Oliva 135th Anninversary - O135LEC - La Estrato Castro #2 - Another "Strat"-flavored CBG!

I liked how my previous “Strat-influenced” builds turned out, so I wanted to add another to the inventory. I used smaller corner protectors and fewer soundholes and finishing screws on this one to make it just a little different variation on a theme, but the same “Stratty goodness” as its predecessors.

Beginning with my favorite Oliva 135th Anniversary box, I wanted to create another "familiar yet different" instrument that a gigging Stratocaster player can strap on and enjoy. It comes with a basic hardtail bridge, 3 "Strat-style" ceramic single-coil pickups bring you the noise (inside is shielded, so not “too much noise”, mind you), mounted in black/white/black 3-ply pickup rings.

I used a traditional style 5-way blade and loaded it with the vol (magnetic pickups)/master tone/vol (under-lid passive piezo) configuration, exiting through the classic "football" jack you'd find on your average Strat-styled instrument. 22-fret neck with modern-style tuners this go around.

I touched up a little (common on these upcycled cigar boxes, especially these glossy lacquered boxes), but as you can see, definitely a looker, and it does "the Strat thing" wonderfully!

  

Neck pickup sounds full, bridge pickup is bright, and positions 2 and 4 are nice and "glassy" (gets you right there in that Knopfler tone zone). BUT, unlike a Strat, you can actually get all the way to the last fret comfortably, so you can solo all the way into the "strat-o-sphere".