colinhotrod
Well-known member
I made a lil Bit of an impulse buy last year buying a new so called "57 type strat" I got it through ebay from Curly Music in liverpool. When it was sent to me, there was a slight chip next to the strap button, I called the shop up and they were kind enough to knock ?40 off.
First thing I noticed about this was how great it was to play, alot better than my Tokai custom edition and my mex strat. I then took it to my local luthier who gave it a full set up for me and also put a Fender decal on the headstock as there was nothing on it before. It was advertised as being made in the "Tokai" factory. If it was or not is debatable although I didnt buy because of this. I have a feeling this was made alongside the likes of MIC Jim Deacons.
Upon getting the guitar back I was amazed as I thought it played well before the set up. My luthier even Tried to get hold of some of these himself so sell.
I had then started to gig with this axe but sometimes I did feel that something was missing sound wise including the typical strat thin sound.
I then went on to buy an american tex mex pickup from a 96 strat. Then I seen that Axes R Us were doing strat hotrails for ?12 a piece so i took the plunge. They also had Wiring kits so I got one of those too with CTS pots. After fitting what a difference in sound, putting good electrics in made a huge difference. I still thought my hotrail pick up sounded like it had too much top I swapped the pickup selector wires round with the middle pup giving me tone control on the bridge but none on the middle pup.
Now I can get an amazing sound being able to take the "top" off the hotrail.
I went on to take a bit of crazy fit and decided to give the guitar a bit of a relic, though I went a bit overboard.(my first attempt though)
Now prob costing me about ?300ish, it's not cheap and a bit of a labour of love. This is going to be my weapon of choice for gigging from now on.
Even if I didnt spend all this It just goes to show that you can pick up a good playing reasonable sounding guitar for not alot of money if you are prepared to look past all the big boys.
Colin.
First thing I noticed about this was how great it was to play, alot better than my Tokai custom edition and my mex strat. I then took it to my local luthier who gave it a full set up for me and also put a Fender decal on the headstock as there was nothing on it before. It was advertised as being made in the "Tokai" factory. If it was or not is debatable although I didnt buy because of this. I have a feeling this was made alongside the likes of MIC Jim Deacons.
Upon getting the guitar back I was amazed as I thought it played well before the set up. My luthier even Tried to get hold of some of these himself so sell.
I had then started to gig with this axe but sometimes I did feel that something was missing sound wise including the typical strat thin sound.
I then went on to buy an american tex mex pickup from a 96 strat. Then I seen that Axes R Us were doing strat hotrails for ?12 a piece so i took the plunge. They also had Wiring kits so I got one of those too with CTS pots. After fitting what a difference in sound, putting good electrics in made a huge difference. I still thought my hotrail pick up sounded like it had too much top I swapped the pickup selector wires round with the middle pup giving me tone control on the bridge but none on the middle pup.
Now I can get an amazing sound being able to take the "top" off the hotrail.
I went on to take a bit of crazy fit and decided to give the guitar a bit of a relic, though I went a bit overboard.(my first attempt though)
Now prob costing me about ?300ish, it's not cheap and a bit of a labour of love. This is going to be my weapon of choice for gigging from now on.
Even if I didnt spend all this It just goes to show that you can pick up a good playing reasonable sounding guitar for not alot of money if you are prepared to look past all the big boys.
Colin.
