Hello, besides my trusty 79, my luthier, is building my custom dream strat: a gorgeous ash body with some personal specifications i couldn´t find in the fender catalogue. It´s almost finished and i bet you´re gonna like it.

link: http://www.gorilarex.com/joyitas.htm

It´s an absolute frankenstein, the body is a 60´s replica, from a nice block of ash, the pickguard, pickups and controls are snatched from a 2001 american standard, with the date 21 aug 2001 stamped on backside of pickguard. The neck is a 95 "C" neck, made in USA, i have no clue if it comes from a standard, deluxe or reissue, the neck looks and feels very vintage, with the old spaghetti logo, but the serial no is in the back with normal N5 digits. Thing is that this guitar is like a mix of a 62 reissue (body and neck), american deluxe (finish), american standard (pickups and pickguard), i always wanted a 62 vintage reissue in natural blonde color matched in same vintage tone as the neck headstock, since it´s unavailable, i chose to hand the task to an expert luthier. What do you think of it? any suggestions or comments? thanx!!

Nice axe. That ash has some great grain..... MIke

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

Yes, very nice grain. You could dye/stain it dark, then sand it to greatly enhance and accentuate the grain. It would still be natural "blonde". Just a suggestion. No matter how you finish it though, it'll be an awesome, one of guitar, just for you!

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2010 American Deluxe Strat Sunset Metallic - Lindy Fralin Blues Specials in the neck and middle, Dimarzio AT-1 humbucker in the bridge.
PRS Custom 22 with solid rosewood neck
Mesa/Boogie Electra Dyne 1x12 combo
DRRI

great looking guitar you got yourself there. ive always liked those natural finishes. i would like to get one someday but with a maple neck.

Very nice indeed.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

thats exactly what im doing!

That bridge you have there is a fender floyd rose bridge for strats that was on the Plus Deluxe models years ago... it locks the stings at the bridge... nice piece of hardware

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Very nice.

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"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." Blazing Saddles...

Nice guitar! Post some pictures when she is set and ready to rock!

Hi Vintage Blonde:

Good.

That body's not finished yet though, right? Work in progress?

Who is going to drill the holes for the bridge posts, him or you?

Cheers - C

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Well thank u all 4 your comments!!.......Blertles: I had no idea the bridge came from a plus deluxe! 2 be honest I can still choose between a vintage type bridge and this one, which would you keep?.

Ceri: Of course it´s not finished, gonna be ready in a couple of weeks, Luthier promised 2 be ready 4 xmas, and he´s drilling the holes i´m not touching anything, i just tell him what 2 do!

Big Jay: I think I´m gonna go for American Standard keys (tuners) or Fender keys if i keep the plus deluxe bridge, if i put a vintage bridge i go with vintage Klusons 3rd style.
The pickups, seem to be plain old classic Alincos, but not sure, i do know the pickguard and pickups are original as it has has a 21 aug 2001 date stamped.

Of course i´ll be posting more when she´s ready. But i enjoy reading suggestions and info from all of you, thnx!! i love strats

Good - you'll be getting some frets on that neck as well then!

BTW: forgot to ask - who's the luthier? Does he have a website for us to inspect?

Cheers - C

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Big Jay: When i assembled the guitar for the pictures, everything fitted in just perfect, I already told him (Luthier) about what u comment about the parameters, and he told me not to worry bout anything, he´s as excited as I am with this guitar.

By the way, the neck definetely comes from the plus deluxe, Luthier confirmed, also checked out on the web and have no doubt, serial numbers match, and found a couple of necks from plus deluxes exactly like mine, in strat collectors.com. Also, it is interesting that even though the neck comes from the DX Strat Plus, they do not have serial numbers that start with a "D" for Deluxe. That was commonly seen on the Deluxe American Strats, but the prefix was not used on the Deluxe Plus Series. (no wonder i could´t find where it came from!)

Ceri: I´m going with jumbo frets, i have small thin hands, and jumbo give me a better feeling. The luthier is located in Mexico City, he´s quite a character and has no website nor cares about, he works in a small workshop, and is full of work, that´s why he takes so long!. I consider him more like an artist. He makes the most amazing guitars i ever seen (and expensive too), his name is Daniel Chavez.