Magneton Stratocat – EOB Sustainer
Radiohead's Ed O'Brian's Signature Strat magnetonized!
UPDATE: Now equipped with the best vibrato on the market: The Vegatrem
Here's the story: I've always wanted to try a sustainer pickup and – out of curiosity – I've ordered an EOB signature strat with that exact sustainer configuration. Although the guitar sounded quite good, the built quality and the playability in general wasn't. Some of the parts were simply unusable in my hands: A neck, thick as a baseball bat, with vintage frets that made bending almost impossible, a tremolo that went out of tune all the time, were just the most obvious issues. I could have sold this guitar …
…but the sustainer pickup configuration with the excellent Seymour Duncan JB-Junior itself sounded too good. So I made a complete new guitar out of it – the pimped-up version of Ed's vintage white strat – now with a beautiful quartersawn maple neck with a great graphtech Earvana saddle, stainless steel jumbo frets for best comfort, and a new tremolo with brass saddles – and a visually better suiting gold pickguard.
If you want Ed's guitar, and you really want to enjoy your playing experience – this is the guitar for you!
Body & Neck
Body
EOB signature alder stat body MIM, chambered for weight reliefNeck
Scale length: 25" (648mm)
Woods: one piece quartersawn maple neck
Nut width: 1-3/4" (44mm)
Shape: Modern medium C
Frets: stainless steel jumbo frets for modern playability and durability,
Saddle: black graphtech Earvana for better intonation
Finish: magneton special oil & wax finishHardware
Tuners
F modern locking tuners (staggered)Bridge and Vibrato
Vegatrem vibrato system (currently not pictured, new images asap)
Pickups
Neck: Fernandes Sustainer Neck (P-90 sounding single coil)
Middle: Texas Special Single Coil
Bridge: Seymour Duncan JB Junior HumbuckerControls
5-way strat-style, vol and tone, sustainer vol
and 2 sustainer mini switches for on/off and sustained frequencyAccessories
Your choice of either a Magneton Hard Case (Gator) or a Fusion Bag (Urban Series) or save CHF 100 by local pickup.