hybrid stratocaster (usa)
ser # (n/a)
this has been my work horse instrument since the early eighties. i've always
feared letting the deans stray too far from home. they aren't replaceable, but
a hybrid strat made from off the shelf or spare parts is. it's been modified
several times over the years. here's the story:
- the
acquisition
purchased
the original strat from mark weisenberg. we went to high school together
and played in a band during our senior year. he couldn't afford a real
fender, so he bought a strat kit he saw in guitar player magazine. i think
the company was saga or sega. anyway, he put it together, played it
awhile, and decided to get rid of it. the action was terrible, the kit's
single coil pickups, neck and machine heads were junk, but i bought it
anyway. i knew i'd rip it apart and rebuild it eventually, so why not?
- rev
1
stripped
off mark's white pant job. i carved a hole out of the
body for a humbucker with one of my dad's hammers and a flathead
screwdriver... i had to lose those nasty kit pickups. i spray
painted the body black, installed a
dimarzio super 2 pickup and schaller mini machine heads. then i wired the
pickup with phase and single/humbucker switches and got rid of the fender
style whammy bar. i finished it off with a new black pickguard with a
single humbucker space.
- rev
2
i
had andrew buscher, the former top shelf music guitar guy, tear the
strat apart and do a total rebuild. he swapped out the clunky kit neck
for a rosewood charvel/jackson strat neck. i also had him replace the
dimarzio super 2 with an emg-81 active humbucker pickup.
he turned john
rzeznik onto the emg's. i liked how they sounded through my marshall...
johnny was using my marshall for awhile after the goo goo dolls
equipment van was ripped off in nyc. they lost everything.
anyway, andrew did a swell job... for the first time, it was a
respectable instrument. it
still had the black spray paint finish, so i used band stickers and extra
picks duct taped to the top horn as decorative fare. because this guitar
was so much like his, john would use it as a backup for shows from
time to time. he only had one guitar at the time... how funny.
- rev
2a
my ex-girlfiend, beth lewitzky, did a custom paint job on the body.
i moved the salvageable stickers to the back of the guitar as my secret
keepsakes. if
you saw me play with the living daylights, the spludderduds
or doombuggy, this is the guitar you'll remember. the last two
pictures above, to the far right, detail this strat body.
- rev
3
i
found a cheap, black strat body with a nice factory paint job. I had bob "guitar doctor"
schaefer tear it apart and perform another total rebuild with the new body. he had a hell
of a time aligning the neck and body, but the end result was superb. the
instrument has never been more playable. just to be a goof (because i am),
i also had him replace the strat style volume and tone knobs with gibson
speed dials.
as always, custom setup and maintenance by bob "guitar doctor" schaefer.
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2003 charles h. root, iii
