cvansickle
08-31-2007, 03:48 AM
In the past couple of months, I've been enjoying a rediscovery of Iron Maiden, particularly the 1980-88 albums. I bought the remastered versions of all the cds from the first album through Fear of the Dark. And of course, I've been playing a lot of Maiden songs lately, like "Running Free," "Run to the Hills" and "The Trooper."
I decided to commemorate this in a special way. Behold - The Fender of the Beast!!!
http://www.pedalboardjunction.com/IMStrat.jpg
This guitar started life as an ordinary MIM Fender Stratocaster HSS. True to Dave Murray's specs, the humbucking pickups are DiMarzios - a PAF in the neck, and a Super Distortion in the bridge. (The middle pickup is the stock single coil.) The pickup rings are just Gibson-styled ones that I had in the parts drawer, and as you can see they're a little large for this Strat (I've got rings on order that will fit better).I set it up with 9-42 strings, another Murray preference. While not striving for a perfect replica, I believe I've captured the essence of the Dave Murray Strat (that once belonged to Paul Kossoff).
In the process of completing this project, I made a few observations:
To my surprise, this MIM Strat is the first Fender or Squier I've ever worked on that didn't come stock with a Hum/Sing/Hum or "swimming pool" pickup rout. I had to remove some wood in the neck pickup cavity to fit the humbucker. (At long last, I had the excuse I needed to buy a Dremel!) I chose not to destroy the stock pickguard, and purchased the HSH guard from StewMac.
I reaffirmed what I discovered about 9-guage strings years ago, and I'm going to set this up with a 10-46 set, my usual preference, with the next string change. The strings play like butta, but overall I find them a bit on the tinny side.
I haven't used DiMarzio pickups on anything in over 20 years, and I'm pretty sure I never used their straight PAF before. Boy, have I been missing out! This pickup in the neck position, on this guitar anyway, is smooth, thick and creamy on its own, and it kicks heavenly ass when juiced by an overdrive pedal! No surprises from the Super Distortion in the bridge position. It's got crunch, bite and lots of top end. Sounds great with a wah pedal. As shown in the picture, it seems that DiMarzio's definition of "cream" coloring isn't quite the same accross their product line.
I decided to commemorate this in a special way. Behold - The Fender of the Beast!!!
http://www.pedalboardjunction.com/IMStrat.jpg
This guitar started life as an ordinary MIM Fender Stratocaster HSS. True to Dave Murray's specs, the humbucking pickups are DiMarzios - a PAF in the neck, and a Super Distortion in the bridge. (The middle pickup is the stock single coil.) The pickup rings are just Gibson-styled ones that I had in the parts drawer, and as you can see they're a little large for this Strat (I've got rings on order that will fit better).I set it up with 9-42 strings, another Murray preference. While not striving for a perfect replica, I believe I've captured the essence of the Dave Murray Strat (that once belonged to Paul Kossoff).
In the process of completing this project, I made a few observations:
To my surprise, this MIM Strat is the first Fender or Squier I've ever worked on that didn't come stock with a Hum/Sing/Hum or "swimming pool" pickup rout. I had to remove some wood in the neck pickup cavity to fit the humbucker. (At long last, I had the excuse I needed to buy a Dremel!) I chose not to destroy the stock pickguard, and purchased the HSH guard from StewMac.
I reaffirmed what I discovered about 9-guage strings years ago, and I'm going to set this up with a 10-46 set, my usual preference, with the next string change. The strings play like butta, but overall I find them a bit on the tinny side.
I haven't used DiMarzio pickups on anything in over 20 years, and I'm pretty sure I never used their straight PAF before. Boy, have I been missing out! This pickup in the neck position, on this guitar anyway, is smooth, thick and creamy on its own, and it kicks heavenly ass when juiced by an overdrive pedal! No surprises from the Super Distortion in the bridge position. It's got crunch, bite and lots of top end. Sounds great with a wah pedal. As shown in the picture, it seems that DiMarzio's definition of "cream" coloring isn't quite the same accross their product line.