In 2018 I converted my 2012 Fender American Standard Stratocaster to Brian May electronics with three Adeson Tri-Sonic pickups and a custom PCB pushbutton electronics module based on the Guyton RS Transporter unit by Nigel Knight of Knight Audio Technologies. The aim was to only carry out reversible modifications (i.e. no routing or other physical changes and retain the appearance of the Strat as far as possible). I designed and CNC cut the replacement pearloid pickguard and upgraded the tuners to Fender-branded Schaller locking tuners to bring the instrument closer to the specification of a Fender Deluxe Stratocaster.
The motivations for this project were twofold: I did not have a Brian May specification guitar at the time of the conversion and my Red Special build project was taking too long to complete. The project started off as a more straightforward plan of just using six Switchcraft DPDT parallel slide switches.
Part 1: Design Phase, 11 April 2018
Part 2: Pickups, 11 April 2018
Part 3: Pickguard Set, 12 April 2018
Part 4: Hardware Upgrades, 12 April 2018
Part 5: Pickguard Shielding, 12 April 2018
Part 6: Assembly and Testing, 12 April 2018
Part 7: Mechanical Setup, 13-17 April 2018
Part 8: The KAT PCB, 04 May 2018
Part 9: Final Assembly & Testing, 04 June 2018
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