New Fender Aquisition

[Bengal65]

Well, I got this AVRI 70's Strat just under the wire before the Fender price increase. This is my planned Blackmore conversion. The guitar is very light unlike many of the originals. They did a good job on the cast saddles without having the ungodly 1 piece cast trem plate/block. That's a good thing. The Oly white poly finish is extremely thin. Really thin. Having done numerous poly and nitro finishes, this one is a Mil thick if that. The Oly white has an amber tint to it. I've sprayed a lot of Oly white and this most likely is to give it an aged look. The 3 bolt neck is steady as a rock. Maybe they improved these since the 70's? It is really solid. I don't know why the bad rap. The backshape contour is very nice thin U. Almost a Charvel feel to it. The gloss finish is nice too with no stickyness.

Don't know if I'm going to take the rat tail file and Dremel Contour sander to this neck yet for a scallop job. Maybe another neck?



Installed a ACME Guitar Works Tone Shaper circuit and '69 Custom Shop pickups to get that Deep Purple Mk II sound.



Super thin finish with bare spots in some cavities. Notice the cavity edges. The finish is actually buffed off during the polishing process. A carry over from EVH finishing techniques?


Starting to take on the Blackmore look.

[markD]

very cool!!! what's the fancy circuit board do?

[Axewielder]

That looks killer!

[Bengal65]

very cool!!! what's the fancy circuit board do?

It's basically a prewired control center. I posted more info in the Q & A section over the past couple of weeks. I have it setup so the 2nd tone control is a Fralin Blender Circuit

This is from the website:
The ToneShaper for Stratocaster® is a revolutionary new product that replaces the controls on your Strat's pickguard with a control assembly that is passive (no batteries!) and solderless (absolutely no soldering required!). Flip the mini DIP switches to re-configure the board, trying different combinations until you dial in the settings to your liking. No more reading other people's opinions on Harmony Central and then agonizing over how to configure your prewired assembly, now you can try different settings using your guitar, your gear, your hands, and your ears, until you arrive at the configuration that gives you what you want to hear. In six months, when you decide that the grass is greener on the other side, you can start all over again and chase your tail some more. It's a neurosis, and we understand.

[Bengal65]

That looks killer!

Thanks, now if I can get it to stay in tune a little better