Ash Strat Body - Chambered or not?

[TheGuitarWeasel]

Someone leant me one for a gig once ... it felt several pounds heavier than the Norlin era LP I regularly used ... god I felt manly that night!

[paultheoneyoulove]

Someone leant me one for a gig once ... it felt several pounds heavier than the Norlin era LP I regularly used ... god I felt manly that night!

Haha something I'll never be able to relate to :-P

It seems such a shame to wire some of your beautifully well made pickups to a wiring loom that looks like this...


IMAG0389 by Paul has some old cameras, on Flickr

I was doing so well until it got to the three ground connections (two on the pot casings, one on the 3 way switch). All the wires and pot casings made for a brilliant heat sink, and my iron couldn't get it all hot enough to get a beautiful, shiny join! Still, it hould be functional, and giving it a few tugs and carrying the loom by each point in turn, nothing has fallen off.

I can only apologise, TGW. I hope the rest of my guitar turns out a bit prettier than this :P

It's a shame I could only get a 250k concentric by Alpha in mini format, too. That was interesting to wire :P

[TheGuitarWeasel]

If yer solder ain't shiny it may well be that you have dry solder joints. That won't bode well for everything working bang up. Methinks you need a bigger soldering iron mate! If you don't want to invest you could always post me the loom with a stamped, addressed, padded envelope. I'll happily introduce it (no charge) to 'Gordon' the 50w spade tip iron - that'll make it take notice (all my tools have names ... my winding machine is called Gloria!)

[paultheoneyoulove]

If yer solder ain't shiny it may well be that you have dry solder joints. That won't bode well for everything working bang up. Methinks you need a bigger soldering iron mate! If you don't want to invest you could always post me the loom with a stamped, addressed, padded envelope. I'll happily introduce it (no charge) to 'Gordon' the 50w spade tip iron - that'll make it take notice (all my tools have names ... my winding machine is called Gloria!)

Haha! That's brilliant!
Yeah, all of the joins are lovely (well, lovely enough I think!), except for those where loads of wires meet at once on a pot casing. I am going to invest in an iron I think, eventually, but no monies just yet. Perhaps I'll mail it to you if it turns out it doesn't work very well, but I'm hoping the joins are functional. But asides from those grounding ones, the joins are all good, and the solder flowed nicely. You can get 50W irons fairly cheap nowadays, so I'll definitely get one. It'll make those pot casings weep at my sheer power!

Fingers crossed it'll work fine anyway. I'll know if the grounding sucks, because you won't hear the pickups over the hum! If that happens, would you mind if I sent the loom on to you? I forgot to consider the pot being a heat sink...

(I name my guitars. I have Clarissa, the shitty SG, Jessica the Musicman bass, Roxanne the LTD and Crystal the BC Rich Gunslinger, because she's fast and gaudy. I guess we're both too cool for school).

BTW, forgot to say, you're a bloomin' hero. Cheers!

[evilmags]

Haha there is a badge of honor in carrying a full weight LP?

A lot of the 70s Les Paul slingers now have chronic back problems. I've read both Page and Scott Goram attribute this to low slung Lesters.

[TheGuitarWeasel]

Me too ... I carry my buggered discs with pride dammit! On a serious note did you know that a small elastic link in a guitar strap can make a guitar feel pounds lighter? It can even prevent some of the back problems by allowing some give, and lessening the 'shock' of swinging that weight! I have a custom made Lester strap with a piece of 2 inch wide elasticated girth strap let in (comes of having two horses ... all sorts of things cross over in a handy way). Pongs a bit of old horse ... but then I have saddle cloths and god knows what hanging about the place all the time anyway ... so I'm used to the fine old scent of Cheval No 5!

[meltedbuzzbox]

Keep it solid man!

its the only way to do it

[octatonic]

I'm not a fan of chambered guitars- I've had a couple, warmoth and Anderson.

IMHO it takes away the focussed attack of the note.
It is interesting for rhythm playing but I still prefer solid or fully hollow with porting/f-holes.

I feel that chambered guitars are neither fish nor foul.
They don't have the focussed sound of a solid body and they don't have the airyness of a hollowbody.

YMMV of course.

[Deadman]

This is what you want. A 2.5lb paulownia body in surf green. Only $50.
http://www.guitarfetish.com/Stratoca...en_p_2510.html

[paultheoneyoulove]

This is what you want. A 2.5lb paulownia body in surf green. Only $50.
http://www.guitarfetish.com/Stratoca...en_p_2510.html

Haha this is why I'm not convinced chambering a strat will make a whole world of difference. They're basically chambered as it is!

I think I'll just see what's available at the time. I need a custom routed body anyway, so nothing off the shelf...