When you buy a new car the first thing you do to make it yours is to put new rims on it -
SO, what's the first thing you do with a "New" strat to make it "yours?"

My first mod is usually the pickguard (and knobs). I add more expensive things (like pickups and hardware) later if it needs it.

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For new strats.....honestly i leave it as it is and perhaps a few year down the road it would be the pickups....

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My Guitars :: My Rig

For me the most essential mod would be the bridge volume knob which can mix in the bridge pickup at any switch position therefore having any possible pickup combo or even cooler you can control the level of mix in that the bridge pickup gets

The first thing I do to any guitar not already equipped is Fender/Schaller locking tuners, and fender/Schaller straplocks. my old strat came with the buttons for the strap locks already installed at the factory, but I still had to buy a full set, becuase they don't sell the yokes (the little U shaped collar things,) separately.

+1 on that....also, for those of you with the traditional fender strat tone controls, make sure you wire the mid tone control to the bridge pup.
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=tone_f_bp

Schaller Straplocks, new strings and a complete setup.

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

A complete set up from scratch. Fender has a set of specs, but usually the guitars out of the box don't meet up with them.
New strings, straplocks, fret polish, and depending on why I bought the guitar, new pickups. I have some Strats that I have left stock pups in, and they work quite well. I like Fender pickups, but they just don't have a ton of balls. If I want to play hard rock/metal with the guitar, new pickups are my next step.

Agreed. I evaluate them over time before I consider any mods. One exception is Dunlop Straplocs. The guitars that get the most play get strap locks.

Hmmmm...I'd have to say that for me, it depends on the guitar. When I purchased my '96 MIM Standard, I knew right off the bat the pickups were going to be the first thing to go. Later I added a Callaham trem block, roller string T's and an LSR roller nut (the LSR was a mistake in my opinion...wish I hadn't of done it).

With the Squire Standard that I picked up last August, the first thing was also the pickups but in this case it was more because I had a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless laying around otherwise, it would have been the trem block.

Now on the new Bullet that I picked up week before last, the first thing that's going is the tuning keys...I already have a set of Klusons I'm putting on there.

With my old New Jersey Kramer, the first thing that went was also the tuning keys, but that was because I had a bad Gotoh on it so I just replaced the whole set. After that, it was the Floyd Rose trem which I replaced with a Kahler and while I routing for the new trem, I also routed the body for a second pickup as well so the trem and the pickup were done together.

There are certainly other things as folks have mentioned...a good setup, fret work if needed, certainly strap locks, etc., but I don't typically consider those things to be "mods" per say...to me a modification means a significant alteration from the original. In the case of fret work for example, to me if you were to replace the frets right away (maybe you like jumbos instead of mediums for example), -that- would be a mod, but simply touching down the rough edges or leveling them...to me that falls under "maintenance" and not modification. Same thing with a setup.

So typically speaking, the first thing I guess I look at is pickups, bridge and/or tuning keys but again it really depends on the individual instrument. I don't typically mess with the "aesthetics" of the instrument all that much...pick guard and such because if I don't like the way the instrument "looks" to begin with, chances are I'm not going to buy it. In the case of my '96 MIM I did go with a black pick guard this last summer but that was simply because the new Duncans I picked up were also black...and I didn't care for the black pups in the white pick guard. Adding the second pickup to the Kramer certainly changed the look of the guitar, but in my mind that was simply about functionality than aesthetics.

The one last thing I would add to this is just the old adage, "just because you can do something doesn't mean you should". Yes, one of the wonderful things about a Strat is that there are a great many ways to personalize it compared with other instruments. However, in this case at least, I'm also something of a believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". If you feel something needs to be done to an instrument, then by all means do it...a steel trem block for example on an MIM is almost always a worthwhile upgrade. On the other hand if you're thinking about going out and buying a new set of pickups for it for no other reason than simply adding something new and you are otherwise happy with the pickups you have...to me that just doesn't make sense. If you are otherwise perfectly happy with the instrument "as is", then I would simply go out and get a bumper sticker to put on the case that says "This guitar is mine!"...ya don't get to much more personal than that .

Peace,
Jim

Hey Jim wanna share what exactly happened with the LSR and what's wrong with the mod?It'll be interesting.....

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My Guitars :: My Rig

Well, first and foremost, it was something of an "impulse buy" to begin with...I had seen them on an Am Std and thought "gee...I outta have one of those" and it really wasn't well thought out. I really wasn't having any specific problem at the time so I just should have stuck with the original. The installation itself requires some wood from the neck to be shaved as the LSR's sit a little lower than the stock nut (at least on my MIM)...not a big deal in itself, but honestly now that I've had it on there for a while, I really don't see where there was enough of a difference in performance or tuning stability over a stock nut. In other words, given it to do over again, I wouldn't. It's certainly not a "bad" mod or anything...as long as you keep the little buggers cleaned and lubricated they do work well, but it just wasn't that big of a deal either. If a Strat is having tuning issues, you can honestly do better with a good setup over an LSR.

As they say, hind sight is always 20/20.

Peace,
Jim