Bender Futurecaster

by Brett Bear
(Sydney, Australia)

Bender Futurecaster pics

Originally, this was a Squire Strat. I also have a Roland G-707 (http://www.hillmanweb.com/hillgt13.html) that I never play because the shape is not condusive to playing sitting down and I really don't like the guitar that much. I removed the MIDI electronics from the G-707 and put them in the Strat.

This required that a large section of wood be routed out, and a custom pick guard was required to cover the cavity, mount the extra pots and the MIDI Hex pickup. Being lazy, I just wanted someone to make the guard for me. I stumbled across http://www.auroraproject.co.uk/ and they do custom metal guards, which just so happen to have LEDs in them and glow. It runs from a 9V battery, but as I had power going there from the Roland GR-700 Midi controller I thought I could power the guard from that.
WRONG! The anodes from the LEDs connect to one of the metal sides of the guard, and of course the metal is grounded via the pots. I found this out the easy way (checked first) before I tried it, otherwise some irreplaceable Roland MIDI electronics would have been fried. Oh well, more routing and put a 9V battery in the guitar.

They usually supply a switch to turn the LEDs on and off, but I didn't have much space left in the guitar for a toggle switch (not only that, leave the switch on and battery goes flat rather quickly, the LEDs reportedly draw 300mA). I couldn't think what to do about it, so I'd come back to it.

The GR-707 has a massive 24pin connector, and this was mounted at the base of the body with the 1/4" jack socket. Lot's of drilling and chiseling to get that bugger to fit. It sits a little proud of the body, but the effort required to get it to fit flush was too much for my lazy ass; I'm happy enough with the result though.

The neck on the original Strat was rubbish, so I got a new 70's style Maple neck from 'All Parts' (http://www.allparts.com/store/necks-guitar-necks,Category.asp); much better. Also got some locking machine heads from them to keep the guitar in tune as best we could.

A mate of mine had some Tex Mex pickups which he gave me for the project, and they sound awesome! (Big up to Julius Chan for the PUPs http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0150960/). I simply can't explain how fantastic they sound on this guitar.

Of course as it was quickly becoming a new guitar, and it needed to be setup (and have a nut installed). I took it to Sydney Guitar Setups (http://www.sydneyguitarsetups.com/) as they have a Plek machine and as you can tell, I like geeky stuff like that. It played nicely, but the action was a little high and I wasn't happy with the neck/body angle so I adjusted it a little. Must say, though, I love the neck, and once the neck is plek'd it probably won't have to be done again for 5-10 years depending on how the maple settles as it continues to dry out.

The only thing I wasn't happy about was the blank headstock, it looked naked. I found decals on the web for a 70s Strat (http://decaljoe.com/) and ordered them. I couldn't bring myself to put these decals on, it wasn't a Fender, it was more of a Bender (hmmm, I have an idea!). I love Futurama, so the connection wasn't that much of a stretch, and everything seemed to fit.
1) Shiny Metal Ass Scratch plate
2) 70s retro neck, 80s MIDI electronics, 2k body and high tech scratch guard
3) Matt Groening is a Zappa fan (so am I)

Yep, Bender it was going to be; Bender, Bender, Bender... how am I going to turn the glow plate on and off... AH HA!

I went to Jaycar (http://www.jaycar.com.au/) and picked up a small momentary switch, put some surgical tubing on the end of it (about 20mm) and mounted the switch so when you use the tremolo it activates the glow guard. The surgical tubing is strong enough to activate the switch, and flexible enough so that if you dive bomb the tremolo the switch doesn't cause the tremolo to bottom out first.

Finally, the guitar really earns its name 'Bender'.

I downloaded the Fender and Futurama fonts from the Internet, did some mockups and supplied them to Signwave at Artarmon (www.signwave.com.au/). They did a great job, and the decal went on really easily.

BTW; the whole reason for doing the project in the first place for the MIDI side of things. I'm happy to say that the Bender Futurecaster plays better than the G-700 ever did and tracks better (well, as good as it can, the GR-707 is well known for finicky tracking). The reason I still persist with it is I adore the old Roland analog synth sounds.

I really should get a part from a Rodriguez guitar and put it on the Bender Futurecaster, but I can't be bothered; I'm geeky, but not that geeky.

All up, Bender probably took me 4 months to complete in my spare time, and about AU$1500 (including the original G-700/GR-707). Worth it, maybe not; though I have probably saved that amount by staying sober and working on the project. The unique factor is through the roof, I love playing the guitar and that's something that's priceless.