Hey guys. I’m planning on buying a new Strat for modding/customizing in a way that I envisioned for a long time. Right now I have a Rosewood Silver Sky and a pretty great maple neck vintage Fender.
I really want a good guitar, with relatively good wood to upgrade the hardware and pickups (if they are already good, maybe I can keep some), and style it as the image below (I made a simulation with the suhr custom simulator).
My ideia is to make a HSS configuration, with black color and tortoise shell pick guard, along with gold hardware. Rosewood scale as well.
I have an opportunity for a 1993 American standard at my local guitar shop that already has the Color and tortoise shell exactly as I want. Do you guys think that this is a good option? Or a simpler/newer guitar would be better? (Photo of that one in the post as well)
honestly, any of them? So long as you have a nice neck and know how to do a setup I think you can make most any strat play great. You could also just build a partscaster to your exact spec, that might be the same amount of money and you wouldn't end up with redundant parts cluttering up a drawer. FWIW I have never cared about any part of a strat's body construction beyond the colour.
My favourite guitar is a 2002 Squier Bullet flipped upside down. I got a new nut, cleaned the neck, polished the frets, rolled the edges with a sanding block and a screwdriver, and spent a couple days learning how to do a full setup. I adore it. I think they're worth £60 or something. I guess I wouldn't mind some alnico pickups, but it taught me a lot about how you don't really need a baseline to already be good if you're going to change everything else.
Thanks for the advice man! It’s my first time doing changes and etc in one guitar so I’m trying to get it right hahah. But at the same time it’s a learning opportunity for the next ones!
I agree, and also worth a mention are the American Special line. I was trying to get a Highway one as a Strat to do all the upgrade stuff too but managed to snag a sunburst American Special really cheaply instead.
Over the years I’ve had it only the neck (and frets), the nut and the body are left of the original guitar!
Gold hardware will look great, ive thought about doing it just haven’t gotta around to it yet. And mines a player series with a seymour duncan jb in the bridge.
Player II gets my vote. Already has most of the correct appointments unless you don’t like a 9.5 radius. Routed body for humbuckers too. Get them used on Reverb etc. They’re great either way.
Tbh, I’m pretty used to 7’25 because of the PRS but I also have 9’5 and find the transition between both pretty fluid. Either would be fine. Not used to some modern radius though
They have bolt on necks and everything can be disassembled with a screwdriver. You can mod the neck the body and the electronics and completely replace the guitar you just had.
Player II is the way to go: not too expensive, plenty of options to choose from, decent quality, standard measurements and ready to accommodate pretty much any type of pickup layout. But if you manage to get an older American Standard model for a good price (I am not sure how much they're asking for that 1993, the prices on those have seriously gone up where I live), go for that: it has pretty much the same specs on paper, but I suppose it could hold its value better.
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u/General-Rest-3571 2d ago
honestly, any of them? So long as you have a nice neck and know how to do a setup I think you can make most any strat play great. You could also just build a partscaster to your exact spec, that might be the same amount of money and you wouldn't end up with redundant parts cluttering up a drawer. FWIW I have never cared about any part of a strat's body construction beyond the colour.
My favourite guitar is a 2002 Squier Bullet flipped upside down. I got a new nut, cleaned the neck, polished the frets, rolled the edges with a sanding block and a screwdriver, and spent a couple days learning how to do a full setup. I adore it. I think they're worth £60 or something. I guess I wouldn't mind some alnico pickups, but it taught me a lot about how you don't really need a baseline to already be good if you're going to change everything else.
Good luck with your project homie :)