My Own Hentor Sportscaster Tribute!

Long time readers of this blog will know that I'm an absolutely huge Rush fan and that Alex Lifeson is one of my favorite guitarists. I love trying to learn their songs - not only because I've loved listening to them for many years, but because of how technical many are. It forces me to really expand on and develop my technique as a guitarist. As a pedal builder (who has ventured into amps and building guitar kits), I'm also fascinated by the gear that Alex has used over the years. My goal in developing the Dimetrodon Distortion pedal was to take the MXR Distortion+ as used by Alex, and update it a bit so it would work with solid state amplifiers to really nail his tone at the lower gain settings - which it does amazingly well! In terms of guitars, Alex used a wide range over the years starting out mainly with Gibsons (and ending up with Gibsons), but during the 1980s when Rush began to experiment more with synthesizers, Alex changed-up his guitar of choice. In the early part of that decade he used modified HSS Fender Stratocasters - which after a few iterations became known as the Hentor Sportscaster. As I enjoy playing Strats as well (given that David Gilmour is one of my other favorite guitarists), I thought it would be really great to have my own Hentor Sportscaster.

Alex's "Limelight" Hentor - a steal at $187,500!

The story of the Hentor Sportscaster itself could fill several pages. Based on recent interviews, there were a total of three modified strats that Alex used over the years: one black, one white, and one red - with the white one being the "Sportscaster" (the other two had different names). These days you can actually buy pre-built versions of the white Sportscaster from a few sources. Freddy's Frets has bespoke versions, but they're fairly expensive starting at nearly $5K. Godin has released a series "Lerxst" branded versions. There is a cream one called the "Limelight" which is a replica of the white Hentor pictured above - available with a Floyd Rose or standard trem. They also have a red variant called the "Grace" with the same tremolo options. They're also fairly expensive, around $4K, but it's a lot less than the $187,500 the original went for at auction! If the red one had been available when I started this project, I might have gone that direction, but I wanted something sort of unique so I decided to try building my own. I had seen a few builds on the Warmoth forum that I loved, and since I wasn't going for an exact replica I decided to go that route.

Parts choice is always key on any build like this, so I did a fair amount of research to ensure I got the right combination of pickups and electronics. I wanted to retain the Gibson style 3-way switch, single volume knob, and single tone knob arrangement of the original. I also wanted to go ahead and have one set up for the Floyd Rose (the very early Strats just used the normal tremolo, but quickly moved to the Floyd). Mojotone actually has a pre-wired pickguard as a part of their Lerxat series. However, it is designed to convert a conventional Strat to something like a Sportscaster configuration, so while it has the single volume and tone knobs, it retains the normal Strat style blade switch.

The Neck

The necks used on the Hentor Sportscaster were Fender-style, but were made by a Canadian company. They were quartersawn maple, and had no name on the headstock. The fretboards also appear to have been ebony. For my tribute I decided to go with the original materials of construction, and chose the other options based on my preferred playing style, etc. - keeping in mind I wanted to ensure that it was set up properly for a Floyd Rose bridge / trem and locking nut! Here's what I went with based on the Warmoth custom options:

Construction: Modern

Shaft Wood: Quartersawn Maple

Fretboard Wood: Ebony (Black)

Nut Width: 1-11/16" (43mm) - Modern Medium

Right / Left Handed: Right-Handed

Neck Back Profile: Standard Thin

Fretboard Radius: Straight 10"

Number of Frets: 21

Scallops: None

Binding: None

Fret Size & Material: SS6105 - Narrow & Tall (Stainless)

Tuner Hole Size: Gotoh/Grover (13/32" - 11/32")

Inlay Shape: Premium Dots

Inlay Material: Mother Of Pearl

Side Dots: Mother Of Pearl Side Dots

String Nut: R4 Floyd Prep w/ Mounting Holes

Mounting Holes: Standard 4-Bolt

Neck Heel Shape: Strat® Shape

Finish: Clear Satin Nitro

Warmoth did it's usual spectacular job building the neck. One thing to note, the originals were unfinished, but I went with a clear satin nitro on mine - again for reasons of personal preference!

When Alex first started using his modified stratocasters, there was no name on the headstock. He eventually added the name "Hentor Sportscaster" mostly as a joke using Letraset transfers. I decided to use that technique on mine as well. Given there is no finish over the letters, it's likely fairly fragile, but I haven't had anything scrape off yet. I went with a fun dinosaur inspired name for mine.

The Body

The original Sportscaster was white - there were red and black guitars built along the same line, but they had their own names. I sort of wanted to go with red, but since I'm a woodworker I didn't want to go with just a solid red body. I kept the ash core wood that appears to be consensus for the Hentor, but to make things a bit more interesting (to my tastes) I went with a 3A flamed maple top. 

Construction: Solid

Core Wood: Swamp Ash

Lam Top Wood: 3A Flame Maple

Right / Left Handed: Right-Handed

Control Cavity: Top Rout

Multi Pickup Top Rout: Strat®, Strat®, Humbucker

Jack Rout: Strat® Flat Mount Top Jack

Bridge Rout Type: Tremolo

Bridge Rout: Original Floyd Rose Recessed

Mounting Holes: Standard 4-Bolt

Neck Pocket Shape: Strat®

Body Contours: Forearm Contour, Tummy Cut

Binding and Edge Decorations: None

Battery Box: None

Paint Category: Dye

Top Color: Red Dye

Back Color: Transparent Red (Burst-over)

Satin or Gloss: Gloss

As with any Hentor build, there is some additional routing required to get everything to fit properly - at least if you're going with the Hentor-style lower horn 3-way switch (which I am). Once the extra routing was done, I went ahead and added copper shielding.

Pickup Selection

The single coils on the original Hentor Sportscaster were fairly hot to match the bridge pickup. Modernly most builds seem to be using DiMarzio pickups, specifically the FS-1, for the neck and bridge pickups. I'd though about getting some custom wound, but given that Freddy's Frets is using DiMarzio, I decided that I'd just go that way. The Bridge pickup is a bit unique. The very first HSS modified Strat Alex used had a Gibson pickup, but those soon gave way to the Bill Lawrence L500L humbucker pickup. These days there are two sources for those pickups. A company called Bill Lawrence USA has a L500L pickup, but these apparently aren't exactly like the originals. You can also source them from Bill and Becky Wilde Pickups, which are the genuine article as they were originally made. I went that route!

Another consideration was getting the switch right. Unlike the standard Stratocaster with a 5 way switch, the Sportscaster makes do with a 3-way switch. You may be thinking, "that's just like the original Strat," but there's a catch. Not only is it a Gibson style switch, the settings are neck, neck + mid, and bridge. There is no setting for middle pickup alone! Reading through a few of the threads on the Warmoth forum, I managed to find the right one.

The Pickguard

I'd considered going with a black plastic or black / white / black plastic pickguard for this build, but with the boldness of the body, I decided to reach back into my previous bag of tricks and go with carbon fiber like I'd used on my Noventa-style Jazzmaster build. Unfortunately, the company that I'd purchased that pickguard from no longer just does custom pickguards, so I had to find alternate sourcing. Ultimately I ended up drawing up a scale version of the pickguard using the Warmoth Floyd-Rose strat template and having it professionally converted to a CAD file. I then had one made up by a third party. The bridge pickup took a little final fitting, but not much. I also did the beveling for the edge and the screws by hand on my own. If I'd known how much trouble actually getting the pickguard right for this guitar right would be, I would have likely gone with an easier material. However, hindsight is 20/20, and the end result looks amazing!

Final Assembly

With the pickguard installed into the body, I went ahead and finished adding the rest of the parts. The jack plate is inverted as it was on the originals - which some people do on their vanilla strats as well. I did need a cool neck plate for this build, and I had a friend do up a really nice laser-etched plate for the build. It borrows the art from Rush's final studio album Clockwork Angels combined with a quote from the last song on the album, "The Garden."

Final assembly was straightforward as this is a simple bolt-on neck. I really didn't encounter any issues and the end result was absolutely amazing.

I did have my favorite local independent guitar store do a set up on it for me, and the guitar plays really well. It absolutely nails that mid-80's Rush sound using either my Bad Cat or my Marshall Silver Jubilee. It's brighter and brasher than any of my Les Pauls - especially when you're in the neck or neck + mid positions.

The final result is absolutely stunning. It has the overall look and fell of Alex's red Sportscaster, which some touches that make it my own. I'm a huge sucker for Flame Maple, and that red dye top just screams - especially paired with the carbon fiber pickguard. The body is so visually interesting, I think just a solid black, or even a 3-ply pickguard would detract from it. 

In conclusion, his build ended up being far more of an ordeal than I thought it would be going in - part of that was self-inflicted though. I knew that the routs would take work, and while laborious, that part of the build went fairly well. I didn't expect the carbon fiber pickguard to become the odyssey it ended up being. I'm beginning to understand why fewer and fewer luthiers are working with it! That being said, I'm super-happy with the guitar, and it of all of my Warmoth builds, it gets played the most.