Modded/Upgraded crappy Encore Vintage Strat.

JudasVigilante · January 2015

I had previously posted a query with regards to carving the body cavity on the below guitar to accommodate new pickups. That's all been done now and I thought i'd share the results.

I bought this guitar from my brother in law for £35 quid (he needed money for a night out) about 15 years ago and although the sound was never hot, the neck always played well, albeit with a bit of fret buzz on the low E.

15 years later, a full setup by my amateur hands and new pickups and strat wiring kit from Axetec. You may frown upon the sticker finish but I'm not really ruining any gorgeous tone wood tone as the body is as cheap-ass as I've ever seen. MDF would probably be an improvement over this, but it plays well and sounds good too. My entry for next months Riff of the month competition will be recorded with this guitar.

I have no before picks, but here's a stock image of it from the interwebs:

(IMAGE ABOVE)

Here is the guitar after, featuring 2 books of stickerbomb stickers and 3 coats of Mod Podge.

2 Entwistle ASN57 single coild and an Entwistle Dark Star ND HB Pup.

New scratchplate, wiring kit, 0.22 capacitor, new tone, volume pots, switch etc, jack plug.

It plays really well, always did despite no truss rod at all in the neck. Action is perfect, all pots are nice and smooth and quiet now.

That's it. This is the first guitar I ever soldered or set up. Unless you're a complete idiot and don't have access to Youtube or an excellent forum like The Fretboard full of great peeps who are will to help and know what they're talking about, I'd suggest everyone try something, well, er, similar.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated and yes, I do realise the sticker finish isn't everyones cup of tea.

Cheers,

Paul