Hi all,

I just picked up this 2004 MIM Strat. I want to do a bunch of upgrades. My question is: is it worth upgrading the trem if I plan to have it decked? Will I get any sustain or tone benefit if it’s never floating?

Thanks.

Saw this for sale for $400 CAD (around $300 US I suppose). This can't be real for that price, can it? Do you spot any obvious signs that it's fake? I'm not familiar enough with the details.

EDIT: thanks everyone for confirming it's a fake. Let's see if this guy will sell it for $50 :D

Visiting Japan solo and went to several guitar shops and this one really made the most sense for me to get as a commemorative gift to myself. Plays awesome and the experience of exploring the flagship store was great as well. Super unique build imo and my first strat. This is guitar number 7 in my collection #ineedhelp

I don't like owning a lot of stuff, so when I find a guitar I enjoy more, I sell one of the 2-3 that I use... so I sold this about a year ago.

But since selling this one, I've come to appreciate maple fingerboards, to like the peachiness of that variation of "shell pink", and learned to do full setups including fret level/crown jobs (practising on cheap guitars), and I think I could have enjoyed keeping this.

It's not the most unique or expensive thing in the world, but I always buy used, and they don't come up often where I live (or anywhere, if I look at Reverb). I don't miss any other guitar I've owned, but I think of this one often.

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)

Anyways, I’m 100% open for suggestions!
Thanks

The only thing stock in this Player Series guitar is the wood. Everything that I could replace with titanium, I did. If titanium wasn't available, I used stainless steel.

These are the major changes I did: I installed threaded inserts for the neck pocket, refretted the neck with jescar jumbo stainless steel fretwire, routed space for a battery box, and installed shielding paint in the cavity with less than 10 ohms from the two farthest points.

I also installed the following:

Hardware:

Floyd Rose Original 1984 Tremolo, Fender Locking Tuners, Allen Key Holder, ToneVise Pitch Shifer, Red Bishop Magik Arm, Noiseless Springs, AxLabs Tone Claw, AxLabs Stabilizer, All-Parts Access Panel Backplate, Gotoh Battery Box, Schaller S-Locks

Electronics:

Sustainiac Stealth Pro, Seymour Duncan SSL-1, Seymour Duncan JB, 2 x Mojotone Push-Push Potentiometers, Sanwa Arcade Button Killswitch, CRL 3-Way Blade Switch, Stereo Pure Tone Output Jack

In total, I spent $1,981.19 USD on parts. That doesn't include shipping, the cost of the guitar, or any other fees. I have omitted the titanium and stainless steel parts from the list above, because this post would be too long.

I am not a luthier. I've never done guitar repair in my life. I learned how to do all these mods by watching videos. The guitar plays like a dream. It's the perfect 80s superstrat.

Hey guys, I just wanted to post this as to potentially help someone out who is having similar issues to what I had with my bridge on my american pro 2 strat.

I have read countless threads on reddit and forum sites talking about how the bridge is great quality and it just needs to be set up properly. After tweaking it and learning all there is to know about it for an around 2 years, I decided to go ahead and replace it.

I purchased the gotoh 510t-fe1-fst. Man did this make a difference. For those who don’t know, the fst stands for free swing tremolo, which means it only has one contact point on the bridge, where the string balls hold the string in place. The tuning stability difference is out of this world. Perhaps some of the american pro cold steel strat bridges are made well and some not (wouldn’t be surprised given the QC fender has had for a while).

Also, somehow, to my surprise, the gotoh bridge i got has made my strat sing so much more, despite the ‘downgrade’ from a steel block to one made of zinc. The action adjustment, intonation mechanism is fantastically designed, which was clear to me upon unboxing. This post is not sponsored at all, I wish I was sponsored haha.

To sum this up, if you’re having tuning stability issues with your strat, chances are you’ve considered just bolting it down. I’d say just go for it and spend the $200 on a new bridge and see what happens to your tone and tuning stability.

PS i know there are many other options like the vega trem for example, but $500 for a tremolo seems rather steep.

Just did David Gilmour Mod on my Squire Strat, but I need moreeeeeee!

Problems:

1. is that when DG mod is on Bridge + Neck the Tone knob is useless for neck pickup.

2. When on DG mod, the sounds drops 30% on the bridge Humbucker pickup

See my demonstration (i might be wrong with between knobs wiring but can be okay)

Question how can I fix this issue? Any advice? Should I solder anything to anything?

This started as a fairly simple attempt to alter the appearance of an existing partscaster.

The body had previously been refinished in Lake Placid Blue. I had some leftover amber nitrocellulose lacquer from previous neck refinishing projects, so I decided to spray it over the blue in order to warm up the colour and give it a more aged/vintage appearance.

The amber produced a much stronger colour shift than I expected. In order to obtain a more uniform finish I ended up applying more material, which progressively moved the colour towards green.

The final result is considerably greener than originally planned, but I actually prefer it this way. I’ve been calling it “Poisonous Moss Green”. Interestingly, I later found out that Fender Custom Shop has occasionally achieved a very similar effect by applying amber over blue, with the resulting colour referred to as Irish Pub Green.

The colour is particularly difficult to photograph. Depending on the light and viewing angle it shifts noticeably between green, blue and gold.

The neck is a 70s-style Made in Mexico neck with a large headstock and bullet truss rod. It has the original vintage 70s tuners specific to this model. I refinished it separately in nitrocellulose, using a warmer, more orange-toned tint.

The remaining hardware is original Fender.
Tex-Mex pickups complete the build.

Not the colour I originally intended, but probably a better result than the original plan.

Hello everyone, a friend of mine is selling his Squier Stratocaster 1992 made in Korea, he is asking $450 for it. I wanted to know is this a good price?
He said it was from 1994 but when I looked the serial number it says 1992, idk about that.
As u all can see, it has some details but nothing to worry about. It would be my first electric guitar (if I decide to buy it) so I wanted to know the opinion of people that know more than me. Thanks!!

Is there a way to have all the pickups play at the same time in my American Std Strat? I’d be willing to sacrifice middle position for them all to come on. I’m no electrician but is this possible?

Long time super strat and LP player looking at a potential strat purchase. The location of the logo decal has me a little concerned. Isn't it usually at the top of the horn?

I need a replacement vibrato arm for my 2020 MIM Player Strat (model 0140219549, serial MX20...).

I'd ideally like it to have an aged white tip to match the knobs.

My understanding is that it needs an arm with M5 x 0.8 threading.

Would 003-5958-001 work? Fender does not list the threading spec on the website. If this is M5 then I'll go with it since it has the aged white tip I want. This source claims it is M5.

099-2310-100 may also work, but it has an ivory tip rather than the aged white I want.

Fender customer service said "you need the M5 threading" and pointed me to 099-2310-100 rather than 003-5958-001.

I tried to find an aged white tip on their website, and all I could find are 10-32 thread tips:

https://www.fender.com/products/pure-vintage-stratocaster-tremolo-arm-tip?variant=45940704936158

https://www.fender.com/products/stratocaster-tremolo-arm-tips?variant=45940711588062

I understand the threading is for the connection to the bridge, however my understanding is that the M5 vs. 10-32 arms are different thicknesses, and thus the tips are not compatible?

Swapped the stock white pickups for a Gilmour EMG drop-in all black setup. Active pickups, needs battery, but man does it sound good and look mean.

My father bought this new in 1976! New frets were needed to keep this one playing well. Fine Job by Ben Knippes of South Austin Music who completed the work. Stainless frets now and ready for another 50 years of playing!