What happened to.....

koneguitarist

All those strats in 70s that were sanded down and routed out for DiMarzio humbucker pickups, and brass bridges/Trems fitted. 

Used to see loads of them at one time, in fact it was often the typical s/h Strat that you saw in guitar shops that you could afford. My friend still has his, painted with Cuprinol stain and brass hardware. The rest seems to have vanished, I wonder where they went? 

On another note there seems to be a lot more custom colour strats around these days. 

Redlester

I don't know, but this just popped into my head: 

Whatever happened to my Strat pickup? 
Just like an ice pick, 
It made my ears burn. 

Whatever happened to Kahler tremolos? 
Replacement brass nuts? And Ronseal woodstain? 

Whatever happened to Strat weirdos? 
Whatever happened to Strat weirdos? 

Whatever happened to those Strat weirdos? 
Those guitar heroes, 
They made their frets burn. 

No Strat weirdos anymore,
No Strat weirdos anymore....

(repeat until we get an answer).


Right, tea break over. As you were, chaps.  

ICBM

koneguitarist said:

All those strats in 70s that were sanded down and routed out for DiMarzio humbucker pickups, and brass bridges/Trems fitted. 

Used to see loads of them at one time, in fact it was often the typical s/h Strat that you saw in guitar shops that you could afford. My friend still has his, painted with Cuprinol stain and brass hardware. The rest seems to have vanished, I wonder where they went? 

On another note there seems to be a lot more custom colour strats around these days. 

Funny that...

guitars4you

somehow morphed to original !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is a topic I often mention - I recall those Strats in the 70's - I've sold them as per your description, in the 70's for £300 or so - But can't recall the last time I ever saw one for sale, in the flesh, or on-line as per your comments

To be fair I saw more with a DiMarzio SD1 'hot single coil' in the bridge position, so no routing - But I totally get your point

Paul_C

That was something I remember Melvyn Hiscock saying to me once or twice, plus how few of them show signs of being routed for Kahler bridges despite that being a popular mod

stonevibe

Sold as relic'd by some dodgy eBay seller in Germany.

maltingsaudio

Mid 90’s eBay started 2nd hand prices went to shxt, and you couldn’t sell anything that wasn’t pristine or the buyer would send it back, so people with heavily modded strats realised no one would buy them so kept them. 

Lesgrandepotato

They’ve all been immaculately restored and then had fake patina applied.

p90fool

One thing worth bearing in mind is that the UK was a relatively tiny market in those days, even a lot of famous players only had a couple of American guitars. 

Way more 60s and 70s Strats have been imported into the UK over the last couple of decades than were ever sold here new, and very few are deliberately importing the heavily modded ones. 

So while plenty have been restored or rebuilt with parts from different guitars most of the Fullerton-built Strats you'll come across for sale here were never even in the UK when we were butchering them. 

Of course the Americans were butchering them at the same time, but the actual pool of guitars there is absolutely vast and it's currently supplying the rest of the world with fairly unmolested guitars. 

koneguitarist

I get that, but wondering how many hacked up strats and tele's are still out there. 

Christeafur

In the garage somewhere at my mums lays the body of a USA fender bullit, routed using a hand drill in the 80's by my bro to fit his khaler like trem. Metal scratchplate hand painted with hammerite...
Ordinary guitar - no way would they sell now for loadsa cash...

https://reverb.com/uk/item/38276668-1981-fender-bullet-s1-blonde-fullerton?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=12200508927&utm_content=campaignid=12200508927_adgroupid=115920727614_productpartitionid=824291281610=merchantid=239735275_productid=38276668_keyword=_device=c_adposition=_matchtype=_creative=495081226236&gclid=Cj0KCQiAyoeCBhCTARIsAOfpKxhxvA7QBAJWSy1oB-rJq42QcxbDIptnRz4mQ1uq3njEdGO6KjxhM2saAk0QEALw_wcB

ICBM

koneguitarist said:

I get that, but wondering how many hacked up strats and tele's are still out there. 

Very few. Any that have passed through a dealer will have been restored - there’s too much profit in doing so for them not to be, far in excess of the cost of the work.

And of course they will all be custom colour, since they’re worth more - even refinished - and the solid colours cover the rout repairs better.

There are still a fairly large number of hacked student models out there though - they’re not worth enough for the cost of the work to be economical. That used to be true of Jaguars and Jazzmasters as well, but not so much now.

p90fool

@Christeafur I have one too, routed for a Strat trem, and the rusty scratchplate sprayed with car paint!

The neck is on my favourite Telecaster though, it chunky with a flatter radius than a normal Tele neck. 

RickLucas

Guilty:
2cbcaba735262e3542294bb0b625dc4f.jpg (1200×1565) (pinimg.com)

Christeafur

p90fool said:

@Christeafur I have one too, routed for a Strat teen, and the rusty scratchplate sprayed with car paint!

The neck is on my favourite Telecaster though, it chunky with a flatter radius than a normal Tele neck. 

Funny you should say that - My bro still has that neck mounted on a strat body now, but still plays it

Winny_Pooh

Adrian Belew still has a load of them

Fez

Also guilty Kahler but hot rails so no pick up rout. I have wondered if I should get Jonathan to put the original trem back.

HarrySeven

Christeafur said:

In the garage somewhere at my mums lays the body of a USA fender bullit, routed using a hand drill in the 80's by my bro to fit his khaler like trem. Metal scratchplate hand painted with hammerite...

Sounds like my ideal project!

HarrySeven

p90fool said:

@Christeafur I have one too, routed for a Strat teen, and the rusty scratchplate sprayed with car paint!

And this!

HarrySeven

This is indeed a topic which is close to my heart, given that I'm currently attempting to put together a '70's/'80's-style Strat with all-brass hardware - mainly because I can't find a complete "pre-modded" job from back then...

It is strange though - I remember seeing them all over the place at one point...

guitars4you

p90fool said:

One thing worth bearing in mind is that the UK was a relatively tiny market in those days, even a lot of famous players only had a couple of American guitars. 

Way more 60s and 70s Strats have been imported into the UK over the last couple of decades than were ever sold here new, and very few are deliberately importing the heavily modded ones. 

So while plenty have been restored or rebuilt with parts from different guitars most of the Fullerton-built Strats you'll come across for sale here were never even in the UK when we were butchering them. 

Of course the Americans were butchering them at the same time, but the actual pool of guitars there is absolutely vast and it's currently supplying the rest of the world with fairly unmolested guitars. 

Some valid points in there

I was watching a 'best of Old Grey Whistle Test' recently + only the other night S Dan and a 'Reelin in the years' video clip - All from the early/mid 70's - Look at these clips and nearly every 'old guitar' was modified in one way or another - The reason why is that players required various mods to allow these guitars to perform in the way they required them to