Fender Stratocasters: what they were and rebuilding what's out there now

John Watt

Member
When Leo Fender invented the Stratocaster it was his version of a stand-up steel guitar.
The tremolo unit was his biggest innovation, something never before seen in music history.
That was having individual, two-way adjustable bridge pieces for each string.
That allowed each string to be tuned scientifically using an oscilloscope,
what TV repairmen used to analyze their electronics.
That's why Jimi Hendrix, with his U.S. Air Force radar technician background,
could use a Stratocaster for multiple overdubs that blended, even with tape recorders.
He also hired an electrical inventor to create a phase shifter and flanger,
radar properties that scientific tuning allowed to work with electric guitars and amplifiers.

When Leo Fender owned his own company, the guitars he built were the guitars he built.
He didn't change them to be this years' new model, or offer upgrades, only accessories.
You could take the neck off a Jaguar, Stratocaster, Telecaster, Jazzmaster or Deluxe,
and it would be interchangeable with any of those models.

Beyond the individual bridge pieces, the Stratocaster had other features that Jimi used.
And that's playing one with feedback, using the response of your amplifier as musical sound.
The pick-guard had an aluminum plate behind it, seeing a thin line of silver around the edge.
That was left-over newspaper printing aluminum, when type-facing was inked onto it,
what I used when I put together my first left-handed Stratocaster replica.
If you were playing with a Marshall stack, the only amplifier back then with chest high speakers,
the amount of pick-guard you let it see, moving your guitar out beside your body,
a little, half-way or all the way, and then turning to face the amplifier,
all created various levels of feedback response, depending on additional effects.

When I say American manufacturing, one of Leo Fenders' big suppliers was the army.
A lot of his electronics and metal sheeting were war surplus after World War Two.
You could take the electrical panel off an amplifier and see war applications printed on it.
Back then, American manufacturing played the public with two different value systems,
Fender being 250k for volume and tone controls with Gibson being 500k.
Having a plastic pick-guard was new and as different as parts installed in the body.
Gibson would use electrical paint inside the holes, er, chambers, for the pickups and electronics,
something else that added to the debate about the worth of these bi-polar designs.

To be more specific, when Jimi Hendrix was alive, it was all about 1960 to '64 Strats.
Those were the years when the "thin-line" neck came out,
when previous manufacture had rounder, almost half-round, necks,
what was typical for most guitar builders and manufacturers back then.
The scallop at the back of the body, to be form-fitting and slant the guitar up,
so you could see it better standing up, and the slanted body top,
that allowed easier arm motion above the body, from the start, were easier than the neck.

This combination of thin-line neck and contoured body has become the most popular design in the world.
Unfortunately, in North America where guitars and amplifiers are over-saturated in society,
the desire for cheaper prices has resulted in cheaper guitars that shouldn't be called Stratocasters.

This new thread has been motivated by two new online experiences for me.
The first is seeing my name beside a previous thread reply as being on the forum too long,
and the second was looking at a few You Tube videos where Strat tremolo tune-ups are shown.
Other guitarists were showing how to set one up so that it stays in tune,
and some were even saying they could set it up as a "floating tremolo" that stays in tune.

No-one was saying how to set up a Stratocaster tremolo unit so it operated properly.
Not only was staying in tune of great concern for Leo Fender,
but how the guitar worked when you were using it was also part of his design.
And that was motivated by the increase of breaking strings while you played.
Strings weren't what they are today, and I see Ernie Ball as changing all of that.
Guitarists who wanted to bend strings were buying banjo strings,
to get .008 and .009 for the high E, usually using banjo strings for the top two or three,
stepping down Fender or Gibson strings to round out the gauge.

If your tremolo unit is set up properly, when you break a string the ball end pops out the back,
and you can feel it, and the string length shoots off the tuner like an arrow.
All you have to do is put on a new one. That's how it's always worked for me.

What are off-shore Strats might have all the parts supplied by Fender,
except for the more labour intensive body, or be remade differently to be new manufacture,
to beat American intellectual property laws that could be of concern for National Security.
Hey! Having foreign Coca-Cola manufacturing facilities being "threatened" by locals,
who might have simply been looking for higher wages and less hours,
has been enough reason for American military to move in to "protect" this asset.
That's why you can buy some Stratocasters that look like Stratocasters,
and they can be Fender product from the States or offshore, or just offshore.
But basically, they don't work the same and never will, unless you rebuild them.
Your momma and poppa knew, you get what you pay for.

I'm hoping to create a dialogue with other Stratocaster players,
and by the time I finish describing various aspects of Strat manufacture,
and how to rebuild them,
this thread should not only keep me busy, but help others see what they can do.

Here's my challenge to you.
Why pay a minimum of $1,200 American for a California made Stratocaster,
and just take what you get,
when you can find one for $100 or less to rebuild it and change it to be more of who you are?
The original Stratocaster had the longest string length of any guitar being made,
and many offshore are smaller scale, so you have the best of both neck feels on offer.
Even if you have always been a Gibson player, with the shorter scale,
you can now look to a Stratocaster design as being playable with the same neck action.

I'm going to mention the aluminum sheet behind the pick-guard again,
and that's my rebuild for today, something that doesn't need a photo.
Most offshores don't even have foil or tape behind the entire pick-guard,
just foil around the volume and tone controls or just around the volume control.
Before any talk of improving the electronics and getting all the electric guitar signals,
you have to get a sheet of proper aluminum behind the entire pick-guard.
Using that as a ground is part of the original Stratocaster design, and you need that.
Cut out a rough shape, use body screws to hold it to the pickguard,
and start filing away, taking your time, and slowly get a perfect fit and outside edge.
Seeing that silver shine around the edge of the pick-guard is an expensive look,
and one that elevates any plastic pick-guard up off the wood body into the stratosphere.

Where I live, no, I don't need to prove I'm legit, but here, on this international forum, I do.
Here's a photo and scan combination of me in 1970, five months before Jimi passed away,
playing a 1964 Stratocaster I changed to be more left-handed,
showing the May 1st receipt for final payment, with a Marshall warranty,
and Bill Nitransky, founding owner of Central Music, a second father for me.

And after we get into the total Stratocaster, I will, as inventor of the semi-solid-body,
show you how to improve the original design for a wider musical experience.
This thread is dedicated to James Marshall Hendricks, "Jimi Hendrix", who I saw in 1969.
May All Peace Be Upon Us.


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John Watt

Member
The first thing we need to see about offshore and some onshore Stratocaster manufacture,
is one of the most important design aspects that influences your tuning and tone.
And that's the tremolo unit with individual bridge pieces, what is Leo Fenders' most important musical invention.
Let's look at this in perspective, if we are to widen our understanding.
What was the next invention of Leo Fender? The electric violin. You can imagine the acoustic concerns.
Jeff Lynne, an English guitarist and music producer, was told about that and came over as a first customer.
He started The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and was the first to use these onstage.
They weren't the best for loud amplification, and when Piezo came out with stick-on pickups for acoustic instruments,
followed by many other manufacturers, Fender electric violins weren't used by professionals any more.
I've only seen one, kept in the house by a violinist who was using a Piezo on a real violin.

When we think of a Stratocaster tremolo unit, we should also widen our understanding by thinking of reverb units.
A reverb unit usually consists of two springs, short or long, that the electrical current passes through.
I'm sure everyone is familiar with the jangly, audience irritating sound that a banging reverb unit makes.
You can see how that can create intense audio effects, as a moving electrical piece.
If a reverb amp is set up on a stage that's basically a plywood box made with two by fours,
just walking in front of your amp creates undesired noise, so you can see how sensitive that is.
Only Hammond organs have a three-spring reverb unit that doesn't make that unwanted sound.
The Redmere Soloist, a custom amp from Scotland, was the only amp to use a Hammond reverb unit.
With the reverb on full you had to kick the amp to get the quality sound of distant, low-rolling thunder.

So we have Leo Fender with the help of the American military, inventing a tremolo unit and electric violin,
and building reverb units into his amplifiers, like the Fender Twin, one of the most popular amps in the world.
Despite Jimmy Page using '57 Les Pauls, double-neck S.G.'s and Marshall stacks onstage,
he recorded the first two Led Zep albums with a Fender Telecaster and a Fender Twin.
Hey! I can mention Jimmy Page if I want to. I don't want this to be just about Jimi Hendrix.
I still sing "Whole Lotta Love", and if I'm going through 38 photos before I caught a good one, I'm showing it.

Setting up a Stratocaster tremolo unit involves all five springs.
You have to imagine what you can't hear, the vibrations of your strings going through your tremolo unit.
Of course, that's if they are going through your tremolo unit,
not having an offshore or onshore build where there is no interior wood for the tremolo block to push on,
just the tremolo plate on the surface of the guitar being pulled down onto the body.
That's the main difference between licensed and unlicensed manufacture, no interior wood.

This photo shows how I used some red popsicle sticks to get some wood where there was none.
I could have used hard wood, plastic or aluminum, anything anyone could think of as being more scientific.
But I'm thinking vibrations, the transition from string vibration to block vibration to spring vibration to the body.
You have to think of Stratocaster strings as going from the tuner to the tremolo to the block to the springs,
wrapping around inside, not just straight across the top.
Look at how taking the back spring cover off and moving the springs became an effect for guitarists.
That's not as strong as strumming the strings of an open piano. Oh no! Wait!
When you're doing that through a 100 watt Marshall stack, when it had just one main volume control,
turning that up to ten, it could sound like some rocket or universe threatening robot effect.

That is purely electronic, but this is an electric guitar. Let's think of them as an extension of reverb.
The springs are carrying the vibration of the strings, spread out across the tremolo block with five springs.
Leo Fender used six screws, one under each string, to hold the tremolo plate to the body,
and I still wonder why he only used five springs, the only real design difference for the entire unit.
Getting parts from army-navy surplus and having those springs and the tension they represented,
must have been a design influence for him.

And in case you might be thinking I'm pushing it with personal American military opposition,
when the C.I.A. asked Magnavox to build the worlds' first two twelve-track tape recorders,
they gave one to Jimi Hendrix for his Electric Ladyland recording studio.
That was in competition with the British Secret Service giving electronics to British Invasion bands.

When you look closely at the photo, you can see the tremolo unit wasn't aligned with the body.
I had to carve the outer popsicle stick to an angle, and that had to be very precise.
You easily heard a wonky or dis-vibrant sound from the lower or high strings,
depending on what side of the tremolo block was being pulled by the springs the most.
Using Olfa cutting blades, what I see as surgical steel, took me almost there.
Using the tremolo block as a spring-pulled sanding block,
I worked some sandpaper, very patiently, across the popsicle sticks,
using the tremolo arm to give me the same tension until I was sanding the same back and forth.
Do I have to mention I used the tremolo block, with just the two outside springs,
as clamps to hold the glued together popsicle sticks in place inside the body?
Keeping tremolo tension in play for every aspect of change is the best and only confidence building.

When you set up a tremolo unit, it should be with as less string tension as possible.
You determine that by bending the bass E string and seeing if your open strings are detuning.
Thinking as a reverb unit, less string tension allows more vibration absorption and transfer to the body,
what you want to get the soft, acoustic sounds that can be similar to an acoustic guitar,
and allow a depth of tonal dispersion so that phase shifters and other effects have their strongest sound.
That's why most guitarists gravitated to having the middle and bridge pick-ups on when playing,
so the softer electronic signal allowed deeper sounds from various effects, battery or transformer driven.

Looking at the photo, you can also see I moved the plastic cover, the higher holes being the ones I made.
It wasn't lined up over the string holes in the block in the first place,
and after I set up the tremolo block the string ends would have been hitting inside the cover, not coming out.
If you can start to push a Fender Heavy Thick pick under the tremolo plate from the back,
having just that amount of rise and angle on top of the body, that's the best resolution.
The Stratocaster tremolo arm is also designed to be used at this angle, so it's not too high or too low.
You should want to cut the arm back so when you're holding it in your hand,
it's not covering up the area from the middle pick-up to the neck, so you have room to pick there.
If you cut it back any shorter, it's too hard to push with your palm while you're playing,
and of course, that's if you're floating with the tremolo unit as a tuning and detuning feature of your technique,
or needing it for a sudden pitch change to alleviate unwanted feedback or effects driven noise.

Don't forget, one of Jimi Hendrixs' most famous solos was him just pushing on the tremolo unit with open strings,
while he moved the pick-up switch back and forth, fast or slow, sometimes tapping on the body.
But don't think Jimi Hendrix had it all. Any video shows him always having tuning problems.
That's because he turned the strings around on a right-handed Stratocaster,
and his bass strings were the longest and were running through the string retainers.
If he had Graph-Tech string retainers, nut and bridge pieces, he wouldn't have gone out of tune or broke strings.
Graph-Tech, invented in Vancouver, Canada, use a material that releases molecules as string lubricants.
Their product also softens string tone, compared to harder plastic or ivory nuts.
Softening string tone. That's everything from paying tens of thousands of dollars for old, magnetically worn guitars,
to changing pickups with pre-demagnetized or replicated demagnetization, to using brass bridge pieces,
or... or... yeah... or maybe that's enough topic for another posting, and a reason to take more photos.


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John Watt

Member
Are you thinking.... hmmm... he's using two different springs...
yes, but that's okay, they're spaced evenly and hey, I'm using left-over parts,
on this Stratocaster I paid $100 for. The seller was asking $90. I also got a nice nylon gig-bag.

Yes... when I'm pushing the tremolo arm I'll be thinking about squishing and moving the wires.
That's the excess length I need so that when I take the guitar cord input out of the body,
I can pull those and have enough space to solder.
I really don't have to be thinking about that, and I will, from time to time,
because the wound up electric tape is jammed into the body hole leading to the electronics cavity,
so there's no chance the wires will get pulled from the solder joints on the volume pot.

I mentioned string retainers, always thinking two, when Fender was never consistent with that,
especially after CBS bought out Leo Fender in 1965.
You should have two, so that all strings come down off the nut at the same angle.
When you install strings on this inline design,
you should hold the string against a tuner so that, bending it to hold it to the tuner,
it's the length of two tuners, until you get to the bottom two bass strings,
when the low E is past one tuner and almost half-way to the next, and the A is half-way.

If you just have your strings as low as they can go without making any fret frazzle,
you're denying yourself more string action and more string feel.
You might think raising your strings is only going to hurt your fingertips more,
but that's not true.
You also might think using a balanced gauge that starts with a .10 for the high E,
are too thick for bending, or pushing down, only thinking that smaller and lower is best.
But a rounder string doesn't push into your fingers as much, hurting far less.
And if you don't have to press your string into the fretboard because it's so low,
and pull it against your finger when you're bending it, you can play all day with no pain,
and you can only have hardened finger tips, no callouses or skin that's in front of your fingernails.
I can soak and sleep in a hot tub, get up and dry off, and start playing, no problems at all.
Most lead guitarists I know shower with rubber gloves on to keep their fingertips dry.
Reading magazine interviews about other guitarists who met Jimi Hendrix backstage,
many said they were surprised he had a jazz guitar set-up on his Strat.

The first time I was talking with professional psychics, it was at the new Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls.
Having a psychic convention for the first time in Ontario was a big part of their opening celebrations.
A couple of psychics told me that if you can sleep in water, you must be psychic.
Sleeping in water also allows the energy your body uses to fight gravity transform into another energy,
what your body uses to heal itself... and if it becomes a return to the womb experience...
moon... turn the tides... gently... gently... away... a merman I would be...
round and round and round and round and round around we go... neptune's garden is the next place, for our show...
sometimes... if you can think it, you can do it... as all that Stratocaster tension is at rest beside you.
Nickel-plated round-wound steel strings... what Stratocasters were designed with...
Ernie Balls'... playing every night, I changed them every three days,
because on the fourth night, I'd break one.
Now, with Graph-Tech bridge pieces, nut and string retainers, even after three months, I've never broken one.
Even my semi-solid-body guitar really likes the softer tone.

For the first time in my life, I had to buy a toque, the last one my mother knit me, in 1985,
was too beat up, first, from wiping out when I was cross-country skiing, when there used to be enough snow,
and now, from bashing through branches and thorn bush field dividers during long distance bike-hikes.
My mother talked me out of wool, what I always had, saying I needed this new "as strong as steel" synthetic.
And her pick of a Swedish snowflake design, soft grey, white and blue colours, was really nice.
It was a nice group trip to Niagara Falls, until I met an Ojibway native dancer, busking on the sidewalk.
I asked him if I could get him something from the new Tim Hortons', yes, there is one on Clifton Hill,
and he said a coffee, and offered me some money I turned down, also leaving a $10 bill in his drum case.
And then it became a psychic time... watching this dancer, seeing the reactions of all the people walking by,
being advised to look in a small souvenir shop, in the shadow of the Skylon, when I found only one toque for sale.
And it fit my big head, and it's red with a Haida salmon, when I sell big copies of Haida artwork,
my favorite North American native artwork, and a salmon is so primal for Sons and Daughters of the Gael.
My father was Clan Watt, when the Gaelic spelling of water is watter. Yes, that means I'm wet at the heart of it.
The word wire comes from weir, seeing that thin line holding back the pressure of the water.

This photo shows how I scanned my toque and printed it out.
I bought a $1 black plastic school folder from Dollarama, and used transparent sign tape to stick it on.
And then I used LePages white glue to glue it over the old hole... uh... chamber, of the right-handed cord input.
Haida think that salmon are symbolic of human beings, and return to spawn and die to help feed us.
Scientists don't understand how a salmon can be born a fresh water creature,
and then trans-mutate into an ocean dwelling creature, just as humans have salt water as our blood,
while we can't drink salt water to survive.
This salmon design is a modern original creation by the Gitksan artist Jamie Skerritt.

Can I say this personalizes my Stratocaster? I could.
But more than that, it gives me more confidence about putting myself and my world,
my life experience, into my playing and visual presence.
When your guitar is set up for optimal playing expression,
only you can take it higher... into the stratosphere it was designed to reach.
Now, you don't only have to worry about interference from military aircraft and commercial aviation,
there are all those satellites, drones and radio controlled flight-craft cluttering the skies.
Wattch out for my cherry-Strato-blaster! The Earitation Nation is here.


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John Watt

Member
One of the basic performance aspects of using a Fender Stratocaster,
was having the volume on ten while you were playing.
That's how it was designed to be used. These are single-coil pickups, not humbuckers.
You can see why if you know original DiMarzio pickups and how they were manufactured.
DiMarzio started off with three different designs, the P.A.F. Humbucker, what were '57 to '59 Les Paul copies,
the Super Distortion, their own original design, and Fat Strats, copies of Stratocaster single coils.
The Fat Strats were advertised as having the same tonal and magnetic qualities of the originals,
but were wound to be a little louder, so they blended as a rhythm pickup with humbuckers.
DiMarzio became the biggest pickup manufacturer and supplier to other guitar manufacturers,
because Larry DiMarzio was the first to use machines to wind the pickups so they were identical.
If you wanted to use two pickups together for a softer sound, what some called phasing,
that created a more precise signal envelope for volume and effects use if they were identical.

That's what you're creating with an electronic signal, a sound envelope.
You have your leading edge of the electronic particle, the basic round shape, with the tail following it.
Some people call the global shape and the tail the positive and negative, but that's not true.
Just like the electricity of the sun to the electricity in our brains, what is called direct current, DC,
and just like the travel of that electricity in the air, in our brains, and through the wires,
the global shape is made of sub-atomic particles that erode around the edges, creating a tail.
As Clan Watt I won't describe the weaponization and artificial electrical pollution of Nikola Teslas' AC-DC.
And just like the acoustic notes of primal to traditional man-made instruments,
your sound envelope disappears, your musical energy disappears, to where no scientist has followed.
And no scientist ever will and come back to tell about it.

I'm going to use a photo taken by Jo Jones, a professional Port Dalhousie photographer.
She was sent to a sign-painting shop I shared in Port Colborne to get some photos,
so one could be used for a music festival in Port Dalhousie, a Lake Ontario shore-side community.
This has a pick-guard I made so I could use the two DiMarzio humbuckers and Fat Strats together.
Kim Mitchell, the lead guitarist-vocalist of a Sarnia band called Max Webster,
shared his first DiMarzio pickups with me, trading a Fender Deluxe back and forth, experimenting.
We wanted to get a Les Paul sound with a Stratocaster sound on the same body,
and our concerns about using 250k or 500k electronics and the capacitors of Fender or Gibson,
was motivated as much by American hype as any electrical common sense. We both knew it.
We had to fight it.
That mind-set isn't as strong now as it was back then, the duality of Gibson and Fender.
Our final rationale became, if 250k was limiting electrical signal for humbucker 500k signal,
using 500k not only allowed humbucker signal, it also allowed 250k signal, and that was it.
When you're plugging your custom made guitar into the same amp with a Les Paul and Stratocaster,
and playing them to see how they sounded and worked, if they were the same they were the same.
That's when we realized it was the weight of your wooden body that determined tone,
as much as any acoustic quality you didn't have. And old, dried out '57 to '59 Les Pauls were very light.
yeah... as light as the popsicle sticks I used as part of the tremolo unit.

I'm adding this edit before I change Strat trivia here, seeing this now as I read what I typed above.
I'm talking about wanting as light a spring tension as possible, only I typed string instead of spring a few times.
Sorry about that.

Having two Fat Strats in the middle and neck position, a P.A.F. Humbucker by the neck,
and a Super Distortion between the single coils, was like having a Les Paul and Stratocaster together.
How did that work out for me as a player?
One volume and one tone control for the Strat pickups, with one volume and tone for the Les Pauls.
Those four knobs together looked like Gibson manufacture. The three toggle switches in a row didn't.
That was one toggle switch for one or both Strat pickups, one for the Les Pauls, and one for the switches.
I could have it on Strat setting, Les Paul setting, or both, being able to use any pickup combination.
That was my experimental intent, being able to compare the sounds of any combination.

Right away, it was obvious the Super Distortion was irrelevant. On its' own, it was a dynamic pickup.
The name Super Distortion was misleading, because it was just a little louder than the P.A.F., not being distorted.
I was using 100 watt Marshall stack distortion, a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face for electronic distortion and fuzz,
with the 9-volt battery power of a Crybaby wah-wah pedal and MXR phase shifter, if I wanted to over-drive.
Saying 100 watt Marshall stack distortion is also misleading, because Marshall used 120 watt transformers.

In the end, after years of playing onstage and jamming away in venues and shops and peoples' basements,
having an electric guitar became about having a humbucker by the neck for the widest range of magnetic signal,
for the most pick and finger action, where the strings have the most vibration without being on the neck,
so soloing has the most potential, for musical expression and volume.
Having the Strat pickups together allowed the use of effects as sound expressions, or just a softer rhythm sound.
With the difference in humbucker and single coil volume, I wasn't even turning my volume up to solo, just switching pickups.
What became really nice about having a humbucker by the neck with two single coils together,
was having all three pickups on at once, a middle volume for tone that's perfect for finger-picking.
When other bands were stopping the show so a guitarist could switch to an acoustic guitar,
I was just flipping a switch, a Switchcraft switch, that is.
Because this hard maple body was so thin, to be the same weight as a Fender Stratocaster,
I had to use the L-shaped toggle switch of an S.G., not the "barrel shape" of a Les Paul.

This carving wasn't as good as it should have been, something I started doing for something to do,
but it looked good onstage, the deep contours and shadow contrasts.
The sun and moon are there to disguise where the volume and switch for an on-board 9-volt pre-amp was.
That worked as advertised, but it was redundant after I saw what pickup combinations could do.
I'll include a letter from the owner of B.C. Rich about that.
Dominic Traiano, a Toronto guitarist, let me try his B.C. Rich with the on-board pre-amp, a big innovation.
That got me going. Dominic also got going, into the States to replace Joe Walsh in the James Gang.
When he came back as a Toronto session player and produced the music for Night Heat, a Toronto TV series,
the title song "Night Heat" became my favorite song of his.

And before anyone starts thinking why do manufactures now put humbuckers by the bridge,
with single coils in the middle and neck positions, yes, they do have to be different, calm down.
This is what Mr. George Benson told me after he took me into his backstage dressing room,
to help me decide about how I was playing, right-handed, left-handed, or left-handed "upside-down".
He said that the widest string vibration and the loudest string vibration was in the middle of the string length,
somewhere over your fret-board, or fingerboard, where it was impossible to install an electric pickup.
Having one at the end of the neck was your next best option.
I know, if electric guitar manufacture ever standardized itself as violins, violas, cellos and upright basses did,
having a humbucker by the neck for leads and single coils in the middle and bridge positions for rhythm and softer leads,
would be what everyone was using.
And despite what modern manufacturing can be, having any more magnetic strength than those Les Pauls and Stratocasters,
would be pulling the strings too hard, making them vibrate less. You don't want that, no, you really don't.
What happens on that joyous day, when you finally pull your head out of your speakers,
and find out there is a world of symphonic, acoustic instrumentation, that your guitar isn't ready for?
That means your instrument, what you've spent a life-time playing, has to go or get changed.
And we all know how disturbing, if not career ending, that can be.
Don't worry. If your wife or girlfriend bought you the guitar you're using now,
because you didn't have the strength to... that's all right. I'm sure your band understands.


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John Watt

Member
yeah... take it easy... I'm not going into another story about what I suggested to Peter Traynor,
when he was a back-room repairman for an upscale music store in downtown Toronto.
And when I say upscale, this music store was across the street from a piano retailer,
and what made it upscale was the fact it sold, as electric guitars, Fender Stratocasters.
When I first moved to Toronto in 1970, I was visiting all the music stores out of curiosity.
The staff here were surprised I could play and make Jimi Hendrix sounds,
at a conversational volume level, not blasting everyone out of their shoes.
So I was invited to come in any time and demonstrate that to customers.
I started an account with that store and they've been generous to me ever since.

Peter Traynor would come out front and call his lead guitarist, Len Jeffries,
to come and visit with me, showing him what a Strat could do.
I was telling him about Kim Mitchell and DiMarzio pickups, and suggested an amplifier manufacture,
that could be patented in Canada, and joked around about a name he later used.
This enraptured him and Len so much he wanted to have evidence of a trade,
so I wouldn't have any legal reasons to come after him, after he did my idea.
This wiring diagram designed by Peter Traynor and Len Jeffries, both electricians,
shows two humbuckers with two single coils, as I was talking about.

You can see this as being tacked on to the previous posting,
so I'm adding a new topic about pickup placement, this first of two letters from DiMarzio.
It begins by saying my questions are the strangest questions they have received in over six months,
asking about pickup placement and wondering about changing volume and tone qualities.
No-one had an answer, in the mind-set of Fender and Gibson dualities,
even if there were electric guitars with pickups that could slide back and forth on rods.
Eventually, it just became about how close your pickups are to the strings.
And that's so easy to play with, turning those screws to try it out to see.
If you notice, I said see, not hear, because when your string sticks to the pickup,
you're just looking at it, unable to pick it.

Pete Traynor, Traynor and Yorkville Sound, became the fifth biggest music manufacturer in North America.
He passed away last summer, far too young.
One of DiMarzios' innovations was using mini-switches to change pickup wiring options,
and this diagram also shows how to wire those.
Those mini-switches weren't as playable as Switchcraft toggle switches,
the only real difference between this diagram and how my guitar ended up.
To commemorate this meeting of the minds that resulted in the first Traynor product,
I use a Traynor 100 watt powered mixer from the late '70's for jamming with friends.
It's got both mike and quarter inch inputs with a really nice reverb unit.
After all these years, I've only had to replace the main volume control.
Too bad I can't replace all the friends I've lost, who died too young.
I never really did fit in with all the music business, being a non-smoker, non-drinker.
That mixer isn't mixing it up like it used to, this lefty left alone.

When I refer to Kim Mitchell of Max Webster, yeah... take it to the Max...
and was saying changing your guitar could change you and your band,
look what his trying out a concept of having a humbucker and single coils did,
when we both were looking for the same rock star sounds.
Kim had a Gretch Tennessean, a nice orange-coloured guitar he bought in a Buffalo pawn shop.
That was stolen, he couldn't find another, and that began his search for the kind of new guitar he wanted.
I saw Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore and Mr. George Benson, and wanted that blend.


Peter Traynor.jpgmanufacture1.jpg
 
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John Watt

Member
Something that many guitarists do to not only personalize their guitar,
or to find the quality that seeing natural wood brings to your instrument,
is removing the body coverage because while they're getting the guitar they want,
the colour is offensive.
You could also say it was a California acid-rock "hippy" thing to do,
trying to get back to nature.

You could say nitro-cellulose when describing some Stratocaster coatings,
but it's easier to say they're just automotive, baked on enamel with lacquer based clear-coatings.
That was a new look, a hot look, an easy to maintain rock look,
and look at the fashion era we're talking about, Stratocaster like the Stratofortress nuclear bomber,
Telecaster like the Telstar satellite, a solid-body with the most knobs and spinners being called the Jazzmaster,
with car manufacturers taking styling cues from jets and rockets.

Sanding down a Stratocaster not only lightens it up weight-wise, yes, a noticeable amount,
it allows a softer vibration for the entire guitar, allowing a more acoustic response.
You'd be surprised how thick this dense, baked-on finish is, and how difficult it is to remove.

During the time of Leo Fender and the first years of CBS, into the late seventies,
sanding down a Fender guitar gave you the results you were looking for.
A basic design for any solid-body guitar is having a body made of three pieces.
The middle piece is in line with the grain of the neck, for acoustic and construction purposes,
while the side pieces are glued with the grains in reverse, to prevent the body from warping.
Fender started blocking pieces of wood together to make bodies for painted guitars,
and some of those blocks could be very small.

The digital era that all but wiped out jobs for bands and live entertainers,
also created the investment phase of rock instruments as collectibles and antiques.
I laugh a little at investors who want immaculate, as new Stratocasters,
when that's not what the musicians who played them wanted.
It was understood the tuners on a Strat weren't up to ordinary standards,
never mind being professional, so they were usually changed before the guitar left the store.

Being able to loosen the four screws that held the neck to the body,
so you could move the neck sideways to adjust for string placement along the neck,
was ordinary Stratocaster maintenance, especially if you were pulling the neck for detuning effects.

I remember sitting at the back of Central Music with Bill when a Fender order came in, 12 Strats.
These were the kind with two of the screws at the top of the plate being as usual,
with only one adjustable allen key bolt instead of the other two original screws,
CBS saying it let you adjust the neck angle easily.
I watched as Bill held a body to the counter and moved the necks sideways, an inch either way,
they were so loose. He sent ten back for a credit with no complaint from Fender.

That's when CBS began to lose a lot of money with their Stratocasters.
They decided to fire up Leo Fenders' original assembly line for 1960 to '64 Strats,
the authentic design with the thin-line necks,
and call them Fender Stratocaster Squiers, saying they were a low-budget guitar.
The sold those from 1982 to 1984.
In the early 90's, I went to visit a new guitar playing friend who had an '82 Squier.
We took my '64 apart with his side-by-side and they both were identical.

That was Danny Murray.
When Jeffrey and the Juniors were feeling me out about joining their band,
evolving past the family band they began as, I recommended Danny.
Six months later they were playing in Las Vegas as a rock and roll tribute band.
When they made it that far, one of the American Jeffrey and the Juniors threatened to sue,
saying they were using the same name, so they changed it a little.

That's one of the nice things about getting an offshore Strat, the wood in the body.
It's usually a local tropical wood, being lighter, and it's glued together with proper body design.
Fender should lighten up on the baked enamel finish and use oils or stains,
a nice option that only adds musicality to their product, and removes an expensive process,
that also is only damaging to our natural environment. Everyone knows that.

I've been seeing Stratocasters for far too long.
I'm sitting here trying to imagine a Strat with a slanted, three-a-side tuner headstock,
what they really could use to make it more tune-able, less string breakable,
and get rid of the problematic G string resonance.
I can... but... but... no, it just wouldn't look good with the contoured Strat body.
I can trim some fat off the big headstock style no problem, also looking out of place,
and some offshores accent that beyond original manufacture, even if the bodies are smaller.

From setting up a new Fender Stratocaster for the customer up until 1964,
to dealing with various design flaws brought on by this years new model business strategy after that,
to rebuilding offshore builds that don't conform to original manufacture,
between those body, neck and string realities to the unrealities of various electronics and parts you don't want,
having a Stratocaster is really what you make it out to be,
and how you make it will tell how much money you're spending.

What do you need to do in the new millennium to take the Stratocaster design up past the stratosphere,
and into the Marvelous world of Universal space and add some AC-DC comic book action hero to old rock stars?
Or what if you just want to be an electric-symphonic lead guitarist, and play in a plugged in symphony?
That's what I'll get into next, and yes, I'll have the photos to show you.
 

John Watt

Member
Jimi Hendrix had big plans with his own ideas when he went to visit the Fender factory,
and meet with Leo Fender.
The success Jimi had collaborating with Jim Marshall for Marshall amps was already world-wide.
The many California companies now putting out phase shifters and flangers, that Jimi had requested,
were becoming industries for acid-rock musicians.
Jimi already had proof of purchases for more than 200 Stratocasters,
and that's from Mannys' Music alone in New York City.
But Leo Fender was homophobic,
and when he saw Jimi and put him down for the way he dressed and for being left-handed,
and for playing a Fender Stratocaster upside-down left-handed,
friends of Jimi said,
that was the only time in Jimis' life that they saw him so angry and lose his cool,
storming out of that factory to never go back again.

That's the first thing I'd think if I was any Fender employee,
and that's wonder what would Jimi Hendrix do?


gigster20.jpg
 

John Watt

Member
PopeFrancis! If you made it this far through this thread, thank you for that.
For me, this has just been the introduction before I start typing about my semi-solid-body.
I'm staying in today to work on that, new photos and everything. That's my excitement.

You're saying Jimi Strat to be a real guitar, or is he just a charlatan.
There is the Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster, but I'm thinking you mean is he a real guitarist.
You might be surprised to find out I'm a realist when it comes to Jimi or any other guitarist.
Here's the "authentic Hendrix" version, what the corporation wants you to believe.
Jimi was gigging as a house band in Greenich Village when Keith Richards' girlfriend saw him.
She told Keith, Paul McCartney heard about it, and other "British Invasion" musicians got involved.
It was the bassist from the Animals, Chas Chandler, who quit that band to manage Jimi.
It was Chas Chandler who changed James, Jimmy Hendricks, to Jimi Hendrix.
I see that as meaning that Jimi was picked up as the American black blues guitarist,
as part of their own British government controlled "British Invasion".

Is Jimi real can come down to one thing, and that makes him a definite no as to being real.
He couldn't reproduce all the overdubs and change all the sounds as his albums did,
when he played live. Those recordings also involved a lot of other musicians, and guitarists,
especially Larry Coryell, a New York jazz guitarist. I heard about that and bought one of his albums back then.

The only recording that Jimi could play live onstage as far as being able to reproduce the recording,
was "Band of Gypsies", a live recording, so that was only Jimi with bass and drums.
Supposedly, he put out a live album, recorded over two nights at Madison Square Garden,
as a way to release a new album to fulfill the record contract he was waiting out,
before he came out with his new rock orchestra, fourteen or sixteen piece, called "Electric Church".
He died a week before that contract expired. I see him as being murdered.

That's talking about Jimi as the corporate and government involved product he was,
more of a visual front than just being a stage musician.
He was a great soul, a strong stage personality, and his style came from a wide musical background,
but he did get too strung out towards the end.
Was he a rock virtuoso, the way Mr. George Benson could play jazz, being fast with deep chordal technique?
No, he wasn't. That's obvious. He fell back on standard blues progressions when he played live,
but that was part of his American persona, when he grew up playing r'n'b on the "Chitlin Circuit".
He was packaged so tightly, when he was alive, there was only one recording of him playing an acoustic,
and I've never heard him playing any standard r'n'b, or any of the r'n'b he was a studio musician for.
If you want to crank up an amp and use a distortion pedal and wah-wah,
and think you're playing blues like Jimi Hendrix, you can, but that wasn't part of the alive Jimi.
That's product put out after he died, creating the blues-man image, just to put out new product.
From "Are You Experienced", "Axis: Bold as Love" to "Electric Ladyland", there isn't one three chord blues.

This is something I like to think about when it comes to Jimi's r'n'b approach to rhythm.
When Jimi played his version of Bob Dylans' "All Along the Watchtower", he changed the Am, G and F progression.
They say that's the only time Bob Dylan went back into the studio to re-record one of his songs,
to change the chord progression to how Jimi played it, sliding the G chord up to the A instead of starting on A,
and sliding the G chord to the F instead of just going down to it.

Being a charlatan isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Orville Gibson, who played left-handed with the bass strings on the bottom and the highs on top,
dressed like a joker from a deck of playing cards, and he wasn't fooling around,
building his own guitar and becoming Gibson Guitars.
Jimi dressed like a gypsy, part of his psychedelic persona, that you can say is charlatan behavior.
He had to have the most suggestive stage presence of any entertainer I've ever seen,
from saying spacey, philosophic stream of consciousness things, to playing guitar between his legs.
He was an American Air Force radar technician, and was unique with his first use of electronics for guitars and amps.

I can tell you this, PopeFrancis, from my own onstage playing experience.
If you can get the tones of Jimi Hendrix and start playing and hang on with the same energy and variety of riffs,
everyone gets into it and sees you as being a great guitarist.
Having modern technology such as a pre-amp and mains volume on amplifiers, yes, something that is now basic,
can let you play faster, jazz to classical violin solos, that the volume can differentiate,
and use two or three notes at the same time, so yes, you can say that's better than Jimi Hendrix.

After everything has been said and done after he passed away in 1970, there are still the songs.
This third verse, the last verse of "Castles Made of Sand", tells you how I felt after I saw Jimi.
And everyone I've met who saw him says the same thing, seeing Jimi Hendrix changed my life.

"There once was a girl, whose heart was a frown,
'cause she was crippled for life and couldn't make a sound.
Until one day, she decided to die,
so she took her wheelchair to the edge of the shore,
and to her legs she smiled you won't hurt me no more.
But suddenly, something she had never seen before,
made her jump up to say, look, a golden winged ship is coming my way,
and it didn't have to stop... it just kept on going...
and so castles made of sand slip into the sea... eventually."

and then... as a reviewer in Rolling Stone magazine described it,
Jimi's guitar takes off, sounding like some alien spaceship whooping out up into space,
until it fades away...
If you can hit your two middle strings, the D and G, as open strings, carrying the ending of the song,
feedback and effects letting them ring out as sustained notes... very sensitive sustained strings...
with the bass E string on the third fret, a G, with the A string on the third fret, suspending the G,
with the B on the first fret and the E string held on the third fret,
moving into that position without stopping the open D and G from sustaining,
and then start sliding that up and down the neck, up two frets, back down two frets,
up two frets, up two more frets, down two frets, up two frets, up two more frets,
down two frets, up two more frets... as far as your frets can take you,
with the D and G still ringing out as open strings, that's the spaceship taking off,
and then there's a sound like it's going into hyperspace, like a shot that disappears.. fading...
That might be the most difficult guitar part I've ever heard, and played, left-handed upside-down.
Your hand needs the strength of the tides to lift those chords.

That's the original album version. Every other cassette, CD or disc repackaging,
lets you hear the overdubs and the end of the track, not fading into nothingness.
And they usually put Jimis' voice up in the mix, not blending it in as a musical part,
the way he did.

The new millennium is in my brain, lately these signals they don't feel the same.
It's not very funny, the music that people want to buy,
'scuse me, while I diss these skies.
 
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John Watt

Member
This could be a hemi-demi, even hemi-demi-semi historical moment in the history of electric guitars.
For the first time, the first two, and so far only, semi-solid-body guitars are in the same photo.
Here's a link to a nine minute You Tube video that explains the name and demonstrates the invention.
This features a never-before-heard acoustic phenomena with an extrapolation of guitar harmonics.
Seeing and hearing is believing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP551D9DdA0

The first example of taking Fender Stratocaster design to a more functional level,
is not having just a sheet of aluminum underneath the pick-guard,
but lining the hollow interior of the entire body with aluminum, using plumbers' tape.
That's all I could find at the time that was durable with enough thickness to work.
If you can imagine how exposing your aluminum shielded pick-guard at various intervals,
to your amplifier, can create various levels of feedback,
you can imagine the far greater response and expression a balloon of aluminum can create.

The pick-guard of a Fender Stratocaster is also grounded to all the wiring,
and the balloon of aluminum is a far greater ground soak, softening your electronic behavior.
That's as strong a tonality change as is the amount of expression you have with feedback.
I had to touch around with my electronic meter to see if all the aluminum strips were conducting,
and work the aluminum to make sure they were.
Even though I coated the interior parts with lacquer so the tape would stick more,
I'm sure it's not going to stick all over forever, and after it's all glued together, I can't change that.
If you are sympathetic with violin to upright bass acoustic behavior, being an f-hole listener,
you can feel sorry for all these acoustic vibrations, reflecting around inside this mirror finished aluminum balloon.
That's fortified with solid wood sides, not warped strips like violins and acoustic guitars.
If I did that, the acoustic response would still be too great, and it's this design aspect that makes it a
semi-solid-body guitar. I was tempted to upper case that.

I would like to thank Arnie Davison, a retired INCO engineer in Port Colborne,
for giving me the wood and taking it into the factory to cut it with a 17" saw.
He heard my imaginings about a violin-like Stratocaster and made my dreams a reality.
He opened his engineers "how-to" book to see about building an electric guitar,
and it showed how to build a Fender Telecaster. And then he looked up a violin.

Over six years ago, when I got this far before the horrors and suffering of my life were inflicted on me,
this video created the most views and replies online for over six months,
all around the world. The first offer to buy came from Sweden, and in America, George Gruhn, gruhn.com.
All these companies endorsed my using semi-solid-body and how the guitar functioned.
Ring Music in Toronto, where I ordered my '64 Stratocaster neck replicas.
DiMarzio, whose pickups I use. Graph Tech, using their bridge pieces, nut and string retainers.
Fender head office in Scottsdale, Arizona. President Robert Godin of Godin Guitars in Quebec.
George Gruhn of Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, and my favorite online domain for vintage guitars.

When I say this is as far as I got six years ago, this is as far as you can be right now.
There's no reason for you not to try and build one, and patent it in your country.
I would sooner have you send me some tickets to come and visit you, as a music vacation,
than have you even think about money for lawyers to beat intellectual copyright laws.
If this became a new template of guitar manufacture, it would create more jobs for woodworkers,
and all the existing parts and manufacture of them is already there.
You can take any solid-body and use it for parts to make a semi-solid-body.
Now I better get back to working on them. Let's see what happens next.


s-s-b 1.JPGs-s-b 2.jpgs-s-b 3.JPGs-s-b 4.JPG
 
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John Watt

Member
Here's a photo to show where I'm at with the cherry Strat.
That's the full-scale translucent red Stratocaster copy I bought for $90.
This is going to be used as a substitute acoustic guitar.
This 2" plumbers' tape is going to work. It's not as thick as the aluminum sheeting Fender first used,
that was the same as printers' aluminum from newspaper presses.
Getting it used meant cleaning off printers' ink, one of the most toxic substances on earth.
Some sign-painters try it because it dries so fast, but after they faint from the fumes they stop.
okay... I might be rationalizing because I don't have thicker aluminum.
I think this is half as thick as the original shielding.
The fact that the volume control and toggle switch are mounted up against the aluminum,
means they're all grounded together.


cherry Strat 6.jpg
 

John Watt

Member
I'm using these two photos to illustrate what authentic Stratocaster build is and what an offshore can be.
This body was built with solid-body common sense, a middle section in line with the grain of the neck,
with two side pieces having the grain in reverse, to prevent the body from warping.
I'm thinking the center piece here is mahogany or something like it, with different wood on the sides.
The mahogany wants to splinter while the side wood is soft and pulpy.
Making the body of a Stratocaster lighter is a nice thing to do for tone and sustain.
I've seen Strats and Teles where the owners drilled holes through the sides of the body just for that.

When you see the routed out side of the body, where the electronics are, on the bottom of the body,
and then see much more wood for the strap-holder on the top of the body, without any routing,
you can see this isn't designed to be balanced for acoustic considerations.
That's probably where the imbalanced resonance of the G string comes in.

You can see the size difference of the Switchcraft pot and the offshores, being a big difference in quality.
And that quality is the values of electronic travel and path dispersion, also using softer metals.
It's also a better feel for me, turning a bigger knob with more graduation, not a sudden change.
Hey! Is that a 1964 Stratocaster volume knob in there? I'll go with Switchcraft just to be able to use that again.

I'm showing my soldering gun, a wedding present for my father in 1949. It's made in Kingston, Ontario.
When American intelligence wanted to upgrade to the ultimate computer network in the disUnited States,
they used circuit boards that were designed on an atomic level.
That meant the travel paths were the same size as the electricity they carried, and it cost many billions.
Before the year was over they had to start tearing it out, because the circuitry degraded from use,
and the distortions it caused made the system unusable and unrepairable.

Here's something for you to think about.
Look at the humbucker, two coils in reverse to stop that hum from happening.
If you want the most expressive use, you have to be picking on top of it to be in its magnetic range.
Now look at the two single coils, the same identical pickups in the same alignment.
They still work the same, making a sound without any hum,
but have a wider picking range.
Leo Fender said that any electric guitar needed only two pickups,
but when he invented the Stratocaster he wanted to compete with guitars that had three.
Having a pickup at the end of the neck to work the widest vibrations of the strings, thinking solos,
and having two pickups by the bridge for rhythm, especially if you're palm muting the strings,
really is the best set-up for any electric.
And if your construction and electronics are balanced, with all three pickups on,
you have that wide a range for any picking, especially finger-picking.

Towards the end, in my last band, I was leaving all the pickups on all the time,
letting my picking positions accent the humbucker for solos or lead fills,
and moving back for less volume and a lighter tone for rhythm sounds and effects use.

If I was playing onstage in an electric symphony, plugging my guitar into the stage,
I wouldn't expect to have a volume control on my guitar.
I'd expect the conductor to be controlling that, and without a volume of my own,
there's no chance I'd be turning up louder just to hear myself.
I would need access to the conductor onstage, so he could use his batons as slides.
I can just imagine the as-yet-untitled Frederik Magle standing onstage,
with two guitarists on either side as he works his patent pending Magle Magic Music Sticks,
made of a special non-conductive composite material that's supposed to be unbreakable,
with his mixing board specialist using those signals to create stereo washes across the hall.
When a bassist substitutes the Magle Magic Music Sticks with two that are conductive,
as Frederik Magle starts to slide on both guitars, he conducts a current up his arms and across his shoulders,
making his hair stand on end as he levitates enough for the audience to notice,
what is later described as a reverse static cling, calling him a Super Conductor,
a new term in music history will be written.

cherry Strat 8.jpgcherry Strat 9.jpg
 

John Watt

Member
This is a description about the installation of a new part that can transform your electric guitar.
First, you have to imagine the string and spring tension, with their inherent vibrations,
that is focused where the tremolo unit pivots on the body,
being pushed down by the strings and pulled down by the springs, a huge duality of design.
Maybe I should call it stereo tension, what's on top and what's underneath.

If you can imagine that as being transformed into body resonance and vibrations,
you have to see it as what's in metal being transmitted, or translated into wood.
Having a medium density material as a spacer or sub-plate allows a more even dispersion.

These photos show what I've built, using a type of vinyl plastic.
I thought aluminum, what I tried at first, as a softer metal and without being chromed,
would work, but it didn't make much difference.
You just have to route down into the body to set it at the same surface level.

While I was doing this, putting the guitar together and taking it apart,
I noticed that the "tunnel" or "channel" or "chamber" around the tremolo unit,
acted as a kind of throat for the acoustic volume of the guitar,
being the hollow, semi-solid-body guitar it is, almost more than three times the size of a violin.
The second photo shows how the sub-plate installation evolved to take advantage of this.
If a violinist had a hole underneath the bridge he could cover and uncover with his hand,
it would almost be like a wah-wah, getting a tonal effect.

You don't need an expensive instrument or any special wood or surface finish,
to experiment and find out how much of a difference it makes.
Any metal to wood electric guitar build can be customized to allow this.
yeah... imagine taking a very inexpensive offshore copy and making it sound better than authentic Fender product,
and thinking to yourself, even Jimi Hendrix didn't have this.


Graph Tech 1.jpgGraph Tech 2.jpg
 

John Watt

Member
This photo shows what expansion of playability is possible with any fretted instrument.
Of course, we're looking at a Fender Stratocaster neck and a custom ordered replica.
What are you seeing, with this close-up?
The top neck has a rosewood fretboard... yeah... rosewood... nowadays you don't know what you're getting,
the rosewood trees of many countries now eradicated, no more exports... importers just thinking tropical look-a-likes.
and... and... how's that helping you with any kind of musical attitude, looking at your guitar, turning it on,
and thinking about rain-forests and exterminating species. I'm happy to think this is existing rosewood.

The bottom neck was custom ordered in 1977, and was a replica of my 1964 Stratocaster neck.
My first semi-solid-body was coming along so nice, inspiring me just looking at it, I wanted more on the fretboard.
Of course, I began to ask questions of classical instrument owners and builders,
not thinking tradition, but a deeper understanding of symphonic acoustic instruments.
This led me to the door of Paul Saunders, a luthier from England who moved to Canada,
eventually settling with a very nice, big farm property along the Chippawa River outside of Welland.
It was a vintage Martin acoustic guitar owner who told me about him, having a Martin repair license.
Paul showed me acoustic guitars, violins and electric guitars, that he built.
Other luthiers were saying he might be the only person in Canada who could do what I was thinking,
and Paul said it would take a lot of time, be a unique and one-off build, and be very expensive.
I was so sold I got bold, and asked if I could pick out the piece of ebony for what is now a fingerboard.
He had almost 100 pieces stacked in shelves, and gave me advice about wanting the thickest and darkest.
That was $80, and he was asking $240 to make a template for the custom scale that would work on my neck,
and install the frets and fret-makers... and I said yes right away and paid.

What do you see here? 24 frets, two octaves, on a full-scale Stratocaster replica neck,
and they're slanted lefty, for a big difference in playing action.
I don't have to hold my elbow out to the right as much, making it easier to slide my hand up and down.
That comes from trying a Rickenbacker in 1970 that had slanted frets.
Even playing it right-handed upside-down, I could feel how easier it was to play.
Paul said he would have to use an overhanging edge at the end of the neck for this shorter scale,
but that wasn't any kind of problem for me, and he was right, I didn't want too short fret spacings.
I'm six feet tall with long fingers, and Jimi Hendrix was 6'1", with longer fingers.
But a Stratocaster, as with other Fender guitars, had the longest neck and fret scale in the world.
When I played Gibson and acoustic guitars I could play longer chords covering four frets,
further down the neck, and playing lead up past the twelfth fret became more precise.
Authentic Fender Stratocasters have 21 frets, I have 24. More notes, what a concept.

Ebony... when you think of all the great instruments that have been built with an ebony fingerboard...
when you think of all the great players throughout musical history who have played ebony fingerboards...
it takes you away from the modern screens and streams of electric guitar videos and recordings,
and puts you onstage with composers and conductors of symphonies working with timeless virtuosos.

And what other musicians were saying about Paul Saunders was right, he was taking too long.
Don't get me wrong, it was wonderful to be there and he gave me a job making his roadside sign,
and that was good business for me. Who I met when I was there was worth it.
Sitting outside in the shade listening to his daughter play guitar,
a beautiful young girl, was a timeless experience, all the birds gathering... their dog resting quietly.
But I was getting restless, needing the neck to further my guitar work,
so I went out there and got the neck even if the frets weren't on it.
I didn't even try to renegotiate our deal, being so happy with the fingerboard and sign work.
I took it to Freddy of Freddys' Frets, very well known as the guitarist in Ice Nine,
and a former employee of Walter Ostanek, a three time Grammy winner for the best polka recording.
Freddy helped me decide on the frets for this scale and installed them right away,
also doing the abalone fret-markers.
Two octave fret-boards are ordinary now, but not on Stratocasters.
That's right! I've got the same neck feel I've had since 1970, only now with more and easier fret action.

There is one further inventive addition to this tale of scale and more frets...


getting necked.jpg
 

John Watt

Member
Upgrading Fender neck design with ebony and two octaves, what could possibly be next?
There isn't anything you can do to deepen tone or add more notes,
because until you read what comes next, there hasn't been anything like this in our global reality.

I made something, call it an invention, even if for me it was just an addition,
taking what I was doing and making it more practical, to get a new note from, and to be in pitch.
When I was talking with everyone from major manufacturers to music store owners to musicians,
I would ask about this, for me, an inventive idea, and ask if they had ever seen one.
Everyone said no, they don't make them, they've never seen one, and I've got the first one.
Where did this come from?
When you're using high volume distortion, your guitar is alive with sonic possiblities.
If I was just plugged in without distortion, pushing the string down on the pickup would just be a mild ping,
or a totally non-sustaining plink, not even a plinko, plinka or plinkette. Okay, maybe a plinketta.

I tried placing a thin sheet of metal up against the pickup, using the body to fix it,
thinking this raised edge would be firm and be easy to use as an elevated fret,
but no, that didn't work out.
I was thinking of using small brass tubing to solder together a fret frame, to extend the neck,
remembering how I used to solder together frames for model cars, what were called funny cars back then,
drag racers where the body was hinged and could be lifted up, and slot cars, needing to take a lot of abuse.
That could look good, but I couldn't see it lasting long, and it would get in the way of picking action.
Picking action won out.

I tried copper wire, other wire, other metal pieces,
but as far as having a pickup with a fret or frets on it,
using an allen key, a hard and stiff, even brittle metal based tool,
worked in a way nothing else did.
That was an act of frustration, using a bridge piece allen key, not an automotive tool.
After all these years of trying and using different bridge pieces, I have a collection.

This photo was easy to take, but when I saw it here I saw the grime and greasy mess.
I'll have to use some oil based paint thinners to clean that up, knowing what clear-coat caused this.
The first fret is raised, so when the string is depressed it doesn't touch the second one.
On the middle single coil pickup of a Stratocaster, this is E, a fourth octave E.
Imagine that, having a fourth octave E, such a big note for guitarists,
and with high volume distortion or effects, it can trigger any number of big sounds.
You can also push it down to get a big pitch change, like using a tremolo arm, very playable.

Underneath the pickup cover, where the allen key is bent around to hold it in place,
it's easy to carve out the composite top of the actual pickup, so it sits in the original position.

Here's something for every Magle.dk member or user to consider.
You can take this sub-plate and fret on a pickup concept, and patent it in your country.
I'm posting this freely and without any legal case for intellectual property,
which is a legal concept that is now enforced with military action around the world.
And as Clan Watt, when Clan Watt never manufactured, I have my ancestry to uphold.

Fender, DiMarzio, Rickenbacker, Graph Tech, Godin Guitars, Ring Music, Thorold Music,
Walter Ostenak, and everyone else, all say they've never seen a fret on a pickup.
Even Jimi Hendrix never had one.
He might have pushed a string down hard enough to ping off a note off one of the two raised pickup poles,
that original Fender Stratocasters had, but he couldn't push it down as a bend or move it sideways as a bend.
You can. I am.
These are 1972 DiMarzio Fat Strat pickups.

pickup frets.jpg
 

John Watt

Member
It didn't take any artistic urges or desires about making what I'm thinking a reality,
finishing the cherry Strat by making a sugar maple leaf to cover the previous cord input hole,
it meant it was time to start working on the semi-solid-body. At least I felt like doing that.

I spent $36 three years ago on a half-pint of 1SHOT lettering enamel, the most expensive paint,
getting a new colour, metallic copper. The Haida only used one metal, copper, and only for decoration.
My big decision was not using a sign-painting brush, meant more for long lines and straight edges.
I decided to use a half-inch art brush with a bevel, being good with bevel brushes painting rooms.
I had to be taught how to use 1SHOT and sign-painting brushes, probably more complicated than you think.

yeah, I can think that's complicated...
but with the memories and histories of The Jimi Hendrix Experience,
looming over me in the background, I wanted to be as visually artistic.

When I got the front horns and around the neck painted, I sat it down to look back and see what I thought.
The copper looked like it didn't belong, a harsh contrast with the wood, so I wiped it off right away.
This got me going, and I'm so lucky, because I don't have a wide range of 1SHOT any more,
just a few left-over cans. 1SHOT needs to be activated to paint with, so it does last a long time in the can.
I bought a quart of tan seven years ago when I was painting the interior of a car I used to have,
and it looked close to the light brown I painted the original line around the sides with.
When I started painting with that, I remembered the Haida use tan as a background colour,
when the artwork is brown and turquoise, not the red, black and white I was thinking of.

Firing up the paint, painting along with the bevel brush, was so comfortable.
Even though I'm hand-painting it looks precise enough to look manufactured.
Wait a minute! That's what I used to do, be a professional sign-painter.
And it's a good thing I've still got steady hands and fingers.
I'm going to go downtown for some lunch and then the library to make sure I leave it alone for a while.
I also want to glue the top of my second semi-solid-body to the middle section and get some clear-coat on it,
so I don't stain the wood when I finish carving it for pickups and decoration.
All this... makes me feel like I'm living a musical life... oh... and then I get to play it.

I'm back to edit just like I went back to take a different photo from the first ones.
PopeFrancis made a comment, short on font, but long on intent, not realizing at first what he meant.
That was about the middle east and "oil and Jesus".
I retook the photos to get this can of "Exode Reducer V158" into the action, a low odour mineral spirits.
That's a Pratt & Lambert product, a very old, almost antique can, a paint supplier in Fort Erie.
But the Pratt is the Pratt from Pratt & Whitney, when they made airplanes for the world wars.
I have to acknowledge the war effort it took for some of my supplies, and what my clan did.
My fathers' one uncle built the towers at the airport when British pilots came over to learn,
and I painted the new lettering after they were rebuilt with metal cladding.
I felt some family history when I was doing that, even if I truly don't want any war.
I only use these mineral spirits for expensive brushes, and paintings that put my head through.
Now it's part of my semi-solid-body, thanks to you, PopeFrancis.
And yes, "Free Trade" and "globalization" put Pratt & Lambert out of business many years ago.


semi-solid-body.jpgcherry Strat 2.jpg
 
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John Watt

Member
As we look further into the arcane, and as some would say, insane, semi-solid-body build story,
we are seeing here the second semi-solid-body, working again on that for the first time in over seven years.
It took a lot of almost non-stop criminal action against me, including being made homeless four times,
to keep me from even carving or sanding the top a little more.
I shouldn't say carving. Both semi-solid-bodies were made from the same piece of board,
and the grain is so dense and complicated I have to shave it with Olfa blades and sand it down,
or else pieces pop out, why I call it popcorn wood.
That's one of the reasons I wanted to put some clear-coat on it for the first time.
If I'm getting close to where I want it to be, I want to seal the wood to strengthen it,
so I don't start chipping off around the edges, having one already.
The photo that shows the guitar with Minwax Polycrylic and the art brush,
also shows the first semi-solid-body watching from the background.
That's like wolves with Inuit up north, moving like shadows around the edge of the camp,
looking to see how their extended family, two parts husky, one part wolf, are doing.
I'm seeing my guitars as being two-thirds creations of mine and one-third Stratocaster.
The third photo shows the look of the Polycrylic as I'm painting it on.

The tan colour on the first semi-solid-body has that 1SHOT lettering enamel shine,
but that will be lightly sanded with 600 grit sandpaper and covered with Polycrylic, to get a satin finish.
That's after I sand it down and give it a second coat.
I'm looking at it, thinking I could lighten the tan colour with white, so it would blend with the body more,
but the more I look at it the more I realize I like it the way it is.
It finishes the guitar in a way that makes me think I don't need to add artwork around the sides,
or paint substitute purfling around the top. I've been fantasizing about that for years.
I can see putting brass domed studs that Mennonites use on their carriages around the sides,
having two different sizes of those, all new. That would be very three-dimensional,
and the 3/4" diameter half-globes would reflect stage lighting all over the place.
I just thought of darkening the tan a little, using that for graphics around the edge you can't see right away.
That would let the tan look good from a distance, and add detail when you're looking up close.
That would let me use Haida style, do some ravens/crows, anything I want.
If it's not a strong visual presence from a distance, it's just a texture, and up close, what you see.
That's probably what I'm going to do.
If you see the side of a face with hair sweeping up from a severe downward keyboard head motion,
yes, that'll be the as-yet-to-be-titled Frederik Magle.
I think I'll put him beside the Straplock on the side, because these forums have been uplifting me for many years.
 

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John Watt

Member
This is about a new music store in Toronto, doing business mostly online.
It's like having offshore prices for everything from new guitars to do-it-yourself kits.
I'm going to use a link for a left-handed Stratocaster D.I.Y. kit, for $149 Canadian.
They have lefty Les Pauls, Telecasters, 335's and an f-hole acoustic electric.

This site showed some Trev Wilkinson product, so I looked at his British domain.
He prices left-handed bridges the same as right-handed.
When old school American manufacturers can be pricing single coil pickups at $150,
Trev Wilkinson puts his name on his brand that cost $10 here in Canada.

The Solo Guitar Gear link came activated after I used a previous link to cut and paste,
and that activates all the font after it, so I'm putting a link to Trev Wilkinson next.

I really feel like I'm having a left-handed day, and it usually doesn't come that way.

https://www.jhs.co.uk/brands/wilkinson

https://www.solomusicgear.com/product/solo-st-style-guitar-kit-basswood-body-left-handed/
 

John Watt

Member
I'm not necessarily here because onacarom has pushed this thread way down, way down,
not at all, because I've got a final observation to make after really looking around.

I'm willing to say there is one big difference between Fender Stratocasters and all the rest.
Fender routs the body and leaves wood sticking out past the routing for the tremolo unit and springs.
The tremolo block is pulled to the wood by the springs and is a rest for the tremolo block.
Every other non-Fender guitar I've seen is missing this.
When you set up a Stratocaster tremolo unit,
you're supposed to be able to slide a Fender Heavy Thick pick under the tremolo plate from behind,
getting it in half way, so it's not the plate being pulled down against the body that stops the block.
That's just a stress point, the springs pulling the tremolo unit in a horizontal direction,
when it's the plate being pulled down vertical against the body to stop it.

If a Strat is set up properly, breaking a string is part of the design.
The ball end shoots out and hits your abdomen, and you feel it,
and the string takes off like an arrow, usually between 20 and 30 feet.
If you're thinking you're playing a Strat that's set up and tuned properly,
and it doesn't do that, please, think again.

long are the round-wound strings,
tight, is the tuning,
I know this guitar of mine,
will never detune, as I play it.

a tremolo like that, will never die,
as long as I, keep it from rusting.

deep, are the bends I use,
high, I've got four octaves,
when the stereo panning moves around,
I miss the air moving, when it's over.
guitar solo
 

John Watt

Member
Here's a new addition to my photo library here, a letter from President Robert Godin.
It's said that over 75% of studio musicians around the world use a Godin guitar.
That's mostly about the electronics, being able to plug it in to almost anything,
and sound really good.
I bought an Art & Lutherie acoustic so I could sit out in the backyard where I was living,
and practice singing songs and writing them.
I sent them a webmail asking about the low-gloss finish they had,
and got one back, asking me to prove I wasn't a manufacturer.
They were interested in my guitar, sharing some email, and all that was good.
What I didn't know was that Godin owned Art & Lutherie guitars.
I never would have guessed, because the Art & Lutherie guitar I bought, the "Ami" model,
was advertised as being made out of fallen wood, silver maple and cherry, with a rosewood fretboard.
That made it very inexpensive for the quality instrument it is.
It also had a raised plastic ring around the sound-hole, not inlay, that was a really good finger rest.

This letter from President Robert Godin was totally unexpected.
It should give you confidence in my semi-solid-body design,
if he can say I have my own innovations and guitar concepts.
Another summer has gone by and I haven't finished refinishing again.
One day, one day soon.


Robert Godin.jpg
 
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