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Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2010 10:32 pm
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Hey, ORCRiST, drop me a mail privately. I may be able to help you with getting someone in Maiden to see this.
MULLY

jimusensei@hotmail.com


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Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2010 11:03 pm
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ORCRiST wrote:
BenLecuyer wrote:
I'd really like to know who did that neck plate for ya... :shock:


Certainly!

William Larson
FSR Custom Shop
www.freeservicerequest.com

There are quite a few custom makers out there if one spends some quality time with Google. :)


Yeah, there are quite a few custom plate makers out there but none of them are as good as Bill. I got mine from him too. Top notch quality, quick service and shipping, and he'll help you every step of the way to make your plate exactly as you want it.
MULLY

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Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2010 11:07 pm
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mullyman wrote:
Hey, ORCRiST, drop me a mail privately. I may be able to help you with getting someone in Maiden to see this.
MULLY

jimusensei@hotmail.com


Done!

How's the weather in Nippon?

ORC

P.S...

mullyman wrote:
Yeah, there are quite a few custom plate makers out there but none of them are as good as Bill. I got mine from him too. Top notch quality, quick service and shipping, and he'll help you every step of the way to make your plate exactly as you want it.
MULLY


I think Doug might take offence to that! :wink:


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Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 12:19 am
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ORCRiST wrote:

I think Doug might take offence to that! :wink:


No offense intended.
MULLY :oops:


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Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 12:40 am
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mullyman wrote:
ORCRiST wrote:

I think Doug might take offence to that! :wink:


No offense intended.
MULLY :oops:


No worries, its in the PM.

I've always liked that EVH one the best. VH was the first concert I ever went to. :)

ORC


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Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 3:52 am
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Hi Orc!

That Strat looks amazing. Well worth the wait. Sims have done an outstanding job. Congrats!

Your use of Ruthenium is intriguing and I'd be very interested to hear you opinion of the neck-heal cut out on the body. Looks very nice indeed.

Thanks for sharing! 8)

Andy

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Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 1:14 pm
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It would be a shame to cover up too much of that body with a pickguard ...

maybe use a clear one?

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Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 2:16 pm
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ORCRiST wrote:
The_Nutter wrote:
Germans? Where? Whatever you do, DON'T MENTION THE WAR!
:lol:


Regarding that subject, I have to say: It is only fitting that Germany also be represented on the guitar as well... not only by the 'Iron Cross' kill markers but also
due to the fact that Schaller is a German company that can be proud of the beautifully engineered parts that will be one of the centerpieces of this instrument.

The Luftwaffe was a feared and worthy adversary during and after fall of France and the Battle of Britain soon to follow.

Suffice to say, it is only fitting and proper that Eddie is indeed an Ace. :wink:

ORCRiST

'Course, what we really need here is for someone to do a Messerschmitt 109 Strat to balance things out. The perfect companion piece.

Hmmm: I can almost see how that might be done...

Cheers - C


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Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 3:06 pm
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orvilleowner wrote:
It would be a shame to cover up too much of that body with a pickguard ...

maybe use a clear one?



If you examine the layout, notice all of the major design elements are outside of the pickguard area, because I knew it was going to have a PG from the beginning. :)

ORC


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Post subject: strat
Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 5:13 pm
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hey orc sick strat

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Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 5:40 pm
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Orc, since you're an Maiden fan there's a feature on them in the November issue of Premier Guitar. It highlights the gear they're using on their current tour. If you don't have a subscription you can see it digitally at the PG website.

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Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 6:49 pm
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Voodoo Blues wrote:
Orc, since you're an Maiden fan there's a feature on them in the November issue of Premier Guitar. It highlights the gear they're using on their current tour. If you don't have a subscription you can see it digitally at the PG website.


Thanks for that! Yes I've seen it, there's a also a digital photo 'collage' of all of 'Maiden's guitars and effects on their website. Coincidentally, the pics were taken in Tinley Park, Chicago - were I was present front row after winning passes from the Iron Maiden Fan Club! (In fact, I'd even brought my neck along for the road trip in some small hope I could have it signed somehow, but of course that didn't end up happening). Had a AWESOME time though!

I actually took this with my little camera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHdAX9rWf8

ORCRiST


Last edited by ORCRiST on Mon Nov 29, 2010 9:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:49 am
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Update time!

Right. (Whew), time for the pickguard assembly, wiring, hole drilling and lots of test fitting... Here we go! :shock:
First off, I ordered no less than three different pickguards all with different materials as I didn't know what I'd go with in the end. As previously mentioned, I decided to go with the .90 black gloss/white/black pickguard. In the initial planning stages, I wanted to do a full copper shield of the inner cavity. After doing a lot of research and consulting peoples' opinions I trust, I decided against the full shield. But since I had a whole bunch of adhesive copper sheets laying around, I decided to lay down one continuous sheet across the entirety of the inside of the pickguard. All of the edges were carefully cut and de-burred, leaving about an 1/16th of an inch from all edges including the pickup and control cutouts (except for where the 3-way switch and pots were to be mounted). I had these perfect little washers that I used for the pickup mounting springs just so the tension of the springs wouldn't mess with the copper shielding over time and under tension. Not needed, but hey, I had them - and I think it makes for a cleaner looking setup.

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I work in IT by trade, and I build custom PC's for people - so I had this really cool black cable sleeving kit. It's sort of a black plastic weave that looks like steel braided brake or hydraulic lines and it easily stretches to accomodate various wires and cables. I used the sleeving kit and shrink tubing to make all the pickup wires neat and tidy up until things started splitting off to be soldered to the switch and pots.

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For the components used:
1x RS Guitarworks 280K SuperPot - volume
2x CTS 250K audio-taper pots - tone controls
1x AP Vitamin Q Oil & Paper cap (.022uf, 400V)
1x Oak Grigsby 3-way blade swtich
1x DiMarzio Super Distortion (DP100), Blk/Blk, F-Spaced (Bridge)
1x Fender Custom Shop 'Texas Special' RWRP single coil, with black cap. (Middle)
1x DiMarzio PAF 36th Anni. Edition (DP103), Blk/Blk, F-Spaced (Neck)

Some may note that these aren't really 'proper' values for components to pair with the pickups in this build. But, these same values are found in Dave Murray's 'Kossoff' stratocaster, which in turn are the values found in a normal three single-coil strat; 250k controls all around. Dave never changed them when he added the humbuckers to the 'Kossoff', so thats what I'm going to use. The only liberty (or departure, if you will) I've taken is the use of an RS Guitarworks 280k 'Superpot' in lieu of a standard Fender 250k volume control pot and I'm using the AP Vitamin Q cap instead of... whatever Fender used for a cap 'back in the day', 1963 in the case of the Kossoff.

I'm pretty happy with the result. Very clean IMHO, but I had a lot of help from my friend Josh who's my soldering expert. Thanks Joooosh!

All done and ready to go:
Image

The pickguard was taken downstairs and plugged into the amp and tested before installation into the body - and lo! everything worked perfectly!

Special thanks to Mr. Martian (aka Roy) who helped me with the wiring schematic, thanks Roy! Dave's control setup is a tad different from the regular strat setup. Tone #1 controls the neck, and since Dave almost never uses the middle single coil, Tone #2 controls the middle and bridge pickups.

Here's a shot of the body with all of the holes (shudder) I had to make for the pickguard and input jack. Not a single power-tool (not counting the soldering iron) was used on the guitar. I have a hand-held modeling or jewelers drill that I used for all the holes. Everything came out perfectly, much to my relief!

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And here we have the completed pickguard and jack, installed and secured...
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Another angle...
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Here's a (bad) shot of the spring claw, and you can barely see the bridge ground (soldered on the reverse side of the claw for cleanliness), snaking off to the control cavity on the left:
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This is a shot of the body illustrating the tremolo rout. I had picked up a sheet of thin, self-adhesive neoprene padding that I intended to use to protect to tremolo recess rout. When it came down to it, I couldn't decide if I should show the beautiful paint or protect it. Test fitting the trem, I found that there was a good half-inch of painted area in the rout the trem didn't cover. I didn't want to cover that up, yet didn't want the trem leaf spring (according to Schallers engineering schematic, called a 'Bronce spring') to mar the finish. So I compromised and cut a half-inch strip and placed that directly under the leaf (or Bronce) spring and where it would contact the body if there was no string tension on the trem. That way, the paint is protected directly under the spring, yet the entire route isn't covered allowing one to see the paint the trem doesn't cover. Works for me!

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Here's a shot of my wicked Ruthenium trem and something I decided to try out: a 37mm bell-brass sustain block with stainless steel mounting screws. I have Floyd's on all of my other (two) guitars and after reading the rave reviews on tone and sustain I figured I'd give it a shot. I should have taken some pics of the OEM block for comparison as it looks really wimpy next to the brass one. Not in the pic's (I think) are also a set of 'Raw Vintage' tremolo springs. Also designed to increase sustain and recommended by some fellow forumites, I thought those plus the sustain block would make for a nice one-two punch...

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Raw Vintage tremolo springs ROCK, so glad I picked some up - love the feel, love the tone:

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Previous to this stage of the build (I had eight months to kill), I bought and installed these nifty Floyd Rose saddle shims. The Schaller Floyd Rose has saddle radius of 12 inches. Using the saddle shims, I correctly adjusted the saddle heights to match an approximate 18" radius at the bridge to properly compensate for the curvature my Warmoth compound radiused fretboard:

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Test fitting the trem... here you can see the neoprene strip due to off-angle of the picture, but looking down from the top/front its completely hidden...

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Another wierd angle, lol... but my favroite of the bunch as it shows of the true colors really well.
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And here's a final shot of the trem and pickguard before bed!
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Allright, thats it for now - its 2:30 in the AM and work calls in the morning.

As always, comments and questions are welcome!

ORCRiST


Last edited by ORCRiST on Sat Dec 19, 2015 1:27 pm, edited 7 times in total.

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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 3:32 am
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Nice clean work, Orc! :)

carry on!


-Nutter


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Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 3:45 am
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That adamantium looks brilliant on the pickguard and body.

Nice holes too Orc, a classy bit of countersink going on with them.

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