Lowell George setup :: 2001 Fender Stratocaster [7.5 lbs]

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A 70's style Strat back in the shop to complete it's Lowell George-esque setup with a Tele bridge pickup and Alembic Blastor preamp.  Above the body is being routed out for a Seymour Duncan Tele bridge pickup.  I forgot to photo the method used to enlarge the bridge in the pickguard (yes, a Tele bridge pickup is bigger than a Strat pickup).  What I did was to take a Tele bridge, double-stick taped it to the pickguard and used a violin knife to pare away the excess.  It worked fairly well.

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The owner found a NOS original Blastor from the 1970's (not the newer Blaster / Strat-o-Blaster).  Pictured above is the back of the body is being routed out to accept a 9V battery box to power the Alembic preamp. A battery box is not required, but it's nice to have easy access.  You can install the battery under the pickguard but it can be a pain having to take off the pickguard for each battery change.  I would not install a battery box on a vintage instrument.  Also note that we ended up lowering the action at the nut considerably from last time it was in.

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Blocking the "Trem" :: 2010 Fender Stratocaster [7.6 lbs]

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Blocking the "Trem" :: 2010 Fender Stratocaster [7.6 lbs]

The player of this Strat doesn't really use the whammy bar, so he wanted to convert the floating bridge to a hard tail.  A fixed bridge can improve things like tuning stability, sustain and even help with the pitch accuracy of double stop bends (ie. bending one string into/against another).

This hardtail conversion involves fitting a block (maple used here) into the spring cavity in the back of the guitar between the bridge block and the rear cavity wall (sorry, forgot to get a photo).  Many people call this "blocking the trem" in which they are referring to the floating bridge as a tremolo.  But this is not technically accurate as tremolo is a modulation in volume.  Vibrato is really the phenomenon going on with a whammy bridge as you are modulating the pitch.  So I guess we are really, "blocking the vibe".

Slide only :: 2001 Fender Stratocaster [7.3 lbs]

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Slide only :: 2001 Fender Stratocaster [7.3 lbs]

Here was an interesting setup request.  This player wanted to set this 70's style Strat for slide only with no fretting.  A new bone nut was carved to both elevate the strings and flatten the string radius (meaning the strings do no follow the curvature of the fingerboard).  The saddles were also raised and the string radius flattened at the bridge end.  A maple block was fit to convert the floating bridge it to a hard tail.  To finish it off, the guitar was strung with flats.  This player is going for a Lowell George kind of setup, so we may end up installing an Alembic Stratoblaster preamp in the future.

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