SX Strat Project Complete!

Dord

So I bought an SX strat last year and was very impressed with the quality & the sound too but i was looking to make it a lil' more rock!

Here's what it looked like before ~



So I bought some new parts to upgrade it. Here's what i got
GFS Crunchy PAF pickup (15k)
GFS Lil' Killer (10k)
GFS white pearly pickguard with 1 hum spacing.
Push/Pull 500k pot
3 way switch
Wilkinson EZLok kluson style tuners
free black strat knob (thanks music maker guy!)

I got all the parts except for the tuners and switch from GFS, the tuners and switch came from Axes R' Us in the UK.
Both GFS and Axes R Us were great, got my order really quick. no problems, exactly what i wanted. Jay & GFS were great, jay answered my q's nearly immediately when i had problems.

GFS - http://www.guitarfetish.com
Axes R' Us - http://www.axesrus.com


So i basically got the idea for the hidden pickup from John English's Esquire. I still need to make some mods to the circuit because the output is a little low for the neck pup. i'll build a booster circuit in for the neck pup.

it sounds great! i love the crunchy PAF, it sounds great & the lil killer sound sooooo smooth i wired up the 3 way switch so that I have the option of neck only, neck + bridge and bridge. also if i pull up the vol knob i can have the same options only tapped!! and when i have it on the neck+bridge option its single coil sound but hum-free!



I'm seriously loving this thing now. I had it setup in Music Maker earlier today. the guy there who does setups is awesome. it plays so well now.

I love teh SX!

Doctor J

Doing a very similar thing myself. The GFS humbucker is a very, very nice pickup.

Good work!

Dord

thanks

yeah the GFS stuff rocks. it came really well packaged. only took about 5 days to get here. i can't recommend it enough :cool:

feylya

Nicely done. What's the neck on the SX like and where'd you get it from?

Dord

the neck is awesome! seriously. its really comfortable, frets are nice. no sharps. some nice flaming on the back of the neck. i bought it in the older Waltons shop past the ambassador. the SX's i saw in the big store were of lower quality for some reason???

oh yeah, the stock guitar cost me €160~ they have one in the same colour but with the rosewood board on display. its nice too. oh and they have a nice lpb one there also.....no....must fight gas.....

-=al=-

v nice! i bought one of those a few momnths ago exact same one... i posted it here too, mine aint finished yet but it'll be finished someday :cool:

fish-head

That's savage Joe! Couldya explain the whole hidden pickup thing to me?

-=al=-

Yes, do tell

leninbenjamin

it's actually pretty amazing how you can find some cheap guitars that play absolutely great, it's always a buzz to come across something decent for next to nothing. Good find, and good work too. it looks great.

Dord

fish-head wrote:

That's savage Joe! Couldya explain the whole hidden pickup thing to me?

well i got the idea from John English of Fender Custom Shop. he built a run of 100 "Stealth" Esquire's. An esquire is basically a one pickup telecaster. his guitars looked like esquires but had three pickups. 2 of the pickups hidden under the pickguard.

here's the john english esquire (price tag of about $8000) :eek:


so what i have under the pickguard on my guitar is a "hotrails" type pickup from GFS. it needs a little bit of modification to bring the levels up. the volume is slightly lower than the humbucker. i'm going to build a simple booster circuit in to fix this problem.


EDIT: i just wanna say that this thing rocks, i was playing it more yesterday. i can get pretty much any sound out of it. it does metal great! also a lovely bluesy sound and when i solo the neck pup it does a cool jazzy sound. and then when i tap the pickups i can get a tele type sound.

fish-head

But how the hell does the vibration come through the pickguard?

I don't like the idea of putting another pickguard in an Esquire.. I like 'em obnoxiously simple!

deaddonkey

fish-head wrote:

But how the hell does the vibration come through the pickguard?

the strings vibrate, the plastic pickguard is irrelevant to a magnetic field. works just like any other pickup circuit..

david

How does the vibration come through a metal pickup cover or a plastic EMG cover? I think its irrelevant to the magnetic field whats in between them.

Voodu Child

Obviously the pickup is lower and the signal will be weaker.

As the man says, he is putting in an active booster to help with this. You'll never boost something that isnt there of course, but all the same, interesting stuff, not my cup of tea but yeah, definitely a job well done:) Congrats

blackcrow

you did a great job!, would like to buy it!, well done

feylya

Dragging up year and a half old threads is not allowed.