I've been lurking here for some time . . . this board is a great place to see what others are doing with their strats!

I bought a used Standard Strat a few weeks ago. It was in great shape . . . but the action was set way too high. My guitar tech upgraded a few things for me and set the action much lower:

- New pickguard, back plate, & neck plate
- Black volume/tone knobs & pickup covers
- Schaller locking tuners & strap locks
- Fender Texas Special pickups
- (3) new 250k pots w/capacitor
- Switchcraft 5-way selector
- Switchcraft jack
- Conditioned the neck, polished frets, filed the nut for my larger strings, etc.

It's a great guitar for a total investment of about $650 (including the price of the guitar). Even though I replaced all the electronics, I have to admit it sounded pretty good before I made the changes.

I'm enjoying the sound differences between it and my '09 American Deluxe Ash Strat. Both sound great through my Fender DRRI. No need to tune down my #1 now; AmDlx set at standard tuning, MIM tuned down to E-flat.

Here is the before [I did sort of like the mint green pickguard]


Here are a few afters

Welcome to the forum! Looks great!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Very cool.I like the pickgard with the black .I have Texas Specials in 2 of my guitars and really like them.Dont be afraid to play with the height a little.

Beautiful guitar. Now, go enjoy it !

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"I like the way he puts Yngwie J. Malmsteen on his album covers. You know,....so you don't confuse him with all the other Yngwie Malmsteens in the business"


2008 Fender MIM Stratocaster
2010 Epiphone Masterbilt
2009 Fender Super Champ XD

Welcome!

You have a mighty nice guitar there. I hope you enjoy it for many years to come!

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You dig?

Welcome to the Forum. Nice job on the mod. Love the pickguard.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Great lookin strat.
I really like that about the MIM Standards. With a little TLC you can turn them into any kind of strat you like. Thanks for sharin!

Really nice job you did there,looks killer.And nothing like Schaller locking tuners.

Great lookin axe. Welcome amongst us. Mike

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

Very nice improvement,I love the black/black perloid against the maple.

What happened to the serial#? nice guitar dude [/i]

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He probably photoshopped it out. I do the same thing, it's amazing what you could do if you have the SN of a guitar...come up with a receipt and say that's your guitar. You then have a SN and a picture to boot. Of course I know that none of our posters would do that, but we do have a lot of people just reading the posts.

Of course it could have come off.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Yes, I digitally removed most of the SN. I wondered if anyone would notice. Photoshop can do great things . . . extending that wood grain over the missing portion of the serial number made it look a little too real.