{"id":4880,"date":"2024-05-30T09:51:47","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T13:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/?page_id=4880"},"modified":"2026-03-04T08:12:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:12:40","slug":"028-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/?page_id=4880","title":{"rendered":"028 Ed Blachette Baritone Stratocaster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Serial Number 028<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Baritone Stratocaster<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Started on Wednesday May 22, 2024: completed on August 08, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time this gets officially published onto the website, this secret project would have been finished and presented to the recipient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Guy Blanchette, the host of Tumblestone approached me about building a custom baritone guitar for his son, Ed. It was good timing when he came for a chat about this project when he did as I wasn’t too sure what he wanted – acoustic or electric. I just knew he wanted do discuss a guitar build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We needed to know what Ed preferred for a body and pickups without him knowing. We needed to know if we could even CNC the body or would if we needed a donor body. A lot of things were up in the air at the beginning since we were still figuring out dimensions which were missing from printed blueprints we had for Stratocasters and Telecasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t feel that taking the gamble to cut a neck from scratch was a good idea: we had just moved from test cutting a few bodies onto necks. And because adjustments and tuning of the software was ongoing, I didn’t want to chance with the time we had to build this guitar. I would have prefered a neck that we have designed and cut but I had to go with a premade neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Update May 30, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of right now. We have pretty much gotten all the parts figure out. The only thing we need is to figure out the bridge placement on the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guitar Monkey tuning machines were ordered from Germany. I have been looking at their tuning machines here and there and thought this might be a good chance to try some out. You can customize your tuning machines on their website which I think is a great idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The body will be out of 5A Swamp Ash. I am looking not to have a pickguard on this body as I want to have it grain stained. In my mind, it will really pop but I haven’t managed to achieve that effect yet on the necks I have done so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Update June 29, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have cut a test body and fitted the neck to the body which sat crooked. A second pocket was drawn and cut to make sure the original pocket was not crooked. But from looking at the heel of the neck, it was easy to say the cut wasn’t even which meant the issue was not on the design in the software but the neck that was ordered in. Some sanding had to be done to line the neck straight with the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went a Babicz bridge for this guitar build as I was looking around for something different and this bridge uses some new technology that is interesting and new to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next is to do the pickup cavities and the pocket on the back for the potentiometers. The new bridge will have to be measured out on the body for the screw holes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Update July 7, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The routes for the pickups and pocket were done successfully and a new centre section was routed to make sure the alignment was correct. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next step is to glue the 2 piece body together and route the real body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Update July 19, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cutting of the real body had been delayed a few times. Every item that wasn’t drawn for test cutting before had to be done in the end. This allows everything that needs to be cut to be done on the one run. The body should be cut in the next few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

*Update July 27, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The body has been cut and I have stained the grains and French polished the body. Holes for the electronics and wiring are being drilled. I will have to go back to get the logo routed into the headstock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Update July 28, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realized that there wouldn’t be enough space to route a logo into the headstock. I had forgotten that this is a Fender style headstock that need the string trees. A custom back plate has been cut for the guitar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

SPECS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body<\/strong> style<\/strong> Stratocaster left handed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scale <\/strong>27″<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body<\/strong> Swamp Ash 5A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neck <\/strong>Solo baritone Stratocaster roasted Maple 22 fret <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pickups <\/strong>Fish Man Fluence Modern humbucker set<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bridge<\/strong> Babicz fixed hardtail original series<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuning Machines <\/strong>Guitar Monkey baritone locking tuners with Bavarian barrel monkey grip buttons<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strings<\/strong> Elixir 12302 baritone NANOWEB strings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serial Number 028 Baritone Stratocaster Started on Wednesday May 22, 2024: completed on August 08, 2024 By the time this gets officially published onto the website, this secret project would have been finished and presented to the recipient. Guy Blanchette, the host of Tumblestone approached me about building a custom baritone guitar for his son, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4880","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyguitars.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}