Reviving an old 'Chop Shop' strat

[Verseus Tahl]

A little over a year ago, this old 'Chop shop' Stratocaster was given to me.

I say 'Chop Shop', because it actually has an old Ibanez S series 520 neck on it.

Despite what you may be thinking, it played beautifully! The neck was scalloped by the person who gave it to me, and is one of my favorite features of this guitar.
The body is a 3pc Mighty Mite strat body, though I don't know what wood it's made from. But enough about the guitar. The parts on this guitar were very sub par, and I've been wanting to redo this guitar for a long time now.
Well, as you suspected, I have finally gotten around to fixing this baby up! First on my list, the routing. it was originally routed S-S-S, but I'm personally not a fan of single coils in the bridge. So I spent a little while with a chisel, and created my own universal route. It's not pretty, but hey it's covered up by the pickguard :laugh2:

I have decided to go for a H-S setup. Yes only two pickups. I just don't ever really use the middle pickup lol. Here's the custom pickguard that I have ordered:

As for the pickups, I have decided on the Seymour Duncan Perpetual Burn for the bridge, and the YJM Fury neck pickup. They are both on order and I'm really stocked to get them installed! Since i'm doing a complete gut on this guitar, I have also ordered a new bridge, and all new wiring. The bridge is a Fender '62 reissue vintage tremolo, so nothing super special. In the electronics department im going for a interesting setup. I'm actually going to have two volume knobs, a 500k for the bridge, and a 250k for the neck. I didn't want to sacrifice the tone of either the bridge, or the neck, so rather forcing the bridge through a 250k, or the neck through a 500k, I simply have separate volumes for both. Everything is on order, and should be here by next week, so i'll post updates of the process as I get stuff done! Cheers!

 

[CTN]

Re: Reviving an old 'Chop Shop' strat

you might wanna check the bridge placement to make sure it intonates correctly. I know some of the ibanez models use neck heels/pockets that aren't compatible with strats.


Looks like a nice axe though. I really like the shade of blue on that body. It'll look sweet with that cream pickguard.

 

[Verseus Tahl]

Re: Reviving an old 'Chop Shop' strat

you might wanna check the bridge placement to make sure it intonates correctly. I know some of the ibanez models use neck heels/pockets that aren't compatible with strats.


Looks like a nice axe though. I really like the shade of blue on that body. It'll look sweet with that cream pickguard.

You are correct that many ibanez necks don't intonate properly when placed in stray neck pockets. However, the guy who gave it to me found a fix. A small notecard folded several times, and placed between the neck and neck pocket solves the problem wonderfully I didn't really like the blue at first, but it has really grown on me!

 

[gottalovethe80s]

Re: Reviving an old 'Chop Shop' strat

cool, I wasn't expecting the ibanez neck

 

[dominus]

Re: Reviving an old 'Chop Shop' strat

you might wanna check the bridge placement to make sure it intonates correctly. I know some of the ibanez models use neck heels/pockets that aren't compatible with strats.


Looks like a nice axe though. I really like the shade of blue on that body. It'll look sweet with that cream pickguard.

The S Series are usually fine, they're 25.5" scale and 22 frets with an overhang. I had one project where I was going to stick a Telecaster neck on an Ibanez SA. (Only reason I didn't do it was because I decided that my next batch of projects are going to be 24 frets.)

 

[Verseus Tahl]

Re: Reviving an old 'Chop Shop' strat

cool, I wasn't expecting the ibanez neck

Neither was I when I first saw it! But the Super Wizard neck is a joy to play!

 

[LazNovak]

Re: Reviving an old 'Chop Shop' strat

This is gonna be a nice one! Love the colors and pickup combo.

 

[Verseus Tahl]

Re: Reviving an old 'Chop Shop' strat

UPDATE
=====================================================================================================================================================
Well, 90% of my parts arrived today. Both pickups, the bridge, and electronics. Pickguard is scheduled for sometime later this week. Well, I went to install the new bridge on all excited, only to find out it doesn't fit. Not even close. I was under every impression that it was drilled for USA parts, but apparently not. I could find no suitable replacement bridge, so I sadly had to order another body. The bridge will be going back as this body has one already. But enough suspense! Here she is:




She's a 2014 Fender American Standard Jade Perl body. I got a really sweet deal on her, and she comes with a modern fender 2-point trem. Converting to a 2-point trem system will give me better upgrade options down the road, but I'm still a little bummed I couldn't use the original body. The new ones great, don't get me wrong, but it just won't be the same. I know that I could have filled the holes and re-drilled them, but I have no experience doing that, and would end up having to hire someone to do it, in which case I would likely spend the same I spent on this body just to have a lower quality body fixed up. Also, it wasn't just the holes that were off. The route was also off. But I'm still very excited this baby (What's left of her) whole again This body has a micro neck angle adjustment screw, which will allow me to better retro-fit the old Ibanez neck to the fender body. Other than that nothing has really changed in terms of design. I'm changing the knobs, but that's really it. But on a different note, My pickups came!

The body will most likely be here Monday, and the pickguard will be here either Saturday, or Monday, and I hope to have it all assembled, setup, and in playable condition by Thursday! Once the body gets here i'll be sure to post pics! Looking forward to the finished product! This one may not have as much 'Shred Cred', but I know one thing. It's gunna be a absolute beast!

 

[Ashurbanipal]

Re: Reviving an old 'Chop Shop' strat

Cool. Interested to hear how the pu combo goes down.

 

[J E C]

Re: Reviving an old 'Chop Shop' strat

Looks good. Would like to hear how those two PUs work together.
With the blue body it would be a simple matter of plugging the bridge mount holes and re-drilling. Another option would be to just get the proper bridge for that mounting hole spacing.