Mexican strat turned custom!¡!¡

[dirtyjerzie85]

Since I bought an american standard I am customizing my Mexican. Every screw and every original part is coming off and I am putting custom parts on. One reason is I don't like the white on the blue that much. I mean it looks good but I prefer black. So I am putting a few parts on that I would like some info on. I have done some research and the parts have great reviews. I'm just looking for some player input.

Part #1- Wilkinson/Gotoh VSVG vintage tremelo.
Part #2- Seymour Duncan dimebucker.
Part #3- Seymour Duncan hotrails.
Part #4- Sperzel trim-lok guitar machines.

If anyone is running these parts or has had these parts on their guitar before I would like your input on them. Good or bad. As far as the picup combo. Yes no or good bad. I know about Seymour duncans. I run them On a few of my guitars, but not the hotrails or the dimebucker. And the tuners, I have grover rotomatics on the rest of my guitars without tremelos. I figure the locking tuners will work well with the tremelo. Is there a better locking tuner than sperzel?

Thanks.

[oldguy]

All of those are good name brands. They should be fine. How much will all this cost? I'm just curious, I bought a Tele and am deciding whether to upgrade or trade.

[dirtyjerzie85]

The picups are gonna be around 300 for all three. The tremelo is 120 the tuners are 65. The total cost in mods I'm doing to this strat is gonna run me about 450-500 all together. I'm doing it all. Jack plate. Cavity cover. Neck attatchment plate. Pickguard. Strap buttons. Screws for all the above. It's all white and chrome. I'm going with all black. This thig is gonna look badass and hopefully shred with the picup combonation I'm going with. I did the same to my ibanez art100. I did the same with other guitars as well. I love getting into them and just going overboard with mods. Feel me. The only guitar I have right now that I will never add to is my American Strat.

[duhvoodooman]

Your dime, but $300 for a set of Strat pickups seems like an awful lot. I'd poke around for a better deal than that. There are good deals on used pickup sets on eBay all the time....

[dirtyjerzie85]

Well I'm for sure not getin used. It's gonna be close to 300 only because I'm buying them seperatly. The dimbucker is around 90. And the two hotrails are around 80 ea. Plus I'm doin the pickguard and three black dome knobs as well as the rear cavity cover and screws for them. I don't do any wiring I have my tech for that stuff. So after all that and paying the tech. About 300. I don't think that's to bad. I bought seymour Duncan hott rodded picup set for my art100 and those were sold as a set and only ran me about 130 together. If Seymour Duncan sold the picup combonation I'm wanting in a set I'm sure they might be a little chaper. Cash isn't really so much as an issue for me because I want certain things in my strat and some might cost.


I'm doing the mods in stages. I want to do the picups and front of the guitar first. I'm gonna try and get the tremelo and machines together. Than the final stage is gonna be the small chrome peices left to black out. I wish I was online so I could post some before and afters for you guys. I'm posting from my phone.


I recently started posting on this site a few months back. I'm starting to like it. A lot of good people to get some good info from.

[deeaa]

Well it never makes any sense financially - with that much dough and what you could get selling the guitar you could most likely choose a better guitar more like you're after, used. But at least you'll get a guitar just like you want, even id its value after the mods will probably be less tha 500 still.

[dirtyjerzie85]

Not really looking to resell. It a mod for me. Maybe there won't be another like it. Basicaly a strat that I got to "pimp" out and play. Feel me

[dirtyjerzie85]

Next I would like to build one from the tree to the mill to the shop to my fingers. Lol. Get me?

[sunvalleylaw]

I would like to mod up a MIM myself one day. Sounds like some cool stuff for the PUPs. I am not into blacked out parts, but that is just me. Sounds like a cool plan you got going on.

[dirtyjerzie85]

Well the MIM strat I'm doin up is Lake Placid Blue. It has some sparkle to it. Not a lot. So I think with the blacked out parts would look sweet. I mean the white looks good for sure. It's gonna be different for sure. That's what I like.

[sunvalleylaw]

I look forward to seeing it! :thumbsup

[Bloozcat]

Everyone has their individual tastes...

I built a Lake Placid blue Strat because I wanted an as-close-to-authentic looking '62 Strat as I could get with the electronics and fretboard radius I wanted. It had to be all white plastic and vintage Kluson style tuners for me.

But, I'm old school anyway....:cool:

But I did do this mod for a friend's son on his SX SST. He's into the black as well:
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z265/Bloozcat/Picture002-1.jpg

[dirtyjerzie85]

I like that style you did on that. I like the old school wood grain look. Looks cool.

[grungeiceman]

Yeah that sx looks great!

[NotaRockStar]

:AOK Some great ideas there. I was thinking about doing something similar. Stumbled on a MIM Squier Fat Strat. Loved the color so now I own it...it's used. Serial shows its a MZ3...didn't think they were made in Mexico that long. Can't find any information on these either. Definitely going to upgrade, for sure. I think you have some real good ideas. Mine could use some help...I really don't like this cheap bridge/trem, or the tuners, or the pups(good grief). Then I think if ya go that far why not go through the electronics with a CTS switch, better pots, better jack, and orange drops. Good luck with the upgrade!

[deeaa]

Mexi bridges are fine unless you actually use the trem. I'd go for just new saddles if you don't really wank the whammy anyhow. Tuners may look crap but aren't bad, but then again perfectly working Gotoh's cost a bit over $20 at cheapest. Pups are well worth changing of course, if you really want it to sound like a true strat - rare as it is that I think a pup upgrade is actually worth it, on these it is.

FWIW, at least in the 90's which I think is when they started making strats in Mexico, the first batches were actually much better woods and quality than US Strats...we sold them like cakes, most any pro player who wanted a strat tested them and rather picked them over the US models...really good, grainy and sturdy necks and pleasantly acoustic bodies...they just bought a set of Texas Rails or whatever along with them, it was still half the price and better! For some reason in those days the US Fenders were really poor quality and woods, at least those that were shipped up here. And I do mean bad, horrid setups, every tenth guitar had a warped neck that had to be replaced, and even visually the neck woods looked like pale pasty with hardly any grain & quite lax. Really a far cry from current US Fender quality, which seems very good now that I've checked out a few.

But, that's always the case in guitars...there are good vintages and bad vintages. Same with Gibson...in the 90's they were really superb quality and not even that expensive...after 2000 or so the prices skyrocketed but you'd see really badly finished and flawed instruments, hell Epiphones both looked and felt better in many a case.

What I've always wondered is how much this is a global trend, and how much do they just ship out bad batches to various far corners of the earth. I've heard rumors that if you want the best possible Gibson, they are in Japan, because the Japanese demand the best quality, and thus Gibson makes sure only selected guitars are shipped there. Go figure. Might make sense they'd ship the lemons to somewhere insignificant like up here in Finland sometimes :-)