So I had this idea of buying a standard American Strat and customising it a bit!! I have seen some great Strat builds on this and other forums/sites and this is nowhere near as classy as some but here goes....

Bought the black standard Strat as per the photos. It's a 2004.
Pick Ups....Did a bit of research on the pups....God, there are so many to choose from!! However, opted for Dimarzios...

Fast Track 1 DP 181...Neck
Pro Track DP 188...Middle
Super Distortion DP 218...Bridge

Wanted to have the Eric Clapton "Crash 3" paint scheme, so had to source a custom painter for that.

Replaced the nut for a LSR roller nut and changed out the tuners for brushed chrome locking Schallers. Had to keep the string roller tho as it would have left a hole in the head stock!!

Swopped out the bridge for a new Super V Blade Runner bridge. the bridge is absolutely brill! Rock solid....and combined with the locking tuners, keeps the guitar consistently in great tune, even when using the wammy bar....and there is that extra bit of sustain also.

Decided, just to set the guitar off nicely, to have a custom neck plate done, which includes the serial number of the guitar.

Once it was all together, with a lot of help from my good friend Steve Renton, who is a bit of a guitar guru here in my part of Scotland....well...actually it was mostly all of his work.....ok...it was all his work!!! I thought it looked pretty good and it plays and sounds really great!! I'm really happy with it. It cost a fair bit to get it to this condition, but I did it for me and have no plans to sell it!! It was a bit of a labour of love...especially when it came to setting it up and I know it won't be to everyone's liking, but as a thanks to Steve for all of his hard work, I thought I would share it with the forum...Enjoy!

Before....




After....

Very nice guitar and great paint job

Wow! Nicely done!

beautiful
did you get the tone you want with the pickup swap out?

Crikey!

I'll be honest its not really my thing, but I have huge respect for those who can pull off a decent refin/spray job.

Nice work and congrats!

Cheers!

Andy

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Pending Greatness

+1

cheers

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It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting - paulo coelho

Nice Job....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Dude ... There's nothing about your project that didn't turn out classy.
Nice job.
Nice job, 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.

You didn't just have an idea, you had a stroke of genius. Very nice guitar my friend. I wish I had that kind of talent...

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Kid: "Hey Smokey! Where did you get your name?"
Smokey the Bear: "Well..."
(former user jimbo612)

That Build certainly rates a huge Holy Schmokes Very well done!

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

Looks terrific! Great job!

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My one wish when I die is that my wife doesn't sell my guitar stuff for what I told her I paid for it...

Really nice job, s2classic! It's a beauty

Guys,

Thank you for the kind comments!! Just to answer a couple of points....The pick ups, gave me the sound I wanted..definately! As I said, there is such a vast choice of pups out there and it's obviously a personal choice, but I was happy with the result! It just took a bit of time and patience....the internet can be a wonderful thing!!

I can't take credit for the paint job, which I also think looks good. It was done by a guy called Les Cameron, who is a custom painter based just outside Dundee in Scotland. I picked the design and supplied him with various pics and this was the end result!

http://www.custompaintuk.co.uk/

As for stratofiedmind's comment on the design being stolen!!....I wouldn't say stolen, as I don't have the original guitar, but yes...the design is a copy of Eric Clapton's "Crash 3" as I stated in my post. There are a couple of companies and custom guitar makers out there who do this specific design as well.

I think he means if it were ever stolen from you, y'know unique. Looks like a good job. I'm not familiar with the Clapton guitar you mention, please enlighten.

Ah...Thanks Boxbang, obviously got the wrong end of the stick there!! But Stratofiedmind does have a point....it wouldn't be a difficult guitar to recognise!! The "Crash 3" as the name suggests, is the third guitar in a series of 3 from a well known grafitti artist called John "Crash" Matos. If you have a look at this link, it gives the info...

http://whereseric.com/eric-clapton-faq/ ... atocasters