Color Me Green!

I had one hell of a day last Wednesday as I had to rush to the E.R. that morning with the most excruciating pain I'd ever felt in my life.  Through a CT scan, it was determined that I had a kidney stone, my first, and I came home that day defeated, exhausted, and on drugs.  So, it was especially nice when the body of the guitar came in that afternoon.  It really helped to take my mind off of my current plight—I've had a pretty nasty scare with all of this.

SO much to say here; as we all know, a picture's worth a thousand words:

This seafoam green color is truly amazing.  It's got just enough of a blue tint in it that it tends to shift depending on the light in the room.  I couldn't keep myself from putting the neck and some other components on it right away.  The maple body didn't feel very heavy by itself, but as soon as I attached the neck...  yowzers.  I could tell immediately that it was already heavier than a normal Stratocaster, without any of the other components added to it.  I'll talk about this later on in this post.

Anyway, there are a few interesting revelations / challenges, starting with the neck:

Preliminary Floyd Rose locking nut installation.  Notice anything weird here?

The through holes drilled for the locking nut were off by about a millimeter toward the high E side, causing a shift in where the nut sits.  Unacceptable.  I couldn't have known this when I received the neck a few months ago since I didn't have a locking nut to put on it, but, let this be a lesson to any new project builders: get your stuff fully checked out when you receive it.  I'm long past the point of being able to send it back to Warmoth to have them do anything about it, but I'm confident this can be fixed with a minimal amount of [professional] wood routing.

I attempted to put the pickguard on the guitar to see how it would look, but right away the 500K concentric pot showed its huge ugly side.

The pot scrapes against the very bottom end of the control cavity.  Some additional routing may be needed here as I intend to line the cavity with copper shielding.

And...  More routing WILL be needed to fit the Sustainiac's circuit board and the switches.

The battery box cavity on the back side takes up most of the space here underneath the pickguard, which I originally intended for the DPDT switches.  Those may need to shift elsewhere.  The circuit board may need to be tucked into an additional rout in the cutaway.

The electronics are going to be a NIGHTMARE to install.  Why couldn't I just go with a dual humbucker guitar and be happy with it?  Anyway, I got around to working with the Floyd Rose bridge included in my order.

Complementary Floyd Rose stud installation.  Very pleased that I opted to have this done.  The screws for the "knife edge" joint were a cinch to put in.

I thought of immediately replacing the Floyd's tone block with the new brass one, but then I noticed that I had accidentally ordered the wrong size; 32 mm height rather than 37 mm.

I'm at a crossroad on this one.  I could return the 32 mm brass block for a 37 mm size for the same price, but the width of the tone blocks is another thing I have to consider:

32 mm brass block placed in the bridge cavity for comparison.

Since the brass blocks are wider than the stock piece, I may lose some travel with the trem arm if I go up to the 37 mm height.  The block might wind up hitting the wall of the cavity when I want to divebomb on the strings.  As I've mentioned several times in this blog, I'm not a heavy Floyd Rose divebomb player, but after all of the trouble I went through in deciding to keep a fully floating setup, I want to have full access to the bridge's capabilities.  Perhaps I should keep the current 32 mm block; it would direct the springs further inside the guitar and keep them away from the rear cover when it's installed.  By the way, I already know I want a fourth spring on this thing, so I'll be on the lookout for ordering one soon.

Oh yeah, so the previous photo implies that I've already put strings on this guitar...

I couldn't resist!  By the way, folks, a dab of WD-40 on the screws will work wonders for any double-locking bridge.

I wanted, no, needed to confirm that the maple body I ordered was going to produce the clarity and sharp attack that I wanted, so a pack of Ernie Ball Power Slinkys got installed for test.  I realized immediately that the string retainer piece is necessary.  I didn't need to buy an extra one from Warmoth, though, since the Floyd Rose bridge hardware includes it.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why a string retainer is always needed for a Strat neck.  I put the locking nut screws on but didn't tighten them down; I just wanted to hit a few power chords and see how the guitar plays.

The verdict is...

TREMENDOUS SUSTAIN, BRIGHTNESS, CLARITY, and PUNCH.

Seriously, the notes practically jump off of the guitar.  I can't believe how percussive, tight, and full it sounds and feels.  This thing takes the heaviest palm muting I can give it and it bounces right back.  The jumbo stainless steel frets feel great to bend notes on, the gloss coat on the neck and fretboard feels smooth as glass, and the 10-16" compound radius feels comfortable in every position.  The only thing I could complain about is that the frets could use some additional filing on the sides, but that's an easy fix.

The weight of the guitar—over 10 pounds with all of the components added—is easily justified with it exceeding my expectations in feel and response.  Even with the current issues I have like needing to fix the offset nut and rout more wood out of the body, I'm already inspired and thinking about how the body will react with the Sustainiac and Duncan Distortion, and what kind of music I will make with the guitar once it's finished.

This guitar is officially and appropriately named BIG RIFF.

Oh hey, new Smashing Pumpkins record coming out soon: