Speaking of 1 hum pointy headstock Strats!

[Endtime]

Here’s mine. I made this body a LOMG time ago. Northern ash. Weighs a ton. Lol. But it’s cool. I like a little heft. I made a really killer Birdseye maple neck for it. I was happy with it. But I wasn’t playing it much. So I also bought this 24.75 Warmoth conversion neck awhile ago cause it was in their screaming deals section. $150 or so it’s always worth a gamble plus I thought it would go well with the Warmoth V body I had. And I did use it with that but decided to late a new neck for the V, and thought let’s just see how the shorter scale goes with the Strat. Afterall my old school fave Fender HM Strat has that 25.125 scale. Anyway….

But his thing is absolutely on a new level. I can’t tell you how much I love playing this. One of the rare guitars where the EMG 81 sounds monstrous. It even sounds good with the PV 6505 which almost never works for me… It absolutely shreds and .. yeah… It was a worthy experiment! Also I think the color turned out cool. I just played with stains until it looked cool to me. It’s kinda green/grey, maple a little blue. Just 3 coats of “Goodstuff” oil. So pretty raw but the Goodstuff holds up rather well for a gel oil. Plus I saw that’s what Jackson Cuatom shop uses on some guitars so good enough for them?! Good enough for me!

BB13DD81-C594-4911-BB9B-83147F2EF3C4.jpeg (162.53 KiB) Viewed 910 times

[maggotspawn]

Looks killer.

[Guitarbilly]

nice man!! I agree the finish is killer!!
I've been wanting to try the Warmoth conversion necks. Being primarily a LP player I think they would make a lot of sense for my strats.
A while ago, I played a late 80s Valley Arts strat with the Gibson scale neck and it felt great. But they wanted $6k for it so fuck that lol But a Warmoth conversion neck would be a more reasonable investment.

[greatmutah]

That thing is awesome!

[eyeball987]

Sweet!

[Endtime]

Thanks dudes. The one thing I always sorta pay attention to as a builder is how far out the 1st fret is/feels. That’s why on V’s I actually think the shorter scale feels better cause that shape puts that first fret “out” kinda far on basically every V style. So I never really felt a Strat was too far out but it’s a real big feel change going to the shorter scale. It feels way more compact and tidy but I find it makes everything more comfortable. Who knew?!!? Lol

[greatmutah]

I can see that. I agree with you on the V thing in particular. My Rhoads felt like the first fret was way out. The Gibson felt much closer and compact. I’ve noticed it with a couple PRS guitars too. My Santana SE is24.5” scale. Feels nice and compact and comfortable. The 250 scale PRS guitars I have also feel great but you notice the Santana does feel more compact. I’m just running it in standard tuning with 9 - 46s on it and the strings feel effortless to play. Just fun. I imagine something like your Strat, or a Charvel Fusion or Kramer Nightswan would have a similar effect given their 24.75” scale.

[macaronisalad]

Definitely dig it. I had a couple USA Jackson Fusions, a Kramer Nightswan, and a Peavey Vandenberg so I'm well versed in the short scale Super Strats. It definitely makes them feel extra "built for speed", even if I don't have much speed in my playing.

I also love your use of Schaller trems, as much as that may not seem like a big thing. That bridge (whether it be branded Schaller, or have the brand name of the guitar on it) has been on a lot of guitars of my past.

[Endtime]

I can see that. I agree with you on the V thing in particular. My Rhoads felt like the first fret was way out. The Gibson felt much closer and compact. I’ve noticed it with a couple PRS guitars too. My Santana SE is24.5” scale. Feels nice and compact and comfortable. The 250 scale PRS guitars I have also feel great but you notice the Santana does feel more compact. I’m just running it in standard tuning with 9 - 46s on it and the strings feel effortless to play. Just fun. I imagine something like your Strat, or a Charvel Fusion or Kramer Nightswan would have a similar effect given their 24.75” scale.

That’s why the First Rhoads V. Was it the “Concorde”, or something along those lines? Anyway, it’s the one with horrible upper fret access but they did that, to really bring in that first gret( as Randy was a tiny dude.

Another example since I’ve built all these different models is the first EvH music Man guitar. If you watch Ed during those years you can kinda see it looks “further out “. And it’s a small thing but that was one of the things the PV designer, Jim DeCola, changed was to sit the neck in a bit further on the Wolfgang . So it brought in that 1st fret Just a half inch or so. But just like I only changed it 3/4 of an inch and it makes BIG difference in feel. It’s one of the main reasons for “my” Charvel Star builds i copied the original design. Which makes for kinda shitty upper fret access, even tho it’s only got 21. But the guitar sits and feels almost like a Strat. It doesn’t sit oddly far away or anything drastic. Then they went to this Desolation series Star. Which really doesn’t count to me. Lol. But it’s a star. And they made a 24 fret neck and to make that playable they had to move the neck OUT from the body. Which then made that first fret feel way out like a V. Plus it puts the bridge in a place where it’s sits closer to the edge of the body and the wrist sits kinda half off and half on. It felt terrible! Lol,

Anyway just rambling how much that plays a role in feel and design. I just never tried it with a Strat shape and again, I’m fine with a standard 25.5 strst length, but this short scale feels great too.

[greatmutah]

Agreed on the Wolfgang thing. I noticed it in the HP Special too. It’s still a 25.5” scale guitar but having the neck a little more into the body brings it closer and it feels tighter. And yeah I like the standard 25.5” Strat scale and shape. It’s always felt fine to me. The design and body contours keep it fairly comfortable. Hence why I like Charvel Strats so much. They didn’t really change the overall design there. They just fine tuned some things.