I made a post back in September showing my photoshop rendering of a 7 string stratocaster I designed. Finally, around October I received the guitar. It was built by Chris Stambaugh of Alton, NH. It sounds great, plays great, but I think there's some more tweaking that can be done.
Finally finished, after nine long months..
- Thread starter JDwayne
- Start date
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poopyalligator
Dr.Poopyalligator
That is sweet man! You need a cool headstock logo now.
Into Obsidian
☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠
Looks slick! Its like a 7 string version of David Gilmours strat! 
Thanks! It's some random high output seymour duncan. I didn't have the money at the time to get something better so I emptied my change jar to get the pickup which was the last expense for this build. I'm not sure how obvious is in the pictures, but the guitar is brown. Proper day light in person shows the true brown color and it's sweet. I don't like the gloss finish on it and I plan on lightly sanding down the body myself.
The bridge is a Kahler trem. I have locking Sperzels on the headstock but the guitar goes out of tune as soon as you use the whammy bar. My theory was if it had locking sperzels you wouldn't need a locking nut but it proved to be wrong. The post only locks the strings in, not the post it self. I THOUGHT that a locking machine head actually locked the machine post from rotating but no. My educated guess is this guitar needs a Floyd Rose locking nut installed for me to be able to use the whammy like i want to.
Advice?
The bridge is a Kahler trem. I have locking Sperzels on the headstock but the guitar goes out of tune as soon as you use the whammy bar. My theory was if it had locking sperzels you wouldn't need a locking nut but it proved to be wrong. The post only locks the strings in, not the post it self. I THOUGHT that a locking machine head actually locked the machine post from rotating but no. My educated guess is this guitar needs a Floyd Rose locking nut installed for me to be able to use the whammy like i want to.
Advice?
Exhale
Uber Carvinator!
Nice axe !
The trick with locking tuners is to wrap the string 1/2 - 3/4 turn around the post . Being driven by a worm gear with something like a 18:1 ratio, the post can not rotate due to string tension variations. A perfect nut with perfect string slots is also mandatory for tuning stability. Graphite lube might help as well. That being said, nothing will beat a locking nut
BTW, why do you have a mounting ring for your pickup? you could have installed it directly to the pickguard
The trick with locking tuners is to wrap the string 1/2 - 3/4 turn around the post . Being driven by a worm gear with something like a 18:1 ratio, the post can not rotate due to string tension variations. A perfect nut with perfect string slots is also mandatory for tuning stability. Graphite lube might help as well. That being said, nothing will beat a locking nut
BTW, why do you have a mounting ring for your pickup? you could have installed it directly to the pickguard
vampiregenocide
Well-Known Member
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This isn't helping my GAS for a 7 string strat. 
Nice man!
Nice man!
shadowlife
Contributor
I really dig that- congrats!
Danxile
Well-Known Member
Nicest strat ive ever seen. That maple looks so good with the black. Sweet score dude.
Thanks everyone!
I'm not sure about the mounting ring, Chris did that. I actually didn't notice it until now.
I'm going to have him put on a locking nut otherwise my whammy is useless. I'm not just using it for dive bombs like the usual whammy bar user, I have developed some interesting techniques with it and I wish to cultivate them but right now I can't and it's irritating.
I'm not sure about the mounting ring, Chris did that. I actually didn't notice it until now.
I'm going to have him put on a locking nut otherwise my whammy is useless. I'm not just using it for dive bombs like the usual whammy bar user, I have developed some interesting techniques with it and I wish to cultivate them but right now I can't and it's irritating.
DraggAmps
Well-Known Member
It's not going out of tune due to the tuning post moving. At least not for the most part. It's going out of tune because the string has to be able to slide in the nut as freely as possible. Otherwise, the string won't end up in exactly the same spot in the nut that it was before. It will likely catch somewhere a little sharp or flat. You need a really good, well-cut and well lubed nut and it will usually work very well. The Ernie Ball JP models, for instance, have amazing trems that can be abused like crazy and they stay in tune without a locking nut because they can slide in the nut with little resistance. Doing it this way requires a little maintenance keeping things lubed up well, but it makes string changes easier at least.
Nice looking guitar.
Nice looking guitar.
g-zs
Got beagle?
Congrats!
Nice, but could be even nicer with any logo on headstock. Now it looks to me like luthier is ashamed of his own work
Nice, but could be even nicer with any logo on headstock. Now it looks to me like luthier is ashamed of his own work
AwakenNoMore
Wrong Handed
This is the coolest 7 string Strat style I have ever seen. Not digging the pickup ring mounted to pickguard though, ruins the cleanliness of the simple design.
TheBloodstained
Casual music enthusiast
cool design!
I really like the original Fender Stratocaster design (but personally I think that Fender ruins that shape with horrible colors and useless hardware)!
I'd love one like yours, but with dual humbuckers, a 27" scale with 24 frets and a double locking floydrose!
DAMN! I feel GAS coming my way! >.<
I really like the original Fender Stratocaster design (but personally I think that Fender ruins that shape with horrible colors and useless hardware)!
I'd love one like yours, but with dual humbuckers, a 27" scale with 24 frets and a double locking floydrose!
DAMN! I feel GAS coming my way! >.<
Thanks everyone for the compliments and good criticism.
Draggamps: I'm going to see if Chris would file the nut a bit more and see what happens before I upgrade to a FR locking nut. A couple months ago, I brought the guitar to Ken Fallon, ones of Keith Richards guitar techs -and he did file my top bass string slots a bit, maybe they need more?
Should I remove the pickup ring? This guitar is not going to stay pretty for long anyway. I didn't have this guitar built to sit in a room all day. My band plays out a lot and the plan is to go full time by next summer. This guitar is going to get worn pretty quick and it's already showing signs. There's no finish on the maple neck (well there is a very light hand rubbed amber finish). I wanted to sand down the body a bit more too because I'm not a fan of plastic based sealers and want it gone.
For a logo, I saw an article once and a gentlemen did an awesome job making his own logo and applying it with some type of epoxy. I'm a video editor/graphic designer so design is no problem but could someone point me to a good tutorial?
Draggamps: I'm going to see if Chris would file the nut a bit more and see what happens before I upgrade to a FR locking nut. A couple months ago, I brought the guitar to Ken Fallon, ones of Keith Richards guitar techs -and he did file my top bass string slots a bit, maybe they need more?
Should I remove the pickup ring? This guitar is not going to stay pretty for long anyway. I didn't have this guitar built to sit in a room all day. My band plays out a lot and the plan is to go full time by next summer. This guitar is going to get worn pretty quick and it's already showing signs. There's no finish on the maple neck (well there is a very light hand rubbed amber finish). I wanted to sand down the body a bit more too because I'm not a fan of plastic based sealers and want it gone.
For a logo, I saw an article once and a gentlemen did an awesome job making his own logo and applying it with some type of epoxy. I'm a video editor/graphic designer so design is no problem but could someone point me to a good tutorial?
