Reconditioning

Thornography

Hey all,

Does anyone know where I could get my fender squire stratocaster reconditioned, i.e new pickups, and a new neck.
My guitar is fine and works perfect, its just I don't have the money for an insane guitar and all I want is for new pickups and a better, non chunky neck.

Is this possible? Or am i just dreaming? any advice?

My current pickup config is S/S/S

I want H/H

Thanks.

kranog

It's possible of course, but will require chiseling out the space required under the scratchplate to fit the two humbuckers.
Then ya need, the two pickups and a new HH scratchplate and you'll pickup a neck fairly handy I'm sure.
You'd get everything for 150 blips and be left with a pretty cool guitar that'll sound fairly beefy...depending on what pickups you put into it.

Dord

What's wrong with the current neck?

68 lost souls

If you did the work yourself you might be able to squeez it into the budget that Kranos said. Depending on the guitar it may already have a "swimming pool" route which will accept the HH setup.

Realisticly speaking a decent neck will run you that alone though and then the pickups the same so for parts and then then 30-50 for the pickguard. Then on top of that add in a new switch to replace the 5 way with a 3 way.

If you were to be getting the work done profesionaly you would be looking at 3 figures Id reckon since a setup alone costs between 50 and 100.

Another option you have is to use mini humbuckers in the already existing space and the current pickguard. Something like a Seymour Duncan JB jr and a lil59.

Thornography

Dord wrote: »

What's wrong with the current neck?

Theres nothing wrong with it technically, I just dont like the feel of it Id like to get a softer wood thats just smother to run me fingures over.

I was thinking about getting it done professionally, With about a 400euro budget for the time being.

Does anyone know where?

I could also do it myself, But Im scared of touching electrics
The chiseling and paint jobs e.t.c I could do myself.

Dord

eVo|tempest wrote: »

Theres nothing wrong with it technically, I just dont like the feel of it Id like to get a softer wood thats just smother to run me fingures over.

I was thinking about getting it done professionally, With about a 400euro budget for the time being.

Does anyone know where?

I could also do it myself, But Im scared of touching electrics
The chiseling and paint jobs e.t.c I could do myself.

Softer wood = bendy neck

I think what you might be after is a satin finish on the back of the neck, less grippy and smoother. It can easily be done with some 0000 grade steel wool (bought in any hardware store) and patience. Don't go mad and try get the whole finish off, thats not the intention. You just want to remove the glossy look. Very quick.

Personally I wouldn't spend 400euro on rebuilding a strat. I think that money is better spent on another better guitar used. There are plenty of used bargains out there at the moment in your price range.

In terms of the strat, some small changes can make a big difference. Removing the gloss on the neck should make it play better for you. You can change the pickups easily by buying replacements of the same size or buying a new pickguard to fit them. A new pickguard with a different colour might be a nice change too. Spruce it up a bit!

For some cheaper but good sounding pickups check out http://www.guitarfetish.com They also sell some other parts you might find useful.

Thornography

Thanks man for the advice, Ill check it out. Cant believe I didn't think of steel wool to remove the gloss!!! Thats the feel I was looking for. Soft wood was a bad term to use tbh but nvm.

Ill check the site out, I think I could be onto something here

Thanks again.

felim

If you have 400 to spend you'd be far better off buying a used guitar. You'd EASILY get a used Mexican Strat for that

Thornography

felim wrote: »

If you have 400 to spend you'd be far better off buying a used guitar. You'd EASILY get a used Mexican Strat for that

The idea is to stay away from strats

I want the ultimate metal / shredding guitar for as little as possible.

For some cheaper but good sounding pickups check out http://www.guitarfetish.com They also sell some other parts you might find useful.

Do you happen to have any other websites like this? They seem to only stock 21fret necks, Im looking for 24 with but the rest of the gear is nice

Dord

eVo|tempest wrote: »

Thanks man for the advice, Ill check it out. Cant believe I didn't think of steel wool to remove the gloss!!! Thats the feel I was looking for. Soft wood was a bad term to use tbh but nvm.

Ill check the site out, I think I could be onto something here

Thanks again.

No problem. Just make sure that you tape off the fretboard as you won't want to use steel wool on that. Also put some tape over the pickups to cover the polepieces while you do this. The steelwool has a nasty habit of being attracted to magnets.

Don't apply too much force while doing it also.

My point with the neck finish & pickups is that you could potentially do this on a very small budget yourself. That leaves you with more cash in case you want to buy another guitar.... maybe a Tele. Nice companion to the Strat. :cool:

68 lost souls

eVo|tempest wrote: »

I could also do it myself, But Im scared of touching electrics
The chiseling and paint jobs e.t.c I could do myself.

As far as this goes I would be thinking the other way around. Much easier to mess up your guitar with bad hack jobs and bad paint jobs then it is to mess it up with bad wiring.

If you replace the current neck with a 24 fret you are most likely going to find that they dont fit. Either the over hang will cover the neck pickup or the scale will be off.

Dord

It's easier to fix or replace dodgy electronics. Not so easy to fix a botched paintjob or routing.

GFS sell pre-wired pickguards also... maybe something to check out http://store.guitarfetish.com/hawipi.html