Pickups: Orpheus Jimi Set

Neck: Maple with Rosewood board

Body: 1 piece Alder

Nut Material: Bone

Bridge: Unknown

Colour: 3 Tone Sunburst

Country of Origin: Varies, mostly Japan and USA

Weight: 3.40 kg / 7.50 lbs

Bridge Mounting Spacing: 52mm

 

The idea for this build all started when I scored a relatively cheap Strat body second hand in an eBay auction. It was a 3TS Alder body from MJT/Wildwood manufacturing, and it already had some hardware on it, specifically the bridge, strap buttons and pickguard.

 

I decided to pick it up and work on it as a side project whenever I had time. That didn't happen - it slowly became an obsession to finish off the build.

 

So I started sourcing all the parts. I had already spent quite a lot of money on the Sonic Blue partscaster and so I did not have the budget to spend big on this. However I knew I needed to source parts that looked the part (i.e. relic jobs done on them).

 

I ended up getting the neck from an eBay outfit named Gears United. They basically take Allparts necks (Fender licensed) and relic them and roll the edges, etc. They also say they do a fret job on them but honestly the quality of the frets were not that great.

 

The hardware were Gotoh, with the exception of the hardware that came with the body. I'm unsure of their origin.

 

In the end I managed to source all the parts together for a decent price, definitely much less than what it cost me to put the Sonic Blue strat together...I assembled it, strung it up, and played it...and it sounded amazing acoustically.

 

I decided that since it sounded so great I would source some nice pickups for it. I go to a luthier by the name of David Paul. He makes awesome pickups which he sells under the name of Orpheus. Please look him up, David is amazing at what he does and his pickups sound great. I bought a set off him, they are made to order but I believe he spec'd it to be a 60's set close to what Jimi's were. It doesn't really matter to me as long as it sounds good, and it does. 

​

Upgrades to be done:

Might just upgrade some of the cheap hardware that I used. Trem springs and claw. 

 

Upgrades done:

Spec'd from ground up