Noooo no scallop! It angers the Rosewood gods! My garage sale find Lead II with the scalloped fingerboard sat in my garage for fifteen years. I finally bit the Bullet (Fender pun intended, sorry for the groans guys) and bought a USACG neck last year for the poor bedraggled orphan. It's still in my garage. Rosewood must be very very angry. I think the scalloper used a roughly sharpened tablespoon or something to scrape out the "scallops". Maybe a hammer and antique barnwood forming chisel. It's a mess!
I would suggest the following for the neck. Firstly remove the neck and the nut. Secondly mask off areas you don't want to stain. Third use the ebony stain over the fretboard. Fourth using a saw carefully cut out where the frets used to be to create tidy and straight groves. Fith fill the groves with a white wood filler to create guides as to where to put your fingers.
A sustainer pickup on a fretless guitar would probably be awesome! You could get that cello like bow/glissando effect on the entire neck! But I guess it's kinda expensive. Maybe you can find a cheap used one?
The Don DeLuxe yes! I came down here to suggest this very thing. If anything needs more sustain its going to be a fretless instrument, then you could get a really interesting bowed sound. There are a few people who have put together DIY sustainers although I don’t think any of them have been particularly ‘aesthetic’ I’d love to see it though. And while you are there a kill switch might be a good idea. Finally, everything i know about wood filler tells me that the wood filler wont take the stain if you try to ‘ebonise’ the wood although if you really sand it down during radiusing you might be able to get below the level of the tear out which should seriously neaten it up. Good luck, it looks like a really interesting project!
It's awesome! My fretless had a systainer pickup in it. It was fun to use the octave and a fifth up switch, bringing in the overtone during Indian or middle eastern influenced tunes. I would do gigs where I had loops stored, and would do melodies and solos over them. Unfortunately, I had it in storage and it was stolen. It's actually not as hard to adjust to as you would think.
I purchased a new Fender Squier Bullet Stratocaster new in 1992 for $119. It came with a gig bag, neck strap, picks, and a Fender Champion 15G amp and a 10 ft Fender chord. The truss rod never worked (or I broke it without realizing it-it was my first electric guitar) so I had to file down frets and also file the ends of many frets. It gave "shredding a new meaning as it was. Lastly the last 5 frets that are at the very high end were very high so besides filing I used dry heat applied to the back of the neck to draw it straight. That guitar is among my favorites. Everything still works perfectly. I used WD-40 on the pots when they became scratchy and now they are silent again. My honest opinion is if you learn how to set up a guitar even such very expensive instruments as my Stratocaster are very playable and sound as good as anything I have ever played. I have Gibson pups, Seymour Duncan pups and the cheap pup's on my Strat hold up very well in any comparison, no they are not as hot. But that's what knobs on your amp are for and also that's what pedals are made for. -Peter
When i was in highschool, i bought the cheapest telecaster i could find in the store. I removed the frets just the same way as this one. It chipped a little but not as much as this strat. I also sanded the body for hours and hours with a very wrong grid of sandpaper to remove the paint. I also removed the pickups and i couldnt solder them back and had absolutely no money to spend on the project so i just put the thing in the storage and just forgot about it until i saw this video :D your guitar is in perfect condition compared to my mess of a wood but im going to try to finish what i started years ago following exactly what you do. Lets see how it works out together!
A cool video series would be , "what guitar sounds best for "insert genre". So you would compare 2 or 3 guitars while only playing punk, metal, blues etc etc and determine which guitar gives the best tone for each genre
I own a fretless guitar and it's surprisingly useful, if you know how to use it. Ask me, if you have some questions. Shortly - you have to get some finish on the fretboard, or else you will kill the wood. You have to have a thickest gauge strings, or there won't be any viable sound or sustain on higher frets. And don't bother with a flat-wounds, if you have a good fretboard cover, they'll gonna give this thing way more juice. And try to go with a fuzz for it!
My suggestions (pretty common "mods" if they can be called that): 1. 5 springs on the trem, wire tone control to bridge pickup 2. adjust PU height (probably set em low) 3. sand all the paint from under the bridge, the pickguard and behind the springs on the back 4. to make sure the neck gets a good connection with the body put some strings on it, tune it then loosen each screw on the neck 1/4 to 1/2 turn--you'll hear a popping sound--then just tighten the screws down as normal. 5. IF you have these things then I'd say graphite nut and saddles. 6. ALSO if you want to sacrifice the use of the tremolo you could put a block of wood on the back of the trem, I've heard rumors that Clapton did that, no idea if it's true though. Have fun!
Not certain, but I may have played this exact Strat a bit ages ago. Back probably 15 'ish years ago, my friend and guitar teacher wanted a project. He bought a stock candy apple red (maybe Squier had a different name or shade of sparkle red) Squier Affinity Strat. He removed the frets by heating them slightly I believe with a soldering iron and pulling them with needle nose pliers. He then filled the voids in the fretboard with either wood filler or a mix of elmer's glue and sawdust, like looks to be seen here. I then smoothed the board a little with very fine grit sandpaper. The result looked almost exactly like this, very rough looking where the frets were pulled and filled. But it was relatively smooth to run your fingers over. We put flat wounds on it and enjoyed the odd fretless for a while. Crazy, this may be that very same guitar.
A couple of related mods I've done which I rather like for the way I play: 1. wire a one end of a 50K pot to the bridge pickup and the other end to the switched neck/middle pickup signal; the wiper then feeds the volume pot; 2. modifying the bridge pickup so that it primarily picks up the lower strings (I use two strings for bass and four for chords, but perhaps a three+three split might work better for a fretless instrument). An easy way to do that is to lower the pickups and then stick on 6x1mm neodymium disk magnets on the strings to be boosted. The magnets aren't quite free but at under $10/hundred including shipping I'd highly recommend them as a cheap way of tweaking the sound on pickups.
embrace the character , stain it and whatever happens happens, its a good story regardless! looking forward to the finished product and also the vid about re-purposing the knob!
Darrell, you're such a kind hearted man to take something that is, by all intents and purposes, "totaled," as they say in insurance companies, and spend your time and money to restore it to working order. As a violinist, I have heard some interesting stories. People are always finding a "Stradivarius" in their attic. And they bring it to the dealer expecting to make a cool million $. :^) The dealers have some universal responses for these poor deceived souls. I'll share two of my favorites. The first: The dealer, after looking at the instrument tells the owner, "Oh....this is a good instrument.... for your fireplace ....because it burns slow." The other, takes another vein: "Oh....this instrument deserves special care. I suggest you insure it heavily, and then leave it on a bus."
When I converted my Tbird bass to fretless, I also took out the dots, then filled all gaps with a good non-shrink filler, and dyed the 'board black with leather dye before coating it with epoxy. After radiusing that it was polished, and now it handles any strings without wearing out! I get great tones with plenty harmonics from that bass, even more than I got when it was still fretted :-) I'd consider doing the same with a Strat. It'll get you great tone, a completely smooth surface to play on, sustain for days....
From experience the fretboard stain will work and will wipe right off of the inlays. It also gives the maple a really cool look if you sand off the finish and lightly coat it in stain then wipe it off after about 15 - 20 minutes.
Would also be ideal for slide with a higher action. I would try and get the filler out or more of a rosewood colour before you hit it with the ebony stain (maybe use some fingerboard dust from the re-radius).
Darell, you should try Leo Fender's Passive Treble Bass circuit sometime; he developed it initially for the G&L Legacy when he first founded G&L. Its now used on all of his S style guitars. It is a global tone control system that affects all 3 pickups and after using it, I find it so useful that I would never go back to the old 2 tone controls that are on Fender Strats. It uses a 500k linear taper pot for the treble control and 1 meg log taper pot for the bass. Best place to buy the 1 meg pot is directly from G&L, If you are interested, I can email the schematic to you so that you will have the cap values that Leo used
From Leo: It is a good system, I liked it so much on a G&L I copied it on a couple more Strats. Not too difficult, just have to add a 1 MEG pot and a capacitor
Fender connected the bridge pick-up to the second tone pot on the Fender American Special Stratocaster (the one with the grease bucket circuit). I bought one second hand in mint condition in Candy Apple Red. I think mellowing the bridge pickup is indeed a logical move. On the American Special Strat they DISconnected the MIDDLE pickup from the tone pot. For the positions 2 and 4 there is NO tonal difference, but in the positions 3 (middle) and 5 (bridge) there is. Ebonizing fretboards is what Aria used to do with their classical guitars in the 1970s. If you never played fretless in your life, the lighter fret slots will help finding the right spots to put your fingers. Making them disappear will make playing more difficult for a beginner.
Everyone thinks they want a fretless until they own one and it sits. You can buy stainless fret wire and return that to normal condition. I have done it on a couple already. Best saw is a 'flush trim saw' for $10 at Harbor Freight that you take a hammer and tap the kerf down to fret wire tang width. double sided tape a strip of wood to one side as a depth stop and stiffener and use a square block measuring the cut locations. The fret tops will cover a lot of that damage. You're supposed to use a soldering iron to heat frets before/during removal to avoid that splitting. Fiebing's leather dye is the popular one to stain rosewood. I've used a little pint can of ebony stain.
I have bought Squire Bullet guitars just to get the neck. Squires generally have some very nice necks, and the Affinity series is no exception. Ebony stain will disappoint. Most rosewood fingerboards have some kind of treatment which resists the stain. The ugly fret groove fillings will also resist stain, even more than the fretboard. Sanding it down to a flat 12" radius might work, but I have never tried that. If it were me, I would make the guitar a dedicated slide instrument, set up like a dobro. No frets needed, just markings. I have a Tele set up that way that I call the Keithocaster, because it is a five string guitar tuned to open G. It is actually an Esquire, with no neck pickup. Whatever route you take, I will stay tuned and follow along with great interest.
You should check out the Dan Armstrong mod! It costs nothing, and what you do is you rewire your second tone knob so that the guitar can have series and out of phase tones + all the original tones as well. Although you would end with one master tone only.
Garage sale guitars! let me know what mods you'd like to see me do to this fretless Strat :) Click here to listen to the guitar! ruclips.net/video/bZgr7-Wk58Y/видео.html Part 2 is up! Check out the mods: ruclips.net/video/11QKDWmI37Y/видео.html
The reason there is no tone for the bridge pickup is that guitarists used to play rhythm parts with the neck and/or middle pickup and the bridge pickup was reserved for solos since it was much brighter and could easily be heard across an entire band. Obviously in that situation you don't ever want to mellow the bridge. The wiring is still there for a lot of models that are aiming for a more vintage vibe.
The idea behind bridge pickup no tone control was to have the broadest range of tones, from the brighter to the bassier. Now many people think that the bridge pickup is too bright and the move of the middle tone to the bridge is the first thing you have to do, if not putting a humbucker (or a single coil sized, or a stack one) in the bridge position. But you have to keep cost close to zero, otherwise single coil-sized humbuckers in the bridge and neck along with a very flat radius (over 12 inch) would compliment the fretless concept for shredding purposes (It would be very difficult to play chords, anyway).
From Leo: The bargan basement guitars can be a lot of fun, and if it does not turn out, you are only out the price of dinner and a show. Looking forward to what you come up with. If the fretless does not work out, Stewmac has precut fretboards in Fender scale for $19 US. Kind of a time consuming job, but not something a lot of people get involved doing.
Looking forward to seeing how this comes out! I like your mod ideas, should make for a very unusual instrument, even if the fingerboard looks off with all that filler. Hopefully as you sand away the original radius it will clean that up somewhat. This might be more money than you want to spend, but how about some sort of piezo system and on board pre-amp? If not for this one, maybe a future build?
Run a "Burst" or Solo switch on it. How it works is it bypasses the tone, and volume control and runs the three pickups in series. Really neat Mod in my opinion, basically works like a passive boost. A bit tricky, but cheap and cool as heck to see.
"if there ever is a pickup that you want to mellow out that's the bridge pickup" well you do that using the single volume pot it's connected to, turning it down from maximum mellows it out and keeping in on the max cleans it completely with boosted high frequencies.
You refill the slots with maple strips then fill in the rest of the holes with a more sympathetically coloured filler. Over that you use a very viscus boat epoxy with one thick application over the top, which will need to be sanded and re applied every few months. At least that is what Kevin Kaufman did when he worked on Jaco's Bass of Doom. But you will need the epoxy to stop the strings eating the board unless you use flat wounds. Also for fretless guitar you really want to go with a Jazz set with a wound third at least, plus bending the plain strings will not work, they'll just snap back and hurt you.
I found, if a stain won't work with whatever they used. A dye will. I have leather dyes, that I have used for wood situations, and it works fine with wood. Like Eco-flo.
This guitar is the perfect candidate to turn into a guitar setup for slide. Put a little neck relief and raise the saddles, and slide away! (Btw, I love this idea. However, I just wanted to point out that Flat-Wound strings cost money, so instead of "Mods that cost no money" maybe it should be "Overhaul for less than $15"). Lastly, a beater-guitar like this is a perfect candidate for wierd wiring options (2 and 4 positions in parallel for a Humbucker sound, or wire the second tone to "Blend In" the bridge pickup allowing for countless selection options).
There’s no such thing as too many Stratocasters. I only have one guitar currently and it’s just a really good Strat. It’s got boutique hot noiseless pickups that sound great, with a bridge like a Tele. I’m planning on adding a blender pot soon (and certainly need a compressor more as I realized today), and then hopefully it’ll be finished (not a lot of mods, but it’s already one of a kind [I was the first one to buy that model of pickup, and I seriously doubt anyone has put those exact ones on the exact model of guitar] and my instrument). I already love my Strat more than any of my other instruments (Violin was my first instrument and along with guitar is a main one, though I can play a lot more and own a lot more). I really like Strats.
Nice one! Can't wait to see the result! Try out flattening up to 14" but first sand off a bit with the original radius (9,5" I guess) just to mellow the putty horror over those chipped rosewood places... whatever you do, there's a whole lot of supporters you have in east EU! Keep on!
The mod that I put on all my player SSS Strats is the Dan Armstrong Blender mod. It uses that second tone knob to blend from SSS on up to HSH. Wiring only change so perfect for this project.
John Frusciante had a fretless strat. He recorded the solo to Melowship Slinky in B Major on it. He called it a '57 but it had a rosewood board, so it was probably a 60's or reissue. It originally had really bad frets and he had it re-fretted, but really hated the new frets so he just had them remove all of them.
Rosewood may not accept stain too well as it's an oily wood. Cover it with colored epoxy - Jaco style ;). 50% of a fretless appeal is that seamless, unmarked fingerboard. Also put some heavy gauge strings to get some sustain.
I'd definitely copper tape the cavity if you're keeping the stock pickups... really helps with the RF noise. Good idea for the bridge tone, otherwise I disconnect all my tones. Shoot, fat fret wire and scallop that puppy if you don't like fretless! Look fwd to the mod! I just put a Bigsby on a hardtail, love it.
LOL. My uncle had this odd ball Les Paul Studio I remember back in the 80's. I had only just started playing, do was excited to play a LP. The first thing I remember, is that it felt like it was 25LBs. The second was that it had an ebony fretboard, third was that while it was fretted, but they were basically flush with fretboard. To this day, I don't know why he had this thing, I don't think he could actually play it. I remember thinking "maybe it was just played so much, they all wore down." Now that I'm not 12-years old I realize that it's near impossible to have all the frets wear perfectly, and ALL the same amount. As to fretless Strats, unless you're using it exclusively for slide playing...I would probably not bother, but I'm not so Go for it. To people trying to pull frets there first time; try heating the frets with a soldering iron first. The heat from the fret will cause the wood to release some of the oils, adding a bit of lubrication and helping them come up cleanly. Using an X-acto knife on the edge frets where they meet the board, especially on Maple will help it from looking like this one. BEWARE; DO NOT use the soldering iron on necks with Nitro lacquer if you don't know what they're doing! I watched a 90+ year old Gibson mandolin burst into flames from this, and this was done by a luthier that knew what he was doing.
glad to see someone is going to solve the tone issue i wondered why my squiers only have the filter on the one tone control so looking forward to that!
You should do a Blender Mod using the second tone control… You end up with a master volume, master tone and then a blend. So in positions 1,2,4 and 5 you can blend in the pickup that is not usually on. So you can end up with some great variations, similar to a Gilmore Mod but with greater range of tones….
I'd convert it to a headless myself. Saw most of the headstock off, but leave enough for 6 string ferrules to sit in it. Replace the tremolo with a top loading hardtail, then saw a small chunk out of the ass end for your tuners. Cut a rectangle out so that they can sit comfortably in the body without them sticking out the bottom. Then route out a little bit from the bottom so that the tuners aren't sticking out of the back of the guitar. Drill holes for the tuners, and then you're in business. I can sketch this out if my ramblings are a bit incoherent.
Cool project Darrel! How about even doing a mod to get the bridge/middle position to wire the pickups in series? In conjunction with the mandatory tone pot mod, of course :)
If there are so many of these cheap strats around, you could find another one with other issues and put two together to make one good one. I have picked up beat up cheap guitars literally off trash piles at garage sales and made them play and sound good... for what they are. If you work on the action and string height enough, you can get most any guitar to play easy, getting good tone from cheap pickups does require a little ingenuity. I used to do this all the time, but eventually I found that even with cheap junk guitars, the parts were worth more as parts than complete guitars. I have not tried a fretless guitar, but have tried a fretless squier jazz bass, and I loved it. Just being fretless changes the tone dramatically
You can wire it up to 50s mode... Similar as on LPs. It is also only 2 wires mode. It puts volumen and tone control in diferent light. It was newer used in Fender guitars originally but it works really cool. It is something different
As far as mods go, check out the 7 sound stratocaster, it is a mod that David Gilmour is known for having on his signature black strat, I installed it on a cheap no name strat that I have, and it sounds a lot better than I would have expected, being able to add the neck pickup in with the bridge pickup, or being able to run all three pickups together
Your videos are always so much fun and inspiring! I love this one in particular as I’m sure we have all come across some guitars that people have done some simply awful things to. Thanks for a great video and keep them coming 👍
If you had access to a router you could rout out all the wood filler. Then cut small strips of a light colored wood (since the fretboard is dark) and glue them into to the channels. Finally sand the fretboard smooth and then stain it... I think that would look cool.
Instead of a jumper for the bridge pickup tone pot, just use the second tone pot for the bridge. Then, the only pickup without a tone is the middle, which is the least used. That's what I did with my Affinity.
OOOooo, project garage guitar. How about playing with the pickup windings? Tone capacitors? Wiring pickups in series/parallel/in phase/out of phase etc? On a different note, I recently installed a Darkmoon set of electronics for my '84 MIJ Squier Bullet. The controls are fantastic! I doubt I do too much control work in the future. I know that you have also used Obsidian parts. Do you have a preference between these two brands? Also, I'd like to see you install some of the Fishman Fluence pickups.
I had a similar nightmare on a “fretless” bass I purchased years ago. Someone had pulled all the frets and filled the slots with glue. It was nasty! I ended up getting white .020 binding from stewmac. The slots should be .023. The perfect size for .020 binding and the glue to hold it in. The I was able to trim, sand and finish over it with a nice smooth feel. Try your black stain first and see if that wood filler will take the color. Then the white binding will be a nice contrast on the finished neck! You could use a fret slot cleaning tool or a fret saw to clean the slots and the binding should only be a few bucks. I also switch my tone pot to my bridge pickup. You only have to move one wire.
Please go 'detailed' while soldering in that jumper wire, so some of us G&L guys can wire our Fender Strats accordingly. And..... Why not add a Gilmour switch while you're under the hood? Might lead to some tasty fret-free tones. I have a spare switch in my parts bin if you need one. Cheers!
I think that's interesting to switch the pickup key to activate the neck pickup in the lowest position and the bridge pickup in the highest. Could be nice to play in the neck pickup without a chance to move the key with your hand when you don't want to.
You could do something "artsy" with the pickguard. Maybe some kind of stain or spray paint pattern or even something drawn in.. like a floral pattern or else.
Sounds like fun, just go for it. I was thinking you could go a bit more wild with the wiring with options for series wiring of the pups (2 of them or all 3).
Instead of jumping the bridge pickup through the tone pot, I made the three controls into volume-bass-treble which all apply to all pickups. I also took the opportunity to change one of the original tone pots out for a pot with a push-pull switch, so that I can blend in the neck pickup regardless of the position of the 5-way switch. This provides the bridge+neck and bridge+middle+neck positions otherwise missing, for less than two dollars and without any permanent mods whatsoever. Here's the circuit diagram of what I did, if you are interested: app.box.com/s/5t8wmr6dmd9wru0ttjipcwkzz52s3fuo I am no longer convinced that a 1MΩ pot is necessary or even optimal on the bass control, because I never dial it lower than 6 on the knob anyhow. 500kΩ is easier to find (you likely have some already) and might actually work better, but G&L uses 1MΩ and I had one in the parts box, so there you go.
Interesting video, waiting for the results :). Just an idea: put a pushbutton as a kill switch(like on M.B. guitarts) or a toggle switch to keep the brigde pickup always on to get some new tones like bridge and neck pickup togehter or the all pickups at the same time but to keep the bugdet, get them from junks like old electronics, amps, tv-s...
Do a before and after sound check on the pickups if you add better magnets to them. Also turn the ton controls into master controls for passive treble and bass controls. Both would be fun mods no one on youtube does very often if at all
Darrell Braun Guitar Love your channel bro!!! Why not set it up as a dedicated slide guitar??? Either way I look forward to watching what you do. Peace
this guy is so clean cut and wholesome, he would make a great pharmacist
Ok there is your Prescription and if you fill in our online Questionaire you could win a Squire! Hope you have a great rest of the day!
One of the most genuine and pleasant people on the internet - and that's before we even get to Darrell's technical knowledge and virtuoso playing.
Or....he might be anything else you can imagine. At best, a nice guy here as I see it.
Your confidence is inspiring! 😄
As a pharmacist myself, I would love having Darrell as my partner. 😉
No way! Those filled in fret slots look awesome! Yes flatwounds. DON'T MASK OUT THE FRET FILLS, ROCK THAT LOOK!
😄👍👍👍
Don't "fret" over this guitar purchase, just have fun with it. Call it the Brauncaster.
Thumbs up for the pun!
scalop it. Yes, without any frets.
Noooo no scallop! It angers the Rosewood gods!
My garage sale find Lead II with the scalloped fingerboard sat in my garage for fifteen years. I finally bit the Bullet (Fender pun intended, sorry for the groans guys) and bought a USACG neck last year for the poor bedraggled orphan. It's still in my garage.
Rosewood must be very very angry.
I think the scalloper used a roughly sharpened tablespoon or something to scrape out the "scallops". Maybe a hammer and antique barnwood forming chisel. It's a mess!
Epic!
that would be a lute.
@yngwie
Scallop the fretboard so that it has “wooden frets,” like what lutes used to have. That would be a fun idea
mind blown. I wanna try this.
This is actually a pretty interesting idea.
Daniel Lomax I was just thinking of something along those lines.
Bruuuuuh
Would wear out really fast even with nickel strings.
I would suggest the following for the neck. Firstly remove the neck and the nut. Secondly mask off areas you don't want to stain. Third use the ebony stain over the fretboard. Fourth using a saw carefully cut out where the frets used to be to create tidy and straight groves. Fith fill the groves with a white wood filler to create guides as to where to put your fingers.
Doing on my dean boca 12 string very soon
A sustainer pickup on a fretless guitar would probably be awesome! You could get that cello like bow/glissando effect on the entire neck! But I guess it's kinda expensive. Maybe you can find a cheap used one?
The Don DeLuxe yes! I came down here to suggest this very thing. If anything needs more sustain its going to be a fretless instrument, then you could get a really interesting bowed sound. There are a few people who have put together DIY sustainers although I don’t think any of them have been particularly ‘aesthetic’ I’d love to see it though. And while you are there a kill switch might be a good idea.
Finally, everything i know about wood filler tells me that the wood filler wont take the stain if you try to ‘ebonise’ the wood although if you really sand it down during radiusing you might be able to get below the level of the tear out which should seriously neaten it up.
Good luck, it looks like a really interesting project!
It might play better with an E-bow, shades of Jimmy Page!
It's awesome! My fretless had a systainer pickup in it. It was fun to use the octave and a fifth up switch, bringing in the overtone during Indian or middle eastern influenced tunes. I would do gigs where I had loops stored, and would do melodies and solos over them. Unfortunately, I had it in storage and it was stolen. It's actually not as hard to adjust to as you would think.
I purchased a new Fender Squier Bullet Stratocaster new in 1992 for $119. It came with a gig bag, neck strap, picks, and a Fender Champion 15G amp and a 10 ft Fender chord. The truss rod never worked (or I broke it without realizing it-it was my first electric guitar) so I had to file down frets and also file the ends of many frets. It gave "shredding a new meaning as it was. Lastly the last 5 frets that are at the very high end were very high so besides filing I used dry heat applied to the back of the neck to draw it straight.
That guitar is among my favorites. Everything still works perfectly. I used WD-40 on the pots when they became scratchy and now they are silent again.
My honest opinion is if you learn how to set up a guitar even such very expensive instruments as my Stratocaster are very playable and sound as good as anything I have ever played.
I have Gibson pups, Seymour Duncan pups and the cheap pup's on my Strat hold up very well in any comparison, no they are not as hot. But that's what knobs on your amp are for and also that's what pedals are made for.
-Peter
When i was in highschool, i bought the cheapest telecaster i could find in the store. I removed the frets just the same way as this one. It chipped a little but not as much as this strat. I also sanded the body for hours and hours with a very wrong grid of sandpaper to remove the paint. I also removed the pickups and i couldnt solder them back and had absolutely no money to spend on the project so i just put the thing in the storage and just forgot about it until i saw this video :D your guitar is in perfect condition compared to my mess of a wood but im going to try to finish what i started years ago following exactly what you do. Lets see how it works out together!
Yes!!! 👍
A cool video series would be , "what guitar sounds best for "insert genre". So you would compare 2 or 3 guitars while only playing punk, metal, blues etc etc and determine which guitar gives the best tone for each genre
I own a fretless guitar and it's surprisingly useful, if you know how to use it. Ask me, if you have some questions. Shortly - you have to get some finish on the fretboard, or else you will kill the wood. You have to have a thickest gauge strings, or there won't be any viable sound or sustain on higher frets. And don't bother with a flat-wounds, if you have a good fretboard cover, they'll gonna give this thing way more juice. And try to go with a fuzz for it!
The strat is the chevy small block of the guitar world.
Very curious to listen it! Like how it sounds
This channel contains very helpful videos✌
I think you've already got the best idea. I'm pumped to see how it turns out.
My suggestions (pretty common "mods" if they can be called that):
1. 5 springs on the trem, wire tone control to bridge pickup
2. adjust PU height (probably set em low)
3. sand all the paint from under the bridge, the pickguard and behind the springs on the back
4. to make sure the neck gets a good connection with the body put some strings on it, tune it then loosen each screw on the neck 1/4 to 1/2 turn--you'll hear a popping sound--then just tighten the screws down as normal.
5. IF you have these things then I'd say graphite nut and saddles.
6. ALSO if you want to sacrifice the use of the tremolo you could put a block of wood on the back of the trem, I've heard rumors that Clapton did that, no idea if it's true though.
Have fun!
Not certain, but I may have played this exact Strat a bit ages ago. Back probably 15 'ish years ago, my friend and guitar teacher wanted a project. He bought a stock candy apple red (maybe Squier had a different name or shade of sparkle red) Squier Affinity Strat. He removed the frets by heating them slightly I believe with a soldering iron and pulling them with needle nose pliers. He then filled the voids in the fretboard with either wood filler or a mix of elmer's glue and sawdust, like looks to be seen here. I then smoothed the board a little with very fine grit sandpaper. The result looked almost exactly like this, very rough looking where the frets were pulled and filled. But it was relatively smooth to run your fingers over. We put flat wounds on it and enjoyed the odd fretless for a while. Crazy, this may be that very same guitar.
A couple of related mods I've done which I rather like for the way I play: 1. wire a one end of a 50K pot to the bridge pickup and the other end to the switched neck/middle pickup signal; the wiper then feeds the volume pot; 2. modifying the bridge pickup so that it primarily picks up the lower strings (I use two strings for bass and four for chords, but perhaps a three+three split might work better for a fretless instrument). An easy way to do that is to lower the pickups and then stick on 6x1mm neodymium disk magnets on the strings to be boosted. The magnets aren't quite free but at under $10/hundred including shipping I'd highly recommend them as a cheap way of tweaking the sound on pickups.
I own an affinity telecaster and I can tell the neck it feels great! Btw I love the color on this Strat. Can't wait to see the next video!
Make it a semi-hollow, if you dare! 😉
Sounds impossible
Dremel the f**k out of it, that will do the trick.
Yessss
Nice! Look forward to seeing the finished product!
I have a fretless bass. My first thought was, "It sounds like a horn." I spent some time with it. It has its place.
embrace the character , stain it and whatever happens happens, its a good story regardless! looking forward to the finished product and also the vid about re-purposing the knob!
Fretless basses are common but seeing a fretless guitar is a rare sight. Great idea for a video as usual!
Can't wait to see what you come up with!
You should try and relic the body! Make it look a lot more expensive than it is.
This will be a great learning experience. The fact that you have nothing to lose should make this more adventurous! Can’t wait.
I’m intrigued, let the build begin!
Awwww, maaaaaan ... we gotta wait for the next video to find out what happens to this fretless wonder.
Hey cool project Darrell!!! I would love to see more of these cheap projects. Keep em coming! 😃🎸✌
Darrell, you're such a kind hearted man to take something that is, by all intents and purposes, "totaled," as they say in insurance companies, and spend your time and money to restore it to working order. As a violinist, I have heard some interesting stories. People are always finding a "Stradivarius" in their attic. And they bring it to the dealer expecting to make a cool million $. :^) The dealers have some universal responses for these poor deceived souls. I'll share two of my favorites. The first: The dealer, after looking at the instrument tells the owner, "Oh....this is a good instrument.... for your fireplace ....because it burns slow." The other, takes another vein: "Oh....this instrument deserves special care. I suggest you insure it heavily, and then leave it on a bus."
Darell I'm so excited for this project! I love watching your Chanel man ! I live in the states in South Carolina
I hope it's going to be a fun project!
When I converted my Tbird bass to fretless, I also took out the dots, then filled all gaps with a good non-shrink filler, and dyed the 'board black with leather dye before coating it with epoxy.
After radiusing that it was polished, and now it handles any strings without wearing out!
I get great tones with plenty harmonics from that bass, even more than I got when it was still fretted :-)
I'd consider doing the same with a Strat. It'll get you great tone, a completely smooth surface to play on, sustain for days....
From experience the fretboard stain will work and will wipe right off of the inlays. It also gives the maple a really cool look if you sand off the finish and lightly coat it in stain then wipe it off after about 15 - 20 minutes.
Would also be ideal for slide with a higher action.
I would try and get the filler out or more of a rosewood colour before you hit it with the ebony stain (maybe use some fingerboard dust from the re-radius).
Exactly what I was thinking. Perfect starting place for a bitching slide guitar.
Darell, you should try Leo Fender's Passive Treble Bass circuit sometime; he developed it initially for the G&L Legacy when he first founded G&L. Its now used on all of his S style guitars. It is a global tone control system that affects all 3 pickups and after using it, I find it so useful that I would never go back to the old 2 tone controls that are on Fender Strats. It uses a 500k linear taper pot for the treble control and 1 meg log taper pot for the bass. Best place to buy the 1 meg pot is directly from G&L, If you are interested, I can email the schematic to you so that you will have the cap values that Leo used
Adjusting the bass really fine tunes OD & distortion, amazing what a difference that it makes
From Leo: It is a good system, I liked it so much on a G&L I copied it on a couple more Strats. Not too difficult, just have to add a 1 MEG pot and a capacitor
i love this channel always so upbeat and interesting
Fender connected the bridge pick-up to the second tone pot on the Fender American Special Stratocaster (the one with the grease bucket circuit). I bought one second hand in mint condition in Candy Apple Red.
I think mellowing the bridge pickup is indeed a logical move.
On the American Special Strat they DISconnected the MIDDLE pickup from the tone pot.
For the positions 2 and 4 there is NO tonal difference, but in the positions 3 (middle) and 5 (bridge) there is.
Ebonizing fretboards is what Aria used to do with their classical guitars in the 1970s.
If you never played fretless in your life, the lighter fret slots will help finding the right spots to put your fingers. Making them disappear will make playing more difficult for a beginner.
Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!
Everyone thinks they want a fretless until they own one and it sits. You can buy stainless fret wire and return that to normal condition. I have done it on a couple already. Best saw is a 'flush trim saw' for $10 at Harbor Freight that you take a hammer and tap the kerf down to fret wire tang width. double sided tape a strip of wood to one side as a depth stop and stiffener and use a square block measuring the cut locations. The fret tops will cover a lot of that damage. You're supposed to use a soldering iron to heat frets before/during removal to avoid that splitting. Fiebing's leather dye is the popular one to stain rosewood. I've used a little pint can of ebony stain.
I’m excited to see what this is gonna turn out to be! I recently did a “free” modification to a rip off strat i picked up at a flea market
what if... hear me out, what if WE send you stuff to modify that strat with?
Darrell, I think you could DIY a heavy relic on the finish of this Strat!
Great Idea, why not?! Play Loud.
I have bought Squire Bullet guitars just to get the neck. Squires generally have some very nice necks, and the Affinity series is no exception.
Ebony stain will disappoint. Most rosewood fingerboards have some kind of treatment which resists the stain. The ugly fret groove fillings will also resist stain, even more than the fretboard. Sanding it down to a flat 12" radius might work, but I have never tried that.
If it were me, I would make the guitar a dedicated slide instrument, set up like a dobro. No frets needed, just markings. I have a Tele set up that way that I call the Keithocaster, because it is a five string guitar tuned to open G. It is actually an Esquire, with no neck pickup.
Whatever route you take, I will stay tuned and follow along with great interest.
Extreme Makeover Guitar Edition - featuring your favourite host, Darrell Braun
You should check out the Dan Armstrong mod! It costs nothing, and what you do is you rewire your second tone knob so that the guitar can have series and out of phase tones + all the original tones as well. Although you would end with one master tone only.
Frankenstrat! Looking forward to the moment it becomes alive!
Garage sale guitars!
let me know what mods you'd like to see me do to this fretless Strat :)
Click here to listen to the guitar! ruclips.net/video/bZgr7-Wk58Y/видео.html
Part 2 is up! Check out the mods: ruclips.net/video/11QKDWmI37Y/видео.html
A DB etched into the first fret, Seymour Duncan pickups.
Darrell Braun Guitar short scale bass strings with the lowest possible tuning in 6 strings
Put a higher nut on it and make it a slide Strat.
Make sure you float that trem Darrell! A true fretless wonder with some crazed whammy added would be awesome! Have fun with this!
Turn it upside down Hendrickx style, turn the nut around and reverse the tuners and see if it works!
Can't wait to see the results.
The reason there is no tone for the bridge pickup is that guitarists used to play rhythm parts with the neck and/or middle pickup and the bridge pickup was reserved for solos since it was much brighter and could easily be heard across an entire band. Obviously in that situation you don't ever want to mellow the bridge. The wiring is still there for a lot of models that are aiming for a more vintage vibe.
The idea behind bridge pickup no tone control was to have the broadest range of tones, from the brighter to the bassier. Now many people think that the bridge pickup is too bright and the move of the middle tone to the bridge is the first thing you have to do, if not putting a humbucker (or a single coil sized, or a stack one) in the bridge position. But you have to keep cost close to zero, otherwise single coil-sized humbuckers in the bridge and neck along with a very flat radius (over 12 inch) would compliment the fretless concept for shredding purposes (It would be very difficult to play chords, anyway).
Can't wait to see the result! :)
From Leo: The bargan basement guitars can be a lot of fun, and if it does not turn out, you are only out the price of dinner and a show. Looking forward to what you come up with. If the fretless does not work out, Stewmac has precut fretboards in Fender scale for $19 US. Kind of a time consuming job, but not something a lot of people get involved doing.
Looking forward to seeing how this comes out! I like your mod ideas, should make for a very unusual instrument, even if the fingerboard looks off with all that filler. Hopefully as you sand away the original radius it will clean that up somewhat. This might be more money than you want to spend, but how about some sort of piezo system and on board pre-amp? If not for this one, maybe a future build?
Run a "Burst" or Solo switch on it. How it works is it bypasses the tone, and volume control and runs the three pickups in series. Really neat Mod in my opinion, basically works like a passive boost. A bit tricky, but cheap and cool as heck to see.
"if there ever is a pickup that you want to mellow out that's the bridge pickup" well you do that using the single volume pot it's connected to, turning it down from maximum mellows it out and keeping in on the max cleans it completely with boosted high frequencies.
You refill the slots with maple strips then fill in the rest of the holes with a more sympathetically coloured filler. Over that you use a very viscus boat epoxy with one thick application over the top, which will need to be sanded and re applied every few months.
At least that is what Kevin Kaufman did when he worked on Jaco's Bass of Doom. But you will need the epoxy to stop the strings eating the board unless you use flat wounds. Also for fretless guitar you really want to go with a Jazz set with a wound third at least, plus bending the plain strings will not work, they'll just snap back and hurt you.
I found, if a stain won't work with whatever they used. A dye will. I have leather dyes, that I have used for wood situations, and it works fine with wood. Like Eco-flo.
This guitar is the perfect candidate to turn into a guitar setup for slide. Put a little neck relief and raise the saddles, and slide away! (Btw, I love this idea. However, I just wanted to point out that Flat-Wound strings cost money, so instead of "Mods that cost no money" maybe it should be "Overhaul for less than $15"). Lastly, a beater-guitar like this is a perfect candidate for wierd wiring options (2 and 4 positions in parallel for a Humbucker sound, or wire the second tone to "Blend In" the bridge pickup allowing for countless selection options).
There’s no such thing as too many Stratocasters. I only have one guitar currently and it’s just a really good Strat. It’s got boutique hot noiseless pickups that sound great, with a bridge like a Tele. I’m planning on adding a blender pot soon (and certainly need a compressor more as I realized today), and then hopefully it’ll be finished (not a lot of mods, but it’s already one of a kind [I was the first one to buy that model of pickup, and I seriously doubt anyone has put those exact ones on the exact model of guitar] and my instrument). I already love my Strat more than any of my other instruments (Violin was my first instrument and along with guitar is a main one, though I can play a lot more and own a lot more). I really like Strats.
Nice one! Can't wait to see the result! Try out flattening up to 14" but first sand off a bit with the original radius (9,5" I guess) just to mellow the putty horror over those chipped rosewood places... whatever you do, there's a whole lot of supporters you have in east EU! Keep on!
The mod that I put on all my player SSS Strats is the Dan Armstrong Blender mod. It uses that second tone knob to blend from SSS on up to HSH. Wiring only change so perfect for this project.
John Frusciante had a fretless strat. He recorded the solo to Melowship Slinky in B Major on it. He called it a '57 but it had a rosewood board, so it was probably a 60's or reissue. It originally had really bad frets and he had it re-fretted, but really hated the new frets so he just had them remove all of them.
Rosewood may not accept stain too well as it's an oily wood. Cover it with colored epoxy - Jaco style ;). 50% of a fretless appeal is that seamless, unmarked fingerboard.
Also put some heavy gauge strings to get some sustain.
I'd definitely copper tape the cavity if you're keeping the stock pickups... really helps with the RF noise. Good idea for the bridge tone, otherwise I disconnect all my tones. Shoot, fat fret wire and scallop that puppy if you don't like fretless! Look fwd to the mod! I just put a Bigsby on a hardtail, love it.
LOL. My uncle had this odd ball Les Paul Studio I remember back in the 80's. I had only just started playing, do was excited to play a LP. The first thing I remember, is that it felt like it was 25LBs. The second was that it had an ebony fretboard, third was that while it was fretted, but they were basically flush with fretboard.
To this day, I don't know why he had this thing, I don't think he could actually play it. I remember thinking "maybe it was just played so much, they all wore down." Now that I'm not 12-years old I realize that it's near impossible to have all the frets wear perfectly, and ALL the same amount.
As to fretless Strats, unless you're using it exclusively for slide playing...I would probably not bother, but I'm not so Go for it.
To people trying to pull frets there first time; try heating the frets with a soldering iron first. The heat from the fret will cause the wood to release some of the oils, adding a bit of lubrication and helping them come up cleanly. Using an X-acto knife on the edge frets where they meet the board, especially on Maple will help it from looking like this one.
BEWARE; DO NOT use the soldering iron on necks with Nitro lacquer if you don't know what they're doing! I watched a 90+ year old Gibson mandolin burst into flames from this, and this was done by a luthier that knew what he was doing.
Love your Strat videos the most! You have some nice eye candy behind you...Daphne Blue and Surf Green looks awesome hanging on any wall!
glad to see someone is going to solve the tone issue i wondered why my squiers only have the filter on the one tone control so looking forward to that!
You should do a Blender Mod using the second tone control… You end up with a master volume, master tone and then a blend. So in positions 1,2,4 and 5 you can blend in the pickup that is not usually on. So you can end up with some great variations, similar to a Gilmore Mod but with greater range of tones….
I'd convert it to a headless myself. Saw most of the headstock off, but leave enough for 6 string ferrules to sit in it. Replace the tremolo with a top loading hardtail, then saw a small chunk out of the ass end for your tuners. Cut a rectangle out so that they can sit comfortably in the body without them sticking out the bottom. Then route out a little bit from the bottom so that the tuners aren't sticking out of the back of the guitar. Drill holes for the tuners, and then you're in business. I can sketch this out if my ramblings are a bit incoherent.
Yes you read my mind with the flat-wound strings bro!
Cool project Darrel! How about even doing a mod to get the bridge/middle position to wire the pickups in series? In conjunction with the mandatory tone pot mod, of course :)
If there are so many of these cheap strats around, you could find another one with other issues and put two together to make one good one. I have picked up beat up cheap guitars literally off trash piles at garage sales and made them play and sound good... for what they are. If you work on the action and string height enough, you can get most any guitar to play easy, getting good tone from cheap pickups does require a little ingenuity. I used to do this all the time, but eventually I found that even with cheap junk guitars, the parts were worth more as parts than complete guitars. I have not tried a fretless guitar, but have tried a fretless squier jazz bass, and I loved it. Just being fretless changes the tone dramatically
I played a frettless bass in a guitar shop, it was really fun
Now that is one ugly fretboard! Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Fretless Strat could be fun
Flatwounds are awesome, for bass at least. Really smooth to the touch and they keep their sound for a lot longer than roundwounds.
Good to know!
Great as always! I'd like to see the soldering with the re-wiring, keep it up Darrell!
You can wire it up to 50s mode... Similar as on LPs. It is also only 2 wires mode. It puts volumen and tone control in diferent light. It was newer used in Fender guitars originally but it works really cool. It is something different
The abalone on the DB Caster looks so cool in the background.
Love to hear it.
And I love the candy apple red color.
Cool, looks like a fun project!
I have a strat like that I practice on before I try the work on my bass.
If you have any spare "prettier" pickguards laying around, I'd slap one on that thing.
As far as mods go, check out the 7 sound stratocaster, it is a mod that David Gilmour is known for having on his signature black strat, I installed it on a cheap no name strat that I have, and it sounds a lot better than I would have expected, being able to add the neck pickup in with the bridge pickup, or being able to run all three pickups together
Your videos are always so much fun and inspiring! I love this one in particular as I’m sure we have all come across some guitars that people have done some simply awful things to. Thanks for a great video and keep them coming 👍
If you had access to a router you could rout out all the wood filler. Then cut small strips of a light colored wood (since the fretboard is dark) and glue them into to the channels. Finally sand the fretboard smooth and then stain it... I think that would look cool.
Instead of a jumper for the bridge pickup tone pot, just use the second tone pot for the bridge. Then, the only pickup without a tone is the middle, which is the least used. That's what I did with my Affinity.
OOOooo, project garage guitar. How about playing with the pickup windings? Tone capacitors? Wiring pickups in series/parallel/in phase/out of phase etc?
On a different note, I recently installed a Darkmoon set of electronics for my '84 MIJ Squier Bullet. The controls are fantastic! I doubt I do too much control work in the future. I know that you have also used Obsidian parts. Do you have a preference between these two brands? Also, I'd like to see you install some of the Fishman Fluence pickups.
I had a similar nightmare on a “fretless” bass I purchased years ago. Someone had pulled all the frets and filled the slots with glue. It was nasty! I ended up getting white .020 binding from stewmac. The slots should be .023. The perfect size for .020 binding and the glue to hold it in. The I was able to trim, sand and finish over it with a nice smooth feel. Try your black stain first and see if that wood filler will take the color. Then the white binding will be a nice contrast on the finished neck! You could use a fret slot cleaning tool or a fret saw to clean the slots and the binding should only be a few bucks. I also switch my tone pot to my bridge pickup. You only have to move one wire.
Sorry my measurements are in inches. I do not know the metric equivalents off the top of my head. 😁
Raise the nut and bridge, twist of the truss rod, tune to open E = Kickass slide guitar.
Please go 'detailed' while soldering in that jumper wire, so some of us G&L guys can wire our Fender Strats accordingly. And..... Why not add a Gilmour switch while you're under the hood? Might lead to some tasty fret-free tones. I have a spare switch in my parts bin if you need one. Cheers!
I think that's interesting to switch the pickup key to activate the neck pickup in the lowest position and the bridge pickup in the highest. Could be nice to play in the neck pickup without a chance to move the key with your hand when you don't want to.
You could do something "artsy" with the pickguard. Maybe some kind of stain or spray paint pattern or even something drawn in.. like a floral pattern or else.
Sounds like fun, just go for it. I was thinking you could go a bit more wild with the wiring with options for series wiring of the pups (2 of them or all 3).
Instead of jumping the bridge pickup through the tone pot, I made the three controls into volume-bass-treble which all apply to all pickups. I also took the opportunity to change one of the original tone pots out for a pot with a push-pull switch, so that I can blend in the neck pickup regardless of the position of the 5-way switch. This provides the bridge+neck and bridge+middle+neck positions otherwise missing, for less than two dollars and without any permanent mods whatsoever.
Here's the circuit diagram of what I did, if you are interested:
app.box.com/s/5t8wmr6dmd9wru0ttjipcwkzz52s3fuo
I am no longer convinced that a 1MΩ pot is necessary or even optimal on the bass control, because I never dial it lower than 6 on the knob anyhow. 500kΩ is easier to find (you likely have some already) and might actually work better, but G&L uses 1MΩ and I had one in the parts box, so there you go.
Cool!
Interesting video, waiting for the results :). Just an idea: put a pushbutton as a kill switch(like on M.B. guitarts) or a toggle switch to keep the brigde pickup always on to get some new tones like bridge and neck pickup togehter or the all pickups at the same time but to keep the bugdet, get them from junks like old electronics, amps, tv-s...
Do a before and after sound check on the pickups if you add better magnets to them. Also turn the ton controls into master controls for passive treble and bass controls. Both would be fun mods no one on youtube does very often if at all
Cant wait!!
You look like a really healthy Oliver Queen.
And I mean that in a good way.
😄 Thanks man!
wow that was quick
Scallop the fretboard and use the wood of the fretboard as a fretwire.
I've been asking myself that a lot lately. About new stuff!!
Darrell Braun Guitar Love your channel bro!!! Why not set it up as a dedicated slide guitar???
Either way I look forward to watching what you do. Peace
Thanks Richard!