Strat '51 Project

[M29]

Hello,

I decided a while ago that I would mod my Squier SE-100 Strat and this is where I am currently at with the project.
I really like the Squier '51 that I have and I thought it would be an interesting experiment to mod my cheap Chinese Squier Strat to be similar to the '51.
One thing that bothers me to a small degree is the thin sound and somewhat too bright sound of my '51. I thought that maybe my darker sounding agathis wood Squier Strat body might provide a somewhat fatter sound which would be more pleasing to me. The body on this Strat is the same thickness as a standard Strat too, which might provide a somewhat different tone.
I had already modded my Strat with a Squier '51 neck that I got off of ebay. I got this neck for a good price and I am very happy with the way it feels. This is the guitar I grab to play the most. I also added U.S.A. Fender reissue vintage pickups to this Strat which really brought it to life. Now the neck and middle pickups will be used on my Jazzmaster project and the bridge single coil I will use at the neck on this project.

I removed the Strat pickguard and pickups and installed a new Pickguard from WD Parts which I ordered with no holes except the mounting holes and one bridge hole for a humbucking. I used an original '51 pickguard to mark where I wanted the single coil to be on the new guard.



I transfered the selector switch location from my Strat pickguard, which was changed from a 5 way to a 3 way to the new pickguard and used my hobby modeling drill to get started. Using a small bit I rough drilled the location out and finished up with a sharp utility knife and a very small hobby file.



Next I started work on the single coil mounting hole by drilling many small holes and then cutting them with a wire cutter. This is crude way to go about doing this but I have a limited amount of tools and this gets the job done.







At this point I used various files to even the opening out.

This view shows where I am at right now with my U.S.A. 2006 Fender bridge vintage reissue pickup in the neck position. I ordered a Dimarzio Classic PAF humbucking pickup off of ebay but they sent one that was not F spaced to fit the Fender pole spacing and I had to send it to Dimarzio for a swap, which they agreed to and were very friendly to deal with. The wait is on...



I hope this helps

M29

[sunvalleylaw]

Hey, really cool! Thanks for sharing all the details. So many cool mods are possible.

[Tone2TheBone]

Very very cool M. I love to see photos with descriptions. That's gonna be a cherry guitar. A Dremel would be really useful to you.

[M29]

Thanks guys, I am glad you like it.

I really enjoy modding, you never know what you will come up with Sometimes good sometimes not so good

I have a dremel here but I never seem to use it much. I have been cobbling away at things by hand so long I just don't feel the urge to use it much. It is like wrenches on a car, I have air tools but I hardly ever seem to use them either.

Thanks guys, I want to get this thing back together but I have to wait for that darn pickup from DiMarzio. I don't like leaving a neck without string tension very long. I will probably have to back the truss rod off some for a while...Oh well, no big deal.
You know...One thing I noticed on the DiMarzio pickup box is that they have a note there that if you are not happy with the sound of the pickup you can exchange it for another. I thought that was pretty good on their part.

M29

[aeolian]

Very cool! Are those knobs really green? They look super against the green paint job; I love those surf guitar colors like sonic blue and sea foam green.

And +1 on the dremel.

[M29]

Thanks aeolian, Yeah the knobs are mint green. I had them on my Strat but I need a coil tap on this so I will have to use Chrome like the Squier '51.

I wanted to use a mint green pickguard but could not find one when I ordered the white and when I did fine the green it was too late to change my order. I may end up getting one and cutting it to match someday down the road. I like the white but I reallllly like mint green!

Thank you again for the kind words.
M29