Idea:

Can someone PLEASE publish the perfect STRAT book? I have good ones but none of them is perfect. Many have some of the info below but none has all the info below and some info is vague, not enough detailed or has bad pictures or stuff missing).

I want:
-available finishes (color pictures) for all models and years since '54 (plus weird stuff, when they switched to machines and ltd runs etc)
-nitro, poly, lacquers, layers (neck and body)
-trem bar and trem block info (material, dimensions)
-info on woods (neck and body) throughout the years, maple caps, slab boards, transition years...
-dot/position marker spacing throughout the years
-picture section of neck dates throughout the years (like EVERY year:)
-picture section of body (neck pocket) dates throughout the years (like every year)
-pictures of electronics (pick ups, wiring, pots and switches) throughout the years
-picture section of body countours (with every change and preferably taken in the same angle!)
-picture section with pics of price lists, catalogues, Fender Frontlines throughout the years (to back up info)
-detailed info on how to date pots, covers and switches and knobs (with pictures)
-detailed pictures of decals (every year or whenever Fender changed it) with info on positioning to dead on spot fake decals.
-all stock pickups, output, pole pieces, wire used, 250k pots etc
-info on neck pocket details (date stamp, how many holes, stickers, what signatures, initials, etc)
-info and picture section of known FAKES (fake decals, fake serials, etc) !

This could be an e-book, so easy to constantly update (every year or so, like Fender just dropped the old system of neck serial numbering and few people caught up to that yet!)

All that of course would have to cover all US made, MIM, CIJ and MIJ and Custom Shop and Relic and Reissues and Signature models (maybe Squiers too)

Sounds like a piece of cake, right? lol

Any believable hardcore collector(s) (Joint Effort?) that can back up his/their info through pictures and references, PLEASE, write an e-Book on the Stratocaster, which you could then self-publish through Amazon et alt and I AND probably many more would buy it.

The Duchossoir book has a LOT of that info mentioned above, but it's from 1994. UPDATE ANYONE? Hey A.R: How about an e-book version with regular updates? ^^

Hard bill to fit!
"The Stratocaster Chronicals",by Tom Wheeler is a good one,if you haven't already,check it out.

+1

Currently there is no stand-alone Strat reference book IMO but Wheeler's tome (and his companion volume covering Fender amps) comes the closest.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Sounds like an excellent topic. Let us know when you have it ready for publication.

_________________
Bill

A user update-able website would be an excellent idea. Many Forum users here have the combinable knowledge to make that a fabulous resource. Sort of a Wiki-Strat project.

Go to, gentlemen.

I wonder who could run it (Nevin)?

Cheers - C

_________________

Do it!

That would be awesome. It's really worth thinking about it imo. Many people would extremely appreciate it. I know I would.

Making a stratocaster website with all that info in the list would be an awesome idea! I would gladly help with the lay-out of the website since i'm a webdesigner hehe!

_________________
Guitars:
Fender USA Standard '89
Godin G4000 '95
LTD Viper 400 '01
Ibanez RG550 LTD '97

Amps: Koch Studiotone Tube amp / Hughes & Kettner ATS MKII
Pedals: Ibanez WH10, Ibanez CP10, Boss CH-1, Boss MT-2, Aria FL10

If I could get some people who would commit to starting it off, I would gladly put up a site (I've got a server and everything already). Who's in?

_________________
2010 American FSR Thin Skin Strat
2009 Martin OMC1KE Acoustic
2004 Mexican Strat HSS Modded

POD HD500

Oh I'm in!

Yes, that one,....that IS a very good site indeed. Very nice pictures, too. It is not up to date but def one of the best if not the best out there.

Hi rver1986: could you make it peer-editable, like Wikipedia? So that many of us could contribute a little or a lot on an on-going basis?

I've done a bit of webiste building, but that sort of thing is way beyond my pay grade. If you could make it work I am certain many here would contribute and it would gradually become the key resource.

'Course, you'd have to have almost limitless capacity for uploaded photos, stats and descriptive and discursive text. Lotta folk here with a lot to say. Just figuring out how to display all that material would be a job and a half, never mind administering the gathering side of the thing.

Good luck!

Cheers - C

_________________

Haven't got it nearly set up, but if anyone wants to start it off, here ya go:

http://www.thestratwiki.com/

_________________
2010 American FSR Thin Skin Strat
2009 Martin OMC1KE Acoustic
2004 Mexican Strat HSS Modded

POD HD500

This is a good thing. Do we need permission to add material, do we have to register?

I wrote a book, it got published, it sold out and went to reprint. It was a slog but the worst part was getting somebody who new a little bit about the subject posting on forum about the parts they didn't like. One guy said there was a chapter that he didn't need. I offered to fly to Texas to remove the offending pages for him.