My Eart Strat-Type Guitar Project

Glennwillow · #1 10-18-2023, 09:56 AM

There have been several threads in the Electric Guitar Section on Eart project guitars, but it seems like these were Tele-style guitars.

I happened to have a set of Fender Custom Shop Fat 50s pickups that I had never installed over the years. I was going to put them in my early-90s Strat Plus, which has Lace Sensor pickups in it, but I could never make myself do it. So I needed an inexpensive S-type guitar to put those pickups in.

I just put this video up in the Show & Tell Section using this new Eart Strat-type guitar with me playing it like an acoustic with my bare fingers. So you can see what this guitar looks and sounds like.

I bought my Eart Strat-type guitar from Amazon on a 10%-off sale for something like $242. They are normally $279, I think.

When I got the guitar, I was pretty disappointed in how drab the finish looked. I didn't realize these came with a dead flat finish and no gloss at all. But I thought, oh well, this is a project guitar, so I'll just have to polish it up.

I had a set of polish bottles from StewMac -- medium, fine and swirl remover -- so I set to work on this Eart guitar and in a couple of hours I had it looking very much improved.

The guitar came with kind of a mint-green tinted pick guard, which I really didn't like, so I ordered another one of aged white color. To make this new pick guard fit I had to do some modifications to the pick guard to slot a place for the trussrod nut and to cut away some of the guard that fit under the rosewood fingerboard. So changing the pick guard was not all that simple, but I got it done in a few hours of clipping plastic away and making a squarish slot with a flat file.

I had some trouble getting the new guard to fit well, but some of that was because I reversed the position of the two tone control pots. After I checked this out on my amp I realized I had to pull the guard back off and move the pots around and then the guard fit considerably better.

Also, once I had the guard off, I polished up the areas that I could not reach originally.

And of course, once the guard was off, I changed out the pickups. The original pickups were not terrible, but they kind of lacked character. I worried about how difficult the soldering job would be, but it was no big deal. The part of this project I worried the most about turned out to be the easiest. However, I have done a lot of soldering over the years. The pick guard change and modifications was the biggest chore.

But everything fits and looks good now and I really like the sound of the Fender Fat 50s pickups. This guitar isn't a dead-on Strat copy. The trussrod adjustment is different, the plug-in is on the side of the lower bout like a Les Paul, but none of those things bother me. I thought the tuners were okay, so I left them as-is. I did spend some time dialing in the action and it plays fine. I had some D-Addario 11s that I bought for my Tele that I ended up putting on this guitar, and they sound and feel fine. I kind of like the stiffer tremolo with these 11s on the guitar.

Thanks, Glenn

rockabilly69 · #2 10-18-2023, 11:31 AM

Glenn, looks like you did a great job on your guitar, and sounds like it too, as I just watched your video! Those pickups have a great tone that worked perfect for your song. And the finish looks cool with a little gloss!!!

If you really want to go to the next level with the Strat trem (or any aspect of Strat setup), you should watch this guy's videos. For years, I always decked the trem on my Strats, but after watching this guy, I learned how to really set up a floating trem, and now I would never go back. This guy not only has videos on trems, but complete Strat setup, and I've never seen better, which is saying something because I've been setting up guitars most of my adult life. He just breaks the mechanics down in such a way that they make sense. Even if you don't want to touch your guitar now, just watching these videos will open up some cool ideas in the way you adjust your guitar down the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUkKZy8U_gA

Glennwillow · #3 10-18-2023, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

Glenn, looks like you did a great job on your guitar, and sounds like it too, as I just watched your video! Those pickups have a great tone that worked perfect for your song. And the finish looks cool with a little gloss!!!

If you really want to go to the next level with the Strat trem (or any aspect of Strat setup), you should watch this guy's videos. For years, I always decked the trem on my Strats, but after watching this guy, I learned how to really set up a floating trem, and now I would never go back. This guy not only has videos on trems, but complete Strat setup, and I've never seen better, which is saying something because I've been setting up guitars most of my adult life. He just breaks the mechanics down in such a way that they make sense. Even if you don't want to touch your guitar now, just watching these videos will open up some cool ideas in the way you adjust your guitar down the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUkKZy8U_gA

Hi Daniel,

Thanks so much for your comments! I will watch that video on setting up a Strat; I know you have referred to it previously here on the AGF. I really appreciate your feedback and your watching that video.

I hope all is well for you.

- Glenn

rmp · #4 10-19-2023, 07:44 AM

well Glenn that debunks a lot of myths doesn't it?

It sounds good, looks good,, certainly not something that you'd expect in sub $250 price point.

it's crazy how affordable decent guitars have become,

I could go into a "Back in the day -- we had to us a C clamp to make an F Chord, and use vise grips to adjust the machine heads." rant, but I wont,,
oh wait, I just did..

Glennwillow · #5 10-19-2023, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmp

well Glenn that debunks a lot of myths doesn't it?

It sounds good, looks good,, certainly not something that you'd expect in sub $250 price point.

it's crazy how affordable decent guitars have become,

I could go into a "Back in the day -- we had to us a C clamp to make an F Chord, and use vise grips to adjust the machine heads." rant, but I wont,,
oh wait, I just did..

Hi Ray,

For anyone who is curious, this is the Amazon listing for the guitar I purchased. The price is -10% off list again. Roasted neck and body, SS frets, bone nut.

I found the playability on mine just fine, but I am not terribly picky about electric guitar action. Being primarily an acoustic player, electric guitar always seem easy to play to me.

You can see on the song I covered, which is almost all barre chords well up the neck, that I was able to do this without significant fatigue.

I don't know how reliable the 5-way switch or the tone and volume pots are, but they can be easily replaced, if needed. The Fender Custom Shop Fat 50s sell for about $270 today, more than the guitar costs, but there are plenty of other low-cost options. This set of pickups is only $99.

I already have two Strats, so I didn't need another one. But I was looking for a project and I have had these Fat 50 pickups sitting around in their box, unopened for years. So now I feel a whole lot better about using up those really nice pickups. And, with the Eart body polished up and with a new, white pick guard, I really like the looks of this guitar. Also, it's lighter weight than my Fender Strats, which at my age is nice. I spent a total of $387 on this guitar (adding in what I spent on the pickups and the new pick guard), which is still pretty reasonable considering how good it looks and sounds. The name on the headstock might be off-putting to some folks, but I really don't care about that.

- Glenn

rmp · #6 10-19-2023, 10:21 AM

It's a cool project to take on Glenn

These kind of setups you can really go nuts, everything is drop in and easy to get to.

I have a strat w/fat 50s, I think its nice choice for a well-balanced set of pickups.

it's cool to have a couple of each but with different configs

My other strat as Texas Specials, wildly different, way more aggressive.

That song was a good choice too, New one to me, but you did an excellent take on it.

Glennwillow · #7 10-19-2023, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmp

It's a cool project to take on Glenn

These kind of setups you can really go nuts, everything is drop in and easy to get to.

I have a strat w/fat 50s, I think its nice choice for a well-balanced set of pickups.

it's cool to have a couple of each but with different configs

My other strat as Texas Specials, wildly different, way more aggressive.

That song was a good choice too, New one to me, but you did an excellent take on it.

Thank you Ray,

I kept the amp approach simple: clean settings with the volume pot down a fair amount and the bass rolled off because of the 4x10 speaker arrangement. My Blues Deville amp does not have built-in tremolo, but I added it in my DAW after the fact, just to give the guitar sound a little shimmer.

Texas Specials pickups might be fun to try some day.

- Glenn