Baretta neck on it.

But it wasn't a white strat and I don't have pics, anyway.

[Grandturk]

That's funny. I had a Focus 2000 in Candy Red - stripped it, stained it green by hand, polyurethaned it, then hand chiselled a middle hum slot for it. It also had a Jackson woodburn neck on it (kicking myself for mutilating that neck - but hey, it was $20). In the end, the neck and body was tossed down the garbage chute and the Floyd was sold for $50. I still have the neck plate and the original humbuckers.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

I sold my neck and Floyd to a guy who put it on a Striker ST (the old, plywood kind)... Trashed the body as well in my case.

Imagine, a spray-painted plywood guitar with a genuine OFR and a Kramer Baretta neck (nice one, with binding) on it.

[DonP]

I think my Aria Pro II RS Classic takes the cake for mutilations. It started as a S-S-S low output singles, with a V-Trem in Pearl white and gold hardware (quite nice looking), then got hot rails, then a slanted hum with a very killer MAK45 (matsukamoto (sp?) pickup that reads 12K, then a Kahler 2500, black hardware, routed the neck pocket to be sunk in / neck angle, a Bengal paint job, a new Aria neck (very rare with an angled headstock), filled in the other singles to be a single hum, paint again, then the bridge post pulled forward so routed / new wood added to the bridge with a regular single hum (not slanted), SD Screamin Demon, paint again, 2700 Kahler, and hear we are today.