My First Hentor

[MarkScudder]

So I thought I'd show you an ongoing project I have to build a Hentor Sportscaster for myself.

 

First of all I'm starting with an Indonesian Squier for two reasons: First, money is tight right now and I can't spend extra on a new guitar itself, and 2. I've never done mods this complex before and I wanted to get it right on a cheap guitar before I do spend money. Now that I've unraveled some of the mysteries of the Sportscaster, I can replace stuff like the body and neck when I can.

 

So the guitar is a 2001 Indonesian Squier, with two humbuckers. It has a flat/matte black finish and had a black headstock. It also has a two-point trem already on it, as opposed to the six-screw trem standard on most Strats, which makes it slightly closer to a non-fine-tuner Floyd. I was already using this guitar to try out mods, and when I took this picture, I'd already put two push-pull pots in it, for coil cutting on both humbuckers, and a standard Les Paul-style toggle switch, that combines the two pickups in the middle. Had it strung with heavier gauge strings, and was using it for a project in open C tuning.

 

http://www.markscudder.com/trf/IMG_2671.JPG

 

I got a set of Planet Waves locking tuners, so I took the original tuners off, sanded down the headstock to bare wood, and installed them. I had another Squier with silver string trees so I replaced the black ones with those.

 

http://www.markscudder.com/trf/IMG_2675.JPG

 

I also sanded the back of the neck down at this point, and discovered that Alex was right about that too. The feel is so much better. Smooth, not sticky. May do it on all my guitars.

 

It took me quite a while to find the right pickup switch for this build, because it's a special "three way" switch that's actually a DPDT. It was really difficult to find because it's not a "Gibson toggle," which lets you switch between two pickups or both; and it's not a DP3T switch, like the 3- and 5-position "blade" switches that come on Strats or Superstrats. When I finally found the right switch on StewMac, it was on closeout - so I bought three.

 

Of course, that doesn't mean I know how to wire it. I've never been able to wrap my head around switch logic, and it's further complicated by the fact that Lifeson wired these Strats to be Neck, Neck + Middle, Bridge. It turned out to be pretty easy but days of Googling didn't reveal anything. It was as if no one but Lifeson had ever done anything like this. Freddy G had posted a picture of a completed pickguard for one of his Hentors, but the angle made it difficult to see where all the wires connected. It took both my wife and me staring at that picture for a good half-hour and figuring out the hidden connections through the process of elimination. After we figured it out it seemed so simple.

 

Like I said, I've always had trouble thinking like a switch. I'm practical, so I expect there to be one lug for each switch position. What you have to do with this one is view it as two completely separate switches that are thrown at the same time. So you wire it up so that one side of the first switch selects the bridge pickup, the other side selects the neck, and you set up the other switch to simply turn the middle pickup on and off based on whether the switch is in the middle.

 

Freddy posted this schematic today, which jives with what I discovered from his earlier picture:

 

http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo56/FreddyGabs/HentorSwitchSchematic_zps77af905f.jpg

 

So, time to rout out the body so I can mount the switch and wire it up. The switch is almost 2" deep so a lot of wood had to come out. I also routed two pathways for wires, so I could get all the pickup wires to the switch. In this picture, some of the routing is done, and you can see a guide for the rest of it etched into the wood.

 

http://www.markscudder.com/trf/IMG_2727.JPG

 

I opted not to use the top pathway, after I got into trying to solder wires to those tiny switch lugs. Instead I decided on a wiring harness, where I permanently soldered a wire to each terminal I'd be using, and ran all of them back to the original electronics cavity. Then I'd solder the pickup wires to those wires, and seal the joints with shrink tubing. That way, if I ever needed to replace a pickup (as I will when my L500 arrives), I don't have to get in between those tiny switch lugs ever again.

 

(This picture has the wrong pickups in it, specifically a Duncan Hot Stack Plus in the neck, which has since been replaced with a stock Strat neck pickup, and a DiMarzio Super Distortion, which has been replaced with a stock Fat Strat humbucker until the L500 arrives. Please also ignore anything that looks like a crimpable butt end connector, I was trying something that didn't work the way I wanted it to. But you can clearly see the finished switch rout, and the general wiring.)

 

http://www.markscudder.com/trf/IMG_2737.JPG

 

Now I'm waiting for parts. I have a new Warmoth pickguard (no pot/switch holes) and a cream L500L on the way. Why cream, when Alex's black Hentor had a black L500? Because the next thing on the to-do list is to replace this body with a white alder Strat body, when I have the cash and can find a good one on eBay. What little I know about re-painting a guitar body tells me it's more trouble than it's worth, and with bodies going on eBay for under $300 it's probably better to wait until I have the cash. The other pickups have plastic covers on them that come in black or white, and I have some white ones standing by for the day I get a new body. Also, I know that GuitarFetish has cheap Strat bodies, but they're not alder, so if I'm going to spend money I might as well go for the right wood, too.

 

(This body, far as I can tell, is agathis, for what it's worth.)

 

The other problem with this body is that the wood is broken around one of the trem posts. Did I mention this was a pawn shop guitar from an area with no music scene, and I got it from the guy who found it in said pawn shop? It moves a little bit but the pickguard fits so tightly against it that it effectively doesn't move when the guitar is assembled, but will someday come apart from the stress of being disassembled and reassembled.

 

I'm also not sure what I'll do about the trem. This sort of Fender trem is essentially the same as the non-fine-tuner Floyds that Alex was using originally. Those Floyds did not require the now-ubiquitous body rout, or a locking nut. I prefer these trems with locking tuners anyway. Alex never bends up anyway, even with contemporary Floyds. A lot has changed since 1982, and as far as I can tell, I can put a Wilkinson trem in it for half the price of these "reissue" non-fine-tuner Floyds, and it's essentially the same trem. I have a guitar with a Wilkinson bridge and locking tuners and I love it. The biggest problem with the stock trem is the bar anyway. It sits higher off the bridge than Floyd/Wilkinson bars, has that awful plastic end on it, and unless it's screwed into the bridge until it doesn't move, there's too much play in the socket to do anything subtle with it, and Al does a lot of subtle vibrato of chords with the bar.

 

Maybe all I want is the blessing of other Rush fans to put a Wilkinson in it, I don't know. Once I figured out what a non-fine-tuner Floyd was, I couldn't believe that anyone would buy one over a Wilkinson.

 

So that's the Hentor story so far. I'm happy with how close it'll look and sound when the pickguard and L500 arrive, and I'm happy that it can be upgraded when I have the money to get a white alder body and a neck with an ebony fretboard. I also much prefer the switch location; I'm always bumping blade switches in the traditional position and inadvertently switching pickups. The one upside is that the guitar has been played for years and the neck feels nice.

 

I'm modding another Squier in parallel with this one; to replace this one as my open C tuning guitar. It'll have only humbuckers in it, but I'm Hentoring the pickguard. I only ever use one master tone control, and I want the pickup selector switch on the lower horn. I have a Warmoth pickguard for it on the way too. Instead of Neck, Neck + Middle, Bridge, it'll be switched Neck, one of the pickups coil-cut, Bridge.

 

And I made sure to flip the jack plates on both.

 

http://www.markscudder.com/trf/IMG_2758.jpg

[OGr8imL84AD8inF8sBlackSedan]

Nice work.

[TFEman]

could you post a wiring diagram? the top one didn't make sense to me

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

The wiring diagram is from the guy who makes the replicas and it makes sense. :)