Tweet
I confess to being a massive Phil Collen fan and being fortunate enough to see his many guitars over the years during soundcheck's and shows.
I have become a bit of a collector of his particular guitars and have my share of PC1's as well as a few Collen Archtops and even an Adrenalize Jackson.
However what I really wanted to copy was his famous Felix Stratocaster. The original was 1978 black Strat and was a present from his Mum on his 21st birthday. It was played all over countless Def Leppard albums as well as live the last 30 plus years.
It was named Felix the Strat (think Felix the Cat) by Mutt Lange years back in case you wondered.
So I hunted down a really beat up and badly modded '78 Strat and had my friend Mark Read at Read Custom Guitars do his magic.
To help out I brought him the guitar totally stripped of all finish and all hardware removed. Under that crap rattle can black finish was a pretty nice if not somewhat heavy ash body.
He then....
-Carved out more relief in the body as 70's Strats were pretty thick and chunky. Its not 50's era extreme but loads more comfortable.
-Re-fretted the neck with jumbo Dumlop frets and sanded out a proper 12" radius for the OFR that I supplied.
-Installed the 'bullet" style R7 locking nut that is cut to allow access to the truss rod nut.
-Routed the body for a proper recessed OFR and cleaned up the bad route jobs that were done over time.
-Converted that crap 70's three bolt into a proper four bolt while saving the micro-tilt feature.
-Painted the guitar with 4 heavy coats of Nitro and then clear coated the body and neck.
-Installed the WD pearloid pickguard with Dimarzio Chopper pickups that I wired up for him while waiting for the project to come together.
-Installed an aftermarket Fender logo on the headstock. Sadly getting a real one (w/serial number) from Fender was deemed a total PITA!
-Installed all the hardware including repro tuners as well as a really old mid 80s OFR.
We chose not to relic the guitar in the end as I am not a fan of that fake relic no matter how well done!
And I now present my own Felix the Strat!
The last two shots are Phil's original Felix!
I have become a bit of a collector of his particular guitars and have my share of PC1's as well as a few Collen Archtops and even an Adrenalize Jackson.
However what I really wanted to copy was his famous Felix Stratocaster. The original was 1978 black Strat and was a present from his Mum on his 21st birthday. It was played all over countless Def Leppard albums as well as live the last 30 plus years.
It was named Felix the Strat (think Felix the Cat) by Mutt Lange years back in case you wondered.
So I hunted down a really beat up and badly modded '78 Strat and had my friend Mark Read at Read Custom Guitars do his magic.
To help out I brought him the guitar totally stripped of all finish and all hardware removed. Under that crap rattle can black finish was a pretty nice if not somewhat heavy ash body.
He then....
-Carved out more relief in the body as 70's Strats were pretty thick and chunky. Its not 50's era extreme but loads more comfortable.
-Re-fretted the neck with jumbo Dumlop frets and sanded out a proper 12" radius for the OFR that I supplied.
-Installed the 'bullet" style R7 locking nut that is cut to allow access to the truss rod nut.
-Routed the body for a proper recessed OFR and cleaned up the bad route jobs that were done over time.
-Converted that crap 70's three bolt into a proper four bolt while saving the micro-tilt feature.
-Painted the guitar with 4 heavy coats of Nitro and then clear coated the body and neck.
-Installed the WD pearloid pickguard with Dimarzio Chopper pickups that I wired up for him while waiting for the project to come together.
-Installed an aftermarket Fender logo on the headstock. Sadly getting a real one (w/serial number) from Fender was deemed a total PITA!
-Installed all the hardware including repro tuners as well as a really old mid 80s OFR.
We chose not to relic the guitar in the end as I am not a fan of that fake relic no matter how well done!
And I now present my own Felix the Strat!
The last two shots are Phil's original Felix!
Comment