SG John
Ambassador of Cool Guitars and Amps.
Several years ago, I was working in Kansas city, and regretted not having a guitar with me. I found a little music store amongst the corn fields, and took a peek. I bought a mid eighties, white Japanese Strat for short change. It was badly hacked, and in need of some love. The first thing I did when I got home was to install an old aluminum pickguard and a set of Rio Grande "Dirty Harry" P-90 pickups. It sounded good, and was ok to play. I used this as a travel guitar until the nut broke when the guitar was in my suitcase.
Eventually, I disassembled the guitar, and I was going to resurrect the neck first. After pulling the frets, it was sanded to a 16" radius. I wanted it to be like a "Super Strat" or Les Paul Custom. After it was finished, I let it set to deal with the body.
Neck Shots:
So, I did a nice job of refinishing the neck, and it was time to deal with the body. I stripped it, and found it was plywood and fiberglass. Just like a boat. So much for the awesome Japanese Strats of the eighties everyone loves. I didn't want to refinish the body, so a friend of mine gave me a 2001 Mexican Strat body. After stripping it, I found that it was five peices of Alder glued together, so my plans of a two tone sunburst were foiled. Black, it would be.
So, eventually the frets would just not stay seated in the original neck. I kept fighting with them, but with my limited free time due to travelling for work, I gave up. This was not a bad thing, because Chris had just posted a bunch of Strat necks for sale in the members classifieds, so I grabbed one.
Today, it finally went together with some new Kluson tuners.
The neck itself has a nice bit of curl going on in the maple.
It's funny that the only original parts to the guitar, are not original. So, a new Partsocaster, it is. Some of it is Fender.
Eventually, I disassembled the guitar, and I was going to resurrect the neck first. After pulling the frets, it was sanded to a 16" radius. I wanted it to be like a "Super Strat" or Les Paul Custom. After it was finished, I let it set to deal with the body.
Neck Shots:
So, I did a nice job of refinishing the neck, and it was time to deal with the body. I stripped it, and found it was plywood and fiberglass. Just like a boat. So much for the awesome Japanese Strats of the eighties everyone loves. I didn't want to refinish the body, so a friend of mine gave me a 2001 Mexican Strat body. After stripping it, I found that it was five peices of Alder glued together, so my plans of a two tone sunburst were foiled. Black, it would be.
So, eventually the frets would just not stay seated in the original neck. I kept fighting with them, but with my limited free time due to travelling for work, I gave up. This was not a bad thing, because Chris had just posted a bunch of Strat necks for sale in the members classifieds, so I grabbed one.
Today, it finally went together with some new Kluson tuners.
The neck itself has a nice bit of curl going on in the maple.
It's funny that the only original parts to the guitar, are not original. So, a new Partsocaster, it is. Some of it is Fender.
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