Hi Limbless,welcome to the forum.A great MIM Strat to try is the Jimmie Vaughn and with the Tex-Mex pickups,vintage bridge and tuners you don't have to do a thing with it as it's a killer guitar right out of the box.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

there are plenty of books on the market that are very clear in their teachings on modding.

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"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

That being said, is there really much difference between a steel block from GFS versus Callaham? I mean, really worth the cost difference?

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I gotta believe that the sound difference would be minimal, it would have to do more with the fit and finish I would suspect. I have just ordered the brass one from GFS and will post my thoughts after I get it and get it installed.

If you can turn a screw driver, there are a ton of modifications you can do on a MIM strat. On mine, I swapped necks, all hardware from chrome to gold, and added strap locks. Not very expensive, but overall really changed the look of the guitar!

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So far with my MIM, here are the mods made
changed to HSS
added N3 noisless neck and mddle
added Atomic humbucker at bridge
S1 switching
replaced output jack with switchcraft jack
shielded the pickup and control cavities and grounded
replaced pickguard
swapped tuning machines for locking tuners.

Haven't changed the neck as I like it. If I ever run across a neck I like better, will swap out the neck but it's fine so far.

I may swap ou tthe trem block some day, but I have the thing all set up now and removing the saddles will require setting the intonation again and that took a littletime to get rigth.

So far, I like the changes, they have been improvements. The guitar sounded pretty darn good but these mods have made a noticable difference.

Jeff

I agree,

With the Jimmy Vaughn Strat mods not really needed. It has decent pups, a great soft v neck and a 6 point trem. However the only mod I found usefull was to change out the trem block. For value the GFS is a great deal, and for fit and finish and some comfort the Callaham is a good deal. I use the Callaham in my 2 MIM strats and they did make a difference in sound and playability. The advantage of the Callaham is the precision tight fit with the plate and block, and the delrin insert in the arm hole which reduces the arms play when the arm gets loose.



On the left is the original MIM block and on the right is the Callaham.

I am in no way affiliated with Callaham products, and I think some of their stuff is very high priced.

Outside of a fret job there isn't much I haven't learned how to do. Take your time, Tele's and Strats are pretty simple designs and user friendly. Work on your soldering skills and if you can handle a screwdriver do a little research and get to work. As far as luthiers go, in SoCal I can only imagine the possibilities would be endless. In Central Oregon start in Bend, Oregon. Breedlove Guitars has an office in Bend, I believe. They are mostly known for acoustic guitars, but may be able to refer you. Good luck!

That's probably why they are the most common guitars that are recreated....

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I modified my MIM Strat and I have put a picture, plus a description of what I did on the Forum, under the Topic heading of: "Should I upgrade from MIM to MIA". Have a look at that and see what you think.

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I've considered buying an American neck to replace my mexi neck since I need a fretjob....

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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