Tired of the same old look after all these years

[Harley Hexxe]

Okay gang,

     So I got tired of looking at the seafoam green Strat the way it has been for the past 23 years that I've owned it and decided it was time for a face lift as well as a fresh setup and complete overhaul. So...I ordered a new pickguard that I think works well with the color of the guitar, then I thought why stop there? I ordered new knobs, switch tips pickup covers, and whammy bar tips and put it all together.

     Next to the guitar is all the mint green junk I took off. (Whoever thought that looked good?)

   I'm curious what everyone here thinks of what I've done...good idea? Mistake? Not sure?

   For any purists...FYI...I still have the original 3-ply WBW pickguard and electronics.

[Dante]

All that white stuff looks crappy - you did that guitar a huge favor! What took you so long?  ::)

I love the gold stuff, personally. Looks like Vegas, baby!! haha

[rnolan]

Hey Harley, I do like what you've done to it, makes it look special.  Although I'd also like it if it had white (not mint green), but then I remember a guy in Newcastle (Australia) where I grew up had a light blue strat, rosewood board and white pickguard that I drooled over when I was 13.

[Harley Hexxe]

Thanks folks,


      @ Dante, I couldn't decide if I wanted to put the original electronics back in the guitar. The original pick guard is cracked and crappy looking and would definitely need to be replaced anyway. The original pups sound very stratty but really thin too like there maybe a short in them or something goofy like that. What I have in there now is Texas Specials that I've had since the mid-90's. They definitely have Stratocaster tones and THEN some. Kind of like a Strat with an attitude. I've rocked out on Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin with this guitar before and it can go toe to toe with the best of them, so while it looks like a wholesome piece of classic Americana, there's a wolf in sheep's clothing under the hood. The funny thing is, I could spend hours playing this guitar unplugged and still enjoy it. It plays like butter.

     @ Richard, I think the guitar you're talking about would be a Daphne blue color, or possibly what they call Sonic blue these days. I've always liked that color scheme myself, but that isn't this guitar. I picked this one up about two years after my favorite black one was stolen, looking for a Strat that had as comfortable a neck as my black one. That's one of the toughest things about Strats that I've seen going from one to the next and so on... very few feel good in my hands. This one has a slim "C" shaped neck that I could get used to easily. My favorite one has a very slim slight "V" shape to it and just seems to become a part of my hand. To me, that's what makes a good guitar as far as how it feels...when it's "invisible" in your hand and you don't have to think about the neck at all. Of course, action and most important of all...TONE. It has to have a tone that sings to you across the EQ spectrum, and not just in a certain frequency range. As for the color of this particular guitar, I'll be honest, It wouldn't have been my first choice. Especially the green with a white pick guard, that's just too much pale on the body. I'd rather just get a white one if I was going to go that route and be done with it. (Hendrix a la Woodstock)

   I did just try to click on one of the photos I posted here and they are WAYYYYY too big. I'm going to re-size and repost them here in a few.

     Thanks again for the feedback it's much appreciated.

[Harley Hexxe]

Okay, here are the resized pics, and it's definitely easier to see.

[rnolan]

Hey Harley, I downloaded the picks and checked them out in photo viewer (or whatever comes with windows)  .  The blue of that strat was a little deeper (sky blue(ish)?) IIRC than the Daphne which is a bit more washed out/pastel.  I know what you mean re strat necks, some are just right and others not so good.  My Anderson has slightly V shaped neck and, as you say, just fits perfectly so you don't know it's there.  My JPLP (which is shaved '59 (so even thinner than'59 neck) seems to be a very shallow C. It also feels great.  I always wanted a white strat ala hendrix, and also black with white scratch plate ala Blackmore. 

An out there idea, I recon it would suit it to have the body "relick-ed" a little bit, like where you arm comes over the body 

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey Richard,

     The '59 necks aren't that thin really, they're kind of chunky from all the ones I've tried, sort of like a deep "C" shape. Not really wide across the fret board, but definitely had some depth to it. Very much like the neck on my 1st VOX guitar.

     Personally speaking, I'm not a fan of the "relic" look, and I wouldn't do that to any of my guitars. My favorite playing Strat already has that look and I hate it. That's the one that was stolen from me in '98, and I got it back in '09. When I got it back, it was missing a lot of finish and paint. I'd like to restore it to a much better appearance, but I don't know if it can be done with that particular one. However, on the upside, being that it is missing so much of the finish, it does resonate better than any other guitar I have. I'll be working on that one next. It does need some repair work and I'm going to swap out the inertia block for a machined steel one, then I'll insulate the control cavity with copper foil tape, and install a new pick guard there. The pickups just sound too damned good to put anything else in there.

[rnolan]

Hey Harley, that's interesting, I haven't played any "real" '59 LPs, just the '60s one my friend has (allegedly worth $175K so he doesn't take it out to gigs).  The neck on his is really similar to the JPLP neck but the JP is a replica of Pages #1 that he bought from Joe Walsh who'd had the neck shaved so a bit thinner, which I love.  The JPLP is the only LP I've ever played where I "really" like the neck, it was love at first touch, so after some umming and ahhring over 2 weeks I bought it. 

I know what you mean about relics, I'm not a fan, particularly the rusted HW etc.  For yours I was thinking of the slightly worn finish look that well used guitars sometimes get on the top of the lower bout, I just thought that that would blend with the new look and give it a bit of "street cred" i.e. show a bit of skin/flesh as it were. 

Amazing you got the stolen Strat back.  Seems it was well played (or abused  ) to loose finish.  Since it's resonating much better without the bits of finish maybe you could strip it and oil it instead?  Show off the wood (if the woods worth showing off).

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey Richard,

     That's true about Jimmy Page's guitar, he did buy it from Joe Walsh, and the neck was shaved down to make it faster. In the early 60's, both Fender and Gibson were trending towards thinner necks, then they started trending back to thicker necks in the 70's.

   It doesn't show very well in the pictures, but the area where my right arm rests on the body, is getting discolored a bit. Kind of like where the paint is on the curve of the contour, it seems to have a faded outline.

    Yeah, I had posted about that on here when I got that guitar back in '09. It wasn't played to death, it was actually kept in a basement without the case. When they guy who bought it from the kid who stole it passed away, his two sons inherited all his guitars. The one who got mine got very curious about all the mods I did to it and tried researching the serial#. When he did, he found the post I put up with the serial number when I listed it as stolen. He contacted me and returned it to me in the condition it's in now.

    I wouldn't oil finish it though. The body is 3-piece alder, so not that spectacular. Since the guitar is made in 1983, and one of the last CBS guitars, (One of the earliest '57 reissues), it's probably not considered that much of a vintage guitar. Besides, the neck on that guitar is ultra-thin and fast, definitely not like the actual '57 necks which were pretty chunky with a definite "V" shape. Probably what people call a "boatneck" these days. I did get a chance to play an actual '57 Strat and it is a world apart from the one I have, both in the feel of it and the tone. I like mine better.

[rnolan]

Hey Harley, wow, great he looked it up and you got it back, destiny?
Interesting with the JPLP, I fell for it as soon as I played it, and researched it after I'd bought it and then discovered the whole #1 story.

[Harley Hexxe]

No, not destiny...karma.

     I remember posting about that guitar in an old thread where we were chatting about our favorite qualities of certain guitars, and I had mentioned that one numerous times and even posted the serial number incase anyone ever ran across it. I had also had a similar post on the Fender forum back then too.

    When he tried to find out when and where it was made, he typed in the V005309 number and his search engines brought up the posts in both forums. He reached out to me via email that I have posted here I believe.