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Post subject: Custom Shop Strat on Order
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:14 am
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I browse these forums frequently, but don't often post. I've been playing guitar seriously since about 1980, when I got my first real guitar - a Fender Lead II. I lived in the UK at the time, and I was the first person at school to have a Fender. I moved to the US in 1981. When I graduated from high school in 1983 (and I realize I'm dating myself), my father gave me my first strat - a US made model in Olympic white with a rosewood neck. We got it at Manny's in New York. I foolishly sold the Lead II and then proceded to modify that strat and put in a kahler. It was subsequently stolen. After scraping together as much money as I could, I was eventually able to afford the top-of-the line production model in 1987: a vintage white strat plus with a maple neck. This was simply the best guitar I have ever played. I played it every day and gigged it 5+ nights a week until it was also stolen before a session in NYC in 1989. This was a time when I really started to develop as a guitar player, and was a very special time for me. But since it was stolen, I have been on a quest to replace that guitar.

Its immediate replacement was a natural strat plus I bought in 1989. I still have and play that guitar regularly. It's a great instrument, but is missing that something special the vintage white '87 had. In 2001 I bought a USA deluxe in transparent teal. This is also a very good guitar, but still doesn't quite do it for me.

Fate has brought me into a band with a guy who used to work at Fender in the 80's. He still knows many of the folks there. We played a gig last year on his birthday, and some of his Fender colleagues made the trip from California to NJ to help celebrate. It was a real strat fest and just an amazing opportunity to talk guitars with people intimately involved with the company. I told the story of the lost strat, and explained that I had been thinking about having the custom shop build me one to replace that one special instrument. They convinced me to do it. So in October I ordered my dream strat from the custom shop. Specs:

Color Vintage White - (Thin Nitrocellulose Lacquer)

Body 2-Piece, Deep Contoured, ‘57 Style Lightweight Alder Body

Neck 1-Piece Quartersawn Maple, Modern “C” Shape, Vintage Tinted
(Nitrocellulose Lacquer Finish)

Old Style "Spaghetti" Logo

Fingerboard Maple, 9.5” Radius

No. of Frets 22 Highly Polished Medium Jumbo Frets

Pickups From DG Strat: 1 Custom Hand-Wound Fat ‘50s Single-Coil Strat® Pickup, (Neck),
1 Custom-Wound Single-Coil Strat® Pickup (Middle)
1 Seymour Duncan SSL-5 Single-Coil Strat® Pickup (Bridge)

Controls Master Volume,
Tone 1. (Neck Pickup),
Tone 2. (Bridge Pickup)
Pickup Switching 5-Position Blade:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Middle Pickup
Position 3. Middle Pickup
Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup
Position 5. Neck Pickup

S-1 switch wired to add Neck Pickup in Positions 1, 2 and 3.

Bridge (From Custom Classic) New Deluxe 2-Point Synchronized Tremolo with Polished Solid Stainless Steel Saddles and Block, installed and set up to float with three springs

Machine Heads Fender®/Schaller® Deluxe Staggered Cast/Sealed Locking Tuning Machines (vintage-style if available)

Hardware Nickel/Chrome

Pickguard 11-hole 3-Ply Mint Green

Scale Length 25.5” (648 mm)
Width at Nut 1.650” (42 mm)

Unique Features 1-Piece Quartersawn Maple, Modern “C” Shape Vintage Tinted Maple Neck
Extra Smooth Neck to Headstock Volute, (no string tree)
2-Piece Deep Contoured ‘57 Style Lightweight Alder Body
1960s Style Body Cavities
Aged Knobs, Pickup Covers and Switch Tip
Bone Nut
Strap Locks

Needless to say, I'm absolutely beside myself with anticipation, and I'm really hoping and expecting that his guitar will live up to my expectations. The guitar is scheduled for completion at the end of March, so I expect it will be shipped to me some time in April this year.

Sorry if this was long-winded, but I thought I'd share.

Waiting is so hard!

Cheers.


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Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:57 am
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fantastic! I hope you get that soon! :)


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:01 pm
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Nice

Sound like fun spec'ing one out


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:56 pm
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aahhh when your dream is arrived please send pix.

cheers :D


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 1:06 pm
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Sounds great, I can't wait until someday when I can buy one, I'm already getting my specs together :D


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Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Strat on Order
Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:57 pm
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Location: Palm Beach County FL
[quote="plumptone"] Good luck, best wishes, and be patient.

........and......we are not accepting donation requests on that one :!:
WOW :!: :P :wink:

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Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:47 pm
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A nice guitar. Congratulations! You are going to love the Gilmour pup configuration! 8)


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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:44 am
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Thanks guys. I'm really excited about this. Fhopkins - I was hoping someone would chime in about the pickups. My strat plus has the Lace Sensors and the Am Deluxe has the vintage nioseless pickups. Both these systems are really good at eliminating hum, which has been really useful to me over the years - more in the past when I was playing little dives with highly suspect wiring and an over-abundance of Budweiser and Miller neon lighting. Today it seems like a lot of the rooms I play are less inherently noisy. I really like the Lace pickups, but I'm still not completely happy with the vintage nioseless. They seem to lack punch, although I've been able to tweek my amp settings to get it where it's not much of an issue.

I ordered this guitar with the Gilmour pickups never having heard them in person. I hope they deliver the tone I'm looking for without a ton of extraneous noise. I know the Duncan pickup that's used in the bridge position gets great reviews. I think it's going to be a great overall combination of features on this guitar, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing and playing it for the first time.

This will be my second piece of custom gear - my other is a Boogie I ordered in bubinga with a wicker grille. It took almost 4 months for that thing to be built. Waiting for that was hard, but in the end I was very happy. Hoping the same holds for this.


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:48 am
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I don't think you will be disappointed in the pups at all. Good luck and enjoy when it comes in! :wink:


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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:29 pm
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Congrats!! some pictures would be nice! :)


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:52 am
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Wow. It's here. It arrived FedEx this morning. Still sitting in its box in my office as I stare at it. I'll take pics when I get home tonight and open it up. I'm amazed it got here as fast as this.


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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:09 am
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haha, nice. I am the same way, I get all my guitar gears delivered at the office then I have to stare at it the whole day without being able to try them. Torture.


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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 6:28 am
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OK folks - here we go. I took a lot of pics. I know I have always wanted a detailed look at one of these custom shop guitars. Hopefully those of you thinking about doing this some day will appreciiate this. Apologies if these are too large - I tried to get the size right.

In the box:

Image

The case - out of the box:

Image

The guitar in its case:

Image

The COA:

Image

Full frontal:

Image

Side angle:

Image

Action:

Image

Headstock Front:

Image

And headstock back:

Image


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:45 pm
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I ordered my custom shop Strat a few months ago, wait time is approximately 9-10 months. I should get mine by late August/early September. Here are my specs:

Special order with the following custom specs:

Based on 1956 Time Machine Strat NOS

Finish: Bing Cherry Transparent, All Nitro- no WLS, no Undercoat, tinted neck

Body: Ash Body, offset seam, sort for lightweight

Neck: 1pc Maple neck, AA Flame, 10/56 “V” profile, 9.5” radius, 6105 frets, truss adjust at headstock

Hrdw: Nickel/Chrome vintage with vintage staggered tuners, single ply white pickgaurd, CS logo neck plate with serial number

Elect: Fat 50’s Pups, 5 way switch, Vol/Tone(neck)/Tone(bridge/middle), S-1 switch for neck/bridge combo or all 3 on

Misc: Tweed Center Pocket Case

A Callaham Guitars Vintage S-Bridge will be installed before I get the guitar.

Here are pictures of what the guitar will look like based on a similar spec'd guitar that I saw on the internet:

http://www.wildwoodguitars.com/electrics/fender/cst_clsc_ts/cz512768/cz512768.php


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Post subject:
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:36 pm
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plumptone wrote:
Wow. It's here. It arrived FedEx this morning. Still sitting in its box in my office as I stare at it. I'll take pics when I get home tonight and open it up. I'm amazed it got here as fast as this.


Amazing.....they did this build in 4 mos :shock: :shock: What luck :!:

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