If you were putting your dream Strat together ...?

Too hard to make just one strat as it ends up being a compromise. As such, I have had to build several as sometimes I want vintage pups, sometimes I want soemthing hotter, sometimes I want a vintage bridge set floating, other times I want hardtail and other times a 2 point.

Sometimes I like a vintage neck, other times 10-16 compound radius with jumbo frets

I’ve tried to make one guitar cover lots of ground and it just ends up being a jack of all trades but master of none type deal.

Dream strat is having multiple strats each with some unique strengths lol
 
More and more I'm thinking it's actually this:

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Was sitting here contemplating trying to fish for a Suhr <> Silver Sky trade...
 
As far as a vintage type Strat goes, imo, kinda hard to beat an EJ Strat. I love mine.

Then you need a Super Strat too! lol
 
I've gone through a lot of Strat phases, but playing vintage and custom shops have really changed my perspective though. I've come to really appreciate the deep body contours of 50s Strats and the texture of the nitro finish; 54-57 chunky neck profiles, Callaham does great improvements to the fender bridge saddles and saddles. I'm intrigued by roasted maple necks, one piece and rosewood top; I'm more on the fence about quarter-sawn due to the nature of it actually being too stiff which can make the truss rod less effective and can warp in a twist which is unfixable if it warps. Not much has really been improved in stratocasters since the early 60s. the 11-hole pick guard was an improvement for sure.

Now in terms of a modern Strat build, I'd be going along these lines:

Roasted Maple CBS Head Neck with *adjustment at the top rather than bottom*, 56 boat profile, Stainless Steel 6230 Fret, black dot for maple/abalone dot inlays for rosewood, 7.25" radius preferably, but 9.5 is fine. Nitro finish (I've never had an issue bending out on a 7.25 radius neck, not sure what issue people are having with bending)
Roasted Ash 50s deep contour body with nitro finish that shows off the grain
Callaham Vintage Hardware Kit
schaller strap locks
Mojotone '59 single coil set and electronics, .1uf capacitors on the tone pots, 250k fender tone saver (cap/resistor, but they look cool in the fender tone saver form)

My baby is a masterbuilt 54 strat that I've modded the electronics a bit -- they haven't really improved much since 1954

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Do super Strats count? I'm currently spec'ing out a Warmoth. Roasted flame maple neck (Tiltback Strat) + blue carved flame maple top over swamp ash. Fishman Fluence Classic humbuckers and an Evertune bridge.

But if I were just doing a classic Strat, I'd go for a metallic purple one kinda like Pete from Anderton's purple Tele (minus any ageing).
 
I built a Warmoth 7/8 scale Strat with Injector pickups. It runs quiet and gives me the finger reach of some of my guitar heroes. Put 8s on it and it's just unfair to play ;)
 
Really thin neck, 22 fret maple neck, big CBS style headstock, Les Paul toggle switch as a kill switch in the upper horn, a shadow kill pot as another kill switch as a volume switch, two point modern style tremelo or a Ibanez Edge locking tremelo. Output jack on the side of the guitar, like with the Telecaster. No pickguard, but a backside control cavity instead, as that makes fiddling with the electronics so much easier! Only a single tone knob if any. This is how I build my Strats. Pickup loadout may vary, I've gone with many different loadouts, but its usually HSS with no coil splitting on the humbucker.
 
Strat with pick guard, 3 single coils and compound radius neck. So , strat with Charvel neck!
In my dreams.
Asked my buddies at fender and they laughed.
Not in near future. Said I’m living in the 80’s
Thats easy to make. Take a So Cal, get a new pickguard, replace the pickups and you’re done.
 
Hate locking and non locking 2 point trems.

Block it the Clapton way. My Artist Series EC Strat came blocked. The funny part is I didn't know. They included the trem bar in the case, so I put it on and tried to use it. You can guess what happened next...
 
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Solid rosewood neck slim/wide
Jumbo stainless frets
Compound radius
Schaller locking tuners
No string tree
Tusq nut
alder or mahogany body (roasted be great)
no pickguard
HSS
Bare knuckle pickups
5 position blade switch
volume treble bleed mod
yjm volume pot
two post trem Wilkinson?
tremel-no
thin flat finnish
 
I want the look, feel, and tone of a classic strat. And I want it to incorporate modern advancements. So, for me, it's
  • Ebony fretboard with medium jumbo stainless steel frets
  • Locking tuners
  • Bone nut
  • Two point trem
  • Kinman pickups
This is the configuration of my current main guitar. It's taken a lot of swapping out parts and fine-tuning to arrive this state. It originally had lace sensor pickups, a roller nut, and stock frets. I immediately dumped the lace sensors, and installed Fralins. Over 25 years of touring and recording, I had to make changes. The Fralins became microphonic after about 15 years, and when I had the repotted, they were never quite the same. The refret was necessary about five years ago, and the Kinmans are a pretty recent change. The vibrato bridge is a pretty simple 2 point setup, but I can whammy like a madman and it returns to pitch every time.
 
Two-point whammy for me. With the traditional whammy, six screws need to be perfectly positioned, perfectly adjusted and free of wear. Otherwise, forces and friction get in the way of returning to pitch. A two-point system is way more forgiving. A lot has to go south before issues crop up.
 
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