Should put this one into Andy's build trove once the guitar is completed.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Howdy X man,

Sorry to hear about Fire Engine's brother, but glad to hear your mighty mog is Ok.


+1

Couldn't agree more! An X man thread is always a joy to read and his pic's are always so nicely done.

LEDGE!

Andy

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Pending Greatness

I would have waited until the sky darkened completely on this one, before going indoors.
What a scene. As beautiful in its own right as the moonset I watched early one morning on Maui

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"Another day in paradise!"

I like the mystic look of this.

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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!

Thanks for the kind words, but every one here knows you are the "Master" and I am "Grasshopper." We await, patiently, for your next build. I am just filling in some time waiting for that to happen!


Ya, this big hairy cat lost his best buddy and now he thinks he should have special privileges all the time, like sleeping on our bed, climbing on all the furniture and hanging out with the dogs.... His hair is shorter than usual right now because in the summer we clip him and he looks just like a lion!


Hey ZZ, that picture should be way darker than that but the camera's slow shutter really made it lighter. And the moon was a cool crescent shape but one can not make that out in the pict. We get some nice winter sunsets here....

Ok, Back to the Ultra Flame on the next post!

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

[Crashing sound of Ceri falling off his chair laughing] What absolute, total nonsense! Oh Great Teacher!

Anyhow. Jeff, while we're about it, I know this guitar from your website:

This is a perfect example of the taste thing I was talking about. The astounding flame, the glowing tobacco burst, the ebony 'board, the white edged pickguard picking up on the abalone dot markers, the bridge, the tuners and of course the choice of electronics. What a beautiful combination. If that ain't a guitar to sell your grandmother for then I don't know what is! Just gorgeous.

Ladies and gentlemen, since he's so modest himself permit me to blow Xhefri's trumpet for him. If you don't already know it take a glance at some of The Man's other creations on this page:

http://xhefriguitars.com/page5.html

Try and tell me you don't want most if not all the guitars on that page! That flamey Warmoth bod with the 1996 Anni neck is my pick of the bunch. But right beneath it I also adore that one-piece ash Strat with the cream-pearl 'guard and chrome covered pickups. And the Surf Green one with the maple fingerboard (oh mammy!). And... and...





Oh OK! Good plan.

Cheers - C

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BUILD #1 Flamed Ultra

Ok, time to bounce back to Build #1. Since I went into so much detail on wiring Build #2 Mystic Black, I will not bore you by repeating everything all over again on this build, EXCEPT, for the few things that are different. Again here is the backside of the pickguard. Ummm wonder what color it is? And again I have my Ultra pickguard mounted on top as a guide for drilling the holes. And then I took it off so I could drill the two holes for the top pickup. Do you remember what I told you I am popping in this guard?




Well here is the configuration. Black/White/Black pickguard with a square cut humbucker route on the top and a rounded humbucker cut on the bottom. The rounded ones are often used for humbuckers that do not have the chrome/nickel covers is is called a "fat" cut. It is looking nice. Again I will use the Ultra type wiring as in Build #2 but instead of Black pickups, everything will be Chrome. A Red Hot Chrome Dome Dually in the bridge with a Hot Gold Chrome Dome in the middle and then a Seymour Duncan 59 PAF (Nickel plated SH-1N) in the neck. The 59 PAF was built with the same kind of enameled wire, nickel-plated studs, and balanced coil windings that humbucker inventor Seth Lover used in his first pickups. So think vintage 59 Gibson in the neck on this Strat. I think this should cause the burl flame to stand out pretty nice on the body




Because i am using the humbucker in the neck I will use a 500k tone pot to control that pickup. I know guys talk a lot about what pickups sound the best for various kinds of music. When it comes to Blues/Jazz/Fusion or the use of distortion, a good old humbucker in the neck is pretty hard to beat. I love the vintage Strat tones in the neck as well, especially when played clean. That will be lost on this guitar somewhat. But the nice thing is, with the back-end pickup configuration using the Chrome Domes, and the Ultra switching, one can still get all those cool Strat sounds, from honks to quacks and chimey.




Ok, I have a lot of other things to do today so need to get with those. But next I will be finishing up wiring this guard and then will show you picts of dressing up that Ultra neck. Somethings happen in the darkness of back rooms and can't be shown on the Forum… But I will show you as much as is allowed…..

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

BUILD #1 Flamed Ultra

Not getting a lot done on these builds, but I did get Build #1 wiring finished. I was wondering what this might look like on the body. I will give you a peek in a few seconds. I have not put on the ground wires that tight all the pots together, but that won't take too much time. It turned out nice and clean. The only difference between this one and the one on Build #2 Mystic Black is the humbucker. Since this is a Seymour Duncan 59 PAF it only has one lead and braided wire for the ground. When I wire humbuckers with 4-wire leads i like to put a on/off mini-switch to split the coils, but that is a "no-do" on this pickup.





Nice thing is one can solder the braided ground right too the pot like they do like a on Les Paul.




Ok here is an idea of what this will look like mounted on the body. When the neck is on this and I take pictures i the daytime, it should be stunning (I hope!). Quick question: Do you like the Chrome Ultra Bridge or should I use the Fender Floyd Rose II bridge like shown on the other Flame Ultra shown at the start of this thread?





Here is what the other one looked like:

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

I reckon the Chrome Ultra Bridge looks the business mate!

As Mr C mentioned earlier, You have excellent taste when it comes to putting a Strat together. Chrome on black, on that flamed amber burst bod, looks stunning.

Cheers!

Andy

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Pending Greatness

This is probably a daft question but i'm gonna ask it anyway! What about decals on the headstock? what do you put on? can you get fender decals? or do you do something of your own?

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Uh Oh....There is that question again....If you look at the pics, you'll see that Xhefri is rebuilding with an actual Fender neck, so no need for decals.
I'm stepping out on a limb here but I do not believe Mr. X uses aftermarket Decals.
This discussion has been brought up multiple times....
Let's just say that if the guitar parts are genuine Fender then OK it is a Fender even though it may be reassembled from various sources...Warmoth is licensed to sell Fender shaped Bodies and necks...But not to sell such with a Fender Logo on them...
ZZ-Doc has several responses concerning branding trademarks...

I facsimilied my Fender logo's on my Stratopartster rebuilds, they cannot be mistaken for genuine McCoy's since they were freehanded and spliced. However were I to sell either ( not in this millenium ) I would have to remove the names since they do infringe on Fender trademarks...Simple..

If you check on E-Bay, you can see that some of the pirate vendors that were offering Decals are gone...I'm sure others will pop up but the rule here is " NO "

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

I'm sure that's right.



Though just to be totally anal about it, Warmoth are licensed to produce the Fender headstock shape but not the body.

Warmoth were amongst those that Fender sued a couple of years ago over trademark infringement regarding Strat and Tele shaped bodies. However, they lost their case, so Warmoth and anyone else can produce those bodies without Fender's say so.

Just conversationally, regarding what Xhefri does, I'd be astounded if Fender view it with anything other than delight. With all his knowledge, energy and enthusiasm for Fender Mr X is one of the finest advertisements you could imagine for the product; better than a row of full page ads. I think Fender should have a corner devoted to him in their Visitor Center!

Cheers - C

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Ah Thank You..I did not know necks were licensed but not the bods.
Yes it would be/is a positive push for the brand....See a little reworking here and you have Excellence, not available form the other's....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Hey Gordon, I think thsat 53magnatone and Ceri (Mr C), addressed this question very well, and even added some useful information I did not know about. But it is true that I always have used Fender necks and even bodies—up until my experiment with using the flamed Warmoth body in the guitar shown at the start of this thread.I wondered if I ever sold it if I could get my money back out of the investment and I was quite surprised at how much I sold that custom flame build for (not advertising here!). It was an incentive for sure. I would never "fake" a Fender or sell something without full disclosure. What I have played around with is building a complete guitar using Warmoth body and NECK, with custom wiring and making a decal that says XHEFRI in some nice script, or perhaps "X", that would be on the headstock. But just not have ventured out to do that and would need to talk with my friends at Warmoth to make sure that would be OK.

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Mr X, you are famed for being absolutely scrupulous about not coming here to advertise or do business. And in turn I have quietly promised myself that I will never buy another Strat: anything else I want I must build myself.

And yet, there is a guilty little bit of me that it itching to know how much you'd ask for that flame fronted, ebony 'boarded guitar. I can't remember the last time I felt such GAS!

(...Though maybe it was when I looked at that one-piece ash body with the pearl pickguard right beneath the flamed Strat on your webpage. )

Anyhow. Let's just have one more look. Oh my...



Cheers - C

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