But I have this Strat...
It's an early 1990 Mexican Strat. I've had it since around 1991/1992. My dad got it from one of his friends who had a kid that never played it, so they gave it to me. I have played it. I've played the shit out of it. It was my only guitar for years and years and years. It has no case and has lived a good chunk of it's life bouncing around in the trunk of my GTO and playing sweaty smelly punk rock shows. It's also been a on my albums. It's still in pretty good shape for the life it's lived. The pickguard was originally white, and that looked way too Eric Clapton for me, so it got painted black almost immediately. I've never been fond of the red/black look, but it's better than red/white. I also removed the pickup covers...which I shockingly still have. It's also been modded and rewired extensively. I put a new nut in it. But mostly it's just lived in a gig bag on a stand for the past decade or so. I infinitely prefer my Gibsons and Mosrites, but this lowly Strat has immeasurable sentimental value to me. This guitar loves me. I have not been good about loving it back.
So I'm gonna restore/refurbish it. I took the neck off for the first time ever to have my buddy give it a level and crown. The frets are fucking jacked to hell. He's just learning the craft so I'm letting him get some experience on it. I thought I might have to refret it anyway, so no big deal if he screws it up a little. He's my friend and he's learning and I want him to learn so I'm happy to let him get after it. Being my good friend and having near crippling OCD tendencies I know he'll take precious care to do a good job. From the pics he's sent me it looks like he's doing a great job. Also, this is a Mexican Strat, but I think this neck might be an American neck. It says "Corona" in handwriting on the heel. This is a very early 90s model, right when they began the Mexican lineup. I'm wondering if maybe Fender sent some USA necks down to Mexico to get it started or something. Just speculation, not that it matters to me. I like quirky manufacturing oddities.
The back of the neck was all dinged up and grossly glossy. I asked my buddy to satin it down for me.
The body...ugh. Gonna strip it and paint it. This pic here shows some stripping getting started. This is super thick plasticky poly or enamel or some kind of heavy automotive style paint. It's fucking thick as hell. And very hard. Like a hard candy coating. To it's credit it has withstood my abuse and neglect very admirably. There are large dings and dents in this guitar that didn't even break the paint. Strong stuff. And there are weird circular impressions in the body, like maybe I had some tools laying on it or something while it lived in the trunk of my car throughout the 90s. But none of it broke the paint. I tried the heat gun and scraper on that one little area. It works, but not great. I'm gonna try some chemical paint stripper next. Somehow this paint is coming off.
I have a new pearlized white pickguard on order and my buddy that's doing the neck has a set of 60s or 70s Strat pickups he's gonna give me to try. So that's where it's at right now and I'll update as progress happens.
