hollow body mod, for poor chinese strat...


redspecial
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Joined: 04/28/05
Posts: 211
redspecial
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Joined: 04/28/05
Posts: 211
04/28/2005 3:07 am
well...
i bought a crappy chinese strat. :o
floyd rose bridge. (looks like made of tin can)
HB on the bridge, and two coils for mid and neck.
no truss rod. :rolleyes:
body is pathetic, it's cheap oak or smthin. pickups r pretty crappy as usual, every coil has resistance less than 8K. but HB is potted well and sounds not bad...

whatever, i wanna mod it for makin' hollow body. it has two lil cavities for electronics and floyd rose springs. i just remove the bridge and electronics covers, and cut backside area for broaden the cavity... i think i'll build a wide wooden cover for it. pickups will be HB for bridge and single coil for neck...

so what's your ideas and suggestions? :D
[FONT=Verdana]rest in heavenly peace lil' fox...[/FONT]
# 1
aschleman
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aschleman
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04/28/2005 3:14 pm
Sounds like you got yourself a little project there! haha
First off, it probably does have a truss rod... but the nut for it is probably located on the heel instead of the headstock. Vintage strats had this. So just to let you know, you might want to check. It's a pain to have to adjust those, but they work just the same. Also, it sounds like you want to make it into a hollow-body. That's pretty cool, as long as the wood is a decent sound wood it should sound alright. Normally when people build hollow-body guitars they rout the hollow cavaties from the top of the guitar and then top it with a different kind of wood... such as maple, koa, redwood... so on. What I would do is remove all the hardware, electronics, neck... etc. until I had just the body... then I would sand the finish down to the wood... plain about a quarter (1/4") of the top of the body... rout your hollow cavaties... then buy a 1/4" thick piece of luthier wood and trace the body.... rout it for the pickups, electronics, drill the pickgaurd screws...so on... then glue it to the top.... sand it so it's nice and flush... make sure all the edges are flush with the bodies original cavaties... then you can sand the top how you want it... finish the body (might want to read up on procedures for painting guitar bodies...) if you finish your own body you can make it whatever color you want... I would also use either flamed or quilted maple... it looks cool. You can also use transparent finishes to show the grain. That's what I would do!!!! haha. Whatever way you choose to do it, I'm sure it will turn out cool. GOOD LUCK BRO
# 2
redspecial
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redspecial
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04/28/2005 10:03 pm
hey thanx!
i should look for xperienced guy about truss rod, it seems to be wait. so i need qualified wood for pickguard area and cavity's back cover. its so sad to bridge'll located on the cheap body... :o
and you know, floyd rose has no woody tone like static bridges... :(
[FONT=Verdana]rest in heavenly peace lil' fox...[/FONT]
# 3
aschleman
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aschleman
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04/29/2005 4:35 pm
You don't absolutly need high quality wood to do anything. I was just giving you an example of how I would go about it. Other wood are just fine. It's been proven that you can put any kind of top-wood on a guitar (up to 1/4" thick) and it won't change the tonal qualities of the base wood. Example... You could have the best mahogany body ever... and top it with 1/8" to 1/4" of any wood you choose and the body will still resonate the way the base mahogany body would by itself. Truss rods aren't too complicated. The ones that I assume your strat has are just the same as other truss rods, they're just oriented differently than most other electric guitar truss rods. Since this is a kind of project guitar, don't be afraid to take it apart and experiment with adjusting the truss rod and such. Just remember a couple things. Whenever tightening the truss rod always loosen it a little first because sometimes people start cranking on it when it's already as tight as it will go and you can strip the nut or break it. Also, it doesn't take much to adjust them either. Try just quarter turns at a time. Once you get good you can sight the neck and know exactly how far you will need to turn the truss to get the relief just right. GOOD LUCK BRO!
# 4
redspecial
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Posts: 211
redspecial
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Posts: 211
04/29/2005 8:34 pm
it looks not nice, it has a drain for rod, but body connection seems to me pretty high than normal.
(pretty higher than bottom of pickup cavity...) :confused:
i know its crucial, but probably i need a new neck and moddin body for it.

whatever i'll post pics as soon as possible...
[FONT=Verdana]rest in heavenly peace lil' fox...[/FONT]
# 5
redspecial
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redspecial
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05/20/2005 2:44 am
ok, its finished...
i cut some cavities inside.
potting pickups and shielding pickup covers.
i stick with the orginal single-single-humbucker configuration.
two tone pots with different pickups with different capacitors. (.022 for coils, .047 for humbucker)
one general volume pot.
and double throw switch with coils-humbucker selection.

weight balance looks awful... neck's heavier than body.
sound isn't bad and isn't better i think. usin' classic wiring for humbucker and out of phase series for coils...

is it worth? maybe... at least i learn new things... :rolleyes:

anybody knows experimental stuff for different tones, resistor capacitor combination, or smthing? :confused:


sorry for, still have no picture... :(
[FONT=Verdana]rest in heavenly peace lil' fox...[/FONT]
# 6

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