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Fender Stratocaster in for a spa treatment
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…
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Black Strat with a crook in its neck
Today’s patient is a Fender Stratocaster, circa 2002. The initial complaint from the player was a “stripped truss rod nut, and it’s just not playable.” I made some quick measurements and found the neck to be quite bowed. This model of Strat is equipped with Fender’s BiFlex Truss Rod, which works differently than a typical dual action truss rod. A dual action setup utilizes a matched pair of rods anchored at the nut and at the heel of the neck, allowing for quite a bit of movement in either direction, as well as a good amount of man handling. The BiFlex setup utilizes a single rod, anchored in the center,…
Brooklyn Fretworks
Baltimore Guitar REPAIR-BUILD-MODIFY
