Ideas and Suggestions on StratoTele Project?

alexbatonrouge · February 7th, 2006, 04:28 AM

Hi Guys,
I bought a purple refinished hard-tail 73 Strat Body and Rosewood neck on e-bait. Now what to do with all that stuff as I am a true Telelover. I have never seen a Stratotele. Any suggestions or comments? :D

What do you think of my design studies?

One problem that I already found out will be to position the bridge as the drillholes for the strat hardtail are behind and the drillholes for a tele vintage bridge in front of the string through body holes. Should I make it a top-loader if I already have the string holes? What about intonation and all that stuff. Any experiences?

Please don´t tell me to simply buy a Tele as I already have some!

Best Regards and keep on Twangin!

By the way thanks to Nacho for the wonderful book you gave us!

arievds · February 7th, 2006, 04:38 AM

Hello Alex,

I don't have real experience with tele bridges on hardtail stratocasters.
I think my own action would indeed be drilling the top-loader holes in the bridge.

I like the idea anyway, also gives opportunity for 'dumping' the middle and neck pickups and creating a 'stratosquire'.

If you do want the middle and bridge pickups for reasons of 'quack' in the combined positions, I advise you to search the forum on ofsetting the angle of the pickups in relation to the bridge pickup ( the angle of a strat bridge pickup is different from a tele ). I remember someone psoting great theoretical insight, research results and advise on this subject.

Good luck!

Arie
.

TG · February 7th, 2006, 05:30 AM

If you're going to use a chrome tele neck pickup how about having one in the middle instead of a strat pickup? That would look cool.

I've modded a Squier51 into nearly a stratotele. It has a GFS Fat Tele neck pickup and an uncovered US Fender tele neck pickup in the middle. (I would have used another GFS FatTele in the middle but I had the Fender one lying spare in a drawer.) They work well together. It still has the stock humbucker at the bridge since it has quite a tele-like tone anyway (if you lower the treble side), but I have been considering doing the tele bridge and pickup thing....or even just a tele bridge pickup hanging from the pickguard. But this little guitar is naturally very bright sounding so I'd need something like a Duncan AlnicoII maybe. But until I find one cheap I'll stick with what I've got. So far I've been using cheap parts and bits I had lying around for the modding and I don't want to spend much more.
I have it wired with the 3 way having the usual 3 tele settings and a push/pull switch turning on the middle pickup. A bit awkward sometimes, but I prefer the neck and bridge sound to a middle pickup on its own. So I play it as I would a tele and add the 'quack' with the push/pull.
Here's a pic....

February 7th, 2006, 04:28 AM	#1 (permalink)
alexbatonrouge TDPRI Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Bremen - Germany Posts: 76	Ideas and Suggestions on StratoTele Project? Hi Guys, I bought a purple refinished hard-tail 73 Strat Body and Rosewood neck on e-bait. Now what to do with all that stuff as I am a true Telelover. I have never seen a Stratotele. Any suggestions or comments? :D What do you think of my design studies? One problem that I already found out will be to position the bridge as the drillholes for the strat hardtail are behind and the drillholes for a tele vintage bridge in front of the string through body holes. Should I make it a top-loader if I already have the string holes? What about intonation and all that stuff. Any experiences? Please don´t tell me to simply buy a Tele as I already have some! Best Regards and keep on Twangin! By the way thanks to Nacho for the wonderful book you gave us!

February 7th, 2006, 04:38 AM	#2 (permalink)
arievds TDPRI Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: nl/you're up Posts: 19	Hello Alex, I don't have real experience with tele bridges on hardtail stratocasters. I think my own action would indeed be drilling the top-loader holes in the bridge. I like the idea anyway, also gives opportunity for 'dumping' the middle and neck pickups and creating a 'stratosquire'. If you do want the middle and bridge pickups for reasons of 'quack' in the combined positions, I advise you to search the forum on ofsetting the angle of the pickups in relation to the bridge pickup ( the angle of a strat bridge pickup is different from a tele ). I remember someone psoting great theoretical insight, research results and advise on this subject. Good luck! Arie .

February 7th, 2006, 05:30 AM	#3 (permalink)
TG Friend of Leo's Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Beside a bog in the west of Ireland Age: 47 Posts: 4,504 7 Photos	If you're going to use a chrome tele neck pickup how about having one in the middle instead of a strat pickup? That would look cool. I've modded a Squier51 into nearly a stratotele. It has a GFS Fat Tele neck pickup and an uncovered US Fender tele neck pickup in the middle. (I would have used another GFS FatTele in the middle but I had the Fender one lying spare in a drawer.) They work well together. It still has the stock humbucker at the bridge since it has quite a tele-like tone anyway (if you lower the treble side), but I have been considering doing the tele bridge and pickup thing....or even just a tele bridge pickup hanging from the pickguard. But this little guitar is naturally very bright sounding so I'd need something like a Duncan AlnicoII maybe. But until I find one cheap I'll stick with what I've got. So far I've been using cheap parts and bits I had lying around for the modding and I don't want to spend much more. I have it wired with the 3 way having the usual 3 tele settings and a push/pull switch turning on the middle pickup. A bit awkward sometimes, but I prefer the neck and bridge sound to a middle pickup on its own. So I play it as I would a tele and add the 'quack' with the push/pull. Here's a pic....