My Strats and the mods done to make them work for me..Show us yours..

Corvus

An '02 American Series here, a truss rod nut replacement (walnut plug etc) rapidly snowballed to a neck nitro refin (repro'd decals inc serial), re-profile to 12", refret. Body strip & refin in nitro, Callaham saddles. Wore out the trem block so recently got a Callaham block, shortened the arm. Mojotone Quiet Coils in there, wiring is vol for bridge/middle, vol for neck pickup, master tone. The thing is so good at staying in tune, the trem and between uses. Good workhorse thing to have around.

aconitethrill

I've had this CIJ for 18 years now:



£250 brand new from Back Alley in Warrington. I remember it clearly because the roads were all empty because England were busy beating Paraguay at the World Cup. Needless to say, I'm not huge fan of vintage appointments, so over the years it's had:

• Refret with stainless steel jumbos.
• Full Callaham assembly.
• Bare Knuckle Trilogy Suite set
• Hipshot locking tuners.

I can safely say it's not going anywhere.

Bonus entries:



USA Legacy - again, Hipshot tuners and a pair of Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2s with a Steve's Special in the bridge.




2015 Ash Deluxe with a set of Antiquity Texas Hots to offset my dislike of noiseless singlecoils. Currently for sale in the classifieds as in hindsight I don't need this many Strat-ish things...

paulnb57

First up a partscaster
Guitarbuild select 1 piece Swamp Ash hardtail body, finished in “Mary Kaye” white blonde nitro by @lamf68 routed for a Tele neck
All Rosewood Tele neck from The STRATosphere, very fat profile
Steinberger gearless tuners
Duncan Everything Axe Set humbucking pickups
Second tone pot on the bridge pickup, middle has no tone




Next up 2003 MIK Fender Showmaster Set Neck Goldtop, locking tuners, decked trem, 2x Fender Humbuckers, bog standard, non standard Strat, one of my favourite guitars

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

No visible mods to my Cunetto era CS Strat, but I've done some upgrades.

• Currently sports decidedly non-vintage Stainless Steel frets
• Has a set of custom ordered and specced Alnico 3 pickups from Radioshop
• 1st tone is neck, 2nd tone is bridge, and the middle pickup has the tone disconnected. Feel it gives a bit more 'pop' to positions 2 and 4, regardless of where the tone is on the other pickups
• Has a push-pull on the 2nd tone to engage the neck pickup in any position

HAL9000

OCP Stone Tones and a Callaham block on my MIM Std.

My current squeeze is a Vintera which I can see no reason to modify.

ditchboy

I’ve just picked up a beautiful American pro ii in Olympic White. So far I’ve added a nice custom shop mint green guard that I picked up on reverb, installed a set of locking tuners and now just waiting to take delivery of a set of Lollar dirty blondes to replace the vmods. The one thing I can’t make my mind up on is removing the push pull feature and taking it back to standard Strat wiring. I’ve had one of these before and it never got used. Can’t make my mind up whether I’d regret it!

stickyfiddle

3 here…

This old thing was originally a Squier from 2000. It’s had a bunch of necks, bridges, pickups, wiring, etc. Right now it’s an Musikraft neck with Brazilian walnut reclaimed from the Coney Island boardwalk after hurricane sandy. Callahan bridge and Rio Grande midbottom pickups. Wiring is stock but with bridge tone instead of middle. I did have a Rothwell Hot Little Knob in there for a few years which was fun. I’m considering bigger frets and a nitro refinish but not in any hurry on those 

Danocaster next. Bone stock. I don’t remember what pickups but it’s the sweetest sounding strat you’ll ever find. Massive v profile neck that’s somehow not uncomfortable at all. Wiring is stock apart from the same tone control to bridge swap because Danocaster knows his shit

Last up is a new thing, not quite finished, but hopefully interesting. Copper leaf finish, Lollar Firebird pickups and wired to give bridge&neck in the middle position. Master vol & Tone and Callahan bridge. Key takeaway is that proper Firebird pickups are awesome and work incredibly well in a Strat. 

Overall it's absolutely fab and I’m looking forward to getting it finished. 

Alex2678

I love when carr amps have the cloth going over an edge like that^ 

Ive done lots of mods to my Strat but have reverted the pickups etc back to stock, at the moment the non-stock things are a refin, the pickguard which I got second hand for £5 and I’m pretty sure is some kind of nitrate repro, big stainless frets and a baseplate on the bridge pickup - 

KevS

stickyfiddle said:

3 here…

This old thing was originally a Squier from 2000. It’s had a bunch of necks, bridges, pickups, wiring, etc. Right now it’s an Musikraft neck with Brazilian walnut reclaimed from the Coney Island boardwalk after hurricane sandy. Callahan bridge and Rio Grande midbottom pickups. Wiring is stock but with bridge tone instead of middle. I did have a Rothwell Hot Little Knob in there for a few years which was fun. I’m considering bigger frets and a nitro refinish but not in any hurry on those 

Danocaster next. Bone stock. I don’t remember what pickups but it’s the sweetest sounding strat you’ll ever find. Massive v profile neck that’s somehow not uncomfortable at all. Wiring is stock apart from the same tone control to bridge swap because Danocaster knows his shit

Last up is a new thing, not quite finished, but hopefully interesting. Copper leaf finish, Lollar Firebird pickups and wired to give bridge&neck in the middle position. Master vol & Tone and Callahan bridge. Key takeaway is that proper Firebird pickups are awesome and work incredibly well in a Strat. 

Overall it's absolutely fab and I’m looking forward to getting it finished. 

All look great..One of the problems with Strats is they come in so many gorgeous finishes You could end up having so many just because of the colours..

Funkfingers

strtdv said:

I'd like to try a new neck with a rosewood fretboard and 22 frets

If pau ferro is acceptable, I may be able to assist. 

I have the neck from a 2018 Player HSH Stratocaster going spare. 

•

Meanwhile, back on topic, my AV65 Stratocaster underwent extensive modification of the tone control circuit. I replaced the stock 0.1uF capacitor with a .022uF Spague.

KevS

Corvus said:

An '02 American Series here, a truss rod nut replacement (walnut plug etc) rapidly snowballed to a neck nitro refin (repro'd decals inc serial), re-profile to 12", refret. Body strip & refin in nitro, Callaham saddles. Wore out the trem block so recently got a Callaham block, shortened the arm. Mojotone Quiet Coils in there, wiring is vol for bridge/middle, vol for neck pickup, master tone. The thing is so good at staying in tune, the trem and between uses. Good workhorse thing to have around.

I really like the original pickups on these,without the tone circuit disengaged..
I got rid of that..The bridge pickup I think is great..

KevS

aconitethrill said:

I've had this CIJ for 18 years now:



£250 brand new from Back Alley in Warrington. I remember it clearly because the roads were all empty because England were busy beating Paraguay at the World Cup. Needless to say, I'm not huge fan of vintage appointments, so over the years it's had:

• Refret with stainless steel jumbos.
• Full Callaham assembly.
• Bare Knuckle Trilogy Suite set
• Hipshot locking tuners.

I can safely say it's not going anywhere.

Bonus entries:



USA Legacy - again, Hipshot tuners and a pair of Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2s with a Steve's Special in the bridge.




2015 Ash Deluxe with a set of Antiquity Texas Hots to offset my dislike of noiseless singlecoils. Currently for sale in the classifieds as in hindsight I don't need this many Strat-ish things...

I much prefer bigger frets on Strats too..I actually get a painful corn / deep blister on the outside edge of my pinky if I use too small frets on a 25.5 scale length.

KevS

Alex2678 said:

I love when carr amps have the cloth going over an edge like that^ 

Ive done lots of mods to my Strat but have reverted the pickups etc back to stock, at the moment the non-stock things are a refin, the pickguard which I got second hand for £5 and I’m pretty sure is some kind of nitrate repro, big stainless frets and a baseplate on the bridge pickup - 

Big Frets...Love them on Strats...

KevS

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

No visible mods to my Cunetto era CS Strat, but I've done some upgrades.

• Currently sports decidedly non-vintage Stainless Steel frets
• Has a set of custom ordered and specced Alnico 3 pickups from Radioshop
• 1st tone is neck, 2nd tone is bridge, and the middle pickup has the tone disconnected. Feel it gives a bit more 'pop' to positions 2 and 4, regardless of where the tone is on the other pickups
• Has a push-pull on the 2nd tone to engage the neck pickup in any position

How do you find the Tonemaster Princeton Reverb..?  When I think of a Strat..That is how it looks..

KevS

paulnb57 said:

First up a partscaster
Guitarbuild select 1 piece Swamp Ash hardtail body, finished in “Mary Kaye” white blonde nitro by @lamf68 routed for a Tele neck
All Rosewood Tele neck from The STRATosphere, very fat profile
Steinberger gearless tuners
Duncan Everything Axe Set humbucking pickups
Second tone pot on the bridge pickup, middle has no tone




Next up 2003 MIK Fender Showmaster Set Neck Goldtop, locking tuners, decked trem, 2x Fender Humbuckers, bog standard, non standard Strat, one of my favourite guitars

The Stratotele looks great..The Showmaster actually gives you space before you hit the volume control..Nice Design..I guess if Fender offered the type of idea I like as an optional extra....Purists would be outraged..Or the mark up Fender charged might be huge..

KevS

ditchboy said:

I’ve just picked up a beautiful American pro ii in Olympic White. So far I’ve added a nice custom shop mint green guard that I picked up on reverb, installed a set of locking tuners and now just waiting to take delivery of a set of Lollar dirty blondes to replace the vmods. The one thing I can’t make my mind up on is removing the push pull feature and taking it back to standard Strat wiring. I’ve had one of these before and it never got used. Can’t make my mind up whether I’d regret it!

Love the Fender locking tuners..

KevS

HAL9000 said:

OCP Stone Tones and a Callaham block on my MIM Std.

My current squeeze is a Vintera which I can see no reason to modify.

I found Stone Tones too dark for me..We are all different..I have other Oil City pickups that are great..

boogieman

stickyfiddle said:

3 here…

This old thing was originally a Squier from 2000. It’s had a bunch of necks, bridges, pickups, wiring, etc. Right now it’s an Musikraft neck with Brazilian walnut reclaimed from the Coney Island boardwalk after hurricane sandy. Callahan bridge and Rio Grande midbottom pickups. Wiring is stock but with bridge tone instead of middle. I did have a Rothwell Hot Little Knob in there for a few years which was fun. I’m considering bigger frets and a nitro refinish but not in any hurry on those 

Danocaster next. Bone stock. I don’t remember what pickups but it’s the sweetest sounding strat you’ll ever find. Massive v profile neck that’s somehow not uncomfortable at all. Wiring is stock apart from the same tone control to bridge swap because Danocaster knows his shit

Last up is a new thing, not quite finished, but hopefully interesting. Copper leaf finish, Lollar Firebird pickups and wired to give bridge&neck in the middle position. Master vol & Tone and Callahan bridge. Key takeaway is that proper Firebird pickups are awesome and work incredibly well in a Strat. 

Overall it's absolutely fab and I’m looking forward to getting it finished. 

The copper one….. oof! 

stickyfiddle

boogieman said:

stickyfiddle said:

3 here…

This old thing was originally a Squier from 2000. It’s had a bunch of necks, bridges, pickups, wiring, etc. Right now it’s an Musikraft neck with Brazilian walnut reclaimed from the Coney Island boardwalk after hurricane sandy. Callahan bridge and Rio Grande midbottom pickups. Wiring is stock but with bridge tone instead of middle. I did have a Rothwell Hot Little Knob in there for a few years which was fun. I’m considering bigger frets and a nitro refinish but not in any hurry on those 

Danocaster next. Bone stock. I don’t remember what pickups but it’s the sweetest sounding strat you’ll ever find. Massive v profile neck that’s somehow not uncomfortable at all. Wiring is stock apart from the same tone control to bridge swap because Danocaster knows his shit

Last up is a new thing, not quite finished, but hopefully interesting. Copper leaf finish, Lollar Firebird pickups and wired to give bridge&neck in the middle position. Master vol & Tone and Callahan bridge. Key takeaway is that proper Firebird pickups are awesome and work incredibly well in a Strat. 

Overall it's absolutely fab and I’m looking forward to getting it finished. 

The copper one….. oof! 

Yeah... There's been a build thread in M&M. It's almost ready for its own NGD thread but work has been mental and it's not quite setup right yet. Maybe by the weekend. 

sweepy

Vega trem, the smoothest this side of a Parker Fly, beautiful trem system . The Strat also has a set of 60’s SunBear pickups 

https://i.imgur.com/V6HPnfM.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/wxAQ8hX.jpeg