Post by Bodaggit23 on Jan 27, 2010 1:26:59 GMT -5
Hello,
I'll just tell the whole story and get it out of the way. Feel free to skip past to the pics. ;D It's a long story, but as you'll see, me and this guitar have much history.
I only have a couple pics to post right now, as I don't have access to my Strat until it gets out of the "shop" on Friday,
then I'll snap some more pics and submit my Serial Number and info.
I bought this guitar in 1992 or 1993, can't remember which, but I paid $215 for it from a guy I met at a party.
I was looking to buy a Warlock, but he mentioned he had this "Strat", but I said, "nah, I don't want a Strat, everyone's got a Strat. LOL
He said, no, this is an "HM Strat", and he might as well have been talking German because I had no idea what he was talking about.
It turns out he had it in a pawn shop on loan, and the money I gave him just covered the loan plus about $20.
We picked it up directly from the pawn shop.
I knew immediately when I picked it up, that I was holding a high quality instrument, but I wasn't able to fully appreciate it at the time.
I have no pictures in it's original state, only screenshots of some videos I have on Youtube. Sadly, the "Strat" logo had been immaculately removed and replaced by a well made "Fender" logo made from chrome tape, but I didn't care for it, and removed it.
Here's what it looked like vaguely.
I was about 20 or 21 when I bought it, and I was in a local bar band and I thought I we were something else.
I drank and partied a lot, and I ended up bashing this beautiful (yet so very PINK) guitar on the floor in a drunken stupor. Kids...
Anyway, I always kept the parts, even the broken body parts, not so much in foresight, but because I was a packrat and knew it may have been the nicest guitar I may ever have owned, so as a reminder of what not to do I guess.
I bought a cheap guitar at a pawn shop and put the Strat electronics in it, just a Stratocaster copy, but it was something to play, but I eventually took a pawn loan on it, and lost it, along with the precious hardware. I still had the Spyder and the neck, along with the electronics cover and trem cover backplates.
Years later I got a job as a welder, but I diddled around on a manual mill and lathe, so I made makeshift body out of 2x6 I had in my garage. Yes, 6" wide. I made a body similar to this shape:
This shape was "light" in the rear as you can imagine, even with the solid brass backplate I made for it. So, the only thing I could think of, was to trim the remaining original body pieces to fit the "Frankenstein" body I had made. This solved the weight problem.
So, it looked something like this, with the "wings" of the Strat screwed into the side of this board....lol From that day on, it was known as Frankenstein.
I fitted it with the electronics that came out of the cheap Stratocaster mentioned earlier, and man, this thing sounded like crap, but that neck...was still like butter to the fingers.
Anyway, it remained "Frankenstein" for some years more, until I found a body on eBay and a guy that sells the "Super 3". I managed to find 5, yes 5 original rubberized "F" knobs on eBay too. Also around that same time, Kahler just so happened to be selling Spyder parts again! Woohoo! The trem needed a brass insert for the whammy bar, and I never had the bar, so goodie for me.
I got the body for $85 I think, and the Super 3 for about $70.
The body was White, and modded to fit a second humbucker in the neck position, but I really didn't care. I wanted her back, in all her glory, so I gathered the rest of the parts and assembled it.
All the parts are of original HM Strat origin, found on eBay, minus the neck humbucker I had laying around.
Here's the only few pics I have of it right now, but I'll post more when I get it back. Notice my "custom" Strat logo in the last pic.
I printed various sized logos I found online onto a black background, and cut and covered the whole "decal" with clear packing tape, to create the logo you see. It's not to scale, but it's better than nothing.
I'll just tell the whole story and get it out of the way. Feel free to skip past to the pics. ;D It's a long story, but as you'll see, me and this guitar have much history.
I only have a couple pics to post right now, as I don't have access to my Strat until it gets out of the "shop" on Friday,
then I'll snap some more pics and submit my Serial Number and info.
I bought this guitar in 1992 or 1993, can't remember which, but I paid $215 for it from a guy I met at a party.
I was looking to buy a Warlock, but he mentioned he had this "Strat", but I said, "nah, I don't want a Strat, everyone's got a Strat. LOL
He said, no, this is an "HM Strat", and he might as well have been talking German because I had no idea what he was talking about.
It turns out he had it in a pawn shop on loan, and the money I gave him just covered the loan plus about $20.
We picked it up directly from the pawn shop.
I knew immediately when I picked it up, that I was holding a high quality instrument, but I wasn't able to fully appreciate it at the time.
I have no pictures in it's original state, only screenshots of some videos I have on Youtube. Sadly, the "Strat" logo had been immaculately removed and replaced by a well made "Fender" logo made from chrome tape, but I didn't care for it, and removed it.
Here's what it looked like vaguely.
I was about 20 or 21 when I bought it, and I was in a local bar band and I thought I we were something else.
I drank and partied a lot, and I ended up bashing this beautiful (yet so very PINK) guitar on the floor in a drunken stupor. Kids...
Anyway, I always kept the parts, even the broken body parts, not so much in foresight, but because I was a packrat and knew it may have been the nicest guitar I may ever have owned, so as a reminder of what not to do I guess.
I bought a cheap guitar at a pawn shop and put the Strat electronics in it, just a Stratocaster copy, but it was something to play, but I eventually took a pawn loan on it, and lost it, along with the precious hardware. I still had the Spyder and the neck, along with the electronics cover and trem cover backplates.
Years later I got a job as a welder, but I diddled around on a manual mill and lathe, so I made makeshift body out of 2x6 I had in my garage. Yes, 6" wide. I made a body similar to this shape:
This shape was "light" in the rear as you can imagine, even with the solid brass backplate I made for it. So, the only thing I could think of, was to trim the remaining original body pieces to fit the "Frankenstein" body I had made. This solved the weight problem.
So, it looked something like this, with the "wings" of the Strat screwed into the side of this board....lol From that day on, it was known as Frankenstein.
I fitted it with the electronics that came out of the cheap Stratocaster mentioned earlier, and man, this thing sounded like crap, but that neck...was still like butter to the fingers.
Anyway, it remained "Frankenstein" for some years more, until I found a body on eBay and a guy that sells the "Super 3". I managed to find 5, yes 5 original rubberized "F" knobs on eBay too. Also around that same time, Kahler just so happened to be selling Spyder parts again! Woohoo! The trem needed a brass insert for the whammy bar, and I never had the bar, so goodie for me.
I got the body for $85 I think, and the Super 3 for about $70.
The body was White, and modded to fit a second humbucker in the neck position, but I really didn't care. I wanted her back, in all her glory, so I gathered the rest of the parts and assembled it.
All the parts are of original HM Strat origin, found on eBay, minus the neck humbucker I had laying around.
Here's the only few pics I have of it right now, but I'll post more when I get it back. Notice my "custom" Strat logo in the last pic.
I printed various sized logos I found online onto a black background, and cut and covered the whole "decal" with clear packing tape, to create the logo you see. It's not to scale, but it's better than nothing.
