Good upgrades to a strat?

[thor666]

hmm... have been thinking... what would be good upgrades to a stratocaster?

stock wise i find a strat is fine... but there're some quirks here and there, and some of my own preferences to the guitar.

Here's what I thought of:

- Change the vintage saddles to Graphtech saddles. I particularly dislike vintage saddles, and after trying out Graphtech saddles I must say the improvements are not simply just hype - there is quite a bit more sustain and the strings don't suffer from kinks unlike the vintage saddles. Easier to put ur hang down to palm-mute as well.

- Callaham trem blocks. Anyone tried this? I've been reading up on the Seymour Duncan forums and one of the observations is that older tremolo bridges (63's) sustain better than the newer (80' MIJ) bridges. While discussing about it with my friend, he suggested "Why not just get a Callaham block instead?"

 

[BlackMoo]

Locking tuners. Brass nut.

 

[ShredCow]

Get it properly shielded to minimize 60 cycle hum.

 

[BlackMoo]

LED lights, sustainer in neck. Active pickups, laser beams. Add a phase reversal switch with a presence boost when any 2 adjacent pickups are active, coil tap. LOL.

 

[wangdexian]

LED lights, sustainer in neck. Active pickups, laser beams. Add a phase reversal switch with a presence boost when any 2 adjacent pickups are active, coil tap. LOL.

Please do this on your RG please. I want to see...

 

[BlackMoo]

Haha dude. you don't get it. How the hell do you coil tap a single coil! HAHAHAHA.

 

[subversion]

- Change the vintage saddles to Graphtech saddles. I particularly dislike vintage saddles, and after trying out Graphtech saddles I must say the improvements are not simply just hype - there is quite a bit more sustain and the strings don't suffer from kinks unlike the vintage saddles. Easier to put ur hang down to palm-mute as well.

i replaced my Strat's vintage type bridge saddles to Graphtech String Savers...

 

[17wil]

where can fix LED lights on guitar neck

 

[jumbofret]

Use a Graph Tech nut as well.

 

[jeremyrozario]

where can fix LED lights on guitar neck

take out your neck, pay to ship to uk, pay a few hundred pounds, then pay for shipment back, then put your neck back on :lol:

 

[jumbofret]

Get it properly shielded to minimize 60 cycle hum.

I see that you have read my post! haha it's not completed yet, near completion...

I need help from my bro to hold down wires while I solder. I plan to finish it by the end of today, and update that post. Pics and tips will be included

 

[thor666]

thumbs up for the shielding bit... it minimizes electrical interference much more than hum, but i would say - the less noise the better!

subversion - the Graphtech saddles are really good yea? :wink:

 

[ShredCow]

yeah... quieten the beast! All that 60 cycle hum from strats is apparently just due to poor shielding...

I noted that on my guitar, with coil tap on... its actually quieter than my full humbucker. And I got an aluminium covering inside my control cavity.


btw... i am really thinking of going for the FR graptech saddles!

 

[uzzo88]

i've been hearing alot abt these grapthech thingy what does it do actualli??
if the are good, are they available for floyd rose trems??

 

[thor666]

the graphtech saddles are made from other materials other than metal, improves sustain and reduces string breakage in short.

www.graphtech.com

yes, the graphtech for FRs debuted at NAMM05... too be available soon i think

 

[ShredCow]

thor.. you are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy behind! The Graptech FR saddles are here in Singapore already.

Maestro stocks them @ $150 per set.

 

[thor666]

oops... haha. i don't scout Maestro that often lah...

 

[ShredCow]

oops... haha. i don't scout Maestro that often lah...

You should! They are the distributors of graphtech here!

 

[jumbofret]

Ah... For the shielding process from guitarnuts.com, I had to cover the whole pickguard and body cavity with aluminium foil...

On good guitars, they have shielding paint on the cavities. I tried looking for shielding paint, but couldn't seem to find it anywhere. Shielding paint is expensive, too...

Wow, Maestro is cool! They are like one of the few shops that introduces new stuff from the US... Is the Floyd Rose Speedloader available in Singapore? I doubt so...

 

[uzzo88]

i heard the speed loader isnt sumthing good..