I can do that. Thanks!

I think I've finally gotten this to work. #!%"*&#

I believe I have a very similar Fender Squier. - My Squier is a 97 Squier made in China - Serial Number is NC73XXXX. Same attributes as you have mentioned in yours. Full sized Alder body, thin headstock, black plastic plate just under the chrome plate on the back serial number plate. 22 frets, rosewood fb, etc.. Mine is red 'at the moment'.. Basically, it's a China made Strat with a great body & neck, but crappy electronics and hardware to reduce costs. I decided to make a project out of it several months ago. I must say... For being a Squier, this guitar sure was built with quality in mind.. - When I dove into it, the only sign of cheap quality was in the electronics, tuners, pick-ups and some external parts. - It had super small crappy potentiometers, the pickups were also sub-standard. The wiring sucked as well.

If a guitar can still manage to have better than average sound with all those strikes against it, then it must be quite a guitar in the way they constructed the neck and body, because mine sounds incredible now that I have done my modifications / rebuilding of the electronics. Fellow friends who have played it, have all affirmed that it actually sounds better than the expensive Strats. Most likely because the combination of pickups I chose for it, were sized up according to obtaining the widest spectrum I could get out of it.

Nah, it cant sound like an acoustic, or a semi or hollow body electric, but it 'DOES', span a much wider range of tones and audio color than any stock or true Fender Strats, HSS included. Covers Shredding, Clean Smooth Jazz, Twangy Telecaster, Blues Tone, Heavy Sustain, Excellent Distortion characteristics, and still has a very pronounced Strat 'Quack', when in the 2 x 4 positions if you want to go back to it's roots. Now that the sound is right, it's time
to get rid of the ugliness, and make it a true one-of-a-kind Strat.

You can take a look at my design notes by going to my
website: Project Versa-Strat.

http://www.m2nt.com/Portfolio/misc.html


Here is the finished result so far.






The next phase of Project Versa-Strat will be the following.

[b]* Custom PickGuard (pearl white with gold screws)

* All Gold Hardware

* 24 'YES, it can be done' 24 fret maple neck with ebony fingerboard, gold frets & pearl inlays. - Neck pickup just has to be moved back 2 1/8 inches for the added frets and to preserve intonation in maintaining original scale ratio. Shave a bit off the lower horn as well, if you want to be able to reach the 24th fret
with little difficulty.

* Arctic White Body, Neck & Headstock with Black/White/Black Binding.

* Gold Schaller Locking Tuners & String Trees

* Coated brass nut

I have nearly all the parts now, just waiting for the neck to arrive.
I'll be happy to post pictures if anyone else is interested in having their own 24 fret, 3 humbucker, wide range Strat.

What I have done so far can be seen at the link above.
All of my design info, my schematic, notes and benchmarks are there as well..

Just wanted to contribute alittle to all the musicians out there.

Any questions, just gimme a shout at
mailto: m2neotech@yahoo.com

Take Care
Max - M2NeoTech Technologies
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/montreauxs
E-Mail: mailto: m2neotech@yahoo.com

[quote="painter33"]I've been trying to figure out my Squier Strat for some time, meaning that it doesn't seem to fit any descriptions I've seen. Maybe there are others like it. I bought new it at the end of '97 and it was set up by the GC in Boston after my friend (who sold them one of his vintage Strats for large amounts of $) haggled on my behalf. It wasn't expensive - $150 - no amp/package. Typical black w/white 8-hole single-ply pg. Looks like a late 50's Strat - it has a small headstock (3.25" at the widest), a full and heavy 1.75" body, 22 fret neck (rosewood), "D" neck, 42mm at the nut. The trem claw sits up tight at the top of the cutout and there's a 3-spring "M" pattern(not parallel like usual) to the block. It had some heavy strings and the intonation was/is great. Everyone who's played it has been super impressed. The mystery (to me) is that the neck plate says NCXXXX Made in China (no other stamps) but the description hasn't matched other MIC that I've read about. Of course there's a tiny Affinity sticker on the headstock ball and the larger "Squier" is solid black script with the "BY FENDER" in all caps in block letters below. These are typical of Squiers. Just today, I noticed that the neck plate has a plastic trim piece around it and I haven't read any references to that anywhere. I haven't taken the neck off so I can't speak to what I'd find there. The smaller headstock, full thickness, and now the plate trim confuse me. Maybe it's an old Bullet, but it's definitely not a piece of junk. Any help?

montreauxs - Thanks for picking up on my request and supplying a twin. I've sent a separate email with some comments questions that might be too much for this board (maybe taking up too much space for such a narrow "market". But I'm really interested in your mods.

No problem, Stuart..
I replied to your e-mail and sent you as much information
as possible on the subject. Let me know what your findings are.

wow!
i must say that your project is totally awesome!!!!
it will be great to try it on my Squier

_________________
If I flip the switch, I go into Killzone mode, which means these two center coils become active, and whenever I shred, I kill people instantly.