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To many, the ultimate Strat will be #0001, or a time-warp 1964 Olympic White with ‘Jimi’ written on a label attached to the case. The truth is so often different. Various folk have arrived here at the Hall and presented us with a Fender Strat of some description and sought our advice on how to make their best friend more useable, less flawed, enable it to evolve with the players’ own evolution.
One of our very favourite jobs was for a gentleman from Brazil, over here in UK for a project and who had bought his favourite guitar for the job, and asked us to make his best friend relevant for the stage and the studio. The ‘Sao Paolo Solution’ was born and represents the ultimate specification we can achieve without fundamentally changing the guitar. It will deliver heavy, soft and everything in between. Traditional Strat character and modern studio silence requirements (without compromising to EMG).
I meet a lot of gigging guitarists who have some genuinely beautiful instruments – often very expensive and sometimes with huge sentimental attachment. Always nervous about them, unnecessary stress, and the record deal not yet arrived that enables a fleet of them in their own roadie and van. Standard Strats are iconic, some have hotter pick-ups, some leave the tradition and offer a horrible compressed humbucker to keep up with the Gibsons. This Strat is for them to cover all bases, look right, feel right and offer tones that avoids having to swap guitars and adjust the pedal board every few songs.
A lovely road-worn 1973 Greco SE-500 has undergone a comprehensive re-spec and re-build to include the top-end Gotoh 510 tremolo and tuners. The black nitro re-finish is at least 10 years old and covers a few knocks and scars – it will wear well, and does not need mollycoddling. The frets are original and run-in to that ultimate comfort region. There is plenty of life left in them - delicate work and iron-man neck gripping is handled perfectly.
The Sao Paolo specification includes 3 single sized dual rail humbuckers from Häussel (these are Alnico 5) with a standard 5-way selector offering the basic Strat configuration. The Neck and Bridge humbuckers can be gradually split to single coils with the lower tone knob. This knob is a push-pull and the position of this knob will determine which coil is gradually removed from the signal. The middle pick-up has 2 modes – a series humbucker, or the 2 rails in parallel. This is operated by the S-1 switch, and the parallel setting offers a slightly different tone to a single coil, and has a very pleasant effect on the in-between settings. The middle Tone knob is a Master Tone function and uses a SoZo PIO capacitor.
The revised configuration will undoubtedly take some time for familiarization, but it is unlikely that this familiarization exercise will be a chore – these 1973 Matsumoku built Grecos are an absolute dream to play. The more you explore, the more you find, and the more you can be inspired.
This is a celebration of detail, quality and versatility. From the precision engineering offered by Gotoh upper end products, to the positioning of the rails on the bridge pick-up to follow the string line, this guitar is the ultimate work-horse. We love building them, and can make adjustments to the specification as you require.
Details
The Look
Roadworn but scrubs up well - the top end hardware is all new and shiny. Old and new where it matters most.
Headstock
Big headstock style retaining its original Gneco decal perfectly presented with new Gotoh trees and SDS510 tuners.
Neck
Big C 5-piece maple neck and board with new 43mm nut - more Harayama magic. Worn like you bought it in the 70s. Run-in but level frets - plenty of life left.
Pick-ups
3 x Häussel ST Blades (Alnico V) wound for this guitar.
Bridge
Luxurious quality and totally appropriate for these guitars - the Gotoh NS510T tremolo is about as good as it gets.
Controls
Vintage DM-50 5-way selector, S-1 Master Volume with Middle pick-up mode, CTS 500k Tone pot, Bourns 500k coil splitter (linear). Paper-in-oil capacitor for good taming.
Gallery
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