NGD!!!.........Fender '54 MIJ Stratocaster!!!

[vklobucar]

Scored a 1990 Fender '54 Stratocaster on ebay the other week and it arrived yesterday!

Despite being dog tired after what was a long and hot week, I dove right into cleaning up what I knew to be a great guitar under all that grime!

This was a truly nasty one folks! Took plenty of spit and polish to restore this Japanese Strat.

I was pleasantly surprised to see USA alnico pickups as well as a full sized steel tremolo block. Most MIJ Strats tend to come with crappy ceramic single coils that end up straight in the parts bin and small undersized tremolo blocks in cast.

Ya the pots and 5 way are still pretty crap so I will rewire the whole guitar in the future with some CTS goodies but for now I just did the fast "Jimmie Vaughan mod" where the bridge pup is connected to the second tone pot in order to tame some of the highs.

Still need to fine tune the action and intonation but her she is in all her glory!

Has medium small frets that will eventually be replaced with some 6100 Dunlops but thats about it! Has that great Strat bell like chime. Neck has a VERY pronounced V and is smooth and well worn.

Loving this Strat already!!!

[Dog Boy]

Black strats with Maple necks rule. HNGD!

[vklobucar]

Thank you!!! Just can not put this one down since yesterday

[artonsafari]

Very cool!

[dvscool]

I hate minty strats. They should should have some character and it looks like this one does

[vklobucar]

This one sure had character...and two decades of neglect and abuse as well. It was just nasty when it arrived. This was a nearly 3-4 hour cleaning and setup and I'm still not completely done.

The bridge soaked in WD-40 in order to loosen up and many parts were scrubbed with Spray Nine degreaser. Nice how it came back to life!

[VitaminG]

sweet. I have a Deluxe v-neck and wasn't sure how I'd get along with neck. It has been played almost every day the last couple of years. Didn't take long to adjust at all and feels awesome.

[Hellbat]

Nice one. I almost never use the 22nd fret, but I'd have a hard time buying a 21 fret Strat. I was so happy when their select series ticked almost every check box for me but one. Luckily that one is easy to correct.

[vklobucar]

Some purist folks may not like this but to date my best Strats ever have all been MIJ versions and this reissue has been the finest.

I was so pleased and spent the better part of last night playing through my little Fender G Dec amp with this guitar.

Funny how you pick up a Jackson with a humbucker and Floyd and you start to shred and rip but with a nice Strat you find yourself going in different directions.

For some reason the 21 frets do not really bother me that much.

Really pleased is all I can say especially considering what I paid for this 24 year old gem!

The initial plan was to toss in three HS-3 pickups that I had collected but I think I will wait on that for a while. These staggered Alnico pups are NOT super loud but just sound lovely and really bell like.

What I will do is up grade the pots etc and as for the Dimarzio's, I will order another 1 ply pickguard and install them in that so that in the future the swap will be a quick wire or two and its done. The original will be kept however.