Fender – Carl Bratcher dot Com

27/09/201505/10/2015

Lap Steel DIY

I was looking at buying a lap steel (dunno why) and fell over this site http://www.guitarworld.com/diy-musician-how-build-2×4-lap-steel-guitar and decided sod it I’ll bloody build one instead. So a brief hunt through the shed gave me an old timber dining table that deserved to be cut up so that was the wood side sorted but as you can see from the pictures I got a tad carried away in that mine isn’t going to be a single 2×4 I’m going to recess it in to a wider piece. Why? Well I thought I might knock up some legs for it too 😉

When will it be finished? Buggered if I know, probably mid next week – I hate sanding and I’ve got a lot to do although I’ll get the notch cut out of the body to sit the neck in today.

Update (a few hours after the original post): From Picture 7 you’ll see I got well carried away, got it all sanded as well as sorting the ‘neck’ pocket – gettin’ there. It’s going to have a single Strat pup with just the volume control, the input jack is going in the right side of the body – just gotta work out the best way to set the strings, through body or Gibson tune-o-matic style bridge although I’m leaning toward through body.

Update (the following day): From Picture 12 (dunno what happened to 11) you’ll see I’ve dismantled a Strat tremolo bridge and it makes an ideal string mount, I’ve recessed the Strat pup, used a spade bit to make the holes for the volume control and input, cross drilled everthing for the wiring and dry fit it all to make sure I hadn’t stuffed it up.. I even got carried away and milled a track for the pup wiring to sit nicely and not cause any grief with the neck. What you can’t see is the earth wire from the String mount as that’s all through the timber 😉

Update (Yet another day passes): Got the frets marked but for some reason near the pick up end of the neck they are off, dunno what happened there. Also got the Machine head cut out, the tuners lined up and everything varnished. It should be assembled tomorrow. 😉

Update (A good few days later): It’s finished, up to and including making a cover (Picture 12) for the holes that make it a damn sight easier to sort the wiring than not being there, I’m just waiting on a new set of heavier strings and then I can call it completely finished – total build time was six days 😉

Next is going to be a three string CBG or a Cigar Box Guitar, I’ve already started on the neck so drop back in a week or so to see how I’m getting on.

Picture 1 The Table Remains	Picture 2 The Main Body
Picture 3 The Neck	Picture 4 The Neck With Routed Edges
Picture 5 The Body With Routed Edges	Picture 6 Bits In Place As Guide
Picture 7 Semi-Finished Bits	Picture 8 Neck Pocket Milled Out
Picture 9 Neck Milled At Machine Head	Picture 10 Neck Sits Nicely
Picture 10 Neck Sits Nicely	Picture 12 Dry Fit of Pickup, Naked Strat String Mount, Volume and Input
Picture 13 Dry Fit of Pickup, Naked Strat String Mount, Volume and Input	Picture 14 Dry Fit of Pickup, Naked Strat String Mount, Volume and Input
Picture 15 Strat Pickup, String Mount and Scrap Timber Bridge	Picture 16 Scrap Timber Bridge – The Nut is the Same
Picture 17 Frets Marked (Badly) and Varnished	Picture 19 Varnished Body and Bridge n Nut
Picture 20 – Mostly Finished	Picture 21 – Mostly Finished
Picture 22 – Mostly Finished	Picture 23 – Mostly Finished
Picture 24 – Strung But Needs New Strings, The Ones On It Are A Mix Of Gauges	Picture 25 – Strung But Needs New Strings, The Ones On It Are A Mix Of Gauges
Picture 26 – Strung But Needs New Strings, The Ones On It Are A Mix Of Gauges	Picture 27 – Input Jack
Picture 28 – Machine Head	Picture 29 – Pickup, String Mount and Bridge

12/08/2012

The Group Of Musical Toys

Finally got the Moog Little Phatty Stage II, so this pic shows all the toys except the Korg T2EX and the Behringer UMX61 isn’t fully in picture.
From left to right, Strat Relic Repro, Tobacco Sunburst Tele, ’61 Re-Issue SG, the rebuilt 2002 Squier Strat with HH’s, Moog Little Phatty Stage II, Korg T2EX with the Behringer UMX61 above it.
Below the Moog stand is the LX1 Behringer Effects Pedal and on the desk is the Behringer Xenyx 1002FX Mixer.

What’s not shown is the JVC KB-700 vintage keyboard/synth, the Yamaha DX27 synth, the Ashton UMK49 midi controller, the Asturcon Metal Master bass and the Ibanez RG.

07/08/2012

The Squier now lives again

Finally – well apart from strap buttons got the Strat back together and with the HH set up it sounds wayyyyyy smooth,

I think I lucked in with the pups as I was half expecting a grungy sorta sound but the sound it’s got is so much better.
Y’all are probably still wondering why the f**k I bothered spending so much time on a Squier, well all I can say is why not – there’s nothing wrong with them and with some minor tweeking they can be made to play and sound bloody great.

05/08/2012

Still Waiting On Bits For The Squier

So I thought I’d fit up all the electrics – ended going for a white scratch plate instead of grey. Why? I hear you ask (not) well I couldn’t get a grey one – pretty simple really 😉

20/07/2012

Fender Squier Stratocaster – The Timber Wolf ;)

Pity the fotos don’t show the stunningly deep gloss 🙁 Oh well wait until it’s re-assembled with a HH grey pearl scratch plate fitted with Wilkinson pickups mwooohahahaha

14/07/2012

Yet Another Toy ;)

On eBay the other day I came across a blue Fender Squier Strat, a touch ratty but the winning bid (mine) was only 56 bux so you don’t argue do ya 😉 The picture you see is off eBay, and as you can clearly see it’s missing a tuner and the strap buttons so it was back to eBay to order a new set of tuners, ended up buying two sets, one for this and one set for the Telecaster. While I was there I bought a set of strap buttons and an impulse buy of a new tremolo bridge as the original to me was just a tad untidy for what I was going to do to it.
All up it still only owes me around a ton and with all the bits I’ve got here anyway, it’ll still only owe me the same sorta dough when it’s finished and nice tidy ones are hard to get for a ton for some bizarre reason so I’m pleased.

So you’re probably thinking ‘what is this lunatic going to do to it?‘ Well I shall show you with the following four fotos, the first two shows it stripped of all hardware, the next two show it STRIPPED period 😉 Depending on the condition of the timber I’m just going to clear varnish it, but with that said though it does depend on how the timber looks after I get all the remaining crap off it – we shall see. Oh and a quick inspection of the timber shows it to be fairly good considering it was made in China in 2002 AND it’s bloody heavy to boot 😛 so the Fender factory had a fairly decent quality control system in China at one stage!

As you can quite plainly see now, the body has been completely well apart from the obvious blue inner bits, been sanded by hand I might add to a super smooth finish and had the first 10 coats of lacquer which will get sanded down super flat tomorrow and it’ll get another 5 coats of lacquer – it’ll get to sit yet another day and get sanded back and hand buffed.

12/05/2012

The Bonne Is Gone

Decided to sell the Bonne and with that gone I went on a bit of a spending spree for musical instruments – see the Music Stuff page for what I bought e.g. a Korg T2ex, a Yamaha DX27 amongst other things and other music based snippets like links to good companies etc.

27/02/2012

Online Auctions

As is my want, I spend alot of time wandering online auctions and wholesale sites mainly because I have this continual thought that maybe I might be lucky enough to fall over a bargain. Now of late all I can honestly say I’ve fallen over is total crap, crap as in sellers and whiney buyers – I shall elaborate.

Now I bought a set of Lucas knock off blinkers for the Bonneville off eBay and yes they didn’t arrive, neither did the replacement set they said they sent hmmmm methinks they are trying to take me for a ride – one Paypal refund later and that’s them sorted. Bought another set of Lucas knock off blinkers only these were dearer but I’d dealt with the seller before, anyway within 2 days I get an email saying that one of the blinkers wasn’t up to scratch and the shipping had been delayed by a week. Funny thing is, I got that same email off em when I bought the other set *pondering the significance of such a statement* – anyhoo I sent them an email and told em unless I get by the 2nd March I’ll be requesting a refund.

It gets better ya know 😛 I also bought a studio mic pop filter and seeing as I was bored and it was coming up on week three I sent that seller an email asking where it was. Their response? Well it can take up to 40 days for the item to arrive. 40 days????????? where the f**k is it coming from, or more to the point do they feed the pigeons before attaching the items to their legs and sending em on their merry way – 40 days my arse, they also got the 2nd March deadline.
I did however buy a bass guitar from Melbourne, took 5 days to arrive – I unpacked it and inspected it and it looked sweet. Plugged it all in, tuned it then went to do summut, came back an hour later to have a muck about with it and damn near sliced me hand on the bloody great split in the neck – I swore, as you do!! I will give the seller their due, I emailed em, they sent me a prepaid post thingy and said send it back and we’ll give you another, cool now I just wait – again!

Now I did mention whiney buyers too and this was pure 100% classic. A nob head bought a ‘Fender‘ Strat for $325 inc postage ermmm I was pretty sure Strats were a little more expensive, but I digress. The site has a feedback section so I thought I’d check the seller out and what do I find, yep Captain Whiney Buyer Shit Head. And this was his feedback “This guitar is a fake, they sold me a fake, I want my money back” ROFLMFAO I think the price is a giveaway YOU DICK!!

Anyway, here are a few recommendations from yours truly of eBay sellers that in my opinion are bloody good sellers.

ccslightsound – I bought a Behringer 1002FX Mixer, a Behringer C1 Studio Mic and a Behringer UCA202 off this seller and talk about good comms and delivery time.
BelfieldMusic – Bought a triple guitar stand off them
Oz-Supplier – That was the bass
Pick_Guru – bought a 100 mixed medium weight picks and a guitar strap for Dylan who got himself a strat copy and amp, case etc.
Swamp-Industries – bought various studio cabling off them
Jackmusical – bought a basic acoustic guitar rebuild kit for her who must be obeyed, she’s had the thing for nigh on 40 years so I thought I’d tidy it up for her, she can’t play it but her dad bought it for her so thats a good enough reason.
There are a couple more that I won’t add just yet as I’ve only just started dealings with them, although one of em is proving to be a nob head already so we’ll see.