Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey Guys, New member here and love the site, cant stop reading everything. Got a question you all might be able to help me with. I built a Strat about 4 months ago and do not like the sound of it. I based it off my brothers SRV Signature series strat with Texas Special Pickups Etc. Diffrence being mine has a Alder body and Maple Neck from Mighty Mite. Thing is I cant get it to sound right for nothing. Sounded decent when I first built it but not as warm as I wanted it to be. Now it sounds out of tune even when its not out of tune. Im think of changing the neck to a warmoth neck and possible changing the body. Question is, is there any certain Pots you all would recomend I use? Or certain type of wood for the body to get the warm tone im going for? Thanks for the help guys. Much Appreciated!!

If it doesn't sound like you want it to, change the pickups. If it's 'out of tune when in tune' then it sounds like an intonation problem.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Twoods welcome to the OLF!

i think swamp ash would give you more of a warmer tone than alder. Im also new at this but take your bro's strat and measure lenths of your neck and anything else you think would be crutial to the guitars design....then compare it to yours

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" Blues is a low down achin chill, if you ain't never had it, I hope you never will."

Robert Johnson

I agree with Bob, check the intonation. As for tone, do you know what type of pots you have in it? Not brand, but resistance? Generally speaking, pickups, especially single coils, sound warmer and have less highs with 250k pots, as opposed to 500k. I would experiment with pot value first(assuming you haven't got 250k pots in it now), then if that didn't help, I'd go to pickups. An alder body and maple neck should give all the warmth you need, IMHO, and I don't think I'd go changing the body or the neck in search of a different tone. Yes, the body woods color the tone a bit, but most of the tone in an electric guitar, IMHO, comes from the pickups and electronics. My .02.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Sounds like you're going after a lot of separate issues at once. First thing is to set it up properly. If it sounds out of tune, that's not likely any tone or timbre issues at the root of it. Work on getting your setup, intonation, and of course pickup height in order. Too high a neck and mid pickup can cause many an odd intonation issue. After that you can start playing with pickups and pots, but start with a good test bed on which to judge tonal qualities.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Thanks! Thanks for the help also! Went and checked the intonation and your right that was the problem. Sounds a 100 times better now. I Tuned it up then held down the 12th string and it was out of tune there. So i adjusted the saddles on the bridge until it was in tune and it now sounds great. Still gonna change the neck on it, what do you guys think about Warmoth necks? Cause I hate the feel of this neck. Thanks Again!

Mighty Mite necks are all over the map, quality-wide. One of the best strat-style necks I've ever had was a birdseye maple Mighty Mite neck I bought about 6 years ago. Very slim C profile, just a dream to play. I've had a lot of MightyMite necks come through my shop, and most ranged from OK to excellent. I got one bass neck that was unusable - it had a serious back bow, and since Mighty Mite uses single-action truss rods it couldn't be corrected. Even tried heavier strings, but couldn't pull it straight.

Another really good neck I had was a Warmoth I took in trade for some work I did about the same time - it had been painted black except for the rosewood fingerboard, and the guitar I built with that neck was all black - body, pickguard, PU covers, and hardware. That's the only Warmoth neck I've come across, and it was an excellent neck. Also very slim, and played like butter. Of course you can pick the neck shape and thickness you want when you order a Warmoth neck.

Like the others, I was going to say that intonation is the first place to check - but you've already done that. Second, I would look for "The Strat Effect" which is caused by the pickup magnets being too close to the strings. Those magnets are pretty strong, and they'll make the guitar impossible to intonate properly if they're too close to the strings.

My experience is that alder is a wood that will give you a warmer mellower tone than swamp ash, which tends to be on the bright side. Warmoth has a page that describes the tonal characteristics of various woods. But as another responder said, the tone of electrics is mostly from the pickups and support electronics. I had one set of cheap Strat-type pickups that were very tinny and bright - irritating to listen to!

Good luck in your quest!

--Steve

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---Steve

Even though they're not small shop guitars or custom made, I really like the guitars coming from Fender. They feel great and generally sound great, too.

After realizing how much difference the smallest change made to my strat a few weeks ago, I ordered How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great from Amazon and Stew Mac's String Action Guage:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Measu ... Gauge.html

You can order both from Stew Mac, but I have Amazon prime and wasn't charged for shipping. These two tools will really help you out with setup. Have you intonated the guitar?

I put Fralin Blues Specials in my guitar last week after being unhappy with Lollar Blackfaces for the tone I was seeking. Both pickups have great tone, but I'm still not hearing what I'm after. Texas Specials, in my opinion, aren't the pickup to go for for a warm sound. I would look at some of Fenders pickups 50's pickups or something similar once your setup's where it needs to be.

The three deluxe "partscasters" I have building/built are "Big Apple." That is Fender talk for two humbuckers. My sample guitar has two John Suhr hot HB's in it and single coil tap on each. I actually decided to do this before I ever heard of a factory version. I find that I can make it "quack" as the Strat fans say, or make it fat, mellow, warm and fullsome. With a totally slab body, you can pickup your way to mellow, but on the way you can be fooled by weak output disguising itself as mellow. Two other HB's worth looking at are GFS(Guitar Fetish Co-common abbrev. for them)"crunchy PAF'S." The Suhr's are really expensive-many of you already know that John Suhr is a respected builder/luthier. My choice of them was dumb luck.

Fact is, the coil taps are not so magical and I can make this thing sound like Riley B.(tone, not melodic)or SRV, or occasionally EC-none with that beauty, but the output.

Go to Guitar Fetish(their house brand-extraordinary, really) or heavymetalontheweb, or wildberrycastle[ all on ebay] and buy a loaded pickguard with two Mighty Mite HB's(Maybe $75 plus shipping). Ground it right when you install and you might be truly surprised and wanting to scrape off the MM logo so you can brag up your exotics.

There is a new strobe tuner on the block, as well.[TURBO-TUNER] $129-led indicator but real strobe- can't recall the name(see, this is what I mean about short term memory-I have to go to the basement shop for the name){here it comes, after pondering 8 minutes, Sonic Research is the maker}. It is no hype- Like Walter Brennan would say "No brag, just fact."(The Real McCoys)-speaking of such here is a nightmare for you, a western trio- Brennan, Pat Buttram and Gabby Hayes-or worse, a quintet, adding Dub Taylor and Strother Martin-a Stealth Sextet, Dennis Weaver, as well. See, I don't get around much anymore-hmmmm-sounds snappy to me.'Could be a bit of a tune there!Mike (everything is Rx folks)- I will now walk downstairs and get the model name and hope I can remember why I went to look at it.mt aka ole'lefty

I will let the others deal with tone from pick-ups but when you say sound out of tune when it is in tune, this like the others have said would lead me to question the intonation. Have you check the intonation to insure that open, 12th freted and 12th harmonic are all the same pitch?

Yes, I did and that fixed my problem. Sounds wonderful now, love the warm tone it gives. Going to change the pots and should sound exactly like I wanted it to. Just cant stand the feel of the neck,Fixing to order a Warmoth neck, unless i run upon some other place with a neck I like better. I Like the feel of the SRV contour and the Boat contour. Warmoth has Birdseye Maple/Pau Ferro, 1-11/16 in. Nut Width, Boatneck Contour, 6150 Fret Wire, Compound 10" - 16" Radius, Cream Face Dots, Clear Gloss. Got one on sale that looks great for 195, Sounds like a good deal to me, what you guys think?

Edit: Thats a beautiful acoustic in your avatar, absolutely love it.