I remember the thread - I started it. Yeah, his specs would make a fantastic guitar.

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Ignorance IS bliss - and I am the happiest person here!

I still want to see the Martian artist series Strat put out.lol Martian tell me about your #1 year, mods. I know it has to be one wicked sounding ax. By the way I did that Danny Gatton mod on my Beck (removing the volume knob and pot) and am so happy I did. I cant believe what a difference in comfort.

Actually, its probably anticlimactic but since you asked:

It is a 2007 Deluxe Players Strat, the triple burst one with the rosewood board. I removed the Vintage Noiseless set and replaced them with Seymour Duncans. Specifically: An SSL-3 in the bridge, an SSL-6 in the middle and an SSL-2 in the neck. "Bells and balls", all right here! And no, the middle pickup is deliberately not RW/RP.

I removed the 5 way switch and replaced it with a Fender 3 way as I'm still more used to the 3 way, use positions 2 and 4 maybe once every 20 years and I just didn't like all that crunching with the 5 way as I switched from the bridge to the neck pickup or vice-versa.

The wiring, believe it or not is bone stock; this is indeed, what is part of the genius of a Strat's design. The pots are OEM too: Volume @ 250K and each tone @ 500K. No, no tone pot for the bridge pickup. Of note though is that this model has that extra push button switch between the tone pots to activate the neck pickup at will, overriding the pickup selector switch. This I do use for many interesting sounds and of course, I can mimic a Tele with ease. Lastly, I replaced the output jack with a Switchcraft one and put on Schaller Straplocks. I do like Dunlop better but the Schaller was the only gold set available at the time and it satisfactorily does its job.

Outright remedial stuff I had to do when I bought it: Rehydrate the neck, remove fret sprout and lubricate the nut. It needed a complete setup so bad, I actually began feeling sorry for this inanimate object. Of course, I ignore Fender's specs (truth be told, I don't even know or care what they are) and set it up to my specs with Ernie Ball Super Slinkys (.009 gauge, pink pack).

Cosmetically, all I did was to replace the white OEM backplate with a tortoise one to match the OEM pickguard. As a lark, I used the Seymour Duncan logo'd pickup covers.

That's it.

FWIW:

I bought this guitar NOS in 2008 at shall we say, a VERY NICE price. With me selling the VNs, I virtually broke even in terms of the cost of the Duncans. The new 3 way switch, tortoise backplate, output jack, straplocks and string set, the dealer gave me free with the guitar. All these years in this business, believe me, I know how to haggle. The same holds true for the cost of the three Duncans.

I never really thought about some kind of personal fantasy [signature] Strat as I defy anyone to present me with a better playing, better sounding Strat than this one. In other words, I'm perfectly content with it. There's no doubt in my mind though, if I was given a free hand at the Fender plant, I'd surely slap something most interesting together. What? Honestly, I wouldn't know until I was turned loose in what would be to me, the ultimate 'candy factory'.

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You dig?