Cheap Strat Rebuild

[shiscabob]

This one started off as a super cheap starcaster strat i got for christmas way back when. since then ive done so many things to this this guitar i cant even count. as of now i have a final design set in mind and its almost done, i have a few pictures of how it sits now so ill post those and see what you guys think.

this is basically what i started out with, crappy pickups and all.

this is what it looked like after i stipped the paint again (was originally painted evh black and white styled) and after i filled the pickup cavity, and cut out the control cavity so that i wouldnt need a pickguard. i also cut out and covered the original input jack hole, and drilled a new one on the side. (Sorry for bad photos, i took these pictures on my ipod)

And this is how it looks as of last night, put it together just for a test fit to see how everything looks and feels at this point. With the poor camera quality you cant really see all the extra curves and cutaways i did, but theyre there, and it makes the body a little lighter than what it was.

So far the top four frets are scalloped, i cut away some wood on the left wing to make it look more "super strat" like, and freehanded the cavity for the floyd rose with my new router(first time ever using a router). the only mistake was the when i was routing the cavity for the floyd, the bit slid from the coilet a little bit, so its a little deeper than needed, but it still looks and works fine imo.

Heres the rest of my plans for it:

Electronics: 1 vol, 1 3 way pickup selector(les paul type) and a diy sustainer(for the amp portion of the sustainer im going to use a 1.5 watt miniamp that sells on guitarfetish.com for about $22

Paint: Front-White, Sides/Back-Black

[shiscabob]

I also forgot to add, most of the work i did by hand, including cutting the nut slot for the locking nut, which i did with just a hammer and chisel and some sandpaper stapled to a flat block of wood. For just that, it came out nearly perfect, a little too deep, but i made a shim out of some aluminum siding cut to shape, folded, and holes drilled for screws, and it works perfectly. Since im using a licenced floyd on this one(got it for a steal on axcessories.com) it doesnt really flutter, but having set it up properly, down to the right spring tension for the specific gauge of the strings, it stays in tune relatively well. And because the route for the bridge was a little deep, i have the ability to pull up so high that the strings hit the frets, and even the bridge pickup a little bit