I have had this old Squier strat since I was 14 or so, circa. 1998 or thereabouts. I learned everything I know about playing guitar on this instrument (admittedly not much lol), but eventually started playing bass and became a bass player for the last 20-odd years. There's more sentimental value in the guitar than actual value, so I didn't feel compelled to sell it and just set it aside.
Now I am officially playing guitar on a semi-regular gig, and need a reliable backup instrument that I can bring to gigs. Unfortunately, the old teenager's Strat has some issues that need to be addressed, so I'm making some changes and planning to do the work myself.
First I'm going to deal with the electronics. I've been juggling various Seymour Duncan single coil-sized humbuckers in and out of this guitar for decades, but the sound is just too different from my main guitar to swap back and forth from song to song, so it's time for a complete electronics refit. I'll be making a new pickguard from a blank and and fitting the guitar with some Firebird mini-humbuckers that I got in a trade a while ago. That should match up closer with my other guitar, a Yamaha Revstar, but also should make this guitar it's own vibe, too. That's the gist of the plan to this point, I'll figure out the rest of the details as I go.
After that we'll need to deal with the neck. This guitar has had some frets damaged in the upper reaches for years now, and they're worn down and flubbing out in several spots. I've just never wanted to spend money to have it refretted. Then I recently found out that the truss rod is also seized or otherwise not working anymore either, so it's time for a new neck. I looked at some Warmoth replacement necks, but even shopping on-sale from their Showcase, after shipping and the worsening USD:CAD exchange rate I might as well just go to the store and buy a whole new guitar for what that would cost. I've been wanting to get into doing some instrument building and woodcraft as a side-side-side hobby, and since tool purchases don't need justification, I decided to build a new neck myself. the existing neck still plays shockingly okay below the 12th fret for now, so the new neck will be Phase 2 of the project after I get the electronics up and running and can resume gigging with it... but I am starting to gear up and mentally preparing for the build.
I built my first neck a few years ago for the DIY Upright Folk Bass project, which turned out shockingly playable, but I intentionally stopped short of doing any fret work on that project for multiple reasons. I have a friend lined up to help me on this project when I get to that stage.
This is going to be a long-ish term project, just because I'm busy and slow and don't really know what I'm doing. So I'm starting this thread as a kind of build diary. I'd appreciate input and encouragement if anyone would like to follow along.
Now I am officially playing guitar on a semi-regular gig, and need a reliable backup instrument that I can bring to gigs. Unfortunately, the old teenager's Strat has some issues that need to be addressed, so I'm making some changes and planning to do the work myself.
First I'm going to deal with the electronics. I've been juggling various Seymour Duncan single coil-sized humbuckers in and out of this guitar for decades, but the sound is just too different from my main guitar to swap back and forth from song to song, so it's time for a complete electronics refit. I'll be making a new pickguard from a blank and and fitting the guitar with some Firebird mini-humbuckers that I got in a trade a while ago. That should match up closer with my other guitar, a Yamaha Revstar, but also should make this guitar it's own vibe, too. That's the gist of the plan to this point, I'll figure out the rest of the details as I go.
After that we'll need to deal with the neck. This guitar has had some frets damaged in the upper reaches for years now, and they're worn down and flubbing out in several spots. I've just never wanted to spend money to have it refretted. Then I recently found out that the truss rod is also seized or otherwise not working anymore either, so it's time for a new neck. I looked at some Warmoth replacement necks, but even shopping on-sale from their Showcase, after shipping and the worsening USD:CAD exchange rate I might as well just go to the store and buy a whole new guitar for what that would cost. I've been wanting to get into doing some instrument building and woodcraft as a side-side-side hobby, and since tool purchases don't need justification, I decided to build a new neck myself. the existing neck still plays shockingly okay below the 12th fret for now, so the new neck will be Phase 2 of the project after I get the electronics up and running and can resume gigging with it... but I am starting to gear up and mentally preparing for the build.
I built my first neck a few years ago for the DIY Upright Folk Bass project, which turned out shockingly playable, but I intentionally stopped short of doing any fret work on that project for multiple reasons. I have a friend lined up to help me on this project when I get to that stage.
This is going to be a long-ish term project, just because I'm busy and slow and don't really know what I'm doing. So I'm starting this thread as a kind of build diary. I'd appreciate input and encouragement if anyone would like to follow along.
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. Oh well.
. I'll email them and see what they say about sending me a new one. If they won't play ball I'll have to make my own template from the existing neck.
