Nothing crazy vintage or rare, but my future in-laws gave me this yard sale guitar for Christmas:
I'm in florida now so unable to plug it in or anything but when it had the rusted strings still on it, it actually played very nice, great neck and the frets aren't worn at all, looks like one piece maple. The body appears to be in 4 pieces, but as other reviews I've read have said it's very resonant.
Because of this I plan on using it as a modding platform similar to a Squier 51, only this one already has a much nicer neck. I've seen these around quite a few places and was wondering if anyone here has had one before. I guess the first question is if it can accept a fender strat pickguard....If so I'm gonna get a B/W/B and leave the plastic white, been wanting a tuxedo strat for years.
I like it too, but it does look a bit like a strat pickguard with a portion hacked off....I'm not sure what I think of it yet, but on further inspection, it doesn't look like the angle is enough on the bridge pickup for a strat guard to just slap on.
I don't like the all white though so if I have to keep the guard I'll probably put black knobs/switch and holeless pickup covers on it, or maybe replace the electronics entirely. Maybe stick a rails pickup in the bridge since I have no humbucker guitars (minus the Hondo 80s monstrosity)
Might be getting ahead of myself but ohhhh I would love to give these a go in this guitar: but soooo expensive and probably cost at least 4 times what the guitar was
The picture is a link to the page: They're Burns Tri Sonic clones that fit a strat and are supposed to sound like Brian May.
Most importantly, they look awesome (especially on a black and white guitar) and on paper they sound like single coil pickups that don't sound like a strat, which is to say my favorite kind of single coil.
I think I'm gonna dew it after I catch up from the holidays, it'd be a fun guitar to mod; something I haven't done in years; and because the guitar was free, for the price of the mods alone I'll have a pretty solid axe.
No idea, don't know much about Aria II's but if I was to ballpark it from experience I'd say anywhere from early 80s to mid 90s, probably Korean possibly Samick, it has that cheap flaky chrome hardware, single ply pickguard, neck has what looks like medium jumbos, and a nice satiny lightly tinted finish, all traits that remind me of my first guitar- mid 90s Samick Strat.
Video demos have become hard after I moved to an apartment complex-I'm super paranoid about noise, usually just play through a multifx and headphones at home.
honeyiscool wrote:Nice guitar! And yeah, maybe you should just get the GFS pups. I'm sure looking liek Brian May is 90% of sounding like him.
hahaha not really sure what that means. Not expecting to sound like Brian May cause I play through a Fender Twin, but I did always like his tone, and the idea of cool looking strat pickups that don't have the quacky strat sound is appealing to me.
Now I'm further confused...are you saying you think those gfs pickups are garbage not worth my time/money?
I haven't even played the thing plugged in yet (and since I need to post the neck back home and bring the body on the plane it will still be some time.). Maybe the pickups sound good as is, but I doubt it
You should go all out. GFS has a wiring/witches/pickguard kit that has all the Brian May switiches. I have been wanting to buy a beat up strat and throw on a set of those brightons as well as the guard/swithcing options.
They say great minds think alike....Sometimes we do too...
Nick wrote:Now I'm further confused...are you saying you think those gfs pickups are garbage not worth my time/money?
I haven't even played the thing plugged in yet (and since I need to post the neck back home and bring the body on the plane it will still be some time.). Maybe the pickups sound good as is, but I doubt it
I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that there's more to a Strat's sounds than what pickups you put i there. As long as you use single coils with a 5-way switch in the standard way, it will never lose its quackiness. I honestly think that the most important feature of a Strat is the 5-way switch.
Well, I think if I get them I will get the Vintage Spec set that doesn't have the reverse wound middle pickup. You make a valid point, as every time I've tried to start with a strat and make it something different I never like the results....I may end up having to embrace its characteristics to a point and make subtle mods.
For the lot of good it'll do me I emailed GFS about them explaining I can't find any info on how they sound when not used for playing like Brian May through a Vox amp and asking if they'll suit my needs.
mickie08 wrote:You should go all out. GFS has a wiring/witches/pickguard kit that has all the Brian May switches. I have been wanting to buy a beat up strat and throw on a set of those brightons as well as the guard/switching options.
Maybe like 5 years ago I would've done just that, or at least tried to. I'm more about simplicity now, I'd rather have 2-3 great sounds I can get to easy than 27 that I have to remember when most of them sound more/less the same anyway
mickie08 wrote:You should go all out. GFS has a wiring/witches/pickguard kit that has all the Brian May switches. I have been wanting to buy a beat up strat and throw on a set of those brightons as well as the guard/switching options.
Maybe like 5 years ago I would've done just that, or at least tried to. I'm more about simplicity now, I'd rather have 2-3 great sounds I can get to easy than 27 that I have to remember when most of them sound more/less the same anyway
I'm with you on that. I used to have push-pull pots and a wild pedalboard. Now I play mostly clean with my tele. No volume, no tone, just a 3-way. Perfect.
Nice score Nick. Every Aria Pro II i've owned has been exceptionally good.
Them standard tri-sonics wont fit (as i think someone said), they made a smaller Strat route version though for the Burns Cobra and they sound fucking ace. Tri-Sonics are probably the best single coils i have ever heard, other than P90s which they actually sound like at times.
