I had the pleasure of working on this 50-year old Strat this week.  My client recently bought it from the original owner’s family, and he wanted to take care of some deferred maintenance issues, and to spice it up a bit and make it his own. We started by making a custom pickguard and back plate out of matte black .08 triple laminated plastic.  The pickguard was loaded with three period-correct Seymour Duncan single coil pickups and brand new CTS pots and a Fender 5-way blade switch. I then refretted the neck with Stewmac 0155 nickel silver wire and added a hand-carved bone nut, after which she got the legendary…