My First Mod to My fender MIm strat

[grungeiceman]

Well I recently bought my first Fender strat off of ebay. I made sure and went through evern step and looked at every pic and pretty much know its authentic( cant be a 100% sure till it gets here) It was a 97 Fender standard strat all original with one little scrape. It came with a fender hardshell case and i won it for 280 bucks. What would be the first mod i should make to it. I have heard in the past a trem block and want to know if thats a good idea for the first mod. I also want to put a black pickgaurd on it becuase i love that look on a sunburst (probly becuase im a hug Stevie fan) and im wondering if thats a difficult thing to do? thanks,

[duhvoodooman***]

Well I recently bought my first Fender strat off of ebay. I made sure and went through evern step and looked at every pic and pretty much know its authentic( cant be a 100% sure till it gets here) It was a 97 Fender standard strat all original with one little scrape. It came with a fender hardshell case and i won it for 280 bucks. What would be the first mod i should make to it. I have heard in the past a trem block and want to know if thats a good idea for the first mod. I also want to put a black pickgaurd on it becuase i love that look on a sunburst (probly becuase im a hug Stevie fan) and im wondering if thats a difficult thing to do? thanks,

I'd advise you to stick to just cosmetic mods at first, like the pickguard change you mentioned. But play the guitar for a few weeks & really get to know it before you start making functional mods, like changing the trem block, or rewiring the pickups, etc. You may find that what you initially wanted to change first isn't what needs to be done the most. Or you might even like it just the way it is!

As far as changing the pickguard goes, it's pretty straightforward, but takes a little while because all the electronics attach to the pickguard on a Strat. The strings pretty much have to come off to do this, but you'll probably want to change them on an auction guitar anyway.

[sunvalleylaw]

Hey, welcome and congrats on the guitar! Make sure you introduce yourself in the fretplayers section if you have not already done so and I just missed it. Let us know how your strat ends up!

[Spudman***]

I'll second what Voodoo says. Be patient and get to know her first. Then decide what she needs.

[r_a_smith3530]

Welcome to the fret. I would recommend that you play the guitar, as you received it, for a couple of weeks. Of course, if it has some major setup issues, I would take care of those, but unless something is broken, I'd leave it alone at first.

Now, the trem block does contribute greatly to a strat's sustain. Material density here can contribute to increased sustain, and that is the main advantage to using something like a Callaham block.

In case you're interested, here's Callaham's URL.

Callaham's Made in Mexico Upgrades

Callham Home Page

The pickguard can be either very easy, or a major pain. First, not all guitars are created equal. In the past, I've had everything from pickguards that were a drop-in, with no modifications needed, to others that didn't even cover the entire cavity, so this is an area where it is best to have either the stock guard, or a tracing handy, to match up with potential replacements. As an example, a while back, I bought a pickguard for my P Bass. The bass' body was a USA '84 part. I got a pickguard, shielded it all out in copper tape, and then discovered that it was too short down at the end, by the controls. It turns out that 1984 was a major year of transition for Fender (move to Corona, sale of company, etc), and CBS was using up all the miscelaneous parts that were laying around at the Fullerton plant, so a number of instruments were built that didn't exactly match the sales brochures or engineering drawings, and my Precision's body is just one example. Squier strats and teles are known for inconsistencies when it comes to parts. I wanted to replace the pickguard on my daughter's Squier strat (Affinity), and I had to do some hunting to come up with one that matched pretty close. Even at that, I had to drill a few holes, and in one case, fill a hole and re-drill right next to it.

Pickguards...

More pickguards...

And even more pickguards

As time goes by, you may find that you want to replace the pickups. My current strat favorite is Rio Grande's "Muy Grande" pickups. Hot, but with plenty of definition, they're great for that "Stevie" sound.

Rio Grande Pickups

[Tone2TheBone]

Here are some pics that I took while changing out the trem block in my MIM. Scroll down the thread to check it out if you ever decide you want to do this.


http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=1363

[grungeiceman]

Thanks for all the Help.