NRGD: Squier Vintage Modified Stratocaster Overmodified....

Sp8ctre

Sp8ctre

Ambassador of Steel
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Boys and Girls...this is my resurrected VM Stratocaster and her name is Alice! Alice was lucky enough to receive a new set of lungs in the way of a custom built loaded pickguard from the Von Herdon laboratory!

She now has two very strong humbuckers where her mighty single coils used to be. She had to go under the knife or rotating blade shall we say to have some of her innards removed so her new lungs fit tight.

Now let me tell you when Alice screams from a nice hard strum of a power chord she sounds like a monkey set on fire! But when you pluck her strings one by one she can still sound smooth and clean...

Thanks to Robert for the nice gift and the patience of waiting for me to get her back together...maybe he'll chime in and give us a rundown on this loaded up girls electrics.

So...here's Alice!

20181106_153120.jpg 20181106_153126.jpg 20181106_153139.jpg
 
I LOVE those pickups....they look like DiMarzio Super Distortions....Say, that's a relocated volume knob too... :-)
 
Listen to the very intro guitar in this fitting title and turn it up LOUD! This is what Alice can do...

 
So, a little techie data on the electronics for you tone hounds. Last year, I was fortunate to run across a local guy who does Luthier work and pickup winding in his home workshop. I hung out with him a while and eventually we started talking about pickups.

Basicaly, I wanted to hot rod a DiMarzio Super Distortion with unbalanced coils and Alnico 8 magnets, so he wound me up maybe 7 or 8 pair of them.

Weighing in at 17k bridge and 16k neck respectively, I decided to call these 'Supre Sonics.'

I first used a set in my Ibanez Destroyer II replica with good results. I installed several pair in Von Herndon Stratocasters and gave away a few pair. The reviews were good and a few more sets were wound with me hanging out and learning.

Some of the Von Herndon prototype guitars received wire harnesses built by Tone Man. This is one of them.

The pickguard was custom built for a local client who opted to go to a Von Herndon Stagecrafter at the last-minute.

The setup is based on a H-H pickguard with a relocated volume knob and a modified .015" aluminum RFI shield.

The harness features Bourn 500k pots with a master volume, separate bridge and neck tone controls, .033uf/.015uf K40Y PIO tone capacitors, Oak-Grigsby 3 way switch and cloth wiring.

The pickguard sat around collecting dust for a few months and I offered it for free to several people who thought it sacreligde to alter the position of the volume knob and turned it down.

Spectre put his hand up and I shipped it out to his evil workshop straightaway.

Maybe he can fill you guys in on the rest of the pickguard's journey???
 
So...after Robert was so kind in offering me this super modified custom made set up I proceeded to screw things up.

I set about taking apart my Squier and the first problem was Humbuckers don't fit in a Strat single coil route. No problem.
Just a little trip to the garage with my drill press and cutter bit and we made those beasts a home.

Here is where the easy part turned left and went down the hard road...simple wiring diagram and some soldering and...very
weak to no output. Hmmm, maybe I wired the jack backwards...more soldering...nope! Okay, maybe this harness was wired
in some strange manner, let's PM Robert. Got some details...rewired the entire thing...nope...weak to no output. I'm frustrated!

More PM's to Robert, more failures and a call goes out for help. Syscokid steps up and offers to give this thing a shot. I mail it to him
and he encounters problems as well...he troubleshoots, solders re-works, and finally after about 10 pages of PM's between the
three of us we have a working setup!

I get the loaded pickguard back and before I can install it family emergencies start smacking me in the face left and right...

Finally, it's in and it's working and it's KILLER! Even though I am not a high gain person and I believe it's almost sacrilege to
install humbuckers in a Strat...it really works! It has some great tones and who doesn't need that? Another weapon in my arsenal!!!
 
Sp8ctre said:
So...after Robert was so kind in offering me this super modified custom made set up I proceeded to screw things up.

I set about taking apart my Squier and the first problem was Humbuckers don't fit in a Strat single coil route. No problem.
Just a little trip to the garage with my drill press and cutter bit and we made those beasts a home.

Here is where the easy part turned left and went down the hard road...simple wiring diagram and some soldering and...very
weak to no output. Hmmm, maybe I wired the jack backwards...more soldering...nope! Okay, maybe this harness was wired
in some strange manner, let's PM Robert. Got some details...rewired the entire thing...nope...weak to no output. I'm frustrated!

More PM's to Robert, more failures and a call goes out for help. Syscokid steps up and offers to give this thing a shot. I mail it to him
and he encounters problems as well...he troubleshoots, solders re-works, and finally after about 10 pages of PM's between the
three of us we have a working setup!

I get the loaded pickguard back and before I can install it family emergencies start smacking me in the face left and right...

Finally, it's in and it's working and it's KILLER! Even though I am not a high gain person and I believe it's almost sacrilege to
install humbuckers in a Strat...it really works! It has some great tones and who doesn't need that? Another weapon in my arsenal!!!
Click to expand...

I'm happy to see it being used. Funny thing about "high gain" pickups - the 500T (14.6k) in my Stratocaster has some of the most crisp and clear clean tones I have ever heard...
 
Robert Herndon said:
I'm happy to see it being used. Funny thing about "high gain" pickups - the 500T (14.6k) in my Stratocaster has some of the most crisp and clear clean tones I have ever heard...
Click to expand...


Here you can see the relocated volume knob position. The original hole is taped up with aluminum:

IMG_20180414_57527.jpg

A front view of the pickguard. Note the DiMarzio-esque allen head pole pieces:

IMG_20180414_4658.jpg

And a shot of the harness as received from Tone Man:

IMG_20170904_38524.jpg
 
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