Axefactory – News

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italiano.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italiano.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italiano.

Today we are butchering an original CHINESE MADE Fender Strat.

Well, actually pickups and machine heads have already been replaced, but anyway…

My dear friend and customer French Scala ( http://www.myspace.com/frenchscala )

asked me to turn it into a custom-minimal-set-slide-guitar … !!!

The experiment: we’ re gonna place a humbucking pickup almost in a central position on the top.

We draw a new scratchplate with cad

Today we are butchering an original CHINESE MADE Fender Strat.

Well, actually pickups and machine heads have already been replaced, but anyway…

My dear friend and customer French Scala ( http://www.myspace.com/frenchscala )

asked me to turn it into a custom-minimal-set-slide-guitar … !!!

The experiment: we’ re gonna place a humbucking pickup almost in a central position on the top.

We draw a new scratchplate with cad

and cut it :

A nice coat of shielding spray on the back of the brand new scratchplate.

We connect the pickup to the volume and tone controls.

We need more room on the body in order to place the new pickup and screw-lock everything!

That’ s it … 6 x 6 = 36 !!!

Traslation by Simone Attivissimo

Steinberger guitars are excellent instruments, very portable and comfortable, ergonomic; the neck always perfect regardless of the surrounding environment, in the heat, cold, moist, dry!!

The bridge is its only weakness or, to put it in other words, its most singular feature: the frame which holds the spring!

So let’ s get rid of the little frame that’s left

let’ s build a new, sturdier one made of brass

and let’ s bolt it to the bridge

et voila’ !

oops !

… sometimes we also need to rebuild the tremolo cavity!

If you’ re in trouble with your steinberger bridge just call us, we fix loads of ‘em…

Strat-style maple and French polish pickguard…

… why not!

Here it is before …

… during …

… using the cnc pantograph …

…shielding with conductive varnish…

… and after !

Boys and girls in the audience, allow me to show you the non-invasive fitting of a piezo pickup on a Gibson acoustic guitar!

Nevertheless:

the minimum height of the bridge didn’ t make for an easy installation of the piezo transducer simply by downsizing the bone part of the bridge because this was already reduced…to the bone in order to obtain a decent action;

the hole on the bridge wasn’ t deep enough to allow the insertion of the piezo;

no further milling on the bridge was possible;

a bone part with integrated piezo doesn’ t match nicely with this type of bridge;

and last but not least, a thin-like-paper piezo still has to be invented!!!

What do we do then?? …

The Mitutoyo says : the transducer is 2.75 mm thick, while the Gibson saddle a whopping 6.40 mm !!!

All we could do was drill a new hole inside the bone part of the bridge, wide enough to accommodate the transducer and give it enough room to allow a good transmission of vibrations.

Et voilà !!!!

Ladies and gentlemen! The customer we are going to make happy today is the lucky owner of a gorgeous white Mosrite guitar complete with black hardshell!

I was asked to prepare a custom pickguard and to replace the two pickups.

req

Phase 1 : I scanned the original pickguard, vectorialized it, and used cad to project the modified pickguard

Phase 2 : I cut the new pickguard with the cnc pantograph

sra axefactory cnc

Phase 3 : I milled the new pickup holes

Phase 4 : assembly

Et voilà !

Next please …

One of my customers asked me if it was possible to install a pickup switch on his
Fender Stratocaster to play the same way Tom Morello does.

SURE!!!!!

But first let's take a look at what Tom Morello’s style is:

OK! Let’s get to work !!!!

First step: we cut a new pickguard

then we engrave the body…

… and drill a new hole to accommodate the toggle switch cables

after wiring the toggle switch …

… we' re good to go and ready to check the sound !!!