gonna do heavy surgery to my strat. need advice

[hatecrew]

Hi all. if you remember me i was asking about p90s in one of the threads here yesterday. i have 2 questions...

i was wondering what type of body i should get to fit p90s in. so far i'm thinking either ash or mahogany. also, i don't like tremolos, so i want hardtail, like a telecaster. but it's gonna be extremely difficult to find hardtail strat body, let alone a hard tail mahogany strat body. So, anyone knows where to get hardtail strat bodies in singapore? or better yet, ash or mahogany ones? please don't tell me to order from warmoth. thanks.

this got me thinking of a tele body instead. i want to put my strat neck onto a tele body. i did some research and found out that the strat neck is slightly curved, and the tele neck pocket is more square, resulting in 2 small gaps. my question is: will this affect my playing in terms of tuning instability, a easy to break neck or intonation problems or something along those lines?

thanks for the help!

 

[jony]

What tone are you trying to achieve?

A Strat with a P90 sound or a LP with a P90 sound thats mounted in a Strat?

 

[bouncy]

I'll try my best to answer those questions that have little to do with the tone you are hoping to achieve, but yea ash and mahogany are pretty much worlds apart in terms of tone.

For hard tail strats, I'm not sure if its possible but I rememer someone telling me that to convert a whammy strat bridge into a hard tail, you just have to tighten some of the screws and disconnect the bridge to the springs. I know this for sure, a bridge with 5 springs attached (like SRV) would be more "hard tail" than the normal bridges with 3 springs attached.

As for the neck issue, yes you are right on that gap at the heel. But as far as my experience tells me, the problems arising from the gap are cosmetic issues. Won't affect tuning stability or intonation.

The problem regarding tuning comes when you fit a Tele neck into a strat body.

 

[hatecrew]

i was initially thinking of putting p90s into my strat's alder body but i'm not sure if it would sound nice. seeing that most p90 guitars come with a mahogany body, i'm pretty unsure.

i was wanting the ash for the thinline tele kinda sound, but i realise that it's thinline, an ash solidbody is not gonna sound like a thinline tele. i want my guitar to have a lot of bite and growl, and different from the standard single coil sound, as i can achieve that better with my CIJ telecaster. is an ash p90 equipped guitar gonna sound too bright? cause i don't really want a standard strat single coil sound

 

[Whitestrat]

So, anyone knows where to get hardtail strat bodies in singapore? or better yet, ash or mahogany ones? please don't tell me to order from warmoth.

Guitar Connection

 

[mero]

A Tele heel is squared but a Strat heel is rounded. Similarly, for tele neck pockets, it's a square but a strat neck pocket is rounded at the corners.

A strat neck on a tele pocket will work but not the other way round. However, if the neck doesn't have the 22 fret overhang the gaps are going to be visible. Intonation-wise I think it'll be okay.

Also, take note that P90s on a fender scale neck are going to sound unique. I have a thinline tele with humbucker-sized P90s, the closest i can approximate it to is actually a SG with p90s.

Although seriously, if you're looking for something quality, I really suggest warmoth or usacg. If price is an issue, try looking at their discounted items. Warmoth has finished bodies/necks for really good prices in their discounted showcase.

 

[hatecrew]

unique. as in good unique or bad unique? hahaha

how does your thinline sound like? does it sound like a p90 equipped sg? i really don't mind having that sound. i'm aiming to try to get my hands on either an ash or rosewood deluxe telecaster (fits the strat neck) or strat body. i have 2 harmonic design z90s from my previous greco les paul knockoff that i sold off.

 

[mero]

Unique in the sense that it doesn't really sound like anything else
A P90 SG would be the closest sounding IMO

It won't get you anywhere near the warm bottom heavy tone of a P90 les paul, sound-wise, I'd say there's a lot of bite on the bridge pickup, which can get a tiny bit too bright sometimes (though nowhere near the usual tele icepick). Cleans on the neck pup or in the middle position are pretty nice. Not quite the chimey tone of a singlecoil fender but a nice warm sound. Need to be careful to eq it so it doesn't get lost in the mix though.

I'm using an alder body on mine, would have preferred mahogany but when this body came by I couldn't resist getting it. Mine's paired with a 2 piece Indian Rosewood neck and GFS Mean90 pickups. I think an ash body might be a bit too bright for it but you never know. Never tried the HD Z-90s so can't really comment on the pairing

 

[hatecrew]

mero, thanks a lot for your input. the rest of you also! thank you for the help.

i got an offer for a mahogany strat body. will a mahogany body + maple neck rosewood fretboard bolt on strat give around the same tone as an SG with P90s? I'm looking for both the fat dirty and the cleans. i understand there has to be a compromise, but how would this sound like? in terms of both the cleans and the dirty. i know that the cleans would not be as sparkling and clear as when using an alder or ash body, but how much lacking?

 

[HarrisonYeo]

i doubt so bro,since the gibson sg uses a mahogany neck too.