Alright, so a few months of picking things up here and there and installing them all piece by piece has been tough, but i finally think I finished up this morning when I threw in some vintage Gotoh "Kluson" tuners in it. Now I think I am completely satisfied with it!

MIM Standard Strat 08- $400
Callaham Block- $60
Custom Shop 57/62 pups- $100 (courtesy of a friend)
New pots, capacitors, and various other under-the-hood stuff-$60 (same friend)
Klusons and bushings -$45

Total - $665

saved money and badassed my Strat!

of course, here's some pics for y'all:













!!

Lookin good Napkin!

Getting your strat badassed... Priceless!


How does she sound with the high E end of the pups set that low? I do my set the exact opposite way.

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

well one of the things i found that the callaham did was it really made all the strings punchy...i use my amp with a lot of gain on a clean setting to get a hot tube sound and setting the pups that low helps me to get a fuller sound. when i had them set higher, the strings would basically cut off when i bent strings (i guess because i bent them out of signal range for the magnets) and when they are lower i can bend and not lose any more volume because the magnets seem to cover the strings more evenly.

but the new electronics are great, i liked the standard pickups a lot, but for what i do they had almost too much midrange response and i wanted a little bit more of a shimmery, glittery sound.

Sweet. Now that's what I'm talking about. Modding your own guitar instead of waiting for some stupid signature guitar to come out.
Congrats, it's all yours the way YOU want it. That's the way us geezers did it way back. You own the only one. You did a nice job too. Enjoy it!

Nice!! You did a very good job and have reason to be proud of your guitar! Enjoy her!

Good job!!! Looks great!

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Chet Feathers

Authorized TonePros Dealer
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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

thanks everyone!

now i've got to figure out a name...i guess right now it's between H1N1 or my Mexican Swinecaster....

Congrats!! looks awesome!

Looks great! That's the awesome thing about a Mexi, you can take a good base instrument and turn it into your very own "custom". The best part is you'll save alot of cash too. The only problem is, you have to get ANOTHER! Because you know that one Strat is never enough!

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2 Customized Strats w\DiMarzio's
07 SG
Modded DSL50 w\Mercury OT,PT & Choke
Carvin 2x12 V30's
Pitch Black Tuner-EH LPB-1,TS-808
Mxr 108 EQ-Modded Phase90
Carbon Copy
George L cables-Voodoo Power 2 Plus
Pedaltrain Board

hey BigJay, the five springs seem to help out the overall stability of the system well, when i had three in there the thing would not return to zero as well as it does now. If i just threw four in, it would be the Fender spec 1/8" float, but because I don't use the trem to bend up too often (but i think the floated trem gives out a MUCH better shimmering effect when you use light vibrato), i just threw the fifth back in.

As for the 2 weird springs...i have a really old piece of crap Hamer strat copy that was my first ever guitar, and it has been dying in the attic for about 15 years now...but I remembered that it had a trem and probably had springs. i just ripped it out of there, that's why the hook on the block side is different and why they are so oxidized compared to the others.

i've gotta say though...i love these new tuners, they look unbelievably cool and they hold tune better than anything i've ever used before! makes me wonder why they would have ever moved away from Klusons (apart from the fact that Kluson went out of business at some point, i guess).

takin it to its first gig tomorrow!

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Gear list:
2004 Epiphone Casino
----Peerless, USA electronics
2001 "Firewood" ES-335
----USA electronics, Gibson and DiMarzio PAFs
2001 Cort NTL20 Jumbo Acoustic
2007 Hofner Copy
Vox AC4TV/V112TV
Voice
Fingers
Cowbell