Hello guys...  .happy.

I will be needing your help on this project so I posted it here.. My plan is to combine Mami's "Mamicaster" and Haruna's "Thinline"..







This is my strat so far...



I will be buying a black prewired HH Strat pickguards, black strat bridge, and a bone nut this week..

So far, my biggest struggle was to look for Haruna's pickup (PAF), and someone to paint my guitar with Mami's design..

I hope I can hear some comments and feedbacks from you Scandalous. I miss posting more here..

I saw a Japanese fan on twitter who did a superb work on their version https://twitter.com/sue34tzyi_3784 check out his tweets from around May 25-26.

wildthing wrote:I saw a Japanese fan on twitter who did a superb work on their version https://twitter.com/sue34tzyi_3784 check out his tweets from around May 25-26.

Thanks wildthing!   I already saw his/her tweet! I got a few closeup pics that I could use. I noticed though that the design are stickers. My plan is to use paint to make it permanent.


Update of the project..

1. I already bought the stuff needed for the upgrade except the PAF covered pickups..



2. I found someone who will do the paint job. I'm kinda hesitant though since his offer is very cheap compared to others. He will paint my guitar under $25! I will visit him next week so I can look at his works first.

Anyone can suggest a good but relatively cheap covered humbucker pickups? My mission is to make it an HH with similar pickups (or atleast the looks) on Haruna's Thinline.

My Mami-Haruna fusion guitar needs to have the Mamicaster and Haruna's thinline looks.. .uhuh.

An update for this project...






I'm loving the covered PAF humbuckers! .happy.
The clean is nice. I love it better than the single coils on its previous hss pickups. Although the output on my bridge now is weaker than its previous humbucker, what I'm loving on its distortion sound is the "grit"!

Very satiesfied! The last part is going to be the Mami design painting. I'm having a hard time looking for someone who can do it here in the Philippines.

Looks good!  

I have a Fender Standard Stratocaster HH that looks pretty similar, but the humbuckers are medium output (13kHz vs a typical 7-8kHz PAF) and have an open coil design.

fishmcdippers wrote:Looks good!  

I have a Fender Standard Stratocaster HH that looks pretty similar, but the humbuckers are medium output (13kHz vs a typical 7-8kHz PAF) and have an open coil design.

 Thank you for the nice words fishmcdippers.

I would love to see your HH Fender strat. It seems rare to see a Fender Strat HH unmodded. Is it a blacktop?

My pickups are bhk (similar to stock epiphone pickups) on neck and giovanni artec pickup on bridge. They are probably around 7 - 9kHz.

You can see my HH strat and humbucker bass here:  http://www.instagram.com/p/BEKhS1nwwAW

It's a 2016 Fender Standard Stratocaster HH (http://shop.fender.com/en-US/electric-guitars/stratocaster/standard-stratocaster-hh/product-0149100.html).  I think they discontinued the Blacktop series and rolled the idea up into the Standard series.  The pickups are probably the same as the Blacktop humbuckers, minus the cover.  Sometimes I think they run a little too hot.  They drive distortion and fuzz pedals really well, but I usually have to keep the gain knob dialed back with this guitar.

fishmcdippers wrote:You can see my HH strat and humbucker bass here:  http://www.instagram.com/p/BEKhS1nwwAW

It's a 2016 Fender Standard Stratocaster HH (http://shop.fender.com/en-US/electric-guitars/stratocaster/standard-stratocaster-hh/product-0149100.html).  I think they discontinued the Blacktop series and rolled the idea up into the Standard series.  The pickups are probably the same as the Blacktop humbuckers, minus the cover.  Sometimes I think they run a little too hot.  They drive distortion and fuzz pedals really well, but I usually have to keep the gain knob dialed back with this guitar.

Very cool strat! (And your place looks nice!)

I also like the looks of zebra style humbuckers especially on Les Paul. Your strat seems very versatile. I am reading the description the fender website. I'm just wondering about the push and pull switch on the 2nd tone knob? I can't imagine it.

I will definitely miss the hot pickups but maybe someday, I will buy a les paul (not a Gibson because I'm cheap) to have those very high gain distorted sound. For now, I think my strat can cover most of the sounds I need. If I need more distortion, I will just add more gain on my effects or in the amp.

Thanks.  Admiring my Ikea furniture and mostly empty/sterile space?  lol

Yeah, it is a pretty versatile guitar.  I play pop, rock, and jazz on it.  

The coil tap feature is okay.  You just pull up on the knob (I usually stick my pick under the knob to pop it up) to put both humbuckers into "single coil" mode.  A split humbucker usually doesn't sound as good as an actual single coil pickup, so I rarely use that feature and I could probably do without it.  If I ever replace/upgrade the pots, I'll probably just delete that option.  Plus, if I want single coil tones, I have another strat that I've had since I was a teenager (which was quite a while ago).

fishmcdippers wrote:Thanks.  Admiring my Ikea furniture and mostly empty/sterile space?  lol

Yeah, it is a pretty versatile guitar.  I play pop, rock, and jazz on it.  

The coil tap feature is okay.  You just pull up on the knob (I usually stick my pick under the knob to pop it up) to put both humbuckers into "single coil" mode.  A split humbucker usually doesn't sound as good as an actual single coil pickup, so I rarely use that feature and I could probably do without it.  If I ever replace/upgrade the pots, I'll probably just delete that option.  Plus, if I want single coil tones, I have another strat that I've had since I was a teenager (which was quite a while ago).

That feature sound cool. I was honestly considering a separate switch for activating the coil tapping on this project. I just don't have a good luthier around to consult with it.

My biggest dilemna about this guitar was the middle position. It sounds weak compare to the neck and bridge position. Does your strat have that kind of problem too? I'm really loving the neck and bridge tones.

Hehe I wish I have that kind of space on our house. My room is too small. I can only play guitar with effects and amps in the living room during weekends, when everyone was not around.

MamiXHaruna wrote:
That feature sound cool. I was honestly considering a separate switch for activating the coil tapping on this project. I just don't have a good luthier around to consult with it.

My biggest dilemna about this guitar was the middle position. It sounds weak compare to the neck and bridge position. Does your strat have that kind of problem too? I'm really loving the neck and bridge tones.

Hehe I wish I have that kind of space on our house. My room is too small. I can only play guitar with effects and amps in the living room during weekends, when everyone was not around.

You can easily find some good wiring diagrams for a HH arrangement with lots of interesting features (e.g. coil split/tap, series vs. parallel arrangement, etc.).  For me personally, too many options on the guitar itself makes things complicated for me.  I'd rather start with nice baseline clean tones then modify them with effect (clean or dirty) and amp settings.

I'm not sure what you mean by "weak."  Tone is a subjective thing, so it all depends on the person listening.  I assume the humbuckers in my HH strat are essentially the same (same magnet types, same number of wire winds, etc.).  Their difference in sound is based on positioning (including pickup height).  I actually really like the middle position with both humbuckers on.  For me, it really is the "happy compromise" between the roundness of the neck pickup and the crispness of the bridge pickup.  But like I said, that's purely subjective.

On a related note, I also have an older HSS, on which I seldom use the middle pickup alone.  I usually pair it with the neck or bridge in switch positions 2 and 4 for clean tones that I like.

Don't be envious of my abundance of space, it ain't cheap...lol...