Rust never sleeps. Grime and gunk spread like Covid-19. Two things to remember if you love your guitar. The current owner of this Squier Strat bought it used for MYR200 (USD47). Quite a good deal, I must say. It was grimy, rusty and caked in various evolutionary stages of gunk; testament to years of neglect.
On the plus side, this Strat had been recently refretted (there was hardly any fret wear). Someone had also upgraded the stock ceramic pickups to Alnicos (probably Alnico 5s, as printed on the pickup covers). Popping the neck revealed a seller's note on the heel, indicating that it had once been up for sale in 2007 for MYR960 (USD223). Now I knew that this Squier was at least 13 years old. Nice :)
Poor guy -- he could not even plug it in coz the output jack was broken. Now, I could have just replaced the broken jack, serviced the electronics; and called it good. However, as the owner intended to keep this Strat; he requested that it be upgraded to gig-worthy specs.
The first thing I did was degrime/derust the whole guitar as best I could, and recondition the fretboard. A full shielding job ensued, followed by an electronics upgrade. This upgrade included Alpha A250K pots, generic PCB selector switch, Neutrik/Rean NYS229 output jack and full rewire.
As per the owner's request, the bridge was to be set flat. However, even with three springs and the trem claw screws screwed in to the max; the bridge was still lifting slightly from the body. I'm glad to say that adding an additional spring solved the problem.
Well, that's about it for this write-up. Now, boys and girls; burn this into memory:
(i) Rust never sleeps
(ii) Grime and gunk spread like Covid-19
On the plus side, this Strat had been recently refretted (there was hardly any fret wear). Someone had also upgraded the stock ceramic pickups to Alnicos (probably Alnico 5s, as printed on the pickup covers). Popping the neck revealed a seller's note on the heel, indicating that it had once been up for sale in 2007 for MYR960 (USD223). Now I knew that this Squier was at least 13 years old. Nice :)
Poor guy -- he could not even plug it in coz the output jack was broken. Now, I could have just replaced the broken jack, serviced the electronics; and called it good. However, as the owner intended to keep this Strat; he requested that it be upgraded to gig-worthy specs.
The first thing I did was degrime/derust the whole guitar as best I could, and recondition the fretboard. A full shielding job ensued, followed by an electronics upgrade. This upgrade included Alpha A250K pots, generic PCB selector switch, Neutrik/Rean NYS229 output jack and full rewire.
As per the owner's request, the bridge was to be set flat. However, even with three springs and the trem claw screws screwed in to the max; the bridge was still lifting slightly from the body. I'm glad to say that adding an additional spring solved the problem.
Well, that's about it for this write-up. Now, boys and girls; burn this into memory:
(i) Rust never sleeps
(ii) Grime and gunk spread like Covid-19
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