I traded a beater guitar for this Squier II Strat because the necks are supposed to be great. Turns out the guitar was a project from hell, which I should've noticed when I saw the tone knob placement. So I took it apart, found a black plywood Strat body of unknown but probably Asian origin on craigslist and finished it with parts I had laying around including a loaded pickguard from a Hamer Slammer. Now I have a beater black Strat with a maple neck. It actually plays and sounds OK for what it is but the neck probably isn't any better than stuff you can get new in the $100.00 or so price range. Live and learn.
That is a Duncan Design JB neck pickup in the bridge.
Last edited by Eddy Current on Fri Jul 10, 2015 9:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
And now for the next set of changes. I got a pickguard assembly off craigslist with three 1980s Seymour Duncan single coils (4R and 2x 1R) and installed it and I got a Wilkinson 2 point trem with steel block but haven't put it on yet. I might not use it on this body. Right now I have a good electronics rig and trem and a decent neck so I'm going to look for a better body. Whether it is a Fender/Squier/MIM I don't care but it needs to be a full size Strat body and not plywood. I'm thinking orange or green to go with the black parts.
I like it quite a bit and it'll definitely be used on the final version of this guitar and I'm glad someone upgraded the tuners with vintage style Klusons. The frets could use some attention but that is due to being old and played a lot. I don't think I'd go out of my way to find one since there are probably tons of new aftermarket necks that are as good if not better at a decent price but I've read the entire guitar is usually very inexpensive at garage sales and pawn shops so Ill continue to keep an eye open.
Last edited by Eddy Current on Fri Jul 10, 2015 1:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
itchyfingers wrote:Much better than the surf green strat project!
If I were you, I'd use the white pickup covers and knobs on the black pickguard a la Gilmour. Either way though - sweet little beater, Eddy!
I was thinking about doing that but the bridge pickup is one piece so I can't put a white cover on it. I don't know if my ocd will let me sleep at night with mis-matched pickup covers.
I said screw my ocd and made this a Section 8 David Gilmour tribute today. I might replace the black 4R with my white SSL-5 sometime but there's no rush. I tried to install the Wilkinson and found out the body is not a full size Strat copy. The block sticks out of the back just a LRCH so I'm done with this version until I get a new body. I will probably get a black one. Then I'll put the SSL-5, Wilkie and David Gilmour neck plate on it as well as get some fretwork done.
Found this gem while looking at ebay and reverb for black Strat bodies.
Last edited by Eddy Current on Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:56 pm, edited 3 times in total.
My ocd finally got the best of me. I yanked the SSL-5 out of my other Strat, put an aged cover on it and put it in this guitar so now I can breathe again. I also put my David Gilmour neck plate on it. I rewired the pickups so the neck and bridge work together and the bridge pickup has a tone control. This was easier than putting a mini toggle switch in it and all I lost was the bridge/middle setting. Switch settings in case anyone GAF: 1 bridge 2 brige/neck 3 neck 4 middle/neck 5 middle
I will get another body for this and complete this project in the very near future. Black USA and MIM Strat bodies are dirt cheap, I guess they must be plentiful and maybe unpopular? I'm tired of black guitars but I think this is cool. I never intended it to be an ersatz Gilmour tribute, it just happened.
So I took it apart, found a black plywood Strat body of unknown but probably Asian origin on craigslist and finished it with parts I had laying around including a loaded pickguard from a Hamer Slammer. Now I have a beater black Strat with a maple neck. It actually plays and sounds OK for what it is but the neck probably isn't any better than stuff you can get new in the $100.00 or so price range. Live and learn.
