Phil Collen's 1978 MIJ Stratocaster:

Inspector #20

Inspector #20

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1978 Fender Stratocaster, "Felix"

This was the main guitar on the Hysteria album. A Japanese made strat that I got for my 21st birthday from my mum (I know my parents were great to me.) This guitar has been around the block and it always delivered. Perfect intonation, even after being lost in China for a week or so. It was still in tune. It had a quite a bit done to it. It had a Kahler trem and an Ibanez humbucker from my original destroyer in it. That went in after meeting Eddie Van Halen and him saying “you know, you’re not going to be happy 'til you put a humbucker in that guitar”, or something like that. And he was right. This was my main guitar through the Girl days right up until I started using Jacksons. Unfortunately it all went pear shaped when I had a Floyd put in it, weakening the wood and making the bridge a little fragile. So at the moment I’m scared to mess with it.

This is on more records I’ve done than any other guitar I own. It's all over Hysteria, most of the solos, on Animal, the Girl albums etc. Right now I’ve retired it and it’s taking a well-earned rest.
 
Robert Herndon said:
1978 Fender Stratocaster, "Felix"

This was the main guitar on the Hysteria album. A Japanese made strat that I got for my 21st birthday from my mum (I know my parents were great to me.) This guitar has been around the block and it always delivered. Perfect intonation, even after being lost in China for a week or so. It was still in tune. It had a quite a bit done to it. It had a Kahler trem and an Ibanez humbucker from my original destroyer in it. That went in after meeting Eddie Van Halen and him saying “you know, you’re not going to be happy 'til you put a humbucker in that guitar”, or something like that. And he was right. This was my main guitar through the Girl days right up until I started using Jacksons. Unfortunately it all went pear shaped when I had a Floyd put in it, weakening the wood and making the bridge a little fragile. So at the moment I’m scared to mess with it.

This is on more records I’ve done than any other guitar I own. It's all over Hysteria, most of the solos, on Animal, the Girl albums etc. Right now I’ve retired it and it’s taking a well-earned rest.
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:pics3:
 
so i wonder what he ment it weakened the wood on it.I mean it dont look any different than any other Strat with a Floyd.Maybe around the Floyds pivet studs to much wood got taken out.
 
smitty_p said:
That's what I'm thinking.
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Good question. A lot of the MIJ and MIK Stratocaster's that I have seen, including my own 1987, exhibit a lot of cracking in the body wood, especially under the pickguard in the body routs.

This looks terrible, but doesn't seem to really hurt anything. You can see two long cracks that have opened up above the pickguard in these images of my 1987 MIK Squirecaster.

IMG_20170210_40326.jpg IMG_20170630_33902.jpg

There are larger, more dramatic looking cracks in the pickup routs, bridge area and spring cavity routs...yet the guitar always stays in tune, so I suspect they do not compromise the structure of the guitar.

Maybe that's what Phil is speaking of???
 
I had a MIJ Strat for a while. Body was basswood and very soft, so if his was the same that could account for relative weakness. It was a sweet guitar, really nice playing but the electronics and pickups were utter shite and got replaced pretty quickly.
 
Hmmmmm....Since Phil has an affinity for black Strats....and poor "Felix" isn't up to being played much these days....and seeing how he digs triple humbuckers....I wonder if he would play one of these beasties....???

THE VON HERNDON STUDIOCASTER DATA SHEET (1).jpg
 
gball said:
I had a MIJ Strat for a while. Body was basswood and very soft, so if his was the same that could account for relative weakness. It was a sweet guitar, really nice playing but the electronics and pickups were utter shite and got replaced pretty quickly.
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My 1987 Stratocaster (MIK) had the noisiest single coils I've ever heard....ever!!! They were the old bar magnet style...
 
Robert Herndon said:
My 1987 Stratocaster (MIK) had the noisiest single coils I've ever heard....ever!!! They were the old bar magnet style...
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It had "proper" Strat single-coils with rod magnet pole pieces, but they were awful, and the rest of the electronics were a joke. Otherwise (wood/construction/hardware) it was pretty close to a MIA in quality.
 
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