Hi y'all.

I've got a '94 MIM Strat with serious fret wear and a '07 HWY1 Strat. I don't need two Strats. Lately I've had this crazy idea since I prefer the MIM Sunburst body over the HWY1 flat black body. Also, the MIM guitar has been with me for a long time and I like the wear and tear of it.

I was thinking of putting all the guts (electronics, trem block etc) of the HWY1 into the MIM body and swap the MIM neck for the HWY1 neck. The bodies are not entirely identical as far as I can see, which might be a problem.

Any of you forum dwellers ever tried to Frankenstein two of these Strats into one guitar? Any help is good help at this stage. Thank you.

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'94/'07 Bastard-o-caster (MIM/Hwy1 hybrid)
'11 Gibson SG Std Ltd
'10 Gibson LP Std Trad Pro
'04 Gibson SG Special w/f with SD Phat Cats
BaCH Telecaster
'97 Marshall JCM900 4500 DR
'64 Selmer Treble n Bass 50 head
Marshall 1960B
Various stompboxes

Ive taken a MIM neck and put it on a Hwy one body with no issues.

Yeah, I kinda did the opposite!

Now all the guts of my '07 HWY1 are inside the MIM body. The HWY1 neck fit the MIM body pretty nicely. There's some extra room in the neck cavity though. The hardest part was the soldering/de-soldering of the input jack and the ground connection (?) to the trem block since my solder gun is crappy. Not the nicest solder points ever...but at least there's a clear signal to my TU12 tuner.

Had to partially make new holes for the pickguard but noone would ever know unless they took it off.

I also needed to tinker with the bridge a bit because of the slight difference between the two bridges. Worked out fine I think. This is actually the first major mod I do by myself and I'm kinda expecting some issues, but I love having a big headstock and a rosewood fretboard on a worn sunburst body. The '94 body has been with me for the last 18 or so years so it's cool to be able to keep that connection intact.

Might post some pics later.

_________________
'94/'07 Bastard-o-caster (MIM/Hwy1 hybrid)
'11 Gibson SG Std Ltd
'10 Gibson LP Std Trad Pro
'04 Gibson SG Special w/f with SD Phat Cats
BaCH Telecaster
'97 Marshall JCM900 4500 DR
'64 Selmer Treble n Bass 50 head
Marshall 1960B
Various stompboxes

I went one step further.

I took three Strats and made one.

EC Strat Neck and pickguard
50th Anniversary Am. Series Strat Pickups and electronics
Buffed up to a nice vintage looking black Hwy1 body and bridge.

It made for an awesome Strat that brought the best parts of all worlds. You want have any issues at all.

i bought a HW1 honey blond strat body and a classic Player 50;s neck and it was a great combo .Wish I had kept it .I also did a Baja neck /sunburst HW1 tele combo with Tonerider Hot Classic pickkups ..it was a nice guitar but a bit heavy for me at the time as I had a post viral that kept me down a bit .Wish I had kept them though I am very happy with current batch of guitars .