'94 MiM Strat Squier Series Overhaul

[Commodore 64]

So My parts from Wymore Guitars (www.wymoreguitars.com) came yesterday. Ordered on Thursday, arrived on Saturday all the way from Oregon to Ohio. Nice job USPS. :)

Here's a pic of the guitar prior to the overhaul.
http://lucky-cricket.com/files/94MiMStrat.jpg

I got an Allparts Vintage Spaced Bridge (http://www.allparts.com/Black-Tremolo-Bridge-p/sb-0200-003.htm) ($22) and a SD Hot Stack bridge pickup ($30) on close out. The Allparts bridge is vintage spaced, with a solid steel, full sized trem block. At that price, I decided I would go ahead and make new holes in my strat body, if necessary, to mount it. I also have a PG from a friend that was on his 1960s Strat. It's nice and aged so I want to use it.

The strat body is Poplar, as far as I can tell. It's very light, and looks like poplar where I can see exposed cuts in the PUP routes. And many of the PG holes need plugged, as the replacement PG holes don't line up. Also, the mounting holes for the vintage trem also need to be redrilled as the spacing is different. I plugged the PG holes with toothpicks and glue, and the trem holed with hardwood matchsticks and glue, and sanded them down.

http://lucky-cricket.com/files/94Strat_Body.jpg

The original PG appears to have been white, the prior owner painted it black. You can also see the dime size pots (500k, BTW) and switch that I will be replacing.
http://lucky-cricket.com/files/94Strat_Pots.jpg

And here's a shot of the PUPs, they appear to be ceramic bars. I do like the sound, and the 2 and 4 positions on the switch are silent, so I assume the middle PUP is reverse wound.
http://lucky-cricket.com/files/94Strat_PuPs.jpg

I had several compliments on the sound of this guitar at rehearsal yesterday, so I feel a little trepidation about replacing the bridge PUP with that new SD Hot Stack, but, it's here, so I gotta do it. Minor issue though, is that the white cover for the new PUP is bright white., and the rest of the stuff is aged. I soaked the SD PUP cover in coffee overnight for shits and giggles. It appears to have worked.
http://lucky-cricket.com/files/94Strat_SD_Aged.jpg

So that's where I am now. I'll be mounting the hardware today. Wish me luck!

[Commodore 64]

Here's an after shot. The trem is black. Perhaps I will consider getting black knobs and PUP covers, but for now this will do. Also one of the knobs is wonky because I used one solid shaft pot, so I gotta fix that.
http://lucky-cricket.com/files/94Strat_After.jpg

And here's a pic of my two '94 Squier series guitars, a tele and the strat. I swapped out the bridge on the tele for a Wilkinson vintage compensated bridge. Still waiting for my new knobs (the pots I used were solid shaft so the originals don't fit).
http://lucky-cricket.com/files/94Siblings_after.jpg

[Eric]

Cool stuff. How's the hot stack sound?

[Commodore 64]

I need some more time with it. Yesterday though, I was really diggin' the switch in the 4th position (mid pup+stack), running through my Blues Jr. with my Blues Driver pedal...it was a tight dirty sound, best as I can describe.

This is the original Hot Stack, not the Hot Stack Plus, BTW.

I'm hoping I will finally have some video/audio of me playing around the 15th and 22 of August when we do 2 summer concerts with some other adults where I take lessons. I'll be playing the strat then, I reckon.

[Eric]

I'm hoping I will finally have some video/audio of me playing around the 15th and 22 of August when we do 2 summer concerts with some other adults where I take lessons. I'll be playing the strat then, I reckon.
Some audio/video would be good.

I'd really like to do something like that, but I have no knowledge of how to do gig stuff, and I feel like I'm not good enough to be *the guitarist* in a real band, so I'll just putz along, I guess.

[Commodore 64]

Some audio/video would be good.

I'd really like to do something like that, but I have no knowledge of how to do gig stuff, and I feel like I'm not good enough to be *the guitarist* in a real band, so I'll just putz along, I guess.

That's the great thing, dude! I'm one of six people. So I don't have to be *the guitarist*. Only on The Weight, the lead guy is playing bass, and the other guitarist is less confident than I am. So I have to sing...and my guitar is the one you hear most...and I have trouble singing and strumming... But these are just podunk concerts, one is in a parking lot the other is in a library...so who cares!? I'm gonna suck bad, but it's been really fun doing 2.5 hour rehearsals each week with these people. They are supportive and just like to play music. Seriously, one guy is just freakin' giddy at the rehearsals (the store manager). This man just loves to play music with people, no matter what their skill level is.

So far our set list:

Gimme Shelter (Stones)
Like a Rolling Stone (Dylan)
Slow Down (Beatles)
Everbody's Trying to Be my Baby (Beatles)
The Weight (The Band)
Somebody To Love (Jefferson Airplane)
Blue Moon (some slow *** song that I hate)

[Eric]

That's the great thing, dude! I'm one of six people. So I don't have to be *the guitarist*. Only on The Weight, the lead guy is playing bass, and the other guitarist is less confident than I am. So I have to sing...and my guitar is the one you hear most...and I have trouble singing and strumming... But these are just podunk concerts, one is in a parking lot the other is in a library...so who cares!? I'm gonna suck bad, but it's been really fun doing 2.5 hour rehearsals each week with these people. They are supportive and just like to play music. Seriously, one guy is just freakin' giddy at the rehearsals (the store manager). This man just loves to play music with people, no matter what their skill level is.

So far our set list:

Gimme Shelter (Stones)
Like a Rolling Stone (Dylan)
Slow Down (Beatles)
Everbody's Trying to Be my Baby (Beatles)
The Weight (The Band)
Somebody To Love (Jefferson Airplane)
Blue Moon (some slow *** song that I hate)
That's cool, and seems like the right situation.

I'm supposed to go meet up with this drummer guy tonight that I found on CL. I guess they can't find a guitarist or singer for their jams, so I'm going to see if we can just hang out and play.

Seems weird that they can't find a freaking guitarist or singer. Those have to be the two most common positions, I'd think. I'm going to try my hand at both.