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Post subject: Newbie digs out old Strat. and needs advice.
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 3:19 pm
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Hi there,
back in '94 I was given a Standard Strat as a bonus. Of course, with the amount of traveling I was doing at the time for work, I tended to take an acoustic with me and the strat went into its case for a big sleep. Roll it forward Too Many Years and here we are in 2012 when I suddenly realised I had a perfectly good guitar sitting in (temperature and humidity regulated) storage.
I went round, got the hardshell out, hauled it home and there was the guitar, original strings on, date of creation documents in the pocket.
I jacked into an amp.
Zip.
A bit of tinkering showed that the pickup selector is dead in position 1 and 5. I can hear the swap in pickups switching between positions 4 to 3 and position 2 is certainly active, but that's y'lot. T1 is active in position 4, and the volume control is fine but T2 seems to be unresponsive. Thinking back, I'm moderately sure this was the way it was in the 90s; I was just too dumb to know there was a problem.
I've had a root round the support and manuals section, on and off, for the last couple of months and 013-4600_02D_SISD.pdf seems to show the pickguard setup as it is. There's nothing immediately obvious out of place but, before I reach for the voltmeter, can anybody suggest a possible cause?

And hey. Loving playing this thing now I've been playing guitar for over a quarter of a century and stumbled back to my Fender; certainly time to learn some new tricks.


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Post subject: Re: Newbie digs out old Strat. and needs advice.
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 3:57 pm
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Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2010 8:54 am
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Location: Florida
Climate controlled or not, there is likely some corrosion on the switch and pots after all of this time... 20 year old strings? change 'em. (although that won't fix the switch issues.)

Art


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Post subject: Re: Newbie digs out old Strat. and needs advice.
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 4:02 pm
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Aloha,
I've encountered this kind of thing before. Try spraying the switch with an electronic de-oxidizer, like Deoxit. Move the switch back and forth a few times and the pickups should magically reappear. Also spray the jack and even down the shafts of the pots. It's an amazing product.
Hope that helps.
Jon


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Post subject: Re: Newbie digs out old Strat. and needs advice.
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 4:46 am
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@Art1 lol those strings were sour. Take a mouthful of household vinegar and you might just get the idea. One of the first things I did was head off to the guitar shop and see what the guy there had to say. Right now I've got D'addarios on, because you gotta start somewhere. Looking forward to seeing what else is good in a couple of months.
I've also been through the Fender setup instructions in the Support section. Had a great time swearing and getting to know what's what. Flamin' 'eck: a floating bridge. Mine started out more like the Titanic bridge because it sure didn't do anything like float.

_________________
"The Fender Stratocaster: what you get when you cross the guitar with essence of motorbike." - Paul Middleton


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Post subject: Re: Newbie digs out old Strat. and needs advice.
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 4:53 am
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Hey Jon,
Thanks; that, I'll give a try to.
Just discovered that Maplin have got a 'deliver in 90 minutes' service. Not round here, I admit, but brilliant idea.


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Post subject: Re: Newbie digs out old Strat. and needs advice.
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 9:16 am
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Well, some slight results with several blasts of Deoxit to the selector, the pots and the jack: if volume is on 10 there's some signal from position 1. If both the guitar and the amp are on 10, some signal from position 5. I've inspected the selector and it doesn't obviously look corroded or clogged.

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"The Fender Stratocaster: what you get when you cross the guitar with essence of motorbike." - Paul Middleton


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