Locking Tuner Installation.

Today's write up will describe the installation of the Fender locking tuners.
Pictured below is the guitar headstock with pre-drilled tuner holes.

Close inspection shows 3 of the 6 tuners have longer tuning pegs than the others. These are for the 3 thicker wound strings and must be placed in the correct position.  Also note the small peg on the base of the tuner on the right.  There are 2 of these pegs, even though you can't see the other one here in the picture.  These help hold the tuner in place and holes will have to be properly drilled for them.

Place all tuners in their proper holes. The tuners with the longer tuning pegs occupy the bottom 3 holes.  I loosely tightened the nuts allowing the tuners to rotate within their holes.  I pushed the straight edge of the packaging to aline the tuners with each other. (a clever trick I learned from researching the installation of these tuners).

Next I pushed down hard on each tuner so that the pegs would leave a slight indentation. (seen here)

I use these indentations to drill holes for the pegs.

With the holes drilled the tuners go into place and then I tighten down the nuts. That's it. The results look great.

Third Purchase $96.98 (Total: $353.09)

On March 1st 2013, I made my third major purchase, this time from Amazon.com, for the black strat. In this purchase I decided to go with a group of (relatively) less expensive items. I ordered 6 items;

1. Fender guitar strap buttons $4.99
2. Fender guitar back plate  $7.25
3. Fender guitar output jack $6.99
4. Fender guitar jack plate  $7.41
5. Fender locking tuners chrome $44.72
6. Joe Satriani locking guitar strap $18.23 (Not an extremely important part put I thought it looked cool and would work well with this project)

After shipping and tax the total was $96.98

Picture of the guitar strap buttons:

Plate for back of the guitar.

Next is a photo of the guitar jack (right) and the guitar jack plate (left)

Guitar technology has changed since the 1970's, and one of those improvements is with guitar tuners. some guitars have a bar (called tremolo bar) located at the bridge which can either loosen or tighten the tension on the strings.  If the tension is loosen the note pitch will decrease. If the tension is increased the note pitch with rise.  However having the original string tension returning when you're not playing with the tremolo bar is a challenge.  Over the years companies have helped reduce this problem by introducing locking tuners.  These tuners lock the string at the tuning post, reducing the ability for the string to stretch, thus reducing the string from going out of tune.  Since my goal is to play this guitar when it is completed and not tune it all the time.  I chose to take advantage of this technology.  Also note you can see the cool Fender 'F' on the backs of each tuner.

Finally here's the guitar strap I ordered. I have 2 other Joe Satriani straps and I really like them, plus I like the skeleton guys on it. I went with the locking mechanize because I did have my guitar strap separate from my guitar once while at practice. It is not a pleasant experience, since you frantically grab your guitar attempting to prevent it from hit anything.

Copper Shielding Tape $14.65 (Total $256.11)

To eliminate noise and pickup hum, it is important to line the guitar body cavity with copper shielding tape.  The tape is pretty easy to work with and simply touching pieces of tape together will electrically connect all the pieces.  The tape sticks out of the body cavity just a little bit, and this is because I will want it to touch the shielding tape on the pick guard (still to come).

Package of copper shielding tape.

A work in progress. You can see from the picture that the tape cuts with ordinary scissors.

Body cavity covered with copper shielding tape. Note, be careful when using this tape as I have a bunch of tiny cuts on my thumbs and index fingers.

Insert Tab A Into Slot B

Time to do some assembling. I went with the Might Mite neck and body because I figured they would go together pretty easily. And it appears that they did. Here are some photos of the assembly process.

Photo of neck and neck plate:

Photo of body.

The neck fit without any problems or any give or take. I held the two pieces together with a clamp, drilled some guild holes into the neck and screwed 4 screws into the holes. Pretty simple assembly.

Looking good so far.

Second Purchase $130.49 (Total: $241.46)

On February 8th 2013 I purchased a Mighty Mite Fender replacement guitar body with a black finish from MusciansFriend.com.  If you have followed my posts before you know that I have acquired a lot of experience finishing guitar bodies.  I also have a good feel for how much this process costs.  And there was no way I could buy a unfinished body and finish it for under $140.  So the decision was made to go with this already finished model.  I couldn't be happier, it is beautiful.

Now there is a difference to note here; David Gilmour's black strat is mode of alder wood and the body I purchased is made from swamp ash. Purists have probably left the site already but, honestly I seriously doubt that I would be able to tell the difference tonally. In all reality a majority of a guitar player's tone comes from the hands.

The total cost of this purchase including shipping, tax and promotional coupon code that saved me $20 came to $130.49, bringing my total purchase cost to date $241.46.

Fist Purchase Total Cost $110.97

On January 2nd 2013 I made my first purchase from MusiciansFriend.com for my Black Strat project. I ordered a Fender replacement neck made by a company called Mighty Mite. Mighty Mite makes Fender replacement parts in Mexico driving the costs way down. Fender also uses these Mexican factors to produce some of their cheaper, but still high quality guitars. People refer to these guitars as Fender Stratacastor MIM (Made in Mexico). The American made replacement parts are much more expensive and I think you are simply paying for the name. I could be wrong, but I also doubt that I would be able to tell the difference between a Mexican made neck and an American made neck. Beside Fender will get their a share of money from this project. Here's the neck;

 

I also purchased a neck plate. This piece is located on the back of the guitar and helps secure the body and neck together.  I purchased and authentic neck plate from Fender simply because I wanted the cool Fender F on it. (See Fender is getting some money all ready)  Here is a super close up of the neck plate so you can see the Fender F;

The total cost of this purchase including tax and shipping was $110.97.

History of the Black Strat

Here's a good article on the history of the "Black Strat"