Strat shed its skin

maharg101

It's ash, 3 pieces. I tried quite a few in the shop (Dawsons; RIP) and this one just felt right. Circa 2005 if memory serves.

maharg101

Thick poly replaced with a single coat of lacquer.

The guitar sounds more lively, acoustically, and when plugged in. It feels much nicer to play. The old poly coat is not missed.

Would a punter in the audience tell the difference ? Unlikely. But I will !

CasperCaster

@maharg101 that looks lovely - an excellent job all round!

Deadman

Love that grain. Looks great!

maharg101

Thanks @CasperCaster @Deadman I'm really pleased with it. Not much left to improve on this MIM 70s RI now !!

ICBM

Very nice.

I once did something like that to an original late-70s Strat. When I got it, the original finish had been painted over with something that had reacted with the original so it had all gone rubbery and had to come off. When I had it stripped down I realised the wood was so nice I could do a natural finish, and I could correct the very poor contouring at the same time - taking the ludicrously thick finish and some wood off also reduced the weight by about a pound and a half. I lined the neck pocket with veneer to make it a tight fit, also stripped the neck - apart from the front of the headstock - and gave the whole thing an oil finish.

The only hardware part I changed was the bridge - the original alloy one had the arm snapped off in the hole, so I fitted a Vintage Reissue steel one. The result was a resonant, good-sounding guitar, not at all like the oddly dull but thin-sounding lump it had been before. The problem with these guitars isn’t the pickups... it also felt miles better to play, although not really light it was a sensible weight and just felt more ‘tactile’ and comfortable.

maharg101

Thanks @ICBM - your experiences definitely chime quite closely with mine. This one has the micro-tilt and a shim in the neck, which is a possible area for improvement I suppose. Is it possible to "replace" a micro-tilt arrangement ?

Anyway, the guitar is much nicer to play now without the plastic crap on it !

NPP

maharg101 said:

Thanks @ICBM - your experiences definitely chime quite closely with mine. This one has the micro-tilt and a shim in the neck, which is a possible area for improvement I suppose. Is it possible to "replace" a micro-tilt arrangement ?

Anyway, the guitar is much nicer to play now without the plastic crap on it !

and @ICBM s experience encouraged me to do the same thing to my early 80s lefty 3-point Strat, with the same positive result.

I made sure all the paint came out of the neck pocket and set the guitar up with no neck angle at all so that the microtilt doesn't really come into play anymore. Not sure whether this contributed to the overall much livelier and substantial sound or not but I'm not a scientist so I won't roll it back just to see what difference it makes.

The only drawback with no neck angle is that the saddle screws stick out quite a bit - I keep meaning to shorten them but it will probably only happen once I really hurt myself ...

ICBM

I don't actually think the Micro-Tilt is a tone killer, but the great thing about it is that it's easy to experiment with and compare very quickly since you don't need to take the neck off or even loosen the strings!

The veneering I did on mine - and many other 70s Fenders - was to correct the side-to-side fit, which was the usual canyon on either side so the neck would move around in the pocket if you bent a string a long way . I'm not sure if that side-to-side tightness improves the tone or not, but it wouldn't surprise me. I've done a few others just by pinning the neck to stop it moving - literally drive two panel pins into the pocket floor so just the heads are sticking up, which then bite into the neck and lock it into place - and remarkably, that seems to sound better as well.

The frustrating and ludicrous thing is that all these 70s Fenders are actually made from nice wood - albeit sometimes rather too dense - but they're just machined so poorly and finished with something that would be more appropriate as a weather coating on outdoor furniture, that they don't work properly as guitars... but if you fix those problems, you halve the 'value'!

maharg101

I don't have any points of reference beyond a very nice Gordon Smith tele with regards to bolt-on necks. Since the plastic "blanket" was removed, the strat definitely holds its own, so I don't think the micro tilt is a massive factor.