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I have owned a Squier Strat for some time. Have roughly played it at all compared to my Tele; I think the Strat is both fugly and plays like shit (at least in comparison to my goto guitar). Anyway, it's a Squier Affinity Strat from early 2000. Everything is original, or at least that's what I've been told. It has a vinyl of a Sigur Rós motif spraypainted on it and it's just very bland and boring. It has simply been gathering dust in our rehearsal den.

But as of lately, I've played around with some thoughts about modding it. (Bear in mind that I'm not a purist in any sense -- I simply want to make this guitar odd and special. Too add some charm, if you will... Most importantly, it will have to be cheap -- I'm a student.)

Today, the first step towards that very goal was taken; I took it apart and beat the shit out of the body. I pruposely did a bad job of it. I dropped it on cement floor, rubbed a multitool file along its contour and so on... My intention was to make it look beaten and fucking cheap. Sort of badly relic'd.




Next up is the electronics. I'm thinking about having a S/S/H setup, with the single coils as lipsticks (these: http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-Pro-Tub ... c_189.html) and this humbucker: http://www.guitarfetish.com/Dream-90-Hu ... _c_60.html

The pickguard will probably be black.
The tuners will be changed.
And the bridge will probably be unchanged. (Maybe replaced by this: http://www.guitarfetish.com/Black-Hardt ... p_112.html)

Opinions, thoughts, and hate is welcome and appreciated.

Paint it gold, I love gold strats, all others are boring.

61fury wrote:Paint it gold, I love gold strats, all others are boring.

That's the problem. It's a Strat. I don't have any idea what could make a FUCKING STRAT more interesting. So far, demolition has only been an improvement.

I like where you are going with it. The way you beat it up and a black one ply guard with the black bridge will be hot. Add black knobs and 5 way switch. Then toss a couple of stickers on it. If you are going with GFS stuff, you might as well add the steel block trem http://www.guitarfetish.com/Black-Wilki ... p_139.html. The steel block is a great improvement to fatten up the sound of a cheap strat.

cur wrote:I like where you are going with it. The way you beat it up and a black one ply guard with the black bridge will be hot. Add black knobs and 5 way switch. Then toss a couple of stickers on it. If you are going with GFS stuff, you might as well add the steel block trem http://www.guitarfetish.com/Black-Wilki ... p_139.html. The steel block is a great improvement to fatten up the sound of a cheap strat.

Thanks for the tip!

Just recently bought a new guitar, so my wallet would probably like me to postpone this project a month or so. In the meantime, I will look around for cheap pups and pickguards.

vierphoria wrote:

61fury wrote:Paint it gold, I love gold strats, all others are boring.

That's the problem. It's a Strat. I don't have any idea what could make a FUCKING STRAT more interesting.

Strats are weird that way, you can see a dozen that wont make you look twice then one will look better than anything you have ever seen.
Personally i dont like CAR Strats, especially pristine ones. They remind me of glossy pics of Hank Marvin, great musician he was but its all a bit too clean if that makes sense? In this case i think a heavy relic could look good, maybe a one coat overspray of another colour with the red coming through in places that will also naturally deteriorate quickly.

The other option is metal flake!

Do AN HENDRIX REFINISH and get some lighter fluid, usually works well on strats.

It seems that you guys would recommend that I do a lighter finish over the red, and that this new finish would fade. Where do I get the type of color which is good for that? Is any spraycan color okay or do I need something more ELABORATE?

As goes for changes in my plan... What about a gold pick guard? Or yellow? (I want to make this guitar DISGUSTINGLY BEAGLY)

I believe that by "lighter" they mean this:

needs moar red/blue swirl.

^ no.

hotrodperlmutter wrote:^ no.

I like that if you're going to distress it make it busy

Josh wrote:needs moar red/blue swirl.

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I like that, if you're going to distress it make it more busy

Josh did you take that picture mid bong hit? What the hell am I looking at?

lel. that, my friend, is my shitty ass phone camera making the quality suck.