I had a customer bring a Fender Squier CV 60 strat in for some upgrade work.
The customer (Kristian) wanted some upgrades on the pickups (BKP Irish tours) and wondered if I could make it feel nicer to play.
I’m quite fond of the CV Sqiuers and with a little work they can turn out to be cracking good guitars, and like so many other Squier CV strats this one was a good guitar and played pretty well already.
Upon close inspection : The frets were pretty level with only one tiny high spot, but I suggested that they could be a little bit smoother as they felt just a little bit gritty when bending strings.
The guitar didn't NEED a fret dress at all but we both felt that the frets could do with a good polish, and whilst we were doing that we would add a little "fallaway" (skimming just a tiny amount from the last few frets and introducing a little compound radius-ing on the treble side to facilitate cleaner bends).
The good news (for Kristian) is that we went a bit beyond the call of duty because I decided that I wanted to record the processes for an interesting forum post to show what we go through when we do a fret dress on a strat, so he got a fret dress and set-up rather than just a fret polish and set-up.
The customer had a good idea of what he wanted to do with regard the pickups:
He also decided that if spending all that money upgrading to a boutique set of pickups, then also upgrading the circuitry with CTS pots, CRL switch and a switchcraft jack doesn't break the bank and will give years of reliable service.
This also allowed us to remove all of the existing pickups and electronics intact (we labeled them for him) so that he could have an easy job of transplanting them to his Fender Bullet strat - so he got two upgraded guitars from the deal.
The pots I chose to use are made by CTS for Bare Knuckle pickups.
They have a 280k ohm value and there is a reason for that choice:
All electronic components have a tolerance of up to plus or minus 10% of the value.
On pots they often come up as lower than the specified value.
So on a 250k ohm pot it could get as low as 225k ohm and this reduced value can cause "loading" on the pickups and you lose a bit of top-end clarity.
Bare Knuckle chose to have CTS make 280k ohm pots so that at worst their pots will read 252k ohm which is the preferred value on a strat.
If the pot reads a little more than that it is no problem - you just retain more of the top end spectrum of the pickups output
We discussed capacitor options (we keep a few types in) and decided that the orange drop was a great and cost effective way to go.
I personally like the effect of a 0.022uF cap in a strat or tele, but also understand that others prefer the more traditional 0.047uF.
At a couple of £ it wouldn't cost much to swap it over if he changed his mind later.
The Bare Knuckle pickups come with the lovely vintage style "push back" wire and we will use the same type of wire for the rest of the wiring job too, for a nice vintage touch.
Anyway - lets get down to business and show you what happened.
Here is the guitar on the workbench awaiting attention:
Here is our Erlewine/Stewmac neck jig that I always use for fretdressing.
It allows me to recreate the effect of string tension on a neck - even when the strings have been removed.
This gives a degree of accuracy and control that otherwise wouldn't be possible.
Here is Kristian's guitar strapped into the jig with the neck adjusted dead straight and the dial indicators touching the rear of the neck
The jig is tipped to put the guitar in the "playing position".
The neck is once again checked for straightness, and the dial indicators are set to read zero
Comments
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Feedback
as always, superb skills and craftsmanship...plus, of course, a sprinkling of the special Feline mojo magic dust...;)
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
I'm hoping to come to London soon and my new Warmoth necks' frets could do with a little TLC.
They're stainless and a mirror shine might make all the difference to the feel.
My YouTube Channel
My YouTube Channel
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
I have measured the cavity "screening" on quite a few strats (mostly F but the odd S) over the years. Never found one that conducted measurably. Their screening paint stuff either goes off rediculously quickly or is not what they claim it to be.
My YouTube Channel