Zombie Apocalypse Strat Renovation
This is the excerpt for your very first post.
This is the excerpt for your very first post.
This is the excerpt for your very first post.
I was recently commissioned to create a Pittsburgh Penguins themed guitar…
Based on the money invested, I bought a used Strat to renovate. The final specs include:
*Behlen stringed instrument lacquer finish
*Tinted neck, finished as above
*Custom peghead artwork
*90’s era 3d Penguins logo pickguard
*Simple gold matching paintjob
*Special shielding and rewiring- according to GuitarNuts.com
Seriously… this is an amazing mod. With standard Strat pickups, you get rid of your 60cycle hum!! http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/shield3.php
*TBX tone control installed
*String Saver Saddles
*Fender locking tuners (as used on the nicest U.S. made models)
This is the excerpt for your very first post.
This guitar was commissioned for my best friend’s brother (by his fiancee). She was able to sneak his old Squire Strat away so that I could revamp it. I had previously created a Middle Earth map on an electric bass for my friend (his brother).
This was a matter of repainting and refinishing the body; I don’t think I replaced hardware or messed with the electronics. The concept I eventually came up with was Sam and Frodo walking into Mordor, looking across the plains of Gorgoroth at Mount Doom, with Barad Dur and Sauron looming in the distance. Some Nazgul fly above and Gollum sits on a rocky outcrop waiting for the right chance to strike. I did some 3D carving that was enhanced by later painting; I etched the entire script from the Ring around the perimeter of the guitar. I airbrushed the sky and plains.
For the peghead, I did a relief carving of an eagle fighting with a fell beast. Around the perimeter I wrote the Dwarvish text from the Lonely Mountain map in the Hobbit. (Not completely appropriate for the scene, but it looks good.)
In addition, I ordered some “Eye of Sauron” eyes on eBay to make custom knobs with some cut down Strat knobs and Sculpey. Finally, I inscribed Tolkein’s symbol at the 12th fret.
This is the homemade Gold Leaf Strat that I built this spring. I remember going to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame about 10 years ago and seeing this guitar. Knowing nothing about gold leaf, I wasn’t really sure what I was looking at. Now I am.
Fender designed this guitar for Mr. Eric Clapton. The Fender Custom Shop will make it for you for about $6,000. I made it for less than that, and it was a pain in my… wrist. I sought out a custom-wired pickguard that simulates Eric’s wiring with Gold Lace pickups and specially designed tone controls. The inside of this thing is like a computer! And the sound is incredible because of it. Honestly, this is one of the first guitars I built to sell that I’m actually tempted to keep.
I put a V profile Fender neck on- the same kind of neck preferred by Clapton and used both on Blackie and the Gold Leaf Strat. It’s beautiful birdseye maple, and I did a vintage amber finish over it.
This guitar features ALL gold Fender hardware, not foreign knockoffs, FENDER. (Even though these Fender parts are made internationally.) IN ANY CASE, this is the good stuff: bridge, strap pins, neckplate, pickguard, backplate, string trees, and Gold Kluson tuners.
I did a lacquer finish over the body for a sleek, polished look. You can tell from the (poor) photographs that this thing glows.