Okay i just started playing guitar but i have always wanted to build one now im starting my proj im going to build a stratocaster, but since im new at this does anyone have any words of advice or any diagrams for how it should be put together??

If you use original fender parts they should fit together really well no problem....

I got bits and pieces from several different places (from ebay to local shop to new parts, etc.) and assembled my strat.

Its got a 1997 one piece maple MIM deluxe neck with klusons
USA HWY 1 nitro flat black body
USA HWY 1 pickups and pots
MIM standard 2 1/16" trem bridge (the weakest point that will be replaced with a callaham soon!)

Wiring diagrams for several models are available here on fender, but also plenty of people all over the net talking about blender pots, new caps for tone, etc.

I sheilded the interior and grounded it. Put a LSR roller nut on, polished the frets, 5 springs, flattened out the trem to body and put a black pickguard on with black knobs, black pickup covers.

It plays like a dream, quiet, hot pickups, a little thin due to the bridge tho. It was fun.

I had to shim the neck and trim the neck pocket on the pickguard but otherwise all fit nicely!

Good luck, it's fun and you really learn a lot about strats and guitar tech along the way!

This pic was pre-black covers and knobs (when it looked more Dave Gilmourish)

it's a lot of fun. Theres nothing better than to have someone ask you about your guitar and your able to laugh and say "oh this thing? just a little something i put together".

Be careful, kind of the "measure twice, cut once" thing. make sure you know what it is your doing, but please

DONT BE AFRAID

seriously, everything your working with is pretty easily replaced.

have fun.

check out this video from How its Made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwN4l0L9Sn8

Hi fenderstar, welcome to the Forum.

There's lots of people here who are into all sorts of different kinds of guitar building: plenty of experience and ideas to call on.

Basically - ask some questions! Likely you'll get useful answers.

Good luck - C

There are tons of web sites with Guitar Building Projects ... at all levels imaginable!

Check out http://www.projectguitar.com/

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Hey buddy hows it going? Hey i have a question to ask if you don't mind.

I'm kinda new here and i was wandering if you could tell me how to post pics on here ?

I REALLY WOULD APPRECIATE IT .........

Thats a very nice strat man, Very sharp.
I've got a 1994 40th anniversary strat USA. " EMILY " I'd like to post her up if i could you know.

Could you help me please ?
If you want you can also email me at .jhrsmith@bellsouth.net

THANKS MAN, I REALLY WOULD APPRECIATE YOURE HELP..

TAKE CARE
JEFF

My turn on this one.

tennman316, just pop along to an image hosting site such as photobucket.com or imageshack.com and open a free account. Then upload your pics to it - please resize them to around 400 to 600 pixels wide, or they fall off the edge of the screen in your posts here.

When you're ready go to your account's album page. Each photo will have some lines of code underneath it (you may have to scroll over it to produce the code). It should look something like this:



Go to that bottom line named "IMG Code" (highlighted in my pic) and copy and paste it into your post on this Forum. Each time someone views the post their browser will read that code and go fetch the pic from Photobucket and insert it into the text.

Sounds like a hassle: really it's quick, easy and free.

Cheers - C

Thanks for the help man......So how do you like her?

Shes my baby...Can't wait to get her back so i can crank down on " LITTLE WING " ,,,,," STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN " version..[IMG]

TAKE CARE MAN
JEFF LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT HER.

You Can Use Mexican,USA,and Japan parts and 99% of them are interchangable

Very Nice. I also have a 94 strat, black/white PG/Maple neck.

Loves her I do.

hey check out www.luthiersforum.com I'm on theres a lot a theres a good amount of professionals on there....probably some that even work for fender.

I've built a bunch of strats and teles and have found that most parts from MIJ/CIJ Reissues are compatible with the US made RI models. As far as wiring diagrams go... the ones here on the fender site are good but I like the ones on the acme guitar site a little better. It's easier to tell which wire is going where (though they only have a few diagrams) I'd recommend one of the aluminum pickguard shield so that you don't have to ground all the pots or use a ground wire. A combination of their charts and the ones here should be sufficient.