THE MAKING OF...

project completed NOV 23 2009


Sometimes you end up with some extra parts and then it becomes to assemble some of them into a guitar. But for me, there has to be something unique about it. How about a Strat-type guitar with four humbuckers! Kinda like Ernie Ball did years ago with Mr. Horsepower, but without the racing add-ons.

This whole project began because of a Floyd Rose. In my attempt to pick up a nice 1980s chrome Floyd, I tracked down a decent Kramer Focus 3000 guitar on eBay, which actually turned into a good deal. You buy the whole guitar for around $200 and for that, you get a chrome Floyd Rose, a solid Kramer body, a Kramer rosewood neck, tuners, pickguard, etc., and sometimes even an aftermarket pickup (this one had a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge). This is the second or third time I've done this and it's a good deal. I cleaned up the Floyd, sold the DiMarzio on eBay for $35-plus, and I still have a nice body and neck. I'll probably clean up the neck and sell that on eBay, too. But here's this sweet blue Focus 3000 body and I'm starting to get ideas.

Soon after, I purchased my EVH 81 -Bye Later See Ya- guitar from Jerry Lica that came with everything except a pickup. I loved the maple Warmoth neck that came with it (far left), but it had just 21 frets on it, and I wanted a 22-fret neck for the EVH model, so I ordered another neck from Warmoth. That left me with an extra 21-fret, maple Warmoth neck (routed for a Floyd nut) with chrome Schaller tuners. Hmmm. And I have that extra Focus body, too. So at this point, I just need a Floyd Rose tremolo and some unique twist to make this an original project.

I'm not sure where the idea came from, but I wondered about a four-pickup axe. Now, I have a four-pickup monster already (my Blendasaurus Rex), but those are single-coil sized pickups. How about a guitar with four humbuckers – real humbuckers? I took some measurements and figured out that it would be a snug fit, but with a little routing, I could get four in the Focus body. And the Warmoth neck not having 22 frets actually helps make this all work together, since the neck doesn't have that extra fret extension. So what four humbuckers should I get?

I went with all DiMarzio models. I had an online coupon for 10% off any purchase from Musicians Friend, so I picked out four pickups that I had yet to own – the Humbucker From Hell, PAF Pro, Steve's Special, and the Evolution – all in black. The last two have F-spacing. Talk about some cool sounds. I also figured that I would just need four volumes and four on/off switches for each pickup. But that would require a large control cavity, so I'd have to route the body for that, too.

Last, but not least, I needed a Floyd tremolo. I had to get a Floyd, because the Focus 3000 body is routed for a Floyd, as is the 21-fret Warmoth neck that I am intending to use. I spent a good portion of the summer months searching eBay for a nice 1980s Floyd Rose (black or chrome) and everything was way too overpriced. While looking, I saw a shop selling licensed Schaller Floyds (in black) for around $60. Sixty dollars! It looked like a Schaller and the shop had good feedback, so I said "what the heck" and ordered one. And here's this $60 hunk of metal that looks and feels like a real Schaller Floyd Rose. Now, I know there's a difference between cast and hardened steel and all that, but I'm not going to playing this axe 200 nights/year on tour, so it'll be fine. And least that's what I'm thinking now. We'll see.

UPDATE: All the praise above was a lie. The $60 licensed Floyd is a hunk of junk. Screws starting stripping after minor adjustments and I broke down and purchased a real German-made Schaller Floyd. 200 nights? Not even two nights!

So that's it. I'm calling it D4, because it will have four DiMarzios in it. I'll probably have to have the four humbuckers professionally wired, but that's fine. No painting – I like the blue. I'll have to cut a custom pickguard when I'm near completion, but that shouldn't be too bad. But let me tell you, when this thing is 100% done – I'll have a four-humbucker Super Strat with a Warmoth neck and a Floyd Rose. Wow – I can't wait!

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The Work


MAY 23, 2009 ~ One more modification. While adjusting the saddles on the Floyd Rose-licensed tremolo, I noticed that the saddle screws were starting to strip - a known issue on these cheaper Floyds which use cheap metal. So, I looked on ebay and found a real German-made, black Schaller Floyd Rose, which is definitely a significant upgrade. It's too bad, because I really liked the cheaper licensed Floyd and thought I had gotten a screaming deal last summer. Oh well.


APR 11, 2009 ~ It took a while, but I finally installed the Carvin volume pots and knobs, as well as the four on/off switches. I went with the chrome-black theme for each, to correspond to the pickups with either chrome or black polepiece hex screws. While tightening one of the switches, I accidentally went too far and shattered the switch, so I had to order a new one. Anyway, now it's time to take it in and get it professionally wired up! My plan is to take it to The Guitar Shop in DC.


FEB 7, 2009 ~ I cut away some more wood and made a little more room for the neck pickup and got all four DiMarzios mounted in there. I strung up the two E strings to not only align the pickups left to right, but also the height, since they're screwed directly into the wood.

I then took an old black Stratocaster pickguard and cut it up to fit the body. I left the pickup height screws exposed, in case I ever have to do some adjustments. I then drilled the necessary holes, as each pickup gets one volume pot and one on/off switch. And then I scratched it all up to give it a cool look.


DEC 31, 2008 ~ I finished painting the shelf and strung the guitar up with the two E strings and installed the two bridge pickups (Evolution and Steve's Special), making sure the poles were aligned with the strings.

I realized, however, that there is not enough room in the pickup cavity for four humbuckers (I measured the top of the humbuckers - not the bottoms), so I need to take out some more wood. I decided to take out wood near the neck, as I do not want to weaken the Floyd pivot screws. Stay tuned.


NOV 29, 2008 ~ I realized that the pickups would sit way too low in the pickup route cavity, so I decided to do something about it. I could use springs or a foam cushion, but I thought it would be easy to just add a shelf.

First, I doweled some of the holes in the existing cavity (mostly the original bridge position screw holes) and then created a wood shelf out of Home Depot wood paint stirring sticks. I cut the stirring stick to the proper length and just will use these for the two humbuckers closest to the bridge (raises the cavity shelf 1/8"). I then glued them in there and will paint them black.


NOV 22, 2008 ~ When I installed the Floyd Rose tremolo, I ran into a common issue - the Floyd did not go all the way back on the baseplate, as it got caught on the wood near on the back of guitar face trem route. So I took a sharp razor, and chiseled out some wood (I've had to do this many times) and now the Floyd rests all the way back.

I also installed a quarter for the Floyd plate to rest against. I typically use 1976 quarters, but I used a 2001 New York quarter for this project, as this is a D4 (D - as in DiMarzio, 4 - number of humbuckers) and the pickups are all made in New York.


NOV 1, 2008 ~ I finally got around to re-drilling the neck butt holes and attached the neck to the body. I also screwed in the trem claw and slapped on the Floyd Rose to make sure everything fit fine. It's starting to take shape! Next, I'll align some strings and mount the four DiMarzio humbuckers - hopefully they'll all fit!


SEP 27, 2008 ~ As with the face cavity, there was a mix of blue and wood coloring, so I went ahead and painted this part black, too. I think these accents will give it a darker look, especially with the black Floyd and the four black humbuckers. Next up will be putting the Floyd on, attaching the neck, and stringing it up. Then I'll screw the humbuckers into the body and enusre they are aligned with the strings. Then I'll tackle the custom pickguard. Whew!


SEP 13, 2008 ~ I installed some hardware this weekend! Everything was perfectly dry, so I put some body hardware on there - namely the Strat output jack and the chrome Floyd pivot wood screws. I also added the black Schaller straplocks. In the neck attachment cavity, I wrote "2008 D4" and signed it.

For the neck, I installed the chrome Schaller tuners (black washers and set screws) and the chrome/black Floyd Rose locking nut. No issues, thankfully.


AUG 9, 2008 ~ Not sure how I'm going to cut the pickguard for this guitar, but I'd like the cavity to be black so the background underneath the four humbuckers isn't so obvious down there. I used regular black latex paint and a foam brush.


JUL 13, 2008 ~ I decided on the decal and applied it. I then taped off the neck and clearcoated the headstock several times. Looks good!


JUL 6, 2008 ~ Fixed some more wood this weekend. First, I sawed off the exposed dowels and sanded everything perfectly smooth and flat. I then oiled down the back of the neck with lemon oil. Success!

I then routed out a bit more of the body's Floyd cavity - specifically where the arm bushing resides - as the licensed Schaller Floyd was too snug in there.


JUL 5, 2008 ~ Warmoth necks come pre-drilled for the neck-plate attachment, and the Kramer Focus 3000 body and and the stock Kramer neck plate are set up for a smaller neck plate, so I had to glue in 1/4" dowels into the existing neck holes.


JUN 17, 2008 ~ The first thing I had to do was route the body and make the control cavity super big for the four humbuckers and the all the electronics. This wasn't too bad, although my router is getting old. Luckily, 20-year-old alder isn't too hard of a wood.

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The Parts


GUITAR ~ Here's the blue Kramer Focus 3000 guitar (circa 1987, B22298) I bought on eBay in the Sping of 2008. It had a nice chrome Floyd Rose (used on my EVH 80 Star guitar), a decent neck (used on my Kramer EVH 1225), and the cream bridge humbucker was actually a DiMarzio (sold it on eBay). It even came with a sturdy Kramer case (#33 used for my Kramer EVH Venti guitar).


WOOD ~ I picked up this body (Kramer Focus 3000) in my attempt to get a nice chrome Floyd Rose. I still have the stock neck and I ended up using it on the Kramer EVH 1225 holiday project. Anyway, the body is solid alder and it's routed for a Floyd and has a nice metallic-looking, teal blue going for it.

The neck is a 21-fret maple Warmoth Strat beauty, routed for an R2 Floyd nut. I got the neck from Jerry Lica when I purchased the Circles guitar with the original neck (far left), but I decided to go with a 22-fret, 1 11/16" Warmoth neck for my EVH 81 -Bye Later See Ya-. This one was actually 22 frets at one point, but Jerry filed and sanded away that 22nd fret, which really works for me in this situation since I need to squeeze four humbuckers in a Strat body and I'm not sure if I'd have room for a fretboard overhang.


PICKUPS ~ Wow! This was fun - buying four DiMarzio pickups. I went with four I had never used before and used a coupon from Musician's Friend to get a deal on them. In order from the #1 neck position to the #4 bridge position, there's the Humbucker From Hell, PAF Pro, Steve's Special (F-spaced), and Evolution Bridge (F-spcaed). Note that the poles are chrome for the #1 and #3 pickups, and black for the #2 and #4 pickups. Man, I think of everything...


ELECTRONICS ~ Since there's four pickups, I thought it would be cool to have four separate volumes (500K) with four separate on/off switches - all from Carvin. Also from Carvin are the four mini black knobs. Going with a chrome Strat output jack plate and the usual trem claw.


TREMOLO/TUNERS ~ For the tremolo, instead of tracking down a $150 black Floyd Rose or Schaller, I pulled the trigger on a black Schaller copy that I picked up on eBay for around $60. I replaced the saddle locking screws, the string locking screws, and the block inserts, and I used a real Floyd Rose 42mm block. I also replaced the stock black arm with a chrome one. So far, I'm really impressed with the quality on this licensed copy. (I eventually had to replace it with a real Schaller, German-made Floyd. The $60 one was a POS.)

The tuners are chrome Schaller, and I swapped the washers and set screws for black ones taken from my Kramer EVH Venti guitar project (black set with chrome washers and set screws). The chrome set of Schallers were on the 21-fret Warmoth neck I bought from Jerry Lica that came with the Circles guitar.


HARDWARE ~ I'm going with black Schaller straplocks, a 1976 quarter for the Floyd tremolo, a chrome Floyd string retainer bar, a chrome Floyd locking nut with black clamps, and the stock chrome Kramer neck plate. Not sure if I'll use the chrome or black Floyd pivot wood screws. Note that I'm trying to mix up chrome and black hardware as much as possible, so when I use something chrome, I'm trying to go with black screws, and vice versa.


DECALS ~ I went to Speedy Signs and orderd a few D4 decals in black and blue for the headstock. I'll settle on one and use another one in the control cavity or something.


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