Pictures Of My Finished "Blue" Stratocaster

[midnite_man]

Sweet lookin' Strat there, John! I love blue Strats, too, and hope to own one someday. That's a great looking line-up in the pickup dept., 'bro. I bet it sounds excellent.
Nice job, buddy!!

-Bob

[STRATDELUXER97]

Looks good John.

You're right about those Highway 1 bodies with the satin finish having a nice natural resonance to them. I just bought one this week in crimson red transparent and I can't believe how good it sounds.

Enjoy

Ahhh very cool buddy...Yeah mine is very resonant and the grain showing through the satin finish looks very cool...My son tells me it looks as if I painted the body myself out in my garage! He's right.. I'm sure the use of all Duncan pickups in my newest strat is an upgraded welcome regarding the tone?

John

[STRATDELUXER97]

Sweet lookin' Strat there, John! I love blue Strats, too, and hope to own one someday. That's a great looking line-up in the pickup dept., 'bro. I bet it sounds excellent.
Nice job, buddy!!

-Bob

Hello Bobby...This guitar sounds great with the whole array of A2 Duncan pickups and the GHS Boomer strings..I normally use D'Addario EXL 110s but opted purposely for some brighter strings...I ended up with a nice snappy,percussive strat...It's not ice picky in anyway but it's almost as if the body were ash and not alder in both weight and looks...I Know it's alder though because Fender only lists an alder body Highway 1 strat for lefties..

John

[STRATDELUXER97]

Bumped for more to see

[butnut]

Looks good John. I know some guys buff the Highway to get a nice gloss, sounds like a great neck and gotta love that bridge HB. Have fun with it.

[Hoss]

NEW STUFF ROCKS!!!

[Zerberus]

Nice axe, good work

[BS123]

Very nice! I love the mint green pickguard.

[Quencho092]

Awesome A Steely Dan Fan! Thats Great Artietoo. Steely Dan's The Best

[STRATDELUXER97]

Awesome A Steely Dan Fan! Thats Great Artietoo. Steely Dan's The Best

Hey brothers....Thanks so much for the nice compliments on the strat...It's always fun to put one together and then set everything all up to suit my personal tastes...Everything from putting the guitar together,getting things all lined up,pickup heights,intonation,action,relief on the neck,adjusting the vibrato height etc...I even use Stew Mac's radius gauges and match the string curvature to the neck...The guitar plays and sounds really great...Thanks for looking...

John

[mrfjones]

it looks great, i love that color

[STRATDELUXER97]

it looks great, i love that color

Thanks so much...The pictures don't do the body any justice..The pictures are too dark and don't show the pretty grain and the correct blue coloring...Must be a veneered top because the grain looks like ash to me and not alder?

John

[Kent S.]

I just got around to seeing this, the slide show option works great for viewing them ... Looks really nice, I bet it does have that liquidy look to it under the light... From what I can see though, really nice! You must be very happy, I would appear that Fender has done something really well with these Highway !'s from what everyone is saying, it's nice to see a good sounding guiatr, for a really good price like that ... Kudos for Fender.
I gotta ask though what's the mini toggle for? What's this about a slipstone nut? And I noticed you used the vintage style saddles, I know you said that's what you had, but a third question, do you prefer those or the flat American Standard ones (not sure what they actually refer to them as), as they (there type anyway) seem a little more comfortable to me personally ... Just curious.

[Marcel]

nice one..... though lefty looks always wired for me

[STRATDELUXER97]

I just got around to seeing this, the slide show option works great for viewing them ... Looks really nice, I bet it does have that liquidy look to it under the light... From what I can see though, really nice! You must be very happy, I would appear that Fender has done something really well with these Highway !'s from what everyone is saying, it's nice to see a good sounding guiatr, for a really good price like that ... Kudos for Fender.
I gotta ask though what's the mini toggle for? What's this about a slipstone nut? And I noticed you used the vintage style saddles, I know you said that's what you had, but a third question, do you prefer those or the flat American Standard ones (not sure what they actually refer to them as), as they (there type anyway) seem a little more comfortable to me personally ... Just curious.

Kent...The mini switch is just a dpdt on/on/on that gives me series/split/parallel for my Hybrid bridge pickup....

The Slip Stone nut is sold by Stew Mac and is supposed to be like graphite in the way it works but it isn't black in color and actually feels like a bone nut..

I like both bridges,but I feel the vintage bridge has the right look that I Like and the right tone...The American Std bridge functions better imo but it doesn't sound like the vintage bridge...The Highway 1 body comes with and is set up for the vintage bridge and it's the reason I went with this particular body....My American Deluxe strat you see in my avatar has the newer style bridge...I Like em both..

John

[sweet_lou]

Congrats Buddy, Love the color. You deserve the best from the way you treat folks.

[STRATDELUXER97]

Congrats Buddy, Love the color. You deserve the best from the way you treat folks.

Wow...What a nice compliment Lou...Well I only treat people the way they treat me...What goes around,comes around buddy...Have a great 4th..You made my day Lou..

John

[edi_87]

Great strat! I have a vintage american strat, but i'm looking for someone who can make it shine... I don't know how old it is exacly ( maybe you know the way i can check it??) but prodably from mid 80's... I changed pickups to duncans, but still don't know why, cannot regulate neck radius.. Hope one day it will get close to yours

[rumplstratskin]

Kent...The mini switch is just a dpdt on/on/on that gives me series/split/parallel for my Hybrid bridge pickup....

The Slip Stone nut is sold by Stew Mac and is supposed to be like graphite in the way it works but it isn't black in color and actually feels like a bone nut..

I like both bridges,but I feel the vintage bridge has the right look that I Like and the right tone...The American Std bridge functions better imo but it doesn't sound like the vintage bridge...The Highway 1 body comes with and is set up for the vintage bridge and it's the reason I went with this particular body....My American Deluxe strat you see in my avatar has the newer style bridge...I Like em both..

John

Very sweet ! Love the shade of blue. Can't look at it too long 'cause it's still disconcerting to see everything "backwards" but what ya gonna do?
Want to thank you also -with the tone jump and the step-by-step on setting up you made available, my AMS is now a dream to play.

[STRATDELUXER97]

Great strat! I have a vintage american strat, but i'm looking for someone who can make it shine... I don't know how old it is exacly ( maybe you know the way i can check it??) but prodably from mid 80's... I changed pickups to duncans, but still don't know why, cannot regulate neck radius.. Hope one day it will get close to yours

Hey buddy,go to www.mrgearhead.com and check out the setup section for strats and follow it..Don't do any steps on your guitar until you fully understand what you read...There are cool gauges and measuring devices that I get from www.stewmac.com for getting the string heights and radius perfect on my instruments..Check it out and then ask us questions while you learn along the way.

John