NGD

[juansolo]

It started out as an idea which I ended up chatting to Wez Venables about. Then he showed me his mystic woods and, well, one thing led to another and this little beauty was born. May I present to you the WezV English Walnut Stratele (Pictures are all clickable for much enlargement):







Specs:

Alder body with an English walnut top.
Maple neck with a rosewood board and walnut veneer on the headstock.
Neck has been carved to be a C to a mild V as you get towards the headstock (to ape the Baja neck that I like).
Bridge is a sawed off Fender ashtray.
Pups are an old BKP Flat 50 (now a Flat 52) in the bridge, neck and middle are Irish Tours. Standard strat wiring on a 5 way CRL switch with CTS pots.

It's more of a single cut strat than a tele. But it does the tele thing when switched to the bridge really nicely. Which is exactly what we were aiming for.

The single only thing I can level against it was entirely down to my own pikeyness. The pups I scrounged from the internet. The bridge and neck were ebay specials. The middle I got from Ben at BKP (getting a middle on the net was proving difficult). But because of the way Tele and strat pups are wound, I could only have it hum cancelling with one or the other. So I kept the strat section stratty by having it cancel with the neck. Leaving the B+M pos sounding quite nasal. Every other pos is how you'd expect it. But I might have to stick a super switch in there so I can do something else with pos 4. Maybe B+N or I might stick the Esquire caps on it for something else in that pos. Something for me to tinker with later anyhow.

[midwayfair]

Yes! Strele players unite! Looks amazing, dude. Plus the Irish Tours are just amazing pickups.

Try making B&M a series connection instead of parallel. It'll be humbucking but won't sound quite as nasal. 'Course that involves some more complicated wiring ...

[night-B]

Such a wonderfull piece of wood! Bet it sounds as good as it looks 

[culturejam]

I love the Tele body / Strat neck combo. That's a real beaut, Clark. 

[monkeyssj1]

this reminds me of the nice guitars my friend makes

http://www.mysteryguitar.com/index.html#/

[juansolo]

Yes! Strele players unite! Looks amazing, dude. Plus the Irish Tours are just amazing pickups.

Try making B&M a series connection instead of parallel. It'll be humbucking but won't sound quite as nasal. 'Course that involves some more complicated wiring ...

I'm likely going to reverse the phase of it this weekend which should sort it.

[nzCdog]

yum.  that is all

[jkokura]

I'd rock that thing. Cool stuff.

Jacob

[jubal81]

Just had to wipe the drool off my keyboard. That thing is gorgeous. Big congrats.

[Haberdasher]

beauty!

[gtr2]

Niiiiiiiice!

[pickdropper]

Great looking guitar.

[juansolo]

I succumbed and went over to Mr Cleggs to sort the wiring. Phase swapped (which sorted it as expected) and I now have an 'interesting' wiring scheme that'll screw anyone used to a strat up.

The first three positions (from the back) are essentially tele:

1 - Bridge
2 - Bridge & Neck
3 - Neck

The front section of the switch is strat but arse backwards (as it's the only way to do this without a super switch)

3 - Neck
4 - Neck & Middle
5 - Middle

Works brilliantly. The IT matches well with the Flat 52 and they do a great combined tone. 5 great tones. It'll just weird people out that the neck is in the middle and the middle is all the way forward

[crash]

Beautiful walnut!!  I had to go back and look at it after reading the comments.  I didn't notice it was tele shaped at first.  The pickguard and headstock threw me off.

[juansolo]

Beautiful walnut!!  I had to go back and look at it after reading the comments.  I didn't notice it was tele shaped at first.  The pickguard and headstock threw me off.

It's actually strat shaped with a tele upper bout It's slightly different to a tele in that respect (it has the gut cut also, but not the arm as it would have required the top to have been twice as thick).