Looking for some suggestions for my new Refin Project

[Alpine86]

Howdy All,

Well, yet another poor abused strat has found its way to Alpines home for wayward guitars. Its a 78 that has this horrid brown / clear finish and its just.. awful. Anywho, Ive decided that its going to be my project for the next couple months or so. Overall, the guitar has solid bones, neck is great, no issues really other than cosmetic. It was even spared the horrid garage hack route job to install a floyd rose. It has a rose, however, they never bothered to re route the body to fit it (it therefore doesnt work like it should) but the good news for me is that I dont have to mess around with that. I can just take that off, and put the standard trem back on.

So heres my question / dilemma. Im not really sure what I want to do with it electronics / pickup wise. I have a handful of strats and have enough variation between them that I can get pretty good versatility from them as far as a good representation of strat tones. My Number One is a 79 thats pretty much stock except for a hot rails in the bridge that gives it a little fuller sound when I need it and is pretty versatile. The other two pickups are the orginal stock ones in that. So I cant decide whether just to give it the same set up as Number One and call it.. hmm.. number two? (I also just had the strangest realization as I write this.. Number one.. is a yellow strat... the potential number two.. funky brown.. coincidence?)

Anywho.. how would you set it up if you were going to do it? My gut tells me to try something different and out there.. but Im not really sure where I want to take this one...

[chuckocaster]

man, i love thinking about what i could do with a guitar. lucky indeed you are for not having to fix old hack jobs. i got a bit of a handful with my sg bass. but that's okay since none of it affects playability, and it sounds good.

color wise, i think an olympic white might be a really cool color to go with. to me it has a classic 70's vibe to it.

as for pickups, maybe some custom shop 69's or something like that. if you already got your bases covered, and know what you like, you might just want to put a little spin on the same concept. maybe all singles but with a neck blend knob?

my 2 cents.

[Dr Fene]

I really fancy a strat with the 3 lipstick pups in there and then maybe make her a dedicated slide machine! :)

[cooltone]

dr. fene, what an axe that is!!!

I'd check out one of them el dorado carved leather pickguards, with a natural finish and some fralin's with chrome pickup covers...oh yeah..do the blender knob dealie that chucko mentioned. :2c

[sabby]

Dr Fene, that is BEAUTIFUL!!!! :bug Daddy likes.

Alpine, if you don't mind routing it out, how 'bout three of Fralin's new hum-sized split singles (two twangmasters and a p92 in the bridge)? Or maybe three 90s?

[telecast]

WHOA! 3 gold Tele neck pups?!?!?!? I want one! That is WAY to cool.

I wonder if you used 2 CS Vintage for the neck and middle, and a CS TS for the bridge....

[Alpine86]

Dr Fene, that strat looks amazing. And thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I had been toying around with the idea of oly white, maybe with black pickguard and covers and knobs. And I hadnt thought about the blend pot before.. I cant believe that slipped my mind. I dont have a set up at all for something like that yet.

As for a dedicated slide player, that may be good, as it would force me to polish up my slide playing. I am such a slouch when it comes to slide. I love slide playing, and have been working at it for such a long time, then, I see someone like Derek Trucks playing slide and I just cant bring myself to even look at one let alone play one..

[Cheapstrat]

man, i love thinking about what i could do with a guitar. lucky indeed you are for not having to fix old hack jobs. i got a bit of a handful with my sg bass. but that's okay since none of it affects playability, and it sounds good.

color wise, i think an olympic white might be a really cool color to go with. to me it has a classic 70's vibe to it.

as for pickups, maybe some custom shop 69's or something like that. if you already got your bases covered, and know what you like, you might just want to put a little spin on the same concept. maybe all singles but with a neck blend knob?

my 2 cents.

Yeah Chuck...definitely a blender pot. Put one in mine and love it...gives you a ton of very useful tones. Good call!

[chuckocaster]

i've been doing a few of them for people, and so far everyone loves it.