Building A Srv Strat

[BluesyGrunge]

Well, I still have a good chunk of my summer left, and Ive been wanting to build a SRV replica for a long time, and now I finally have time to do it, I dont have much money as of now, but that im working on. Anyways, I need all the help I can get with this, cause I have absolutely no clue on what I need to order, or how to build it. I have no clue on how to even use Warmoth(Im ordering parts BTW, not building them myself). So as you can tell, im going to need allot of help and suggestions, Im open to any suggestion you can make to making my replica.

Now now, when I say replica, I dont mean exact to his Number 1. Im basically making a replica to his Fender Sig. So I dont want the beat up body, but I preety much want everything else. So if you guys could tell me what I need to order off Warmoth, and how I do it. That would be great. And im going to need places where I can get all the gold hardware. Yes, I would like a lefty trem, so if that means I need other parts like Lefty tuners, or I need to route something out on the body, your going to have to tell me all that as well. I would like the tuners n bridge n whatnot to be somewhat nice, holds tuning great n whatnot.

BTW, I cant use Ebay either. So that probly makes things harder.

Yes, I need lots of help with this. Any info,suggestion, help you can give me will be very much appreciated.

BTW, im new to the boards, and Im glad to be here. Seems like a nice helpfull place.

Thanks guys

Edited July 19, 2005 by BluesyGrunge

[BluesyGrunge]

No one t'all?

[jay5]

I am going against my better judgement even responding here but here it goes... first off,

I have absolutely no clue on what I need to order, or how to build it.

Do you really think someone will be able to answer in one post??? Seriously, you need to hit the search button and start doing some research. Google SRV guitar, there are a ton of places with info on that guitar. Start making a list of what you need, we cant tell you everything to buy. Even if people here did have some advice you need to give it some time, what did wait, 2 hours? I hate to be harsh, but have some patience and dont expect everything to be handed to you on a platter, you need to do some work yourself.

[thegarehanman]

I think you and I are going to get along real well jay5...we don't have a good track record so far, do we? haha

That said, let me try to be constructive here:

The blanket question is not going to work here. We have too narrow of a focus. I would recomend looking on fender's site to see the exact specs of an SRV. I was looking on some site(can't remember where) today that had all of the specs. Let me say first off that you can get the neck contour you need from warmoth. They have a diagram of it on their site. Since you're buying your parts prefabbed I would recomend just buy your neck and body from them. For the fretboard radius, don't go with fender's 7.5" radius(or whatever it is), SRV used a 12" radius. That was actually only because he had had his neck refretted so many times it just eventually got sanded down to 12." He liked it better that way though. I don't think warmoth will round over the edges of the fret board as much as Vaughn liked it, but you can easily do that with a cabinet scraper.

I can't really say I know anything more about his guitar than what I've already said, but why don't you do a bit of searching for his exact specs and when you need help actually completing a task, search for the answer first and if nothing turns up, just add to this post. Everyone would be more than happy to walk you through certain steps of the assembly process if you've had no luck with searches.

russ

[Jivin]

Listen to that advice dude. Im no expert on SRV's guitars, so don't take what I say as gospel, but regardless I will do my best to push you in the right direction. If your ordering from warmoth, what you will need is (and keep in mind i could be corrected on this):

- Alder strat body, both forearm and tummy contours

- Tobacco Burst finish

- maple neck (perhaps with the tinted gloss finish to give it that amber look?)

- brazillian rosewood fingerboard

- 6100 frets

- left handed strat tremolo (gold)

- some hot fender singlecoils... i think there is some called texas specials or something that could get you pretty close?

Warmoth should have most of the stuff your looking for so you could order most of it all at once, however you may find some parts cheaper elsewhere. Once you have a clearer idea of what you want, give them a call or an email and lay it out to them so they can give you a hand as well.

As far as the pickguard goes, since you cant look around on ebay its going to be hard. I understand the motivation for wanting a replica of his guitar, but my personal opinion is that you shouldnt burn yourself out looking to replicate every little detail, like the decals and stuff for example, or the exact same pickups. It doesn't matter how perfect you get it, you still won't sound like stevie... so maybe there are some aspects of the guitar you dont need to go too crazy trying to replicate.

Hope that helps a bit,

- Dan

[thegarehanman]

Maybe you should consider going with a solid or stained finish so you can do all of the finish yourself. It sounds like you want to do a lot of the workself, so I wouldn't have warmoth assemble anything for you. If you wanted an SRV pre-assembled, I would say just shell out the cash for the Fender model. Fender's is as close as you'd ever come(besides the finish). They redesigned the SRV, after Stevie died, using his number one as a guide for all of the measurements.

I have to be honest though. If this is your first guitar, you'll be so much happier if you build a guitar that's unique and exactly what you wanted instead of what someone else uses.

[crafty]

Go here and click on the Specifications link. Print that out and use it as a guide when ordering your parts. You have to physically call or fax Warmoth to order, no web orders. Alder strat body, Pau Ferro fretboard on maple neck with SRV back shape.

Keep in mind that you'll have to tell Warmoth to route the body for a lefty trem. They may or may not be able to do that quickly or at all, plus they will charge you more for it. I would stick with a right-hand style trem because the only reason Stevie did it was to honor Jimi Hendrix.

For pickups and hardware, either order a Rio Grande Big Bottom set from Warmoth or go to Callaham for a set of pre-wired Fralins on a parchment pickguard and the Vintage S Model Hardware Kit. If you buy those two items from Callaham you shouldn't need anything else to complete the guitar. You really can't beat the Fralins and the Callaham hardware is all the rage with the vintage Strat nerds right now. You can buy a lefty trem from them if you want, but with the short arm that already comes with the righty you may not feel a need for it.

[egdeltar]

If you are going to just assemble it...then CALL warmoth. They will help you get the right neck and body.

[BluesyGrunge]

Alright, thanks for all the tips and information guys. Going to be very helpfull. As of now, I have most of it planned out, combined from info you've given me, and people at www.ultimate-guitar.com

I probly wont need much help from here on out until i get my parts and the actual building process starts.

Thanks again.

[nollock]

I have an SRV sig model sat next to me right now, it's being looked after while my cousin is renovating his house. Personaly I dont care for it much, I much prefer his cheaper Texas Special Hot Rod. Anyway .....

One big problem i see is that the routing for the trem is differant as it has a left handed trem. A left handed trem on a right handed guitar needs the trem pocket fliped verticaly. The extra room for the part of the block that the trem arm screws into will be at the top rather than the bottom.

Feels like a 12" radius fret board as the earlier poster said. The one i have here is a Pauo Ferro fretboard, although earlier models where of a differant wood i think.

Just seems like a normal strat otherwise.

If you want me to take a few pics so you can get a closeup look at just ask. I'll post em in this thread if you want, or email them.

chris

[BluesyGrunge]

^Pictures would be great.

About the trem, im hoping I can just have Warmoth custom build me a body already routed for a lefty. If they can do that, and its not mega expensive, do I still need to worry about all that trem-switching stuff?

Thanks.

[nollock]

If they rout it for a lefty trem then you would be fine. I guess (i am not sure) it would just be a case of using the lefty template to rout the hole.

I'll post some pics later on tonight, anything in particular you want a close look at? The the trem cavity perhaps?

[BluesyGrunge]

^Not really, anything you can give me would be great.