Fender Stratocaster – Service and Setup

What a lovely old Strat.  In need of a little TLC but basically sound… The bridge is all a little manky, rather corroded, but I’m sure that can be sorted. It’s just a case of taking it all apart and getting the wire brush in there. That’s better, just needs setting up again. Another thing […]

1956/58 Stratocaster Re-Build

Here’s another interesting project.  Another mixture of old and new.  A good friend of mine, Russell, has been colleting some fine old parts and has decided it’s time to put it all together…. Some of these parts are older than I am, a 1958 neck and 1956/58 pickups, tremolo, neck and back plates etc. all in fantastic condition. The […]

Custom Shop Fender Stratocaster

WOW What a great guitar!  It’s not often I get such lovely guitar on the bench.  However It wasn’t quite playing as well as it should, so I gave it a bit of a tweek here and there. This really is something special, when Fender put you name on it for you.  out of deference to […]

US Fender Stratocaster – Fret Dress and Setup

Now this was a really lovely guitar.  I think a late 80s, American Built Strat’ Considering its age there’s not much wrong with it.  A little bit of wear and tear on the frets… The rest of it’s lovely, a really great colour too. There was however one big problem that I hadn’t anticipated, the […]

Fender Stratocaster – Custom build

A collection of bits and pieces, put together should make a nice guitar… To make it a really great guitar, rather than just an average one I levelled the frets.  Firstly making sure the neck is level.With it nice and flat, grind down the fret tops to a common level….Once levelled each fret needs to […]

Richie Sambora Stratocaster

Nice guitar but It’s got some problems.  Probably been there from new, but now I’m going to put it all right… The first problem is the Intonation.  No matter what the owner did it just didn’t sound right all the way up and down the neck.Looking at the nut the slot for the bass E […]

US Stratocaster – How low is your action!

I’m often asked for a low action, but this is probably the lowest I’ve ever seen! Actually someone’s had a go at it and the owner wants me to put it right.  I like a low action myself but this is un-playable.The tremolo is also sitting flat and locked in place… It didn’t really take a […]

Fender Stratocaster, pickup switch

I do love these, they look just fantastic. This one just has a slight problem with the pickup switch.  A slightly dry contact somewhere leading to an intermittent contact.  Switch cleaner can sometimes do the trick but ultimately the only guaranteed way is to replace it…  The new one in place… That should do the […]

US Fender Stratocaster HSS to SSS conversion

A nice US built Strat’ but the owner wanted it converted back to the standard three single coils. The most obvious thing is the pick-guard, I’ll have to get a new one of those or it will look naff.  Rather than re-use the old switch and volume pot I think it better to replace them with new […]

Bare Knuckle Pickups

Had a mexican Strat’ on the bench today for a pickup transplant.  I think the best way to improve the sound of any Strat’ is to re-fit it with Bare Knuckle pickups.  Their range is great and they all sound fantastic..