Retrofitting Mexi Strat.

[Firefox2551]

Hey all!

I'm thinking of turning my Fender Mexi strat into a superstrat style guitar. With a floyd rose and a humbucker in the bridge.

This is the Guitar Fetish trem I was looking at.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/flroflotrsy.html

Anyone know the radius? Has anyone tried it?

And here are the pickups.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/humbuckers.html

Anyone have experience with those?

I'm looking at either the "Fat PAF's" or the "Crunchy PAF's" It looks like I will have to go with the ones with chrome covers, since my strat is white the black or zebra's won't look quite right. I also will want to put in a push/pull pot for coil taps. I also want to use the middle pickup tone control for the bridge instead of the middle pickup.

What will I have to do to complete the floyd retrofit?

I'll have to do some routing to make the floyd fit obviously, do I have to route the rear cavity or just the top rout? My strat uses the 6 bolt vintage style trem with the bent steel saddles and everything. I'll need to drill two holes for the anchor bolts correct? I have access to a real nice drill press so should I use that?

Also with the locking nut I'm a little unsure as to what I should do, I'll have to do something with the nut slot and screw down the nut somehow but whats the best tools to use and the best way to go about the process?

Has anyone done this retro fit before? Thanks guys!

[Mickguard]

I'm thinking of turning my Fender Mexi strat into a superstrat style guitar. With a floyd rose and a humbucker in the bridge.

Oh wait...sorry...still a little bleary-eyed...was up pretty late playing guitar last night...I though your wrote TELE...

Big difference!

[Firefox2551]

Ha ha, I know,

Its an evil thing to do to a strat, but the trem on there now is just aweful, when I use the bar and let it swing, it makes all kinds of terrible noise.

I only paid mabye $250 for is and its only an MIM so I have no quams about upgrading it, I plan on building myself a strat from scratch sometime in the future too.

[rokeros]

Why not try the wilkinson tremolo? Apparently you can still get some good stuff out of a wilkinson and yet the only modification is to patch up the 6 trem holes for the 2 that a wilkinson uses. The nut of back cavity will not need a major make over...

Btw, are you going to get this?

http://store.guitarfetish.com/fatsthupiwhm.html

Cos a perloid looks nice and matches the strat yet it has 2 holes for pots so you can have volume and a bridge tone push/push as you requested.

[GregP]

Good old mother-of-toilet-seat.

I'm curious to know what the quality of the Floyd is like at that price. There's much talk about how only 2 or 3 non-original Floyds even work properly. If these are even half-assed, at $60 they're a steal. However, I have my doubts.

Greg

[Firefox2551]

I've know people with the wilkinsons and gotten mixed reviews. Depends on what you are using it for I guess. Some like um some hate um.

I've played some bad floyds in the time I've been playing and if this one is even just better than those I'd at least be worth a try, I could always send it back and get a better one.

I may go for the pearloid one, depends on what pickups colors he ends up having, if he only have black/zebra and covered's I'd go covered and pearloid. If He has white open coils I'd only get one pup' for the bridge and go with a white guard.

Edited June 1, 2006 by Firefox2551

[crafty]

He has prewired white pickguards with white pickups for $37, too.

I can almost guarantee that "Floyd" isn't going to be worth the $60 you're paying for it. Non-adjustable radius, no string locks on the bridge, and the strings aren't mounted in the sustain block. You're basically getting all the negatives of a real Floyd system without any of the benefits.

I think your best bet is a Wilkinson bridge and Schaller locking tuners. I still have the original bridge on my MIM Strat, but with the Schaller tuners I can bomb the hell out of it and it stays in tune.

[Firefox2551]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought no floyd systems were radius adjustable, without shims.....

In that case, wha anoth good Floyd? I know Brian Calvert has a bunch on his site.

http://www.universaljems.com/cart/bridgelocking.htm

He has a few in the $100+ range, those any good?

Can you just bomb with it? I Mostly want the floyd systems for up-bends, the trem on my strat now works ok for bombs but after the first real big one, the whole thing goes outa whack.

Edited June 1, 2006 by Firefox2551

[azn_guitarist]

locking tuners maybe. why cant you just by the original floyd rose or a schaller floyd rose

[crafty]

You're going to have to do a lot of routing with any double-locking system you go with if you want raised pitch capability. Less so with a Wilkinson system. You might consider a Schaller trem if you want a Floyd-style because they're smaller and you won't have to remove as much wood during the routing process. Check the trem route comparison thread for more info.

Don't forget, you may need to shim the neck angle with any system you use.

[Firefox2551]

Well, looks like this might turn out to be more of a pain than I thought.

You know what I may just do?

I'm thinking of just saving the money, picking up an Ibanez 7 string on ebay for parts, take the fretboard off the neck, truss rod out, tuners and everything too, then building neck-thru-body and just installing the ibanez parts in that. It'll only end up costing as much as the parts guitar+ the wood and tools, so mabye a few hundred bux. It'd cost about that much to retrofit the strat anyway.

I may also pick up a nicer trem like the wilky to throw in the stat eventually.

Comments on the parts guitar idea?