The Coog Strat

An estranged friend (or strange friend) changed the pickups on his Fender Stratocaster a few times attempting to get the sound that would make him a star. After one such conversion he gave me the pickups he took off. I'm not sure of the brand, but they have the cream-colored appearance of classic 50's Strats.

The pickups sat around in a shop drawers for several years until I got the idea of making my own Strat-style guitar out of parts from the Stewart-MacDonald Guitar Shop Supply catalog (www.stewmac.com). I bought the pre-finished neck and an unfinished alder wood body. I put a cherry stain on the body and covered it with a clear poly-urethane finish. I also picked up the tuning gears, tremolo bridge, electronics, and other hardware from Stewart-MacDonald.

My electronic knowledge leaves a lot to be desired, but I happened to have a book on rewiring classic electric guitars in my library and was able to wire the pickups, switch, and pots quite easily.

Of course the Alder body is heavy as hell and would probably make anyone look like Quasimodo after playing it a while, but, gloryosky, it does sound like and feel like a real Strat!