Which cheap strat to learn guitar repair/set up/modding?

lukedlb

What cheap fender Stratocaster would be ideal to practice all the maintenance and repair and modding possibilities? From a simple neck adjustment to a repaint, from pickguard substitution to fretwork or even fretwire replacement. The whole spectrum. I would like to create problems on it and then practice repairing them. 
Then and only then will I feel confident working on my strats. 
Id love to see how far I could turn the truss rod before the neck buckles just so I know never to do it. 
I’d look for the ugliest finish too so I could get a better price and repaint it. 
Ideally, I’d like to learn so I could teach others. Improving a cheap guitar could be a good start. 

ESBlonde

Go to crack converters and buy the cheapest dog there. there must be some chinese made stuff that once sold in a kit for £99 including amp, strap and cable. They are often decent to a standard but the hardware is the issue. It is not worth upgrading the hardware usually becaus eyou won't get your money back. But nut slots, fret fettle, bridge setup, pickup height etc. are all best practiced on these cheap guitars. You can always resell it afterwards as a nice player and essentially have low cost training. The Dan Erlewine book is a good resource and you tube has some professional and hack 'luthiers' giving thier thoughts on these things. Take your time and read up first.

lukedlb

Thanks esblonde. I have the erlewine book, just need the test guitar. 
Which would be the cheapest but decent fender Stratocaster? I could just get a cheap partscaster. I’d prefer to work on something half decent where I could take it to bits rather than replace parts. My strats are ‘54 based so I’d prefer the trussrod at the scratchplate rather than the top, although I’d promise get a quicker understanding of the truss within having to get in under the plate. 
If I decided to manage a set up course or repair, it would be helpful if the students began with a guitar that would be playable to become a player. 
Fender squire? What production year tends to have better quality parts over the others?
squire affinity?

meltedbuzzbox

I picked up a fender starcaster strat thing for £18 on eBay. I learnt how to do all things on that

lukedlb

Parts that move over parts of cement, please. I have a cheap strat copy that is such poor quality that screws turn infinitely, bridge adjustment wears down as you raise it. 
I’m think more half decent quality. What’s the first contender in the fender family to be bought used? Any year is fine. 

Adey

Go and buy and old Columbus or other such cheap made-in-japan guitar. Plenty of scope to fix stuff on them. You can pull the frets as they'll all be on the low side anyway and then do the re-fret and dressing.
I taught myself after watching a few videos. It isn't too difficult if you are a fairly practically minded person.

munckee

lukedlb said:

Parts that move over parts of cement, please. I have a cheap strat copy that is such poor quality that screws turn infinitely, bridge adjustment wears down as you raise it. 
I’m think more half decent quality. What’s the first contender in the fender family to be bought used? Any year is fine. 

I bought a squier standard strat for £100 from gumtree that I have painted, finished the neck, change the pickups, saddles and tuners on, set-up (badly), fret dressed, re-wired, basically everything except changed the fret wire.  The only thing with them is you can't change the bridge as they are two screw bridges that fit no other guitar on earth.

Great platform for practice/modding.

NeilMcG

Pretty much anything will do - I got a few £50 cheapies off ebay. The only thing I'd recommend is to try and get something with standard dimensions so you can swap parts easily.

flying_pie

lukedlb said:

Id love to see how far I could turn the truss rod before the neck buckles just so I know never to do it. 

It's a better idea just learning how to adjust it properly. That way you would have no danger of ever buckling the neck.

It understand the point you're making but adjustments like neck relief, action, intonation, pickup swaps, rewiring can be done safely on your good guitars

ESBlonde

lukedlb said:

Parts that move over parts of cement, please. I have a cheap strat copy that is such poor quality that screws turn infinitely, bridge adjustment wears down as you raise it. 
I’m think more half decent quality. What’s the first contender in the fender family to be bought used? Any year is fine. 

Well theres your first fix then.

Plug the screw holes and redrill.

Replace the bridge screws with some stainless screws from Bwicks & Qbase etc.

If the holes are stripped out in the metalwork you might consider tapping the hole bigger and inserting a bigger screw, but the fact that the metal is known as soft suggests thats a hiding to nothing other than the practice and accomplishment factor.

Funkfingers

lukedlb said:

What cheap fender Stratocaster would be ideal to practice all the maintenance and repair and modding possibilities? 

Somebody else's. 

WezV

you sometimes see job lots of dead guitars on ebay.   might be worth keeping an eye out

to be honest, i would make sure you get lots of practice on decent guitars before doing anything with anyone else's

you need to be familiar with doing the work on a variety of styles, and preferably with a variety of methods

Roland

How about this one? It’s a Yamaha rather than a Strat, but it’s cheap. http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/129863/fs-cheap-yamaha-121d-for-project-modders-50#latest

Clashman

Spend £200 and get a mex strat take it to bits respray it it will still be worth £200 and sound
half decent.

SNAKEBITE

If you really want a Fender then go for a cheap one from ebay, maybe two or three real shanners and build one good one.

A cheaper alternative would be a Squier.

maltingsaudio

lukedlb said:

Id love to see how far I could turn the truss rod before the neck buckles just so I know never to do it. 

Neck won’t buckle truss rod will find a way of showing itself to you bit like that scene from alien

rossi

You can get Affinitys off Gumtree for about 40 quid .When well set up with a fret level  etc and a trem set they are good guitars though the pickups need some dialling in and new pots are really needed they are dreadful ..I have bought and sold several times doing this.just call it Squier rescue.

impmann

I was at a car boot sale on Sunday. I was amazed at the number of Strat copies for sale - at least seven I can remember. Prices ranged from a few quid to £75... and the £75 one was worth just a few quid.

KrisGee

Old Korean squier would be my choice.