Black Gloss HSS Stratocaster Electric Guitar Body - 2 Piece American Alder

Strat Compatible Body HSS - Black Gloss

Our Strat Compatible Body HSS in Black Gloss is a much loved Stratocaster variant thanks to its combination of humbucker bulk and single-coil slink. The variety of tone offered by the pickup configuration makes these guitars great for any style, encompassing anything from funk to heavy metal. We also find a lot of customers using these bodies for single pickup guitars, where you just want one humbucker in the bridge position.

Alder Guitar Body

The majority of our guitar bodies are made from 2-piece American Alder, as predominantly used by the big F. It’s classed as a light to medium weight wood, and grows in the northern hemisphere of the world in various genera, including red alder, black alder, and European Alder. Preferred by a lot of guitar manufacturers thanks to its ease of use, you’ll find Alder glues easily and takes finishes very well thanks to its light colour and close grain making it great for solid finishes.

Alder has many sonic advantages thanks to its closed-pore design which delivers a resonant and balanced tone. Often referred to as ‘full bodied’ it has a great sound across the entire spectrum range, delivering excellent sustain and attack. It’s balanced tonal nature and easy to use construction is all what makes it one of the most popular woods for guitar bodies.

Neck Pocket

All of our guitar bodies are designed with complete compatibility in mind, so our neck pockets are perfectly sized to fit the vast majority of guitar necks. The neck pocket offers a snug fit with pre-drilled holes for easy installation, making them perfect for matching with genuine Fender necks, or other aftermarket guitar necks.

Routing

We also rout all of our guitar bodies for all your electronics, with pickups, control cavities, and some hardware mounts already pre-drilled so you can get up and running quicker. Depending on the model we may not necessarily drill tremolo or bridge mounting holes, and this is because there is so much variety between different bridge types that we would end up limiting what you can install.

Poly Finish

All of our guitar bodies carry Polyurethane finishes, which is the most popular material for finishing modern guitar bodies. There are a variety of reasons for the switch from Nitrocellulose to Polyurethane but, one of the main factors is that Poly requires far less coats to finish the guitar resulting in a quicker overall build process. It’s also far more durable than Nitrocellulose and will stay shiny for longer, being incredibly resistant to scratches and dings as anyone who's ever tried to sand it can attest to.

We've been making bodies and necks for many years now, and we have achieved a reputation among builders and luthiers for producing wood products of the highest quality. Our Strat Compatible Body HSS in Black Gloss is the perfect guitar body for your next build project.