Tylercaster A

Ever since I put my Telecaster together, Tyler's been itching for his own build. We settled on a plan to build a Stratocaster cousin. He wanted as many features to be the same as my Telecaster, including:

• a vintage tinted and shaped neck,
• 3-tone sunburst alder body,
• parchment pickguard,
• aftermarket bridge (non stock),
• a deluxe body with the sculpted heel,
• non-standard wiring,
• and Seymour Duncan pickups.

We got him the neck and the case and he saved up for the rest of the build. The neck is an amazing quartersawn and slightly flamey piece from an Eric Johnson model Stratocaster. It came with the vintage staggered tuners, so I guess he won't be learning about installing those. Here you can see him removing the hunk of wood that I attached before we gave it to him. I wanted him to open up a light case, possibly thinking it was empty. However, I didn't want a costly neck banging around in there. The case is a standard, but classic style. He was probably relieved we got that for him since no one really likes buying a case when saving for a guitar (but it is necessary).

I don't know what to be more excited about, the neck or this body. I'll start with the neck. The Eric Johnson model neck is one of the few truly quartersawn necks that you can get on a USA Stratocaster, before you go Custom Shop. There are many great "Crafted in Japan" necks that look great, but this one is even more special. The maple has a slight flame to it, and it is tinted. It looks like some of the 1957 ReIssue necks, and even has a soft-V profile (that moves towards a "C" as you move up the neck). The fretboard radius is not like a 1957, though. It is actually 12", just like a Gibson. This thing will be able to shred, (some day). To top it off, the neck has a nitrocellulose finish, just like the old days.

The body is a 3-tone sunburst, just like my Telecaster. The model it came from was an American Deluxe model. In addition to the sculpted heel (note the funky neck plate in the top picture), it also has the 2-point tremolo bridge. The vintage models, and many of the American Standards have the 6-screw bridge, but this one is simpler. With no string trees (due to the staggered tuners), the only place that the string can bind is at the nut and the bridge. When properly set up, it should be great for all kinds of trem-bar playing. Of course, I have never set one of these up (never had a tremolo, actually), so I am about to be educated! One more thing about this body. The wood looks selected (not really something Fender gets into), and it is more than one piece but it is hard to tell. Finally, at 3lb-11oz, it is extremely light.

The parchment pickguard is just like my Tele and looks classic. I just couldn't go mint, and he thinks I'm crazy for ever suggesting it. Here he is loading the Seymour Duncan Classic Stack (STK-4) pickups. My telecaster has the vintage stacks for the neck and bridge, and the identical Classic Stack for the middle pickup. If the pickguard looks bubbly, that's because I am having him keep the plastic on as long as possible. I had him peel it up wherever a screw goes, because I find it annoying when a guitar has plastic sheets protecting the pickguard that goes under controls and screws. It was hard standing back and just giving him guidance. I swear I want to build this whole thing myself and then take it apart and have him do it. Restraint.

Yeah, it will take restraint, but it's the best thing because he will learn so much doing this himself. We'll have a lot to work on together because this will only take a week at the most. After that, we'll dive headfirst into an amp project. I'll save that for another time, though.
Up next will be wiring up the controls. A nice thing about the Stratocaster is that you can build up the pickups and controls on to he pickguard, and then drop it in place. This was genius for the factory process because it saves so much time. Of course, to adjust things, you have to take the pickguard off and take of the strings. At least with a 21-fret neck we won't have to loosen those neck bolts, though. The controls are based on the blender control from AcmeGuitars, so it will have some pickup combinations that most standard Stratocasters can't get (like Neck and Bridge at the same time). But, more on that later.

--gh