Hi From Another Aussie

[Unleasher of Fury]

Hi All

Julian here from Sydney, just joined up a few mins ago.

I came here because I just received a late 70's / early 80's Profile strat tonight which I'll be restoring including a full fretboard scallop, refret, respray, new electronics and hardware. The guitar was so heavy, I thought it must be plywood but I was relieved to discover it's just a heavy piece of solid timber. The guitar sounded surprisingly nice despite the severely rusted strings and pickup poles.

Took a few photos for before & after purposes

Here I've placed the new scratchplate, pickups and trem into the cavity for fit. I'm a wee bit concerned about the 2 point trem post holes getting messy amongst the standard 6 screw holes. Hopefully I can end up with 2 clean, drilled holes for the new bridge posts. Some of the dings, wear and 'relic' marks are kinda cool and I'll be a bit sad to see them go for a flawless finish.

I did a quick scallop test on an old practice neck. Obviously the rosewood fretboard will behave differently under the filing and sanding but I'm confident I can get the job done unless the luthier who does the refret can offer a good deal on the scallop while he's got the neck for the refret. I'm thinking to go for stainless frets due to refrets being tricky down the track on a scalloped fingerboard

I'll post progress pics here as the stages are completed.

My other projects have been a Heartfield Talon restoration and some minor upgrades to a Am Std Strat.

Edited June 7, 2007 by Unleasher of Fury

[rhoads56]

Tip from another Aussie: dont scallop so deep. Doing so will literally destroy the tone, and its way overkill. I would suggest only half the depth you have gone on the tester neck. A little is a LOT. Trust me, you can always go deeper in a couple weeks/months if you dont like the feel, but you cant EVER 'unscallop' it.

[Unleasher of Fury]

Tip from another Aussie: dont scallop so deep. Doing so will literally destroy the tone, and its way overkill. I would suggest only half the depth you have gone on the tester neck. A little is a LOT. Trust me, you can always go deeper in a couple weeks/months if you dont like the feel, but you cant EVER 'unscallop' it.

Cheers for that. Would you also recommend stainless as a fret material? a standard refret in Sydney is about $400+, I imagine a stainless refret would be well north of that.

[rhoads56]

How long do you intend to keep a cheap neck that has been modified for shredding?? Do you intend on getting a more expensive, easier to play, better sounding guitar in the future, that WILL become your "number one"? Or, is the 'profile strat' the best guitar you are ever going to own?? Do you expect to use this neck so much, that you need to get 20 years minimum out of it (stainless), or is 10 years enough (heavy fret hand, three hours playing EVERY day for ten years). Remember, that most wear on frets comes from a heavy fretting technique, NOT general playing... and that a heavy technique = bad technique ESPECIALLY on a scallopped neck where the notes will all be out of tune because you have pressed them too heavily. So, IF you HAVE to have a light touch, double the length of time you can get out of a fretjob... thats 20+ years for standard, and 60 years for stainless!

See my point?

I charge $200 more for stainless. Scallopping has zero effect on refretting as far as im concerned. Ive refretted a bunch now with no problems.

[Unleasher of Fury]

How long do you intend to keep a cheap neck that has been modified for shredding?? Do you intend on getting a more expensive, easier to play, better sounding guitar in the future, that WILL become your "number one"? Or, is the 'profile strat' the best guitar you are ever going to own??

It's not really about it being 'the best' as I go through phases with my collection or like to have different setups across the collection which I intend to keep forever.

Do you expect to use this neck so much, that you need to get 20 years minimum out of it (stainless), or is 10 years enough (heavy fret hand, three hours playing EVERY day for ten years). Remember, that most wear on frets comes from a heavy fretting technique, NOT general playing... and that a heavy technique = bad technique ESPECIALLY on a scallopped neck where the notes will all be out of tune because you have pressed them too heavily. So, IF you HAVE to have a light touch, double the length of time you can get out of a fretjob... thats 20+ years for standard, and 60 years for stainless!

See my point?

I do, that's pretty much the professional advice I was after. End of the day the neck needs a refret and I'm just weighing up some options. I don't mind throwing some cash at a so-called 'cheap' guitar if it really brings it to life. I've done this before and it can be very satisfying when it comes off.

I charge $200 more for stainless. Scallopping has zero effect on refretting as far as im concerned. Ive refretted a bunch now with no problems.

Thanks. I always suspected any half decent luthier would not cop out on the scallop refret question. I guess it's a good way of seperating the pro's from the hacks.

[psw]

Hey there fellow aussie...

Listen to perry...he knows his stuff...

As for the guitar, I don't really build guitars, just do the kind of thing you are up to. Cheap guitars are great for trying out ideas but definitely not worth even refretting (unless you want to give it a go yourself). I bought a new squire with perfectly good frets, action, pickups (duncan designed) and everything for A$350...please consider...

On the other hand...you can learn a lot replacing parts, even scolloping a neck (no real harm done if it doesn't turn out quite right)...be aware that a lot of these jap-strats dont have the same dimensions as the real thing when you are looking at parts, especially the bridge...they can be a bit narrower...be careful...

One thing that is fun to do is on the electronics side...a lot of different sounds can be coaxed out of a strat with a little switcharoo...even without changing the pickups...

This kind of thing is also an excellent thing to try the DIY sustainer if you have a mind to...this is exactly the type of guitar that my sustainer strat was built from...

I hollowed it out, refinished it, rewired and tricked out the switching, changed the bridge over and replaced the tuners and used back washers to create a stagger to them for better string pull and trem tuning stability...then, I put in an extra cavity for more electronics and a battery and built a sustainer into it. I have used this guitar to test other ideas including a piezo sensor in the neck pocket and will continue to do so...

Some ideas are better than others but this guitar has helped me learn all kinds of stuff...and for $50 from a pawn shop...well worth the price of admission...welcome to PG... pete Melbourne

[Unleasher of Fury]

Hey there fellow aussie...

Listen to perry...he knows his stuff...

As for the guitar, I don't really build guitars, just do the kind of thing you are up to. Cheap guitars are great for trying out ideas but definitely not worth even refretting (unless you want to give it a go yourself)

Hi Pete. That's a bit subjective. You can't really tell someone that refretting a guitar is not worth it because they didn't pay a 4 digit figure for it. Guitars are very personal things and their value in most cases goes way beyond their purchase price so I'm sorry, I cannot agree with that statement. Adding to that, Profile strats are a fine guitar, generally better than most other copies I've tried (especially the finish on the neck) which is the reason I bought it. Edited June 8, 2007 by Unleasher of Fury

[tim_ado]

sweet another sydneysider were abouts are you??

i really like the restoration on the talon it looks really good

[Unleasher of Fury]

sweet another sydneysider were abouts are you??

i really like the restoration on the talon it looks really good

Hey Tim. Originally from St George area but now residing near Auburn hoping I don't get broken in to.

Thanks, the Talon was a cool project. More pics of that restoration here

[tim_ado]

hahah dont worry im right next to parramatta haha

nice pics

[aidlook]

Instead of the 400$ refret you could probably get a new neck, like a warmoth, for roughly the same price.

[Unleasher of Fury]

Instead of the 400$ refret you could probably get a new neck, like a warmoth, for roughly the same price.

True, I believe they have the option of scalloping too.

[Jaam]

Aidlook you have to remember that they're talking about aussie dollars.