David Gilmour Strat Tribute

[Brian Johnston]

Time for a new project. I have a '79 American Fender Strat that went through a
bit of a Frankenstein transformation over the years, and so this has been handed
over to Casper Guitar Technologies to be made 'new' again, and routed to include
a vibrato arm.

This is not a 'tribute' in the sense of re-creating the
Black Strat. Rather, it will be a 'concept' tribute Strat with:

Black
metallic fleck paint
Custom pickups designed by Brian Porter (he did an
incredible job with the Hendrix Strat tribute I had designed a few years
back)
Perloid styled knobs and black (via QParts)
Nebulus pickguard
(Gilmour's playing and sound is about as spacey as it gets, and so this tribute
will reflect his 'out of this world' psychedelia)

So far, here are some
body photos with the original paint stripped down:

[Brian Johnston]

The knobs and guitar strap locks are coming from QParts, as shown below:

[Brian Johnston]

And finally, the intended pickguard from Greasy Grooves:

[Tig***]

And finally, the intended pickguard from Greasy Grooves:

Perfect! It will even create bloodshot eyes!

[Brian Johnston]

Was that a compliment, lol?

[Brian Johnston]

From Stephen Casper:
Just to add a bit of detail to this project from a builders point of view.
This body arrived in we'll say poor shape. Finish cracked, chipped, dyed.
There were several pick guard screws burred and broken off flush with the surface of the body and a very wicked humbucker "route" in the bridge position.
I quickly evaluated the body for usefulness and reported back to Brian the body would work for what he was attempting to do. The rest will be up to me.
To strip the old finish, I used a combination of Low VOC Stripper, steel-wool and 60 grit sand paper.
There is really no easy way to remove the old finish. The wood needs to remain intact so a grinder is not an option :lol:
I dug out the screws and over drilled the holes with a drill press and pressed / glued in dowel replacement pieces to give the new body a bit of new wood for the pick-guard screws to bite into. Besides, the screw buried on the upper horn will have to be removed and repaired or the new pick-guard will not have a spot for a screw. In addition, the holes need to be repaired since the new pick-guard may not have the exact same hole pattern and could possibly have mounting / alignment issues when we get to the assembly phase of the project.
Next to establish a center line and begin the tremolo route layout later today.

[Brian Johnston]

Brian Porter sent me info and a photo of the pickups:
"Basically a hybrid strat set. My 50's pickup in the neck. 60's in the middle, and Modern overwound in the bridge."

[Tig***]

Was that a compliment, lol?

Yes, but with some humor. Dark Side of the Moon was also famous for being the preferred album for stoners to listen to while getting high.
(no, not me)

[Brian Johnston]

* Masking off the area to protect the wood and a habit-

* This is done to not only to protect the wood, but to allow me to be able to see the center line once
we have it established-
* Center-Line

* By laying out the body on a board with graph markings allows me to use a drafting square to establish the center-line. There are several hints as to the rough location of this elusive line- 1- Strap Button. 2-Center between the pickup edge routs. 3-Centering holes created by the Fender manufacturing process.
* Routing Template Placement

* By using the center-line and the known distance for the bridge placement, I am able to place the tremolo route properly by using 2-side foam tape-
* Route the Body – The point of no return…

* Let’s route this puppy!
* Went pretty smooth-

So the body has been routed and I’m ready to begin the sealing process to prep the body for the finish-

[Brian Johnston]

The pickguard (notice the pickup covers to match the pickguard), pickups and knobs are all in. This will be brought into a custom paint shop to select the right type of black metallic fleck paint (possibly one with gold flecks or something to coordinate with the various colors in the pickguard):

[Monkus]

nice !!!

[Brian Johnston]

Although the tribute 'look' obviously does not resemble the Black Strat, I am
keen on obtaining the same pickup tones (which is why I'm going with Brian
Porter, as he hand-makes to specs), as well as the wiring configuration, as
shown.

[marnold***]

What does that wiring scheme do? The graphic is too small for me to read.

[Brian Johnston]

That's Gilmour's setup... do a Google on "all on Gilmour mod" and it should be the first graphic you see (which is larger).

[marnold***]

OIC. It's a neck-on mod. When I had my old Floyd Rose HSS I had that wired to a push-pull pot. I found the usefulness of having all three pickups on to be somewhat dubious but neck+bridge is awesome.

[Brian Johnston]

I have a talented custom-strap maker on board, who will be designing a
Gilmour/Floyd tribute strap (one of a kind) to go with the guitar. I'll be
posting photos and info as it comes to me. This is Anya's site:

http://anya-k.com/pink-giraffe-custom-guitar-straps/

[Brian Johnston]

For the past year or so I've been using Timber-Tone picks (they specialize in various woods, but also bone, horn and stone... and in different shapes and contours). Around the time this guitar is ready to ship I should be receiving some new picks, including the Star Tone (made from horn... see below). I'm like that with guitar projects... a strap and even a pick to match as a package.

I'm also getting the following, which look like they would sit very nicely in the fingers:
- Groove Tones Mixed Pack of... Three : Buffalo Bone, Black Horn, Clear Horn.
http://www.timber-tones.com/groove-tones-44-c.asp
- Groove Tones Mini Mixed Pack of Four : Buffalo Bone, Black Horn, Clear Horn, African Ebony
http://www.timber-tones.com/groove-tones-mini-160-c.asp
- Groovy Tones Mixed Pack of Four : Katafray, Royal Blood Rosewood, Indian Rosewood, Ebony
http://www.timber-tones.com/groovy-tones-73-c.asp
- Heart Tones Mixed Pack of Four : Katafray, Royal Blood Rosewood, Indian Rosewood, Ebony
http://www.timber-tones.com/individu...trums-92-c.asp

- Stone Tones : Malachite Azurite and Bloody Basin Jasper
http://www.timber-tones.com/individu...trums-70-c.asp

[Brian Johnston]

The luthier should be sending me paint chip sample soon, which I'll post. In
the meantime, I ordered some Gilmour strings to help complete the package. I
never tried them and so I'm curious. Interesting thing... no music store in my
city or even a few cities over carry this brand. I found them on Amazon.ca
(Canada) for a whopping $24 a set!!! Later found them on Musician's Friend for
$4.50 plus shipping, lol.

[Brian Johnston]

Intended Paint Effect:
A black base with sporadically placed silver flakes. This will give the illusion of stars and star clusters. The pearl will be the outer layer. Its effect will be a rainbow of colors, ( the colors in the nebula pickguard). This will show when illuminated from the side. So as you move the guitar, the rainbow will move along the edge of the guitar.
This may or may not show in photos, and so a video may have to be taken.