Strat build - the 'Portercaster'

[Billy Porter]

I’ve toyed with the idea of making my own specification guitar for many tears. I enjoy tinkering with guitars as much as playing them and have done most tasks from refrets, installing twems, electronics etc but never the whole package. A thread on the LP forum gee’d me into finally doing it
I bought a neck ‘paddle’

I carefully drew a design borrowing heavily on a Musicman

The ‘un-finished’ headstock - slightly different to the draft

[Billy Porter]

Next job was to add some abalone markers

[Billy Porter]

As the neck has some figuring I worked at bring it to out before adding clear lacquer




I had to re-do the headstock as I added a design which just looked plain naff . So I’m going with plain with some figuring

[Billy Porter]

Next job was the body – a one piece chunk of African Mahogany . Tried to come up with my own design but non seemed right so.........used my 60s Classic Strat as a template


I hour later


I’ve got Seymour Duncan Zebras to put in , Jeff Beck in the bridge and Jazz in the neck which I’m going to mount like a Les Paul with the controls, rear mounted.

I’m still windowing whether to add a figured veneer and binding or just stain and lacquer the body. What do you think?


Many challenges ahead

[frpax]

WOW! What a fantastic build! I really liked the original draft of the headstock over the final, but that's just my opinion (which means nothing whatsoever!).

For the body, I think figured veneer and binding would look quite good.

I can't wait to see the finished product!

[Gravity Jim]

Stain and varnish gets my vote on mahogany. This one is Danish oil and beeswax, no stain at all.

[Skip]

The work on the headstock is fantastic... looks great to me - and as you asked I prefer the natural look for the body without the veneer - If it were a T style I would add binding, but with a S style probably not - but then again it might look great, and probably will. The African Mahogany when finished will look great (so I think) - I would fully contour the body to make it sleek and comfortable. The pick up choice should sound great with the configuration.

[Billy Porter]

If it were a T style I would add binding, but with a S style probably not.......................I would fully contour the body to make it sleek and comfortable. The pick up choice should sound great with the configuration.

Agree - I'll not bother with binding and will countour the body for comfort

Lots of work required in creating a neck pocket. It took 3 attempts to create a template. Definitely worth the effort plus testing on a scrap piece before going near the good wood.


A lot of good advice on the web – after carefully lining up the template I routed down approx 3-5mm at a time. The slither at the side has since been removed


A nice snug fit though after fitting the neck plate it moved slightly creating a small gap. I’ll adjust it later though final finishing may fill the gap anyhow


Rear view of neckplate


After the photos I tidied up the heel area a bit - squaring it off to line up with the neck . Still loads to do as can be seen in the pics

Total cost of project to date £186.25

Next job is to line up the bridge and route for the twemelo

[Billy Porter]

At some point I had to be brave and attack the tremolo hole :cry: . The template wasn’t perfect but I could be on forever getting templates perfect.


The front of the housing. I used this template for all of the routing simply moving it to suit.


To line up the back I simply drilled 3 holes.


The back routing. I will of course tidy this up even though it will be hidden (OCD :roll: )– due to the depth I had to route some of it without a template to guide.
The hole at the back has to be larger than the front to allow the twem so movement - check your Strat out, I’d never noticed it before . I’m not looking for Floyd Rose type dive bombs from the twem , just a little Beck shimy :wink:


Next job: tidy up the routings and drill the holes for the bridge posts. the I will put on the neck and string her up. If it’s all gone horribly wrong I’d sooner know and remedy it before I start the finishing work. There is of course some tolerance in adjustment for the octave/intovation and I've carefully measured and remeasured but......... 8)


Note: the photo's are all the same peice of wood - its down to the lighting outside

[dirtdog]

Nice work! and purty!

[Billy Porter]

A lot of difficult work today – some frustrating but still enjoyable

Drilling the holes for the bridge posts.

The bridge didn’t originally come with posts so a bit of modification to the bridge was required. I’d measure the post point awhile back so trusted my previous calculations

The hole is slightly larger than needed to be but doesn’t seem too bad


A lot of work was required to get the bridge down to this point including routing the neck pocket deeper. The router gauge must have slipped :roll: as I cut it deeper than needed which needed a repair – I’ll post pictures next time

Look ma! It looks like a guitar 8)


Amazingly the intonation on the high E was spot on :shock: . As expected the nut needs some work done to it but I’m a bit disappointed that that the slots are too wide, oh well, fortunately I’ve nut files.

Lots to do next weekend to get it to play how I’d like it to.

[Billy Porter]

I’ve been playing around with it this last week when I had the neck on using an old nut I had lying around. The neck is straight as a dye, no fret buzzing but very thin at the back – I don’t think I took that much off. It may take some getting used to

Anyhow - next task was to route for the pickups. This took a lot of time measuring and creating a template. I read lots of ‘advice’ on the web about PU placement, the best being “there isn’t a sweet spot for pickup placement because as soon as you move up the neck it changes”. So I measured the gap between my Les Paul pickups – I guess they know what they’re doing – plus allowing for the longer scale length. Bridge placement looks about right based on the Steve Lukather Music man I’m basing most of the design on. Too near the bridge would be very trebly which is not what I want

I drilled holes 20mm deep as a guide for my homemade template before routing


After routing – not the neatest of jobs but a bit of tidying up will help. Ignore the ragged edges on the edge of guitar– They’ll be contoured towards the end of the build


Just an idea of what it will look like. I’ve ordered cream PU rings – the black ones were for my Les Paul when I was going to return it to standard


Next job is to route out the control cavity. I also haven’t fully worked out how to get the cables though the body from the PUs to the control cavity.

It’s getting there slow but surely – getting harder not to rush things though

[Billy Porter]

Not much done this weekend. Some remedial work plus pickup surround placement. The cream surrounds came so after a bit of alignment holes were drilled and surrounds secured.



I’ve played around with the setup. The more observant will notice that I haven’t done the intonation – a pointless task as I’m using re-used strings off my Strat so will need redoing when I do the final build
This is the last time the neck and body will be together until the final build but.........................



...........still lots to do on the body including routing the control cavity and contouring the body then final finishing. Methinks it’s beginning to look good though I’m probably heavily biased

[Skip]

looking great... and you have patience which is just as important as perseverance (so I say) but it's good to take the time with it. I think the contouring and final finishes will reveal a spectacular effort! good luck in the completion but even more so have fun along the way

[Billy Porter]

looking great... and you have patience which is just as important as perseverance (so I say) but it's good to take the time with it. I think the contouring and final finishes will reveal a spectacular effort! good luck in the completion but even more so have fun along the way

Thanks for comments

The pots and pickup selector switch had arrived so it was time to route the control cavity.

First I decided where I wanted the control. Most important to me is that I can quickly access the volume control and also I like to ‘violin’ from time to time.


After drilling through the body an approximation for the cavity was drawn


Controls fitted - I won’t be using these knobs though.


Controls fitted rear – not DPDT switched on the pots. I’ll have to work out the wiring scheme shortly (I routed mostly by hand – I’ll tidy it up a bit later)



As I was on a roll I decided to do the front and rear contours.




It’s getting there but still a lot to do

[Billy Porter]

A lot of work done preparing the body before applying the lacquer – mostly hand sanding

The edges were contoured using the router which gauged a chunk of wood out near the jack output


I’ve applied some lacquer (not shown) but need some more so order sent off for some more

I also made a custom cavity control cover plate from an old Start back plate (photo’s later)

I’m not touching the finish till next week to allow it to harden before applying more coats.

Getting nearer to completion

[Billy Porter]

At last.........................the final build

I decided to copper line the control cavity as I have put DPDT push/pull CTS pots to allow occasional single coil use. It does actually cut back a lot of hum. I’m going to do this to my other guitars


All together – I probably overspent on the pickups, a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck and a Jeff Beck in the bridge. Love the zebra coils and thought seriously about putting them in my LP instead. Spent ages deciding on which knobs to put on from those around the house, none looked right. My daughter suggested Chrome Tele ones so that’s what she got


Rear view of cavity housings

Full frontal porn shot



It sounds fantastic as you’d expect from a 1 piece mahogany body with SD pickups. Playability – hard to tell as it’s still settling in, the neck is not as deep as I’m used to but these things take time to get used to

Total cost of the build £378.32 as some savings made on parts I already had around the house. All parts bought over the internet (I’ll miss the parcels when I get home on Friday’s)

Lessons learned – none, I rarely learn from my mistakes

I’m off to noodle with my new guitar – isn’t life good sometimes

[Timbo]

.

[Timbo]

Great stuff, looks great

I've enjoyed following you through this, thanks for sharing.

Lessons learned – none, I rarely learn from my mistakes

[Billy Porter]

Thanks Timbo

Spent a fair bit of time yesterday setting her up, adjusting the truss rod, setting string height but mostly balancing the tremolo and bedding in new strings

Some more photo’s (from the proud father )

I put a bone nut in. I can’t tell if it makes a difference but it seemed silly not to put one on. As well as the adjusting the height I also had to re-cut some of the slots


The twemelo used to be on my Ibanez Blazer. I modified it to float on 2 pins rather than the original slot hinge. Works fine and now looks like a MusicMan unit – this was going to be a ‘luke’ replica


Close up of neck pickup. I left the mark be the neck as it strangely looks like a Les Paul screw hole – pure co-incidence


Basking in the sunlight – love the Abalone dots


Nicely contoured for that ‘middle-aged’ figure


My son loves it and it was really nice to see him play it and get an un-biased opinion. He prefers the Jazz PU to the Jeff Beck

It has a Les Paul(ish) tone and I’m getting used to the thin depth neck and I can’t wait to get it wailing at next rehearsal.

[Offshore Angler]

How's about some sound clips!

[melody]

Nice job!

It looks like a rocker I'll bet she screens.

[Skip]

Quite a project and a beautiful result! Pictures are fantastic I'm with OA listening will be fun send us some clips along! Have fun.

[Billy Porter]

Thanks for kind comments

I work away from home during the week and have some serious practicing to do this weekend for rehearshals teh followmg weekend

I'll try to do some in a few weeks though

[JM3]

Wow you got talent bro

fantastic and i am soo jealous!

[JM3]

so how does it sound?

[NeoFauve]

Beautiful.
Luxuriously simple.
That could pass for a cousin of Jim's Zencaster.

Got any shots of the whole thing, as in body to headstock?
I like the headstock. Sort of Teisco meets Ernie Ball.

[Gravity Jim]

Beautiful.
Luxuriously simple.
That could pass for a cousin of Jim's Zencaster.

Got any shots of the whole thing, as in body to headstock?
I like the headstock. Sort of Teisco meets Ernie Ball.

I noticed the resemblance, too. Sweet. And I really like the headstock, as well. I really want to hear a clip.