Leaderboard

And the other, while I'm at it. I got this after Nile signed the blue strat. It was made by Al Knight and is as close a replica Hitmaker as it's possible to get without measuring the original instrument. Even closer than the Fender signature run. Fifties strat body with narrower depth than normal (a cost saving measure by Fender at the time after they didn't take into account the shipping costs of a load of alder logs they'd scored on the cheap in a remote location). Al managed to find out the exact depth but it escapes me. Neck is Fender licensed C profile and most of the hardware is also Fender licensed. I managed to source a genuine, NOS brass pickguard by Kahler, finished in chrome. Apparently they are no longer made although neither I nor the seller were aware of that at the time. Pickups are Fender noiseless jobbies, I did have some authentic recreations of 50's coils made by some Russian guy but they were so feeble that I had to replace them or get frustrated. Luckily they weren't expensive but yep...authentic to a fault you might say. Tuners are locking type by Sperzel and came from the blue strat originally. The original electronics (with orange drop sprague caps) are still installed though even now the noiseless replacements are not that loud compared to my other guitars. I would love for Nile to sign this one as well but I doubt he would agree given the Fender signature Hitmakers a while back (which had a thin coat of gold paint over the top of the white finish for some reason, not yellowed olympic white like mine). What does it sound like? Pretty close, if I play along to the original Chic tracks. But quite thin compared to a really good strat. No bell like, Gilmouresque chimes coming out of this plank which lead me to believe that the original Hitmaker might well be a bit of a dog for all the mythology that has been whipped up around it. Nile was using Tokai strats in the eighties apparently. But playing it through a 5F2 Princeton clone does fatten it up a little more.

This is mine, a Trigger's Broom of sorts. Nile Rodgers signed it for me in 2013. When I bought it in 2006, it looked like this (below). Made in 1987 apparently and for some reason it just screams Midge Ure. But maybe that's me. Everything has been replaced apart from the wood which is basically by Warmoth. It now sports EMG 89/SA/SA + mid boost electronics, a unicorn rare Wilkinson VS100CV trem and a solid, quilted maple body. I found out a couple of weeks ago that Steve Lukather had 2 Valley Arts Strats also made with solid quilted maple bodies so I'm guessing that's where Chandlers (in Kew) got the idea from. https://reverb.com/item/27780668-valley-arts-steve-lukather-model-with-signature-1991 So, although unintentional, it looks like I've ended up with an instrument that gets pretty close to the original Custom Valley Arts strats that Lukather had, for a couple of hundred quid or so shy of a grand.

My USA strat which i had the Wailers "Burnin'" album laser etched on the body then refinished by John Diggins of Jaydee Custom Guitars in Birmingham. I replaced the innards with alembic low impedance activator pickups and electronics. Since this photo was taken it has some new wooden knobs and a switch to put the outer two pickups on in 'telecaster' mode.

In that case, meet my bitsa Superstrat. Series 10 neck given to me by a friend, body from the classifieds in the back of Guitarist, before you could get such things from the interwebz. Gotoh tuners and licensed Floyd Rose. IIRC the pickups are Kent Armstrong, very probably from WD Music or David Duke when his hardware catalogue was four sides of photocopied A4. The front routed body was cut through to the back and the front cavities had a wooden lid fitted. All the cutting for the trem and humbuckers was done on a milling machine. It's a Vauxhall green rattle can finish, but it may be Ford!