Official Luthiers Forum!

Alright, I'm a longtime player and very new to assembling/luthier concepts. I have been piecing a guitar together over time and would like input before I go assembling anything.

My Guitar Parts: Strat body that originally used a tremolo, 3-pups setup (bridge=Duncan HotRail, mid=Strat Stock, neck=70s Tele pickup from an old guitar), Neck=blank from Stewmac

My main problem (I'll take any advice I can get - knowing the components) is the bridge. I don't want a tremolo. The body is routed and finished for one, but I want to put in some kind of hardtail-ish bridge. As far as I can see my options are: Buy this pickup from Stewmac called a "BabyGrand" which is a tun-o-matic style single piece that doesn't require through-body stringing OR get a hardtail Strat bridge (or Tele bridge and cut the pickguard) and figure out the through-body business.

I don't care about the looks, I don't mind it looking like a Frankenstein guitar. I care about the sound.

Again ANY input is welcome.

If you want to go hardtail on that body, you've got 2 opions as I see them.
1-you can fill in the trem cavity with wood. If you are new to building/repairing, I would not recommend this choice.
2-You can look around for a conversion bridge, which is made to fit over the trem cavity and generally they load from the rear. I've seen a few, but none that I liked the look of, and you've still got the trem cavity in the guitar, it's just covered up. Not a hardtail, just looks like one.

A better choice IMO would be to use a standard strat trem and block it so it can't move. This is accomplished by placing a block of hardwood in the back of the trem cavity behind the trem block , so that the trem plate is flush with the top of the body and the trem cannot move. This is the option I would choose.

_________________
Mike

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

The Clapton strat uses the strategy suggested by Mike - they simply block the trem cavity. I have one and it works great.