My son is 8 and has been playing electric guitar since he was 4. He's not quite able to manage a full size guitar so he's been using a 23" scale length strat-style which has been a great fit. The problem is, he's into Satriani and has been wanting a floyd rose trem. There just aren't a lot of options in this size. After looking for a couple weeks I figured the only way this kid would get a floyd on his rig was if I put one on it. It was my least favorable option since I have very little experience in building guitars.
I've been eyeballing some floyd "licensed" trems on Ebay for quite some time. I really, really didn't want to cut up his strat to see if it would work though. And, kids can be fickle - this week's passion sometimes holds no interest in a month. I didn't want to sink a lot of cash into this just yet. One day though, Lo and behold, I found someone on Ebay selling a "youth" sized strat body (minus all hardware) for around $20 bucks. Thought it was worth a shot and if I screwed it up, he'd still have a playable guitar. I picked it up along with the Ebay trem. I took the neck off his strat and it fit the Ebay body perfectly except for the holes. Way off so I plugged and re-drilled them to match the neck. Also taped off the body and got the 12th fret to bridge location established. Last weekend, I routered and drilled the pocket. After stringing it up and getting the tension set on the springs it seemed to stay in tune fairly well. Deep dives throw it out which I pointed out to him but he said he was OK with re-tuning it when it happens (he tunes by ear and nails it every time. It's spooky). I had some EMG HZ pickups that have been laying around since 2001. Kinda weird finding a use for them 20 years later. I soldered them up along with a couple pots and a jack. Then 3d printed a pickup guard to hold everything together. He spent most of the last couple days playing it (and re-tuning periodically). He's super excited about it and I can't really believe how well it plays. The intonation even seems to be correct somehow (can't upload to the forume so pic is here: https://imgur.com/a/7JgEykB).
I'd like to get a locking nut to help out with the tuning issue but the neck is way to narrow for anything I've been able to find so far. I need something about 38mm wide. I've checked Stewmac, amazon, Ebay and nobody seems to be making these in anything narrower than 41mm. Any suggestions? Thanks!
