rgand
New member
In November, my wife asked me if I would like a new guitar for Christmas. I told her yes but I would just strip all the electronics out of anything I got so I told her I’d look for one I could mod to my likes. Really all I needed was a good body to build on.
On Craigslist I found a black 2003 vintage Squier Affinity Strat with a rosewood fretboard and white pickguard. The body was surprisingly clean and free of dings and scratches. It was solid wood instead of plywood and the rest really didn’t matter. As it turned out, the wood is a good piece of whatever that has nice sustain and tonal qualities. At first I thought it was alder but it’s probably agathis or basswood and I’ve exchanged a couple emails with a tech at Fender to find out what it really is. The neck needed some serious work. The frets were worn out, the tuners were junk and most felt like metal galling on metal. The truss rod couldn't bring the neck into line completely. The pickups were import-quality nothings. It sounded OK but the tone control didn't seem to make much difference. It was a good starting place.
I ordered a Warmoth Pro standard thin profile roasted maple neck with a roasted maple fretboard, stainless 6150 frets, 10-16” compound radius and a black GraphTech TUSQ XL nut. I got Fender staggered, locking tuners for it. Oh, yeah, I had Warmoth cut the headstock down to Tele-style because I like the looks.
I had about 6 weeks to figure out the wiring. After drilling all kinds of holes in the original pickguard and fooling around with a bunch of different wiring ideas, I decided to keep it simple. I used CTS B500K pots, a Switchcraft 3-way toggle, a push/push master series/parallel switch in a Warmoth cream-colored pickguard. The neck pickup is a Bill Lawrence L500R and the bridge pickup is a DiMarzio F-spaced DP-103 36th Anniv PAF (neck).
I blocked the trem and took the back cover off (sounds better to my ears). This was actually the first thing I did. The only trem I ever liked was a Bigsby style I had years ago on a Tele copy.
So after all that, all that’s original on the body is the output jack, the bridge & saddles and the funky zinc trem block, which I’ll probably take out and replace with one of the heavy steel ones.
I’m pleased and this thing plays great. The only project I ever did that was more work was to make a solid-body electric mandolin completely from scratch. It was fun and I’ll do another one some time. Here are the before and after pics:
On Craigslist I found a black 2003 vintage Squier Affinity Strat with a rosewood fretboard and white pickguard. The body was surprisingly clean and free of dings and scratches. It was solid wood instead of plywood and the rest really didn’t matter. As it turned out, the wood is a good piece of whatever that has nice sustain and tonal qualities. At first I thought it was alder but it’s probably agathis or basswood and I’ve exchanged a couple emails with a tech at Fender to find out what it really is. The neck needed some serious work. The frets were worn out, the tuners were junk and most felt like metal galling on metal. The truss rod couldn't bring the neck into line completely. The pickups were import-quality nothings. It sounded OK but the tone control didn't seem to make much difference. It was a good starting place.
I ordered a Warmoth Pro standard thin profile roasted maple neck with a roasted maple fretboard, stainless 6150 frets, 10-16” compound radius and a black GraphTech TUSQ XL nut. I got Fender staggered, locking tuners for it. Oh, yeah, I had Warmoth cut the headstock down to Tele-style because I like the looks.
I had about 6 weeks to figure out the wiring. After drilling all kinds of holes in the original pickguard and fooling around with a bunch of different wiring ideas, I decided to keep it simple. I used CTS B500K pots, a Switchcraft 3-way toggle, a push/push master series/parallel switch in a Warmoth cream-colored pickguard. The neck pickup is a Bill Lawrence L500R and the bridge pickup is a DiMarzio F-spaced DP-103 36th Anniv PAF (neck).
I blocked the trem and took the back cover off (sounds better to my ears). This was actually the first thing I did. The only trem I ever liked was a Bigsby style I had years ago on a Tele copy.
So after all that, all that’s original on the body is the output jack, the bridge & saddles and the funky zinc trem block, which I’ll probably take out and replace with one of the heavy steel ones.
I’m pleased and this thing plays great. The only project I ever did that was more work was to make a solid-body electric mandolin completely from scratch. It was fun and I’ll do another one some time. Here are the before and after pics:
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