Black S-type Electric Guitar
Scale: 25.5"
Body: White Spruce
Fretboard: Maple
Radius: 12"
Neck: Maple
Fretwire: Blacksmith Medium Nickel-Silver
Inlay: Indian Rosewood
Pickups: Reno-fin custom vintage style Stratocaster pickups
Controls: 1 Volume 2 Tone
Finish: Black Enamel
The Black Stratocaster Story
Built as a pair, this guitar is the second of two Stratocaster copies I built with the guidance of my mentor Mike Ward in Kelowna. These guitars hold a very special place in my heart for several reasons. First and foremost, I used only woods harvested from the property where I grew up to build the guitars, making them a fond reminder of my childhood. The second reason being the challenge their build presented.
When my family sold the forest acreage I grew up on, a large amount of sustainably harvested lumber was set aside into storage for future use.
I was adamant to use some of this lumber to build these guitars, so my mentor and I made the long road trip from Kelowna to the Lower Mainland to collect as much lumber as we could fit into our car. I had set aside some beautiful maple when we initially moved all the lumber into storage, but finding something for the body was more challenging. With only an hour or two to sort through 688 square feet of tightly stacked lumber, we found the best body wood we could, bucked it up into rough blanks, and made the long trek back to Kelowna.
The beautiful figured Western Maple I used for the guitar neck was a dream to work with. The body however presented a few challenges.
The best wood I could find was a large slab of White Spruce, instead of the Alder I had been searching for and knew was hiding somewhere in that large pile of stored lumber.
I have totally come around on the Spruce body. Pine, a very similar wood, was used briefly by Fender to make Telecasters. Having spent some time with the finished Stratacaster, I can now see why. The guitar is incredibly light, weighing in at only 6.5 lbs. It still manages to sustain well though, and it does a wonderful job of producing those great throaty and bell like tones - similar to a lot of the best vintage Fender instruments.
