The Les Strat

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Ok, Here she is. A thing of PURE BEAUTY!
The Les Strat. I just got my guitar back. She started out as a 50th anniversary Fender Stratocaster. This consisted of a white pick guard on the sunbusrt body, and triple single coil pickups with floyd rose tremelo and 9 inch radius neck. I love the look of it but the sound is understandably the old classic strat sound. I play a lot more modern rock. So I love the sound of a Gibson Les Paul guitar with humbucker pickups. So goes the birth of the Les Strat Project. I buy a black pickguard that fits the dual humbucker combo of the 490 498 humbuckers (I got them in chrome). I also get a hard tail tremelo to replace the old floyd rose tremelo. Add to this a brand new neck with the Fender look but the Les Paul curvature. Gaze at the wonder. My baby, my sweetheart. I think I'll sleep with her tongiht, mmmmmmmmmmm.

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Damn fine looking man...very nice.

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Thanks Scott. I'll post a sound clip file of it this afternoon when I get home to try her out.

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

Nice Guitar, but where do you get the "Les" From?
Les Pauls are short scale (24.9"), Fenders are long (25.4)...Les Pauls have a solid body w/ a Carved top, Strats are just solid body...The fingerboard radius on a Les Paul is 14", on on a Fender it's either going to be 12", 9-12 compound radius or a 9" radius...all of these make a HUGE difference in how a guitar sounds and plays (ESPECIALLY long scale vs. short scale), as it goes WAY beyond having a Humbucker vs a Single Coil pickup...you'll never make a Strat sound like a Les Paul, and you'll never make a Les Paul sound like a strat...period.

BTW, strats w/ dual humbuckers have been around for ages...they were called a "Big-Apple Strat" in days gone by, but now are usually referred to as a "Double-Fat Strat".

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Granted, it's not a Les Paul but its a custom combo. So yes its not a LP but its not a Strat either. Its a LES STRAT, LOL. I didn't want to call it a double fat strat as it technically has a burstbucker 2 and 3 instead of the old 490 498 combo humbucker that the Les Pauls are famous for. My goal was to get away from the Strat sound and "warm" it up. And yes the Fat Strats have the 12" radius and aren't quite as flat as the 14's you see on new Gibson guitars but its flatter than the classic 9's on old strats. So yes Scott you have valid points but you're reading too much into. No one else on these forums knows all that stuff and I didn't want to get to technical on them.
Either way its a pretty kick arse guitar. Like I said I'll post some sound clips shortly. It will also be used in our paid gig next weekend to which I hope to have video's posted as well on the website. www.shiftingmidnight.com

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

I had a friend that had a Double-Fat, and it sounded great...wan't trying to "discount" the guitar - was just wonderin' where you were coming from.

BTW, if you really want that thing to sound sweet, don't run wimpy strings on it - .11's minimum, 12's or 13's preferably :)

Which the crappy Floyd Rose (god I hate those things, but it's personal taste, I know) would probably kill putting anything but "rubber bands" on it.

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

Oh, OK. I read the subject line and thought it was about how to pick up butch women... :stick

Looks really nice, Conda. At least in my opinion as a guy who can't carry a tune in a bucket. Nicely done.

[Lockout]

Does it come in purple or maybe a nice shade of pink?

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Which the crappy Floyd Rose (god I hate those things, but it's personal taste, I know) would probably kill putting anything but "rubber bands" on it.

Don't know if I mentioned it but I also put a hard tail conversion kit on it. If you look real close Jayson the tremelo is gone. The conversion kit I got looks just like a tremelo but its a hard tail. I too can't stand a floyd rose. So I can run steel cable through this baby, woot. Good tip on teh strings too. I typically run medium and heavy guage strings as my goliath paws can handle it and in my opinion like yours think heavier guage strings sounds great.

[LA_MERC_th33_r00k]

So waht you boys are saying is......SIZE DOES MATTER! Holy f*&^king crap sack batman.......who would of thunk it?

OH and BTW....top this sh!t!
<object width="425" height="373"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/keCE5Es-g0k&rel=1&border=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/keCE5Es-g0k&rel=1&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="373"></embed></object>

[LA_MERC_YellowDog]

LMAO!!!! :)

Its meeeeee!!!