The Coolest Guitars of the SDUGF

[Surf Whammy]

Being a big fan of Stratocaster® guitars and Seymour Duncan® pickups, any list of outrageously insane guitars certainly needs to include The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster™ (a personal favorite), which I hereby nominate, which is fabulous . . .


The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster™

Fabulous!

In its current configuration, there are two channels (L, R), which are output via a TRS-style stereo jack and then are split into two monaural outputs, which feed two separate sets of effects pedals, each of which has a stereo output, thereby creating in real-time something that I call the "Wall of Guitars™" . . .

The left-channel is a Little 59™ and a Lipstick Tube for Strat®, and the right-channel is a Lipstick Tube for Strat, with all the pickups being "bridge output", since I like hot pickups . . .

The stock Fender® American Deluxe Stratocaster (circa 1999) TONE controls (left-channel) are replaced with Rothstein™ "mid-scoop" TONE controls, and the TONE control with the Really Big Knob™ is a Rothstein "mid scoop" Varitone™-style TONE control with a rotary switch, and an additional set of Rothstein "mid-scoop" TONE controls are provided for the right-channel Lipstick Tube for Strat pickup, with the lower part of the dual-concentric control at the far-right of the lower-section of the Fender chrome pickguard operating a Black Ice™ passive overdrive device, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

And this is a Surf Whammys song about the Really Big Knob--noting that The Surf Whammys™ is my pretend Rock and Roll band, which actually is me doing everything here in the sound isolation studio, which is approximately the size of a walk-in closet (7' wide by 12' long by 7' high) and is where I spend most of my time while visiting your planet--which is as fabulous as it is mixed expressly for listening with iPod® earphones or studio-quality headphones like the SONY® MDR-7506 . . .

"Really Big Knob" (The Surf Whammys™) -- MP3

Fabulous!

The current plan is to move everything to a significantly higher level by adding 3 more Seymour Duncan pickups (Duckbuckers™, Hot Rails™, and JB Jr.™), thereby transforming The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster into a truly mind-boggling guitar that has a grand total of 6 pickups and 5 channels, all with pretty much the same number of knobs, since I will use mini dual-concentric controls ("stacked pots", if you prefer) for everything except the Really Big Knob, which in part requires moving all the components from the stock Rothstein "mid-scoop" TONE controls to mini dual-concentric potentiometers--noting that I plan to add approximately 10 mini-toggle switches, at least 5 of which probably will be mini-4P3T or whatever switches, provided there is enough space for them underneath the pickguard, which at least in theory is possible, because there are billions and billions of different types of switches and stuff, which I discovered after devising a way to get the sound isolation studio setup as a TOP SECRET skunkworks type of entity, at least insofar as all the major electronic component manufacturers and suppliers are concerned, which is one of the many reasons it is so important to stay awake during English classes, as well as to own and to use a dictionary, when visiting this planet and learning its primary language, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

And as a gift to the people of your planet, I am documenting everything, complete with photographs of the various modding steps, in a topic in the GuitarZone.com FORUM, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project (GuitarZone.com FORUM)

Fabulous!

[wntbtw]

I have always like BTMN`s 'Explorer' without the pickguard--beautiful looking guitar. Seen here at post #16 [along w/ Brad Whitford`s]:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/s...05#post2224505

[El CHupacabra]

Dear Mr. Surf Whammy,
I think that thing is fabulous. You must have had to really cut that up to make room for all the pots.

[Peter Crossley]

I have had this one finished for a couple of months now, and playing the bejeezus out of it, and I lurve it, taking pride of place in the collection.

Its already started to get a bit dinged up, which I can dig, no need in being precious.....

[baritone]

I was trying to think of this guy's name: Peter Crossley.

[Wattage]

Thanks Aceman! Life is forcing sale right now if anyone is interested


I love Wonkers Flying V Jr I totally plan on stealing that idea at some point

[El CHupacabra]

Holy ****ski batman! look at that one!

I would go for it were it not for the hula ladies. I prefer my guitars in plain colors or a burst. Still that is a **** sexy machine.

[Wattage]

Well the pinup girls are pretty easily removed........it is a kick ass guitar

[Will S-T]

I have had this one finished for a couple of months now, and playing the bejeezus out of it, and I lurve it, taking pride of place in the collection.

Its already started to get a bit dinged up, which I can dig, no need in being precious.....

Love your creations mate!

How are you finding the new Schaller bridge compared to the roller hardtail you often use?

Cheers, Will.

[Peter Crossley]

Hi Will,

I really like them, its a pity they are as exxy as all get out though....

[Surf Whammy]

Dear Mr. Surf Whammy,
I think that thing is fabulous. You must have had to really cut that up to make room for all the pots.

Glad you like it!

It took about four hours of wood-routing in the lower-right section of the guitar body, since the wood is a lot harder than one might imagine, but it was not so difficult to do . . .

To get started, I used a Dremel® tool attachment that I got from Stewart-MacDonald®, but once I had the edges routed to approximately 1/8", I removed the attachment and did the rest of the routing by hand, where the strategy is to remove thin layers of the entire area, since this keeps the wood from splitting or whatever . . .



[NOTE: It helps to have taken a "shop" class, since working with any type of power tool requires a well-thought plan and constant vigilance with respect to safety stuff, so for folks who have never done this type of work, I certainly recommend the Stewart-MacDonald attachment since when properly used it provides a bit more stability. And you can practice on some wood blocks before doing the work on the guitar body . . . ]

One of the more surprising things I discovered is that the factory-routed area for the standard three controls is very thin at the back, certainly not more than 1/8" to 3/32" thick . . .

There are photographs of the various routing steps at this link, where I am documenting everything in great detail, along with providing various insights into TONE, chords, and whatever else appears to be relevant at the moment, including MP3s for Surf Whammys songs, and so forth and so on . . .

Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project (GuitarZone.com FORUM)

[NOTE: The wood routing photographs are on the fourth page, and the entire thing so far is a small book, probably 150 to 200 printed pages if you save it as a PDF file, but currently nine "forum" pages . . . ]

All the pickup wires are a bit long, but once I add the additional three pickups, I will trim everything so that the wiring is optimized . . .

I need to do more routing to remove some of the wood between the bridge and neck pickups, since the guitar was routed for H-S-H at the factory--noting that I think this will be safe to do, since I have seen Warmoth™ guitar bodies done with what they call a "universal" pickup routing . . .

The backup plan is that if the Fender® American Deluxe Stratocaster® guitar body cannot handle the additional routing and breaks or whatever, then I will have Warmoth do a custom-routed guitar body using an even harder wood, but I think the Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster guitar body will handle it, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

P. S. My basic strategy for instruments is that I play them for a while, and if something does not feel right or is awkward, then I customize it . . .

I did this when I first got the drumkit setup with all the extra stuff, at which point I realized that there was so much stuff that I could not reach it easily, so I did some experiments with drumsticks and eventually settled on making my own drumsticks using 5/8" oak dowels, since I like 20" drumsticks and nobody sells them . . .

And after using 20" drumksticks for a while, I realized that the hi-hats are too low, so I am working on a custom hi-hat rig where the hi-hat cymbals will be approximatel 5' above the floor, which for normal length drumsticks would be strange but works nicely for 20" drumsticks, which is fabulous . . .


Really Big Drumkit™

Fabulous!

[El CHupacabra]

Neil Peart would be proud ^.

I didn't get quite that technical in my guitar custom. Just sanded down the heavier finish on the neck, put in an AlnicoIIPro neck/PearlyGates bridge and wired it with a super 5-way switch for
1:Neck
2:NeckSplit
3:Both
4:BridgeSplit
5:Bridge

Works quite well. IN a song I have my A2P set for the rhythm and then i surprise them all with a PearlyGates solo. OR i rhythm with the split and use the full hummer for solo. Either one works well. I find that I really love the A2P. i bought it almost solely on the basis that Slash played it, and that I loved the range of tones it looked to have. It's easily my favorite pickup ever. It does "Sweet Child o Mine", "Rain Song", "Gimmie Shelter", countless jazz tunes and much more with just a tiny bit of tweaking. If i get another electric, I'm probably going to end up putting one of the A2Ps in it somewhere.

Most of all I like a guitar that isn't just store bought. I like guitar that's become part of the player in some way, small or large. Our changes were the more noticeable ones, but anything that shows that the owner really uses it to the fullest of their abilities makes me feel that much better about music today.

[Pierre]

That's the first one I thought of.

My first and only pick too. Just a stunning instrument.

[Surf Whammy]

Neil Peart would be proud ^.

I didn't get quite that technical in my guitar custom. Just sanded down the heavier finish on the neck, put in an AlnicoIIPro neck/PearlyGates bridge and wired it with a super 5-way switch for
1:Neck
2:NeckSplit
3:Both
4:BridgeSplit
5:Bridge

Works quite well. IN a song I have my A2P set for the rhythm and then i surprise them all with a PearlyGates solo. OR i rhythm with the split and use the full hummer for solo. Either one works well. I find that I really love the A2P. i bought it almost solely on the basis that Slash played it, and that I loved the range of tones it looked to have. It's easily my favorite pickup ever. It does "Sweet Child o Mine", "Rain Song", "Gimmie Shelter", countless jazz tunes and much more with just a tiny bit of tweaking. If i get another electric, I'm probably going to end up putting one of the A2Ps in it somewhere.

Most of all I like a guitar that isn't just store bought. I like guitar that's become part of the player in some way, small or large. Our changes were the more noticeable ones, but anything that shows that the owner really uses it to the fullest of their abilities makes me feel that much better about music today.

I had never heard of Neil Peart, so I did a bit of Googling, and WOW . . .

Makes me feel somehow "normal" . . .

Nice Stratocaster, too!

One of the realities of doing mods is that it is important to have a simple way to get different TONE configurations, which requires a lot more planning that one might imagine . . .

For example, even though I designed the circuits and installed everything on The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster™ when I first started playing it after doing the mods, I had to look at a chart of all the controls and switches to make sense of it, and overall it took nearly a month to get reasonably comfortable knowing how to operate all that stuff in real-time . . .

I made a recording of the guitar just after I got it wired, with the general idea being to demonstrate some of the various settings, and it is easy to understand the fact that I basically had no idea what anything did, at least without having to pause and think about it for a while . . .

The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster (Overview of TONE settings) -- MP3

[NOTE: In this recording, the guitar is connected directly to two channels of the MOTU 828mkII, so what you hear is the native signal without any special effects, although there is a tiny bit of reverb on the voice microphone, as noted, with the amazing aspect being that the guitar is extraordinarily quiet with respect to humming and whatever, which I think is a combination of the way the Seymour Duncan pickups are designed and manufactures and the Fender chrome metal pickguard, which I think acts as a Gaussian shield or whatever. Additionally, the guitar as outstanding sustain . . . ]

I liked the chord pattern in the "overview", so I extended it to a full pattern for a song and ran the guitar signals through two sets of IK Multimedia AmpliTube 2 virtual rigs, which creates a very deep and rich TONE for the rhythm guitar part, with this being the MP3 of the rhythm guitar with a pair of kick drum tracks--noting that it is just one guitar part and that there is no bass guitar (the bass stuff comes from the guitar, which is one of the cool things about the Seymour Duncan pickups, for sure), which is fabulous . . .

"So What!" (The Surf Whammys) -- Kick Drum, Rhythm Guitar -- MP3

Fabulous!

And it appears that recently I have zoned-out with respect to which pickup is paired with the Seymour Duncan® Little 59™, which apparently is the Lipstick Tube for Strat® in the neck position rather than the middle position, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

On the good side, the guitar has a deep and rich TONE palette, even though it requires an advanced degree in Rocketry to make sense of it . . .

Lots of FUN!

[Robbyk]

My Gold plated Black Beauty with the 3 PUp's
Or my 12 string Dean Boca.
Or maybe even my Strat signed by Janes addiction members direct from capitol records.

[Diego]

Dear Surf Whammy,

You're crazy. And your Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster™ is crazy too.
Did I mention it sounds great? Congrats! How did you come up with the concept?

I have to say that it is waaay too geeky to be genuine cool though... Really cool instruments don't try to be cool, they have a feel of I-don't-careness, are simple and show their scratches and worn, rusty parts with pride... know what I mean?



That Esquire (Jeff Beck's, by the way) is the coolest guitar I've seen, sticking to the concept.

[El CHupacabra]

**** that's one piece of Mojo. I especially like the peeled away finish spots.

200 posts and counting. Surprising.

[Diego]

It's just an example though... no more guitars outside of the SDUDF!!

Plenty of Mojo in here!

[Surf Whammy]

Dear Surf Whammy,

You're crazy. And your Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster™ is crazy too.

Did I mention it sounds great? Congrats! How did you come up with the concept?

It started when I decided the factory pickups on the Fender® American Deluxe Stratocaster® were not doing what I wanted to do in terms of TONE, so I started doing a bit of research on different strategies for modding the guitar . . .

Initially, since I had been writing a lot of posts about David Gilmour, I pondered the idea of using the EMG® DG20 active pickup system, until I discovered what "active" actually means, at which point I decided against it, because I do not like batteries in guitars and effects pedals . . .

So, I did a bit more researching and recalled from decades ago that Seymour Duncan® had cool stuff, so I started studying the various Seymour Duncan pickups for Stratocasters--all passive, of course--and once I found the Lipstick Tube for Strat™, I was sold on the idea of trying them, so I ordered two of them and a Little 59™, since I wanted a humbucking pickup, as well . . .

When the pickups arrived and I actually touched them, it was obvious that they are well-made and heavy, which is great, so I ordered three more pickups (Duckbuckers™, Hot Rails™, JB Jr.™), since by that time I was contemplating the idea of doing double pickups, once I got the three-pickup version working, which took a while, since I had to learn a lot of stuff about passive guitar circuits, TONE controls, and so forth and so on . . .

As noted in previous posts, everything is documented in great detail in a topic in the GuitarZone.com FORUM, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous Stratocaster Modification Project (GuitarZone.com FORUM)

Fabulous!

There is a lot of useful information about electronics, music, TONE controls, and different types of circuits, as well as some conceptual stuff regarding TONE and texture, with the "texture" stuff being something I started doing a few years ago, which basically is a way to play without being constrained by notes, scales, modes, and whatever . . .

A key aspect of the "texture" stuff is something I call "getting in touch with your inner idiot savant", which among other things is one of the results of an experiment I started doing several decades ago, where I decided to teach myself how to play grand piano without ever actually playing a grand piano, which is a bit strange, but so what . . .

So what!

The general idea, which at this point I think is a FACT rather than an idea, is that people know more than they realize consciously, so doing what one might perceive to be complex activities in music actually is not so difficult when you discover how to stop thinking about stuff consciously with respect to trying to make constant value judgments regarding whether a particular note, chord, phrase, or whatever is "good", "bad", or "indifferent", which basically is just a matter of suspending judgment for a while and doing what appears in your mind very spontaneously, which is a lot more difficult to explain than it is to do . . .

For example, this is the kick drum, bass guitar, and grand piano for "Starlight" (The Surf Whammys), which in the full version has guitars and singing, but in this version is just the three instruments, with the grand piano being a preset on the KORG Triton Music Workstation (88-keys), which is where the fog synthesizer stuff originates . . .

"Starlight" (The Surf Whammys) -- Kick Drum, Bass Guitar, Grand Piano -- MP3

When I composed and played the grand piano part on the fly in real-time, I was listening to all the other instruments and the singing, so I was playing "texture" to fit with everything else, and it should be obvious that there is no way any of it could be precomposed, even though there is a bit of logic to it . . .

Basically, I play grand piano as if it were a set of drums, and I do various finger patterns and gestures that I learned over the years by watching Floyd Cramer, Jerry Lee Lewis, Liberace, John Lennon, and Chico Marx play grand pianos and keyboards on television and in movies, which is pretty strange, except that it works, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

And now, I have no idea what I am doing, but this is the way it works most of the time here in the sound isolation studio, really . . .

Really!

P. S. I only do lead guitar solos one time, which is what I do with all the instruments, except rhythm guitar, since I do the primary composing for a song on rhythm guitar and typically work on a chord pattern for weeks, although sometimes I get a chord pattern in just a few minutes, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

[Diego]

BUMP! For my most successful thread ever.

Let's see what new adquisitions make it here!