NGD and a long story

[madbean]

Technically, it's a new 'body' day. The story of this guitar:

I got my second guitar in 1989. It was a Fender Deluxe (Am.) Strat with Lace Sensors. Great guitar! But, being the dumbass teenager I was, I decided I wanted to mod it...a lot. Around this time I was really into Metallica, and the "..and Justice for All" record had just come out. I saw this picture of Kirk Hammet with a tricked out Strat that I really loved. It was black like mine, but he had put EMGs, a Floyd Rose and black tuners on it. I thought it looked freakin awesome so I decided I would trick out my Strat like his.

Anyway, I had the EMGs put in, bought some black Sperzel tuners. Eventually I bought a Floyd Rose and took it to my local shop to see if they could put it in. I had been taking lessons there for a couple of years and had them do some work before, so I was not worried. So, the owner says "sure, no problem" and off it went to a local luthier to route out the body and install the tremolo.

Well, it turns out this "luthier" specialized in stringed instruments, but violins or some shit. What I got back was a mess. The body had been incorrectly routed, the clamping nut was installed behind the original nut rather than replacing it and the damn thing would not hold tune at all. I was pretty crushed. I found out later the owner of the shop was a coke addict or something, so maybe he traded the money for drugs, ha ha.

Years went by and I kept playing the guitar even though I grew out of the metal phase. I eventually started undoing some of the mods, going back to the Laces, etc. Since the body was pretty well destroyed, I painted the back of it with "This Machine Kills Capitalists". I dunno why I did that. But, I just kept playing with it and put up with the bad setup, frequent detunes, etc. Through this process I completely wore in the neck, which was still in good shape. The thing about playing a neck over a lot of years is that both your hand and the wood eventually mold themselves to one another. I love the neck and the fact that the original nut was left in turned out to be a blessing.

So, finally, here is the re-done Deluxe more than 20 years later. The new body is Warmoth, Black Korina. I love it! It's got the original 2-point tremolo and neck. The pickups are supposedly Fenders, but there are no markings to indicate. They are fairly weak---5.65k on the bridge. But, I like weakish single coils. The chickenhead knob is actually a fake pot---it has an SPST switch on it, so when I turn it all the way back, the switch engages and adds in the neck pickup so I can get the neck/bridge combo I like so much. The pickguard is Walnut which I bought off eBay a while ago. I wish I had taken a picture of the wiring I did inside...one of my best wiring jobs. Also, I put in wicked paper in oil 22n cap in for the master tone.

Now I gotta plug it in!

[oldhousescott]

Sweet! She's a beauty! Did you add any shielding inside?

[madbean]

Sweet! She's a beauty! Did you add any shielding inside?

Actually, no. I was tempted to, but in the end I decided against it. I did do a partial shield on the pickguard though. I used roofing tape of all things. I was careful to check grounding continuity on all the parts and everything is in contact thankfully. It worked really well.

I might add some some body shielding later but I was kinda in a hurry to get this done (got a session coming up).

[gtr2]

You have a fantastic body there...  

I check through warmoths site every couple months.  Never bought anything but they have some fine looking stuff!

Josh

[GermanCdn]

That is a gorgeous body, and I love the pickguard.

As far as the rest of the story goes, it falls under the "What we did when we were young and stupid" category.  I murdered a couple of otherwise perfectly good guitars with similar intentions, worst one was a US Hamer Chapparal which I decided I'd totally refinish, taking it from a guitar I could have sold for $800 - $1000 to a guitar I traded in for $100.

[juansolo]

Tis a thing of much loveliness! 

[Stomptown]

This is awesome Brian! I love the natural wood looks great. It feels great to be able to bring guitars back to life. I have an old Les Paul that I restored with a nice story behind it as well. I'll post something soon...

[jkokura]

I too like the master tone knob setup. I'm changing all my guitars to master tone, master volume...

Jacob

[slimtriggers]

That's a great looking guitar! 

[nzCdog]

Black Korina = Holy grail tonewood!
Very nice! 

[wolfingsworth]

That guitar is absolutely beautiful! Congrats! I live  not too far from the Warmoth factory in WA.  One of these days I need to take a tour and buy something!

[pickdropper]

That looks great, Brian.  I really dig the black limba body.

Congrats on getting a Strat Plus with a straight neck.  I bought one in '93 that is on it's third neck. 

Love the guitar otherwise, although nearly everything has been changed out at this point.

[lincolnic]

That is a really beautiful guitar.

[jtn191]

awesome guitar! I always like seeing woodgrain, haven't seen many pick-guards like that.
One of my heros plays a Strat Plus (or deluxe?) with Lace Sensors. I have those in mine too; wired mine for master volume, master tone, bass cut (like G&L). Also I swapped the middle and the bridge pickups without changing any of the wiring, giving me that sweet neck+bridge position instead of neck + middle. one of my favorites

[wgc]

If I said you had a nice body, would you hold it against me?  ;-)