Outa_Tune
New member
My lovely wife bought me a brand new Strat last week, it's an amazing guitar and I love it. This is my second strat, the first being my very first ever guitar, a mid 80's MIJ Squire.
I have other guitars, but I like the 7.25" (older strat) and 9" (my new one) radius, that feels comfortable to me. That said, I don't really need 2 strats that sound somewhat alike, and the old one plays nowhere near as nice as the new one.
So.....I'm thinking of making my original strat into something more useful, as it doesn't get any use now.
Here's my theory.....
Convert the body into a HH config, I can modify the routing as it's only SSS now. The HH config will let me get 2 "real" humbuckers in there. I've had a bunch of different single coil sized humbuckers in there but they just don't have that fat, compressed sound of a full humbucker. So route it to a HH, then get a new pickguard and load it with 2 HB's and wire it up. I can sell or hold onto the old pickguard in case I get the urge to change it back.
Next I would need to address the neck. I can get a brand new MIM neck from Fender for ~$200, or go with a Warmoth, or a USACG neck. My old neck needs new frets, they are low and no matter how well dressed they are, the neck takes more effort to play.
That would yield a guitar I can use to play more of the harder rock and metal stuff the other strat isn't great at.
Or I guess I can guy a used HH config strat and hang the old strat on the wall and look at it for the rest of eternity.
What do you think?
I have other guitars, but I like the 7.25" (older strat) and 9" (my new one) radius, that feels comfortable to me. That said, I don't really need 2 strats that sound somewhat alike, and the old one plays nowhere near as nice as the new one.
So.....I'm thinking of making my original strat into something more useful, as it doesn't get any use now.
Here's my theory.....
Convert the body into a HH config, I can modify the routing as it's only SSS now. The HH config will let me get 2 "real" humbuckers in there. I've had a bunch of different single coil sized humbuckers in there but they just don't have that fat, compressed sound of a full humbucker. So route it to a HH, then get a new pickguard and load it with 2 HB's and wire it up. I can sell or hold onto the old pickguard in case I get the urge to change it back.
Next I would need to address the neck. I can get a brand new MIM neck from Fender for ~$200, or go with a Warmoth, or a USACG neck. My old neck needs new frets, they are low and no matter how well dressed they are, the neck takes more effort to play.
That would yield a guitar I can use to play more of the harder rock and metal stuff the other strat isn't great at.
Or I guess I can guy a used HH config strat and hang the old strat on the wall and look at it for the rest of eternity.
What do you think?
