Double transplant of strum bars

[Finnulf]

Okay, weird one for you folks. I could look this up on Yahoo/Google, I could even look into aftermarket parts, but a unique dilemma presented itself this weekend.

My wife greatly prefers her Les Paul over our daughter's Genericaster or the RB1 Stratocaster. I also prefer my Les Paul right down to every last iota, but I happily used the Strat in RB1/Wii.

What is backwards in this scenario is our strum bar preferences. She prefers the Genericaster/Stratocaster style strum bar. I prefer the more traditional GH1-3 "wedge" strum bar.

How difficult do you folks think it would be to transplant these strum bars between the two guitars?

I've been inside the Strat (I'm obviously not concerned about the warranty). I've also been inside my Les Paul, though I didn't look too closely at the strum mechanics at the time (was dealing with a different problem). I've also sized up the two strum bars (Les Paul and RB1 Strat) and they're very close to the same length - something I'm sure I can work around. It's the actuator mechanics I'm curious about, how similar they are, how much modification I'd have to perform for a strum switcheroo to be plausible.

Ideas? Suggestions? Input?

[oogabooha]

I would say that you could do it, but I'll just wait til Doc_SoCal comes into this thread, he will solve all your problems

[wiistation360]

I think there is a way. check on google

[Opiate_Eyes]

i'm curious about this myself.

[kiggidykev]

The way I understand it, you want to switch the strums between the Genericaster and the Les Paul? Or is the Strat looking to receive a new strum as well? In any case, it's entirely doable. I've performed similar mods several times.

The biggest problem is going to be that the strum bars are different lengths between the Les Paul and Genericaster, but you should be able to take one and put it in the other with some trimming.

If you want to take the Genericaster strum and put it into the Les Paul, then you'll have to trim it down slightly (I believe it's a good half inch longer than the Les Paul's strum, and that will make it not fit properly). After that, since the mechanisms are laid out the same, you might not need to do anything else.

It might be pretty easy if you have the tools to open up both guitars. Come on over to Doc's Mod forums and we can help you with more details.

[Teh_Nfsjunkie91]

I put an x-plorer strum in a stratocaster a while back. I had to cut out the (unused) battery box space. It also required cutting through part of the circuit board with the soldering iron so that I could wire everything up properly.

If you were to take the Stratocaster bar and stick it in a Les Paul, I'd make sure to wire up everything properly, otherwise you might be screwed over by only having one strum working properly.

Take lots of pictures of the original setups so you don't get confused.

[Doc_SoCal]

As Kev said, it is totally do-able.

There are different revisions to the RB1 strat so thats one detail to nail down.

As Kev also pointed out, we have a little shack on the interweb grid where there is a pack of modding maniacs waiting to help.

If you like voiding warranties, you will love this place.

[mercuryshadow09]

As Kev said, it is totally do-able.

There are different revisions to the RB1 strat so thats one detail to nail down.

As Kev also pointed out, we have a little shack on the interweb grid where there is a pack of modding maniacs waiting to help.

If you like voiding warranties, you will love this place.

Yes Doc's place is awesome and full of info, come check it out.

[Finnulf]

As Kev said, it is totally do-able.

There are different revisions to the RB1 strat so thats one detail to nail down.

As Kev also pointed out, we have a little shack on the interweb grid where there is a pack of modding maniacs waiting to help.

If you like voiding warranties, you will love this place.

Excellent. Have seen a few of your mod posts here on the forums, Doc. I'm already quite familiar with voiding warranties. Just needed to know if it was worth my time to even take the one Les Paul apart - the Strat has already been apart.

Gonna go check out the dedicated page as well. TIA