Something We Designed In “1959”

Having created “The Little Deviation” for my good friend Gary Grainger, where I designed a Stratocaster inspired guitar using components found in the “shed” I decided to re-visit a project from two years ago and see what would happen if I was to put a little Raw emotion into the mix. I have always loved the Stratocaster because, in my opinion, Mr Leo Fender and Mr Freddie Tavares, created a guitar that subsequently became a Twentieth Century design icon. I approached the design as if I had been invited into the Fender, Fullerton Orange County, factory in 1959 and asked to design a conceptual “Fender” solidbody that could be added to their family of guitars. My “brief” was to create an instrument where I could only use the Stratocaster body, minimal off-the-shelf components and non-standard Stratocaster pickups. Consequently, I present “92831” for your examination. “92831” has Seymour Duncan Vintage and Custom “soapbar” P-90 pickups, vintage TonePros Kluson tuners, Fishman Powerbridge with piezo pickup and Powerchip mixing preamp. I would like to take credit for this guitar but the design belongs to Mr Fender and Mr Tavares. I simply added a little something along the way. SR

(I did toy with the idea of calling this build “Svadhisthana” after the second primary charka according to Hindu Tantrism and yogic traditions of Buddhism. Svadhisthana is associated with the colour orange and is attributed to unconscious desires, especially sexual desire and emotion. We thought the name “Svadhisthana” might be quite apt for this guitar too!)SR