Squier California Series SSS Strat Upgrade

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

Frankenstrat Partscaster Build

I was handed the components for this partscaster build in a cardboard box, no kidding. The beat-up natural-finished body was solid wood capped with an ash-like veneer on the front and back. The body cavities appeared to be shielded with conductive paint, but further inspection revealed that it was just plain old black paint.

The preloved 22-fret maple neck was scalloped and sported a '70s-style big headstock. Those decals? They were already on there when I got the neck. It was clearly another one of those notorious Chinese "replica" necks. Don't nobody sue me now, you hear? I just put parts together so my clients can have a guitar to play on.

The client had provided me with a battered white pickguard, new Chinese single-coil pickups with cream covers; and replica vintage-style tremolo bridge with bent steel (read: pot metal) saddles. Putting everything together took a very long time, with "measure ten times, drill once" being the word of the day. Basically, the whole process mirrored what I went through on the Candlewood Strat Kit Build.

The bottom of the pickguard was shielded with aluminium foil, and body cavities with conductive carbon paint. New electronic components included Alpha A250K pots, a K73-16 0.022uF cap, generic five-way selector switch; and NYS229 output jack socket. This guitar was strung with 10s, and required a little truss rod tweaking and neck pocket shim to get it playing like it should.