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Thread: My 'Hentor Sportscaster' replica

  1. #1
    Forum Member pete's Avatar
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    My 'Hentor Sportscaster' replica

    I've always been a big fan of Rush and Alex Lifeson. I wa slooking at some old pics and got the idea to build a replica of Lifeson's "Hentor Sportscaster" that he used through much of the early 80's. It started out as a Fender Strat but went through a lot of changes. I had nearly every part to build it except the body, a neck, and pickguard.
    I got the body on ebay for $50 and the neck for $65 and started putting this together last week.
    I finished this up late last night. It turned out better than I'd hoped and really sounds great.
    The parts I used are Lace Holy Grail HG1000 neck and middle pickups, an old Bill Lawrence L500 bridge pickup, an early Floyd Rose, Planet Waves locking tuners, Mighty Mite neck, and a white alder Strat body of unknown brand.
    The wiring scheme really worked good. The guitar is very versatile and every combination sounds unique and very nice.
    The Gibson toggle is wired for bridge/bridge & neck/neck. The mini switch turns on the middle pickup, and the tone control has a push/pull switch to split coils on the bridge pickup. I'm very impressed with the L500 pickup. I've had it for about 20 years and for some reason I never installed it in anything.
    The Floyd stays in tune great and I used a Floyd Rose trem stop set for dive only so I can use this guitar in different tunings.
    I ordered the matte black pickguard from Warmoth with only the 2 single coil cuts. I wanted to put the pots and switches where I wanted them and I routed the bridge pickup hole so it would fit the Lawrence pickup exactly. The L500 is smaller and has more rounded corners than a standard humbucker.
    I made the logo on inkjet waterslide decal paper. I got as close as I could to the original from what I could make out from the photo below.
    I tried to get as close to Alex's guitar as I could but still set it up with a few more features that I like. The body is a little too white but for $50 I'm not gonna complain.

    Here's pics of Alex's original:




    And here are pics of my newly finished replica:





  2. #2
    Forum Member curtisstetka's Avatar
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    Re: My 'Hentor Sportscaster' replica

    Hey! Nice work there! That decal looks fantastic. Very professional looking. The whole thing is well executed.

    May I ask what the backwards input jack is all about? I mean, I see it's on the original. I'm just asking why do it? Is it just to be a little "off"?
    s'all goof.

  3. #3
    Forum Member pete's Avatar
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    Re: My 'Hentor Sportscaster' replica

    Quote Originally Posted by curtisstetka
    Hey! Nice work there! That decal looks fantastic. Very professional looking. The whole thing is well executed.

    May I ask what the backwards input jack is all about? I mean, I see it's on the original. I'm just asking why do it? Is it just to be a little "off"?
    Thanks!
    Yeah I think the output jack is like that just to be different. It does make it easier to use a right angle plug though.
    I'm finding that I really like the 3 way toggle on the lower horn. It's real easy to switch while playing and the bridge/neck pickup combo sounds sweet!

  4. #4
    Forum Member Kap'n's Avatar
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    Re: My 'Hentor Sportscaster' replica

    Nice work! :yay

    The jack might work better with his wireless for one reason or another.
    Several guitars in different colors
    Things to make them fuzzy
    Things to make them louder
    orange picks

  5. #5
    Forum Member chuckocaster's Avatar
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    Re: My 'Hentor Sportscaster' replica

    looks great! good job man!
    "don't worry, i'm a professional!"

  6. #6
    Forum Member mojo's Avatar
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    Re: My 'Hentor Sportscaster' replica

    Workmanships top notch, just beautiful pete. Nice Axe! :yay :yay :yay

  7. #7
    Forum Member sabby's Avatar
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    Re: My 'Hentor Sportscaster' replica

    Just when you think you've seen all the possible variations of a Strat, ...

    Nicely done! :yay :yay

  8. #8
    Forum Member Timbo's Avatar
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    Re: My 'Hentor Sportscaster' replica

    Very impressive Pete. Well done! :yay

  9. #9
    Forum Member jrgtr42's Avatar
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    Re: My 'Hentor Sportscaster' replica

    Looks to me like the origional has the jack in the roght orientation (cord goes in with the plug facing towards the PUs, but upside down, so to speak, so instead of being recessed, it's protruding (covex rather than concave?)
    other than that (and I could be wrong about it...)
    damn good job...just needs a few years of smokey shows to get that nice cream color...

  10. #10

    Re: My 'Hentor Sportscaster' replica

    I'm a huge Rush fan as well, though not usually of Alex's strat era... I never realized the Hentor was so crazy, though. It took some real dedication to put that together, congratulations! :)

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