Megi's SP Strat

A few more:

Looks beautiful, really like the body grain and tortoiseshell pick-guard and cream pups and...you get the idea, my kind of strat. The gold I usually avoid but perfect on this axe...nice choices!

I never got on with those Wilkinson things, in fact took them straight off for 'real' locking tuners, generally schallers.

I've often found that you need a string tree, not always but roller trees are cheap on eBay for instance and can help if there is a 'problem' with pressure on a nut or vibrations behind the nut that interferes things.

Even with my locking staggered tuners, my last guitar needed one just to be sure I didn't pop the high e out of the nut...but you are right to get used to playing the guitar and what it needs.

Well done...+1

I disagree. There's nothing wrong with adding your initials and a name. But I think it looks fine with a plain, clean headstock.

Cheers guys, I appreciate your thoughts and what you are saying with regard to headstock decals and all that stuff, maybe the clean headstock is not so bad after all! Ah well... I guess I may "sleep on it" and wait a while before making a decision on that issue as well as for the string tree question.

Here's a pic of a single roller tree on my new guitar, you can see it adds little if any pressure to the strings on the staggered nut and is only there really for the insurance that the high e would not pop out.



You can see the stagger on the locking tuners here, though I went a little cheap on that brand and regret it. This kind of locking tuner is not just great for the 'stagger' but the strings lock in with very few winds if any and so easy to take off and on if required. Wilkinson's two hole thing really is not 'locking' but perhaps makes it easier to get some stager and tie the strings in such a way as to lessen 'slip' but you don't really need two holes to get that effect.

Still, it only matters that things work as you say.

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On my guitar I have the word 'legend' on the neck and considered trying to sand off and decal that, let us know the process if you do decide to do that, I'd be interested.

However, I really like the clean plain look there and it suits the guitar and would not change it. It is a nice looking neck too...where did that come from?

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Anyway, a very nice looking guitar project and should age well too!

what about those tusq string trees, that way you can sand/file off the bottom until it's the right height? i have those on a couple of my guitars

Oops, apologies to both 4real and retread - I was tired, should be more careful when posting in the early hours! No disrespect intended chaps.

I like rollers cause...I like the little wheels and mechanical look I guess... ;D



They also can bring the string down to a straighter lead into the tuner (it is not exiting the staggered tuners at so much of an angle).

On the strat above, I was getting some sympathetic vibration behind the nut that affected the tone of the open strings and these heavier trees seemed to add mass to the headstock and so 'sustin' though there is no real comparison.

I prefer none so it it works don't change it...



My tele has an LSR on it that has tiny pads behind the rollers to stop vibrations behind the nut and needs no trees. To test if that is a problem on your guitar, wrap a sock or something about the strings to dampen them and see if you can tell a difference. String trees dampen those longer treble strings as well as increasing pressure on the nut. I only added one to my new guitar because occasionally the high E would pop out of the nut slot and the tree prevents this possibility.

Roller trees like this can have the bottom filled for more pressure or placed in a location that provides the pressure desired, but they are not as adjustable...there is little if any pressure on my new one, but quite a bit on the higher strings of my strat there. Notice how much lower the strats head is compared to the tele...all guitars tend to be a little different.

LOL

well, yes...

Still, Leo put trees on there fro a reason...sympathetic vibrations on the elongated high strings, tension on the nut due to the shallow neck/head design and pulling straighter from the tuner...not cause they 'looked good'...

You can do without them and many times you dont need them, you can experiment with these aspects to see if is effecting the guitar. Dampen the sympathetic vibrations, no problem, do nothing. Push down behind the nut, is there an improvement = do nothing. Is the tuning always stable with the vibrato and string bending...if so, do nothing.

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I didn't want to put a string tree on, but it seemed necessary on my guitar and is better for it.

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The LSR is a commitment, there is no going back...you need to route off a bit of the fret board and move the nut forward. There are benefits, but it will only fit certain necks, even fitting it to my squier there was touch and go, squiers are a slightly narrower nut width. A lot of guitars they won't fit at all.

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My 'overkill' perspective is that no matter how great a 'tone' one might get or how good a guitar might be, if it does not play in tune and stay in tune, it will never be a good guitar, let alone a great one.

Graph tech things are good, I sued one on my LP...



An LSR would not fit nor be suitable, the 'overkill' string rollers to pull the strings over the nut to locking tuners as it is a trem guitar. I used it quite a bit before going this far but it really made a lot of difference to tuning stability with a trem on this kind of headstock.

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I also think a two point trem is an improvement on the original bridge, but one does not need to go for really expensive stuff, on my strat I used the original squier two point bridge and saddles...if it ain't broke, don't change a thing!