I thought about buying a Powerhouse to try to get Ty Tabor's mid boost, then I found a set of actual Elite pickups on eBay. They are on the way, I'm going to put together an Elite tone clone (from a tonal point of view, not cloning it cosmetically/mechanically) using one of my spare guitars, a wine colored MIM.

I'll route a cavity underneath the pickguard for the preamp, which I've already built it and have in a pedal. I'll stick the battery underneath the pots. I have a TBX control on the way and I just have to order a couple of 50k(L & A) pots for the other 2 controls.

I went out today and picked up a regular Fender pickguard, and knobs, etc. I grabbed a 5 way switch, I wanted to use the 3 push button switches but it complicates things mechanically and doesn't affect the tone. I don't want to take forever to do this, so 5 way it is.

When the pickups arrive, I'm going to measure them and create a program to transfer their shape to the pickguard and use the cnc machine at work to make the proper fitting cutouts.

The one thing I'll have to do is find a dummy coil, or wind one, it is one of the unknowns that I face but I'm sure I can figure it out. Plus, one of my best friends winds pickups, so I can bug him if I need to.

I have most of the other gear TT uses, a Lab Series L5, Midiverb II, the same Ibanez delay, so I'm hopeful I can complete the tone chain with this project. I'm using a VHT 2502 for the power amp, but a friend has a Mesa Boogie 2:90 that I can borrow if I need to. I currently have a Marshall 4x12 with greenbacks, but again, the same friend that has the MB2:90 has a 4x12 with V30's so in the end I'm sure I'll have to bug him, just to put it all together at least one time.

If anybody is interested I'm going to take a bunch of pictures and post them on my Photobucket page.

it's great that you are so into building this strat but wouldn't it be easier to just buy some v.n. pups and a 25db booster kit and just build you an e.c. strat. after all that is what the elite strat became. just saying,no harm intended good luck on your endevour.

Once you've installed the 25dB boost kit, add a pair of resistors to reduce the gain to 12dB.

You certainly did. A few Elites were sold with the classic 5-way selector and regular Stratocaster knobs. Two of such guitars custom-built for Eric Clapton featured a '57-style maple neck.

blackstrat71

I agree with your comments but I'm going with the Elite because I want to be sure that I can cop Ty Tabor 100%. I've already built the preamp without the dummy coil part of the circuit and put it in pedal form. I'm just going to build it again, this time exactly like the original, and I'm going to put it in the guitar.

chromeface

I think I read about those Clapton guitars either somewhere else online or in one of your posts. It's just easier, I just want the tone. When I first started modding/building things, I used to spend more time at the computer designing or surfing the net looking for that magic piece of information that would make my project perfect than getting things done. Now I just build stuff properly and and I try to not to overengineer/overthink.

Thanks for the interest guys, please check back on me as I may need your knowledge during the build.

One last thing, I keep having to reset my password as every time I try to logon, I get refused. Any idea what the problem could be?

I am a HUGE King's X/Ty Tabor fan and I love this idea. I would love to see and hear your finished product. If you have a chance, take pictures of your process, I'd love to see your progress.

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon messing with my Super Champ X2 (and the Fender Fuse Software) trying to get some King's X type of tones. I came away with a great Dogman tone, and a passable early (OOTSP and Gretchen) type of tone.

I hope the project goes really well for you!