New free strat/modded strat day

Gregor Samsa

So I was idly browsing guitar websites one day in work, when the girl beside me saw and started talking about guitars. She said she had a guitar that she bought to hang at home as a decoration (!), but she didn't want it anymore, and that I could have it if I wanted it. Free guitar? Yes please!

So here's what I got.



SSS Strat copy. "Commodore"? never heard of them. Don't like the shiny plastic blue, and the pickguard is thick 1 ply white.

Naturally, the first thing I did was take it home and rip it apart. Neck pocket is Fender spec, and pickguard is close enough to a US strat. Neck is satin and feels good in the hand. Nice start.

Pots are small and scratchy, tuners are cheap, frets are a bit sharp.

I don't want to spend too much on this, but I have a vision of what my strat should look like. Dark grey matt body and matching headstock. Black 3 ply pickguard, 3 Tele knobs, chrome covered humbuckers. I also had the old bridge and trem stuff from my Modern Player Marauder (that I replaced with a Mustang Bridge & Trem) that - while not high end - were better than what came with the guitar.

2 cans of Auto paint from Halfords (Volvo Dark Grey 228), new black pickguard, 3 Tele knobs and the cheapest chrome covered humbuckers I could find (from Custom World Guitar Parts. Got a custom decal done up by Rothko & Frost. And here's how it all came out:



The finish is matt, with no lacquer on it. I like it. I'll upgrade the tuners, pots and wiring at some point. But for now, average looking free strat becomes nice looking cheap strat. It was a lot of fun planning and doing. And it doesn't play or sound too bad either.

martinedwards

liking it!

good job

wild turkey

Well done , Looks great !
Im a compulsive tinkerer myself

Gregor Samsa

Speaking of compulsive tinkering...

The pickups have only two wires, so they can't be coil tapped, so there was free spaces on the 5 way switch.

So I decided to take the original middle pickup and stealth mount it under the pickguard. I fixed it on with hot glue and wired it up. So it's HSH now, but doesn't lose the HH look I was after

The middle position is obviously very quiet, being further from the strings, but it actually sounds good. Must resist the urge to go spending money on a super hot pickup to put in there instead. This guitar is supposed to stay cheap!

biketard

Nicely done. Great job, phutyle!

wild turkey

You can coil tap them but you need to strip the tape from around the coils and expose the 4 wires to do it
If you are interested in doing it let me know and I'll explain it in further detail