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Post subject: Players Grade Guitars - To Mod or Not to Mod ...
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:49 am
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Often times, its hard for us mere mortals to buy mint condition NOS (new old stock) guitars.

Typically, to afford a vintage guitar, we must by one that's value has dropped due to significant modifications.

Usually, these modified guitars are referred to as Player's Grade.

Knowing this, if you bought an old CBS era Stratocaster that was already modified, would you keep it as is or continue the modifications?

I recently purchased a 1976 Fender Stratocaster. However, it was modified over the years by the now deceased original owner.

Here are the mod's it had when I purchased it:

    -Tuners were replaced with Schallers
    -Neck and Bridge pickup routes were chiseled (yes, chiseled) for humbuckers
    -Neck pickup was swapped for Lace Sensor
    -Wiring harness was worked over several times
    -3Way switch was replaced with a 5-way
    -Pickguard and backplate replaced
    -Nut was replaced

So would you modify this guitar to make it more of an every day player?

I'm contemplating the following:

    -Replacing the neck pickup with a vintage era correct pickup
    -Rewiring the original pots, cap, and 5 way to have the Neck and Middle on same tone and bridge by itself
    -Replacing the tuners with repros of the original style of tuners
    -Refretting the neck with med-jumbo frets as current ones are wide, but flat.
    -Shielding the body and pickguard to reduce noise

Would you do any of these?
Would it be worth your time?

I want this to be a gig/recording ready guitar.

I want it to look vintage correct on the surface, but be modern underneath.

Thoughts?

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Post subject: Re: Players Grade Guitars - To Mod or Not to Mod ...
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 4:56 pm
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It sounds like the guitar is already shot to hell so nothing you do to it will change it in making it more desirable to a collector. You might just as well go with what ever makes you happy/makes the guitar a more reliable work horse for you.

I am with you in trying to replace missing period features so it looks in keeping with its age but otherwise it sounds too far gone to be overly precious with it.

An interesting ponderance on the chisel butchery. I wonder if I would reroute it to tidy it up or just leave the butchery as part of its provenance. You could cut in some new timber and re cut the original routes but then is doing a full restoration actually better than putting the original body in a box and just using a replacement body?

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Post subject: Re: Players Grade Guitars - To Mod or Not to Mod ...
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 7:21 pm
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Make it your own.
Even Fender changed the tone wiring through the years... my AmSpec has tone on the bridge and neck, not on the middle, so the middle only has a tone control when in the 2/4 slot positions... I quite like it because I never use the middle alone anyways.

Pickups? Again, make it your own. The CBS pickups really weren't known for being that good anyways... personally, I'd swap them all for a matched set of Duncans or current Fender.

Tuners? I like the look of the "Vintage" F tuners, and though the current Ping F tuners are not highly thought of, they ARE better than the original F tuners.
Again... make it your own. Personally? You already have the original holes AND the Schaller holes. I would just move up to a set of current Fender locking tuners, or Sperzel (if you like the matte finish).

The neck? That's a tough call. If this neck REALLY speaks to you and it's got a nice "V" then a refret might be worth the expense. If the neck is really nothing special, you can buy a new neck from Fender for $200 (MIM) pre-drilled for the modern Vintage "F" tuners. Advantage on your model is the serial number is on the neck plate and not the headstock (the new neck will have an "MX" number on the back of the headstock. It is also a bolt-on for either a 4-bolt or 3-bolt neck (bottom 2 holes are drilled, and it has the proper hardware for the tilt-neck installed, you just need to drill the holes for the screws nearest the body edge)

Shielding the body? No question... Like the 5-way switch, even Fender began doing that a couple of years after yours was made.

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Post subject: Re: Players Grade Guitars - To Mod or Not to Mod ...
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:47 am
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It sounds like you have the best intentions for making it player friendly to me, I'd even go so far as to say maybe a swimming pool route would help clean up the chisel marks and make it easier to lay down a good shielding.
I say have it and have fun playing it.


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Post subject: Re: Players Grade Guitars - To Mod or Not to Mod ...
Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 8:38 am
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Here's what I decided to do...

Reuse most of the original electronics. (pots, cap, bridge, and middle pickup)

Since I would like this to be clean, I'm going to have a pro de-solder the electronics and start over.

I bought a rewound 70's flat pole pickup to match the set.

Reuse the five way switch.

Wiring setup will be volume, neck/middle tone, bridge tone

Just add copper shielding to the body and pickguard.

Swap the tuners to be F style repros' (assuming they fit)

I'll have them check the frets to be sure I'm ok there too.

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Post subject: Re: Players Grade Guitars - To Mod or Not to Mod ...
Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:45 am
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While I did some of the work myself, I have a pro working on the rest.

Currently I replaced the tuners with Fender reproductions, adding shielding to the body...

Bought a rewound replacement 70's flat pole piece pickup.

I'm having my luthier/tech rewire the guitar using the original pickups, with the hottest pickup in the bridge.

Some changes from the original configuration though...

There will be a five way switch with Neck/Middle to first tone control and bridge on second tone control.

Caps and pots will be replaced.

The biggest challenge will be the neck/setup. He said there appears to be a slight ramp on the last few frets causing them to choke out. He said whoever set this up before didn't do it right, so he's going to work on the set up first.

I'm concerned that I will have to remove/replace the frets and sand down the fretboard to level it.

I'm praying the truss rod is good.

So away we go!

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