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Sonofiam

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Well, here we go. After years of talking about it, I'm finally going to build a guitar. There's not much I haven't done as far as modifying, repairing and refinishing guitars but I'm not quite sure about actually making one. Parts are so reasonably priced that I'm going to give it a shot.

Bought a Warmoth strat neck a couple weeks ago; quartersawn maple w/rosewood fretboard, boatneck profile. Already have a pickguard and a set of Railhammer Nuevo 90's laying around as well as all the other hardware.

Wanted something unique and found this body which I bought this evening, going to convert it from a vintage trem to 2-point. Just need the tremolo, trying to decide between a Wilkinson or Fender American Standard.
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I do plan on posting photos of the progress. I have a partial disability from an injury that keeps me from doing much so it's going to take some time. It's ultimately why I decided to do this; I need something to keep me busy that offers tangible results.

I personally don't like posting "look at what I did" type stuff but I needed some form of accountability to make sure I get it done!
 
Wanted something unique and found this body which I bought this evening, going to convert it from a vintage trem to 2-point. Just need the tremolo, trying to decide between a Wilkinson or Fender American Standard.

I recently built a Strat with a sustainer in it. I also installed a 2-point trem. It's tricky, I had to move it twice in order to get it to operate properly.

Here's the thread of my build. Might be some information in there that might come in handy for you.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/stratocaster-w-fernandes-sustainer-project.133783/
 
I recently built a Strat with a sustainer in it. I also installed a 2-point trem. It's tricky, I had to move it twice in order to get it to operate properly.

Here's the thread of my build. Might be some information in there that might come in handy for you.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/stratocaster-w-fernandes-sustainer-project.133783/
Thanks for the link, I've taken a peek at it before but will check it out again. I've converted a couple of vintage trems to 2 post so I'm fairly comfortable tackling it but thanks for the head's up.
 
Definitely use a drill press for the trem posts. If you go with the Fender trem, go for the newer version with the push in arm from the American Professional series. The older screw in style arms suck. They always wobble a bit even with the spring installed. The new pop in style has a bushing and adjustable set screw in the block. Gotoh 510 series tremolos are great quality too. Same traditional look and fit as the Fender trem (w/ solid or stamped saddles) but with a better arm and locking posts. Suhr guitars use them.
 
Definitely use a drill press for the trem posts. If you go with the Fender trem, go for the newer version with the push in arm from the American Professional series. The older screw in style arms suck. They always wobble a bit even with the spring installed. The new pop in style has a bushing and adjustable set screw in the block. Gotoh 510 series tremolos are great quality too. Same traditional look and fit as the Fender trem (w/ solid or stamped saddles) but with a better arm and locking posts. Suhr guitars use them.
Yep, drill press with forstner bit is what I use.

Thanks for the Gotoh recommendation, makes me feel better since I ordered a Gotoh 510TS-FE1 yesterday. I was considering the American Deluxe trem, I have one in my Deluxe V-neck strat, it sounds like it's the older version of the Professional series.

At the end of the day though, the Gotoh seemed to be the best option for what I was looking for. I'm hoping the steel saddles and block will add some brightness to the Railhammers that was missing in another guitar they were in.

It will be interesting to compare the Gotoh to my V-neck strat. They seem to be fairly identical from an operational standpoint. The steel block on the Gotoh is said to add string tension. We shall see.
 
Hmm, there's not a lot of wood left for those 2 studs to be installed though. Wherever you drill them it will probably be less then a centimeter separating them from either the trem block cavity or that huge swimming pool. With all that pressure you might run the risk of tearing it out. This is one reason why I prefer to make my own bodies, as I can place the bridge pickup a little more away from the trem studs. Also, when you're going to use a drill press, find a professional one that's big. Almost every commercial one for home use that I've found so far was not big enough for me to fit the guitar body in between the holding column and the drill so I could reach the intended drilling spot with the drill. Thankfully, the place where I go to for guitar building class has an old but really big drill press.
 
Hmm, there's not a lot of wood left for those 2 studs to be installed though. Wherever you drill them it will probably be less then a centimeter separating them from either the trem block cavity or that huge swimming pool. With all that pressure you might run the risk of tearing it out. This is one reason why I prefer to make my own bodies, as I can place the bridge pickup a little more away from the trem studs. Also, when you're going to use a drill press, find a professional one that's big. Almost every commercial one for home use that I've found so far was not big enough for me to fit the guitar body in between the holding column and the drill so I could reach the intended drilling spot with the drill. Thankfully, the place where I go to for guitar building class has an old but really big drill press.
While I appreciate the concern, it seems a bit presumptive without actually having the body in hand. To put your mind at ease, there appears to be* the same amount of material between the cavity and trem rout as a Fender body with a swimming pool cavity with a 2 point tremolo. I will add that the Fender bridge humbucker rout with a 2 point tremolo does indeed have a little more material in the post areas but the fact that this body is made from ash most definitely makes it a non-issue.

As I mentioned before, I do have the necessary tools and have done a couple of these conversions without issue which is the reason I was even remotely comfortable considering such an endeavor. The goal is to eventually build guitars 'from scratch' but given the need for a couple of other necessary and specialized tools, plus my physical condition, using ready-made parts is the best option for this project.

EDIT:
*The amount of material between the cavity and trem rout is the same as the Fender humbucker rout with the vintage style tremolo. I haven't found any information to definitively say the swimming pool rout is the same.
 
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After 3 weeks of dealing with back spasms, I finally had a chance to work on the body for a short time. Filled the tremolo screw holes since I'm using a 2-point system. Purely cosmetic on the middle 4 but going to be worth the effort in the long run. Couldn't find the exact size dowel so I use a drill and sandpaper to reduce the size to fit. I also rounded over the sharp edges of the cavity routes front and back, cleaned up the router marks in the front and back cavity as well as the neck pocket and did a preliminary sanding with 100 grit, smoothing the radiused edge and the transitions to the neck pocket.
Dowel.jpg Glue hole.jpg Holes finished.jpg
 
While I appreciate the concern, it seems a bit presumptive without actually having the body in hand. To put your mind at ease, there appears to be* the same amount of material between the cavity and trem rout as a Fender body with a swimming pool cavity with a 2 point tremolo. I will add that the Fender bridge humbucker rout with a 2 point tremolo does indeed have a little more material in the post areas but the fact that this body is made from ash most definitely makes it a non-issue.

As I mentioned before, I do have the necessary tools and have done a couple of these conversions without issue which is the reason I was even remotely comfortable considering such an endeavor. The goal is to eventually build guitars 'from scratch' but given the need for a couple of other necessary and specialized tools, plus my physical condition, using ready-made parts is the best option for this project.

EDIT:
*The amount of material between the cavity and trem rout is the same as the Fender humbucker rout with the vintage style tremolo. I haven't found any information to definitively say the swimming pool rout is the same.

Personally I'm of the opinion that the more wood between your studs and the bridge humbucker the better. I know a luthier who has been a guitar tech for Steve Vai (and lets everyone know this) who complains that there's never enough wood for that on Ibanez guitars, that he has to fix torn out tremelo studs a lot and is puzzled why its not happening even more.

I reckon if need be you could always glue in a strip of wood to give that spot some extra thickness.
 
Well, after over a month of fires resulting in unhealthy air quality, I've finally been able to do some work on the body and neck over the last few weeks. Reshaped the upper horn a little and a couple of other areas that needed a little more attention. Applied a tinted grain filler, which resulted in several hours of sanding. I used a product that was unfamiliar so It took 3 applications before getting the result I wanted.

Routed the gap in the cavity between the pickup and control routes, drilled the holes for the tremolo and modified the tremolo route to receive the Gotoh. All in all it's coming along nicely. Still have some final sanding to do before applying stain/dye but we're getting close to seeing color on it.You can see a bit of color in the pickup cavity, going with purple but that was a bit too red.

As I mentioned earlier, the neck is a Warmoth with the Boatneck profile. While I like the thickness, the contour was too much of a 'V' so I recontoured it to a nice soft v with @ .940" at the first fret and .980" at the twelfth. Very pleased with how the neck feels now and really like the grain pattern on the fretboard. Worked on the headstock 'logo', the one pictured is my wife's favorite so far. I'm still working on other possibilities though, what are your thoughts?
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Looks good. I like the logo.
Thanks. Even though it's been tedious at times it has been fun. If there ends up being a couple more logo fonts/styles that look good, I may post them for opinions or vote. Actually, a vote may not really matter. My wife has the veto power to overturn any result.
 
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