NGD - Fender Road Worn '50s Stratocaster black!

[cliffenstein]

Picked up a super cool black 2015 Road Worn Stratocaster...previous owner had shielded the electronics cavity, upgraded the pickups (Seymour Duncan APS1 & 2 in the neck/middle and Porter vintage custom in the bridge), replaced the neck plate with a 5 digit numbered one (which would correspond to 1961, so either the number had some personal significance or it was just a random number), and even replaced the butterfly string tree with a proper 50's round one). Bridge was already decked and all 5 springs were on it, exactly as I set my strats.

I picked up a set of Gotoh SD91 Magnum Lock tuners and gave them the Muriatic Acid aging treatment. Since single coil bridge pickups don't work for what I play, I replaced that excellent Porter bridge pickup with my usual black Seymour Duncan JB Jr (which I scratched up a bit with my sandpaper block it to match with the aesthetics of the guitar). Finally, I had the volume knob moved down one spot and filled the hole with a nylon plug (scuffed and minwaxed to look better against the Fender aged pickguard).

Soft V neck is super comfortable to play and measures at .89 at the first fret and .92 at the 12th. I love the easy playability that these 6105 frets bring to the neck. On this guitar, they're totally level and show no divot marks.

There's some chipping around 4 of the tuner holes which doesn't bother me at all...fits the motif.

I haven't weighed the guitar but it's nice and light.

Killer guitar!

PICS:

[nightflameauto]

Looks rad, even though I'm not a huge fan of the relic look. Looks like that shielding job was proper too.

[Mike Oxhuge]

Great looking axe! HNGD!

[rock flag and eagle]

looks great, I love the way those played and I seem to recall even the stock pickups sounded pretty good.

[cliffenstein]

I went ahead and purchased proper Road Worn pickup covers, switch tip and knobs, but while waiting for them it dawned on me to try the same scuff with sandpaper block and rub dark walnut minwax on and off with a paper towel treatment with the current plastic parts I did with the plug. So dumb that I didn't think of that until this morning. Here are the results...I think it looks pretty good.

[eyeball987]

That is a strat that I would have bought myself! Move the volume knob out of the way, and beef up the bridge pickup. Nice!

[GuitarBilly]

Looks great man!!! I love the Road Worn series.
The JB Jr was one of my main pickups back when I was playing strats in the 90s. It's a very versatile pickup, more so than the full-sized JB.

[cliffenstein]

Looks great man!!! I love the Road Worn series.
The JB Jr was one of my main pickups back when I was playing strats in the 90s. It's a very versatile pickup, more so than the full-sized JB.

I've used the JB Jr on the huge majority of my albums. It just always delivers...live AND in the studio.