A Mark In Time

Mark Knopfler Discussion => Almost Straits => Topic started by: JF on May 16, 2022, 12:14:44 AM

Title: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on May 16, 2022, 12:14:44 AM

I started a 3 guitars project :

first step was to "unbuild" my red Strat Hondo copy and make a custom "shorty" guitar with parts unsued :

https://textes-blog-rock-n-roll.fr/une-nouvelle-guitare-faite-a-partir-delements-de-recup/

next step will be : change the black finish on my US strat into tobacco sunburst, and then adding Ingo's parts to build the sunburst schecter replica

final step will be to build a red strat with the Hondo body, pickguard-Bridge-Tremolo from the ex-black strat, and adding a new neck
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: Mudrian on May 16, 2022, 08:12:20 AM
Hello JF,
nice project and looking foward to see the result.
My only concern would be the black strat conversion in sunburst.You can' t tell what kind of wood quality you re going to find underneath the finish (grain and number of pieces to create the body). Sunburst being a translucid finish , it might have an impact on the result.
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: quizzaciously on May 16, 2022, 09:36:34 AM
Building guitars properly is a hard thing to do, kudos to Ingo for nailing this down to a single wire. It's funny how probably every MK fan who plays guitar goes through the phase of getting mesmerized by the Schecter Dream Machine. I wanted this guitar with its weird controls and looks so bad when I was a kid. So to me, it's still a dream machine if you know what I mean :lol Nowadays, I do realize it's just an instrument, like any other.

I always loved the idea of toggle switches for pickups, that's so much better than your standard 5-way, let alone 3-way switches, which was terribly unclear to me. More guitars should be like this, like Brian May's Red Special, which not only has toggle switches for pickups but even for phase/out of phase controls. That's the way you do it! Makes you think that these "perfect" and "legendary" guitars aren't so perfect after all...
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on May 16, 2022, 09:55:06 AM
Hello JF,
nice project and looking foward to see the result.
My only concern would be the black strat conversion in sunburst.You can' t tell what kind of wood quality you re going to find underneath the finish (grain and number of pieces to create the body). Sunburst being a translucid finish , it might have an impact on the result.

yes you are right, the luthier told me so. But I didn't want to buy another body, so I take the risk and we'll see
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on May 16, 2022, 10:03:01 AM
Building guitars properly is a hard thing to do, kudos to Ingo for nailing this down to a single wire. It's funny how probably every MK fan who plays guitar goes through the phase of getting mesmerized by the Schecter Dream Machine. I wanted this guitar with its weird controls and looks so bad when I was a kid. So to me, it's still a dream machine if you know what I mean :lol Nowadays, I do realize it's just an instrument, like any other.

I always loved the idea of toggle switches for pickups, that's so much better than your standard 5-way, let alone 3-way switches, which was terribly unclear to me. More guitars should be like this, like Brian May's Red Special, which not only has toggle switches for pickups but even for phase/out of phase controls. That's the way you do it! Makes you think that these "perfect" and "legendary" guitars aren't so perfect after all...

two weeks ago I played on a Red special replica. nice guitar, legendary.
But I found not that easy to have all this toogle switches. a little bit "difficult" to fin the sound you want
I like the 5 way switches on a strat : you can switch easily and directly from a sound to another one while playing.
I think that guitars with all this  buttons are made to keep the same sound during the whole song.
Thats' why I want to keep a "normal" strat kind guitar with my red one : a guitar for playing in jams, blues, and that kind off stuff. You don't know in advance what you are going to play : rhythm, strumming, arpeggios, lead... you need to have an easy way to switch your sound quickly.
I think I will used my schecter replica more for recording stuff, when you want a specific sound at one time
but eh, I will bring it in jam too, for the look  8)
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: dustyvalentino on May 16, 2022, 10:16:23 AM
Good luck!
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: hunter on May 22, 2022, 10:08:02 PM
My friend has a Schecter from the 80s (made in Texas, not California), and he bought the pickguard from Ingo as well. The build quality is fantastic, but I truly hate the switches. They are great for recording, but for live use when you want to go from a sweet neck rhythm sound to a screaming bridge pickup for a lead then a five-way switch is so much better.
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on May 24, 2022, 11:20:01 AM
My friend has a Schecter from the 80s (made in Texas, not California), and he bought the pickguard from Ingo as well. The build quality is fantastic, but I truly hate the switches. They are great for recording, but for live use when you want to go from a sweet neck rhythm sound to a screaming bridge pickup for a lead then a five-way switch is so much better.

yes exactly
I am quite sure I will my two strats that way : the schecter one for recording when I want a particular sound, and the fender one for jamming (I like switching sounds while playing)
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on May 27, 2022, 10:13:51 AM
the project continues, and luckily the wood  underneath the finish on my my black strat is a one wood piece, with nice grain  :)

here is a first attempt. I told the luthier to make the black part thinner, to have more brown.

stay tuned for next steps
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: dustyvalentino on May 27, 2022, 10:29:15 AM
Looks good!
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: Mudrian on May 27, 2022, 02:16:01 PM
This is going to be a fantastic guitar. I'm glad I was wrong when pointing out that underneath the black finish you could find a not so nice wood. If I was a bit mystic I would say that this guitar arived in your hands just to be transformed in the sunburst schecter replica !
 :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on May 27, 2022, 03:05:50 PM
This is going to be a fantastic guitar. I'm glad I was wrong when pointing out that underneath the black finish you could find a not so nice wood. If I was a bit mystic I would say that this guitar arived in your hands just to be transformed in the sunburst schecter replica !
 :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

 8) :P

yes. but you were right having this doubt. The luthier told me that usually Fender uses the nice pieces of wood for the sunburst models, and then the rest of others pieces for other models that have color finish. and often, the bodies are made with several pieces of wood, with different grain.
So indeed, there was a risk that the wood could have been not so nice

I am very lucky  :)
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: dustyvalentino on May 27, 2022, 04:57:03 PM
Yeah, it was kind of a waste using this wood on a solid colour guitar (until now!)

I remember someone back in the day saying it was a waste using swamp ash on the MK strats as it often has beautiful grain.
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: Mudrian on May 27, 2022, 06:51:27 PM
I will not strip mine to check  ;D
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on May 27, 2022, 07:08:07 PM
I will not strip mine to check  ;D

 :lol :lol
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: hunter on May 28, 2022, 11:38:44 PM
That sunburst job is not very good. Kind of wrong pattern, and the transitions are too sharp. I would ask your guy to do it again.
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on May 29, 2022, 11:00:30 AM
That sunburst job is not very good. Kind of wrong pattern, and the transitions are too sharp. I would ask your guy to do it again.

Yes I did  :)
I asked for not having red colour. I prefer 2 tones like in the fifties even if Mark's schecter was 3 tones (his jurassic 54 strat is 2 tones)
and I am not going to ask the exact replica. What I want is colours in brown-natural-wood territories. I don't mind if it's not excatly like the guenine "official" fender sunburst  :)
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: koobaa on June 02, 2022, 11:16:32 PM
Great project, JF!
I would not sweat at all about the kind of wood you have as long as it looks and feels good. It has a minimal (if any) impact on the tone of the electric guitar. It's all in electronics.

This video is remarkable. Really opened my eyes (or ears rather):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n02tImce3AE&list=FLGMWWS1eCH0G9qNBs6NIUyA&index=2
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on June 04, 2022, 09:43:05 AM
Great project, JF!
I would not sweat at all about the kind of wood you have as long as it looks and feels good. It has a minimal (if any) impact on the tone of the electric guitar. It's all in electronics.

This video is remarkable. Really opened my eyes (or ears rather):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n02tImce3AE&list=FLGMWWS1eCH0G9qNBs6NIUyA&index=2

Thanks Kooba. Great video indeed, even if I didn't undesrtand all subtilities exactly, but I got the main idea though.

in my chronicles list, I have one about the famous "it's all in the fingers" thing. We all know it's a bit more complicated. I will try to do my best to sum up all knowledge I got during years about this subject

about the wood on my strat, I was not worried about the impact on the tone, but more about the look  :)
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: quizzaciously on June 04, 2022, 10:29:31 AM
Great project, JF!
I would not sweat at all about the kind of wood you have as long as it looks and feels good. It has a minimal (if any) impact on the tone of the electric guitar. It's all in electronics.

This video is remarkable. Really opened my eyes (or ears rather):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n02tImce3AE&list=FLGMWWS1eCH0G9qNBs6NIUyA&index=2

Thanks Kooba. Great video indeed, even if I didn't undesrtand all subtilities exactly, but I got the main idea though.

in my chronicles list, I have one about the famous "it's all in the fingers" thing. We all know it's a bit more complicated. I will try to do my best to sum up all knowledge I got during years about this subject

about the wood on my strat, I was not worried about the impact on the tone, but more about the look  :)

To me, it was obvious the first time I saw an electric guitar. How wood can affect the sound when a pickup picks up vibrations of a ferromagnetic string? It doesn't pick up vibrations of the body, or at least, is not supposed to. But all my life I met guys who be like "this wood adds some highs to the sound", "this guitar sounds brighter because it's made from ash" and all. Is that all a placebo thing? But of course, it's more than that, and little details also matter.
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on June 07, 2022, 07:31:04 PM
the project continues  8)
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: naif on June 07, 2022, 08:12:59 PM
İt looks really great, charming!
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: Mudrian on June 08, 2022, 02:11:01 PM
looks fantastic !!!! and I'm sure it ll sound fantastic too....
If I were you  the first notes I would play , would be the TR second solo  ;)
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on June 08, 2022, 03:06:18 PM
looks fantastic !!!! and I'm sure it ll sound fantastic too....
If I were you  the first notes I would play , would be the TR second solo  ;)

I was more thinking about TOL   :)
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on June 24, 2022, 11:30:31 AM
the sunburst strat is finished
here are some pictures sent by my luthier
I'll get the guitar back tomorrow and write an article on my blog in the next few days
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on June 29, 2022, 06:13:07 PM
here is my article about my Sunburst Schecter Replica :

https://textes-blog-rock-n-roll.fr/une-replique-de-la-schecter-sunburst-de-mark-knopfler/

Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: ds1984 on July 01, 2022, 07:11:35 PM
Bonjour,

La Shecter Sunburst originale a bien un manche 21 frettes ?
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on July 02, 2022, 09:13:10 PM
Bonjour,

La Shecter Sunburst originale a bien un manche 21 frettes ?
ah oui bien vu
effectivement ma strat de 2005 en a 22...
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on July 22, 2022, 05:27:05 PM
I'm getting my red strat back tomorrow

more pics and videos coming in few days

Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on July 26, 2022, 12:07:41 PM
here is m article about the red strat, the final step of my guitars modifications


with pictures and videos

https://textes-blog-rock-n-roll.fr/une-vraie-stratocaster-rouge/
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: ds1984 on July 26, 2022, 10:08:43 PM
Tu te fais bien plaisir  :)
Title: Re: 3 guitars project including Mark's sunburst schecter replica and a red strat
Post by: JF on July 27, 2022, 04:12:19 PM
Tu te fais bien plaisir  :)

oui... à nouveau célibataire depuis 2 ans, et je profite de la vie  :)