Refurbishing a guitar...

Dudley Dawson

I'm really looking for some advice here. A friend of mine gave me an old (7 years?) Fender Strat (made in japan). I took it apart. I unscrewed everything possible. I want to paint it and buy all new hardware/bridge/pickups/...everything.

Have any of you done this before? If so, any advice would be great. Any pointers? Is it harmful to paint the body?

Also, is it possible to put a nice Gibson humbucker in a strat? I want to get the sound of a LesPaul Studio. Would the humbucker do the trick?

Any advice would be appreciated. Any color suggestions? I painted an old beat-up acoustic John Deere green and yellow...

Thanks.

exhausted

i would advise getting the body professionally refinished. stripping and painting a guitar is a pain in the ass.

as for the humbucker, what's the routing in the body? a big box like some fenders or individual routes for each PUP?

Dudley Dawson

The pickup routing is a big box. All three single coils in the same area leading to one single hole for the knobs. Actually, when I got it, the original owner put an old humbucker in the bottom(bridge?) position. He chiseled out some of the wood to make it fit. I want to replace it with a new $100 Gibson humbucker.

exhausted

ok, cool. then you're in the clear. you'll probably just need a new pickguard and you can get that, routed anyway you want, from warmoth.com.

it won't sound exactly like an LP studio due to the different body wood etc. etc. but it should sound cool.

Dudley Dawson

As long as it will still sound pretty cool, then it will be worth buying. How do you get mildew/rust off of the frets? Sandpaper? I'd rather not buy new ones because then I'd have to pay someone to install. Is it a bad idea to sand the fretboard?

exhausted

i have no expertise in fretboard maintenance so i'll have to leave that one to others to answer.

Dudley Dawson

Thanks for your help. I'll let you know what the final product looks/sounds like. Could be months from now...


Anyone else have any suggestions...

Dudley Dawson

Yeah, that sounds like it could get complicated and expensive to repair. I may just try to polish them up a little bit. I'm thinking about sanding the finished side of the headstock. I'd like to sand off "Fender Stratocaster Made in Japan." That wouldn't hurt anything would it?

pariah

Originally posted by Dudley Dawson
Yeah, that sounds like it could get complicated and expensive to repair. I may just try to polish them up a little bit. I'm thinking about sanding the finished side of the headstock. I'd like to sand off "Fender Stratocaster Made in Japan." That wouldn't hurt anything would it?

Now why would you want to do that?