Hi all.

I believe I have finally gotten my MIM strat playing the way I think it should sound, and man oh man what a sound it now has.

To catch up those who may have missed my earlier posts, I have a 2010 MIM FSR H-S-S Strat in Sunfire Orange sparkle.



I fell in love with the feel and the way it played acoustically first, I didn't even plug it into and amp, it just played prefect and I knew the rest could be made to come in, a guitar that plays alive in your hands like this one does is one worth the time and effort. If it doesn't play alive, there is very little you can do to bring it alive, dead is dead.
Well, I plugged it into my amp at home, and the stock pick ups were loud, powerful, but it just wasn't the tone I was hoping for, very vanilla, not bad, but not the flavor I was wanting.
The humbucker to me was to strong and again, not what I was wanting for Blues.
So I started the search for replacements, I first got a Paper and oil cap for it, that helped the tone circuit to breath right. I then came into a set of two Abby made 1969 pick ups, and I put them into neck and middle, they were weaker then the Mexican made one and the humbucker just overdrove them, making 1 & 2 hard to balance out. But I love the tone of those pick ups.
I decided that the humbucker had to go, it's not a bad sounding pick up, just not what I was wanting. I got a new pick guard and moved the middle Abby to the bridge and used the Mexican made middle as it was reversed wound. I found out the MIM pick up will not work with the American custom shop pick ups, there made backwards, a polarity meter confirmed it. This caused 2 & 4 to be out of phase and the volume drop was server, cut the output in half, and changing the wiring or flipping it did not help. I did find that the gold aluminum pick guard did quite the hum in 1, 3 & 5 to the point of almost 0 hum.
If you hate the single coil hum, get the aluminum pick guard.
I had to get another pick up and the final piece of my tone puzzle came in, I found a custom shop reverse wound fat 50's and I installed that yesterday.
The output of this pick up is closer to the 1969's, and it had a flavor that complements them, and there is no more volume drop out, 1 through 5 are all even in output.

I can now say I am finally done and I can now just play it and enjoy what I have. I know two things after all this,
1) I could never sell it for the money I have tied up in her.
2) I could have bought a 1960's reissue for about the same amount.

But I know I have better made pick-ups in it then what come stock in the reissues, and I would have more then likely done some of the mods I did to it as well.
Other then the pick ups, I also replaced the pot metal blocked tremolo with a shallow drilled brass blocked tremolo and added 5 springs to the tremolo. It is set against the body and I can bend the "G" string one step without then low "E" changing pitch. The tremolo does work, and you can use it with the wrist laid across it (Like Stevie did) but I have found if you set it like this, if you break a high "E" or the "B" strings it will hold tune well enough to finish a song.
I also changed to Tele size control knobs, easier to roll them while playing and the string tree to the newer American style, but just for the E & B, no tree for the middle strings.

I guess in the long run, knowing what has been done and how well the final result came together is all that matters, I will never sell this guitar.



I now have a guitar that can do Jimi tones and SRV tones and whole lot more.

Now if only I could play like them........

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Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

Mate those mods look great. IMO the mint guard on the orange sparkle, but the gold adds a bit more class to it. Good choice. Also cAnt go wrong with abbs pickups

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My Rig: Guitar into Pedals then into Amps and out into Speakers.

Well Jeff thats one striking guitar.

I like it.

Did you consider putting the fat50 in the neck and the 69's in the middle and bridge.
I have the same out of phase problem on my MIM. It has a vintage noiseless in the neck and SCN's in the mid and bridge. I did it on purpose liking the Greeny'esque out of phase tone on the neck/mid combo. Roll the tone down to two, keep the mids up and it's very close to that flipped magnet humbucker sound.
Also you may benefit from not having a overly scooped neck position with the 69 there. Strat neck sounds are far too scooped for my liking on their own, 69's are a very mid scooped pickup.

May be worth considering?
Glad your liking it, love that colour.

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No no and no

Your mod efforts shine on that great looking Strat!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Jeffy that guitar looks so much better with the new pickguard and the tele knobs. I'm sure it sounds great too. Nice job.

Thank you all for the kind word.

Niki, I was trying to get the out of phase tone out of it, the Fat 50 is a reverse wound, reverse polarity.
The tone now in 2 & 4 let me do the southern rock tones as well, not as good as a Les Paul, but a nice strong tone all the same.

For now, I am done playing with it, I just want to play it.

_________________
Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

Nice job. It's always amazing when you can get close to the sound you hear in your head!

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Well thats the best part about it.

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No no and no

The guitar looks awesome. Nice job with the mods. Glad you're loving it. That finish is amazing. I saw a similar one at a local music store recently it was Rootbeer sparkle (I think) and I was tempted to buy it.

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Jeff,you certainly did a great job and your pickup choice was perfect. You were wise to get rid of the HSS setup as you would never be able to do a convincing job of getting the SRV or Jimi sound with that. You really have a lifetime keeper there and I can fully understand why you'l never part with her.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Nice work Jeffytune!

You don't see many of those knocking around. I think forum user Jamguy has the only other orange sparkle strat i've ever seen.

Enjoy!

Andy

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Pending Greatness

looks like a bassboat.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

When I worked for CBS we did paint jobs like this all the time.


Of course it was for the Rogers drum kits......

_________________
Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

My ears were burning...

I'm still loving mine w/ the new pups... I'll admit, I've bagged on these MIM strats for a long time but am finally willing to admit they make a great platform for an even better guitar, and still for less than an American standard. For many applications they're probably just fine w/o any mods. The stock neck did feel good but I had a CBS Warmoth neck that needed a home. I agree that the stock pups did seem a bit "vanilla" as someone else mentioned. This is my first experience w/ Fralins and am very happy with my choice. Love the DiMarzio DP223 too...sounds great split in the 4th position and I like having the extra juice in the bridge position and a tone control for it.

[img][img]http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7669/wireup2.jpg[/img]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/img]

JamGuy, I love that there neck, I wish they had gone with the rosewood on both of the FSR's.

Looks great.

_________________
Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.