as much as i've been enjoying playing the mim strat i got a few weeks back and the new bridge i put on her the neck has been needing a little fretwork done and i was playing the mij last night and decided it was time to get it done , while i can do this with the neck on the guitar i decided to strip it all down , i'll also be removing the poly and paint from the body cavities , i done this with my mij and it makes a fair bit of difference . Also on the cards will be a little wiring and replacement of the 5 way switch for a better unit and i might rewire the switch setup as well for tone control on the bridge pup . that should keep me busy for a few hours , i'll let you now how it pans out , cheers
Alan

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Nice project

thats the poly off of the cavities now the old dremmel sure comes in handy for that particular job now i just need to give the base of the cavities a wee sand just to get them nice and smooth , i would've used my router but it's at work . so the worst of the mess is almost over , cheers
Alan

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C'mon Al, you know we want pictures.

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hi nick , the wife took a couple of pics of the cleaned out cavities , i've now finished with the neck and the new switch is in and the strat is all built back up , i must say that the action is much nicer now , it feels like a strat if you know what i mean, i'm still not too sure about the stock pups , i'll need to do some buggering about with them .I've also upped the springs to 5 , the same as my mij .
and inbetween all this i managed to put a new bridge and pups into snowy's new tele , cheers
Alan

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You've been a busy man Alan! Put old Snowy to work taking pictures for us all!!

fhopkins , snowy was too busy drinking tea but i think he is starting to get the bug a wee bit for messing about with the inards of strats and tele's ,now he's seen some stuff done on his tele and it's not as hard as he thought i can see him trying out some stuff in the future . he had bought a set of iron gear pups for his tele (i recomended them) as he didn't like the sound of the ones that were in his tele , i don't think he was disapointed with the sound from them , i might get a set for my tele as well

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I might have missed something. You mention stripping the body but I didn't see any mention of refinishing it. Your comment that the action is good leads me to believe the guitar has been reassembled. Did you leave the body wood bare? Also you mentioned doing this to another guitar previously and noticed a difference. What difference might that be? In your words.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

hi bmw -ktm ,when i said stripped i meant broken down , body , neck ect . i left the finish on the body of the guitar it was just the poly and paint in the routing cavities i removed ,pup , input and spring spaces were all cleaned out , i find that after a wee while the guitar starts to sing a bit more , my old mij sounds stunning when played unplugged , heres a wee pic of the front


and the back


it also lets the wood breath a bit which can't be a bad thing

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nah...

aye....

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I can see it now. Snowy becomes a master builder. Keep a close eye on him Alan!!

Aye, but I dunno why!

Al' do yourself a favour mate. Seal that bare wood. If you look at the neck pocket in comparison to the fresh wood, they are different colours. Now I don't know if thats because the neck pocket is treated or thats just a mark of age. Or even just the neck lacquer rubbing onto it.
It can't be good to have bare wood though. So even if you just use knotting solution, put something on it.


Hey you didn't sand inside the 'crop circles'.

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hi nick, the neck pocket isn't treated , just a wee bit of overspray at the edges that i sanded flat , the mij strat i done a while ago is sounding better all the time , only the outside was sealed on it not the routings , i know it sounds like a load of shite but it is doing wonders for the tone on the mij , i'm just wanting to see if it has the same results on the mim i'll leave the sealing for the moment mate , but i'm taking your advice onboard mate
oh and as for those stupid holes , i forgot cheers
Alan

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Their definitely crop circles Al.

All them aliens in orbit will only play strats with them holes. That is their message to us. We have to stop buying up all the MIM's and Amercian Standard/Deluxes, or their gonna invade.

ZnargZnarg XIII told me so.

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