Glow In The Dark Stratocaster
 

I've been thinking about giving my stratocaster an extreme make over. I want to get a new neck with 22 frets instead of 21, get a tension stabalizer for the tremolo, get three EMG SA single coils installed, and so on. I've also been thinking about getting it repainted. I've seen a jackson guitar with glow in the dark paint and I think my strat would look awesome with it. If I can get enough money for a custom Fender neck, I would like to have glow in the dark block inlays as well. What do you think?

If you are a shitty guitar player, giving your guitar a make over won't really change anything.

I've actually been playing for a while, I just want to upgrade my guitar, it's gotten a little beaten up since I got it. I had it autographed by Paul Kantner from Jefferson Airplane/Starship, but sadly one of my friends smudged it while he was playing it.

My playing isn't that of a pro, but I'm around intermediate level. Recently I been trying to get my palm mute speed up so I can play the ending to "One" with out a flaw. After two weeks I think I've finally got it down. Now I want to learn more about music theory, once I have that down all the other skills i need to improve will be musch easier.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH.
You totally called him on it!

Or, Fenders are fun to make over in general.
I like the LED inlays more, to tell the truth.
The glow in the dark thing is a paintjob issue.
EMGs are ok, but as for me, I like the preserve the strat sound. If I were to choose any, it'd be fender custom shop pickups. It's what I did for my P bass and fretless J bass.

Meh. Some of the greatest guitar songs ever written are really simple to play. I'm not into the whole, "let's play 500 notes/minute" deal.

I play both simple and complex songs, I like fast palm muting because it is jam packed with serious energy that makes me want to shake babies.

Just the way I like slow music, but I enjoy the 16th note groove of funk rhythms.

That's cool.

A simple tip: Doesn't matter what you play, or how you play it. It must serve the song you're trying to fit it into.

........ unless it's a solo piece (or if you're just noodle around)

Yeah. Fair enough.

I'm more into song writers, than I am guitarists. Whereas noodling is an extrmely effective form of therapy, I'd guess song writing is the ultimate destination for most players.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXyQ3xYloro

not really, it's all in what you feel. Music is an expression of the soul, not an accomplished product, although that's what it ties to.

I my self try to write, I mostly jsut end up with little riffs though, I rarely ever get two pieces that could go in to the same song.

This is where theory comes in, just as a builder has a toolbox of his tools to complete a building, theory gives you the tools to use in your direction (in music)

I'm at work, so I can't really tunnel into Youtube. But that looked like some sort of structured piece of music. Isn't that what a song is?

Music theory is easy enough to learn. Simple mathematics. You only have to count up to 13. It can help with identifying Key changes. C Maj - A Min - etc. But, ultimately, whatever sounds good to you is all that really matters.

that was improv. lol noodling

Improv is a cool way to come up with some excellent material. I mean, that's how I write most of my riffs.

Never heard ANYTHING you've done Duane. How much longer must we wait for the elusive Duance compositions?

Well getting back to the original topic for just a second (not that I don't appreciate the conversation about improv, theory, etc.) I want to have a glow in the dark strat because I personally think it would look good and strange, now LetheanBlacklight, you metioned glow in the dark paint being an issue, what did you mean by that?

A month, give or take a week.

Dude, skill comes first, worry about having a cool looking guitar later.

I'm guessing it will affect the tonality of your instrument.

It's not an issue, it's just a paint job.
IDK where you'd find glow in the dark laquer paint though, so good luck with that lol

It won't affect tonality, or at least not but very very very very slightly.
It's a solid body electric.

The tension stabalizer will allow me to use the whammy bar with out going out of tune, the EMG SA pickups will give me a heavier metal tone. Zakk Wylde, Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield, and Dethklok use EMG pickups.

If you're stripping, and then re-painting the entire guitar, depending on the type of paint used, it should have more than just a very, very, very, very slight effect.

I must say that I'd rather have kept the Single-Coils if I were you. If I wanted EMG's, I'd stick them into a Gibson LP type guitar.

I know it can be found, I'll try sending an email to Warmoth custom shop and see if they have any or can whip some up.

Not really, my first bass was a nasty off color red. I had it stripped down and repainted; the tone change wasn't noticeable.

I've played several guitars, before and after, and noticed subtle tonal changes. Maybe, the differences are harder to pick up on basses? I don't know.

I've heard the EMG's don't get their tone from the guitar's body, they make their own tone, so if that is truse, it doesn't matter if repainting takes any tone away.

well, I was over exaggerating in my "very"s.
What I was getting to is that it's not a big enough difference to matter really.
I guess it may be different in basses than guitars.

.... The pickups are just microphones. The tone is partly the resonance from the body, although pickups make a large deal of it.

I don't know. I would never repaint my geetar! Even when the paint started to chip. I think it just gives it character.

I've been looking it up. Most people won't even pick up on the slight variations that may occur following a paint job.

Yea.

Well, the chipping and wearing is cool. But that's not usually the reason to repaint.
Its usually just the fact of wanting another finish type without buying a whole new instrument. THEN you let -that- finish wear down.

I know how pickups work, I've just heard that active pickups tend to use less of the body's tone and more of the pickups them selves.

No, active pickups just have an onboard preamp.
If I were to put actives in my bass. It wouldn't sound like someone who has a bass of different composition/ pickup (setup) type.
Even if we used the same pickups.

Active pickups usually have crisper sound and are louder than passives

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/61/17...a8bcd77c_b.jpg


Filled with "character" lol

Crisp and loud works for me, and I've also heard that they get less feed back.

yes, that is true. But I love the tonality of passives more. :P
I'm the vintage type of guy. It's all in different tastes.

on another note. I took both necks off my basses, fretted and fretless, to switch bodies around. Turns out the screw holes on the two didn't match up like they should... SOOO I have to fix them back, screw them back on to the right bodies, re string blah blah.

Most of my favorite musicians use actives, that's why I want them so much. I'll probably end up with a main passive and main active guitar. I know that the two can't be wired together, but I have to wonder if there is a way to make two seperate circuits and have some kind of mixer before the output, or have separate outputs.

Some guitars have a passive/active switch.
The active pickups have a preboard eq. or, at least the basses do.

I managed to put both basses back together too ^_^

I have bad luck working with guitars, I had a Spanish knock off of a gibson flying v that I tried to give a custom paint job (red turning to orange from the neck to the body) and ended up ruining it. At least I salvaged some of the parts. The parts would have cost more than I paid for the whole guitar.

well, my bass (fretless) is beautiful as is, so I need no re painting done

I wish that V had worked out, it was beautiful when it was painted.

You could always get a luthier to remove the paint on your `V` and have a natural finish (oiled or unfinished), and find a cool replacement scratchplate for it !!!. :)

Your fretless is awesome, ideal for those `Teen Town` moments when listening to a `Weather Report` !!!!. *high fives*

I've decided that I'll leave my strat mostly the way it is, then find a fender strat bofy and start making my glow in the dark EMG strat from that. The one I have now is blue, and I think I'll buy or make a diamond plate pickguard for it.