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Here's SOMETHING you don't see every day. Hardtail 70s Antigua Strats may not be rare, but there can't be many that have been refinished in nitro. There are more photos on my Flickr.

You may remember this is one of the TWO that Cooterfinger repaired. Cooter put a block under the bridge where it had been Kahlered. I was going to paint it sunburst until he told me he found signs of the original paint. I left some of it visible in the neck pocket, not that you can tell.

I just have to fix a loose wire, screw in the guard and string it up. It's not Les Paul heavy, but it's got some thud.

man i love antigua. and that is a light one at that. i don't think i have honestly ever seen one so light before. and the micro tilt. uuugghh!

Oh shit. I bolted the neck on and the strings were wonky. I tried the neck on another body and it fits perfectly. This must be the 1970s irregularities you hear about. The only other neck I have still needs frets. It must be hubris for me to post before it's finished.

DGNR8 wrote:Oh shit. I bolted the neck on and the strings were wonky. I tried the neck on another body and it fits perfectly. This must be the 1970s irregularities you hear about. The only other neck I have still needs frets. It must be hubris for me to post before it's finished.

By wonky do you mean they are off the fretboard near the heel on one side or the other? If so, you can plug
these two holes and line up the neck and redrill. Make sure you screw in the third neck bolt and then line everything up.
I usually put a string on the high and low e with just enough tension to get aligned when I drill new neck mounting holes.

cooterfinger wrote:By wonky do you mean they are off the fretboard near the heel on one side or the other?

I'm sure, typical '70s issue. The pocket being too wide causes issues over time, regardless of how straight it went on at the factory. I've had this issue with GFS bodies, ultimately it's worth finding two bits with a good fit though when you buy a '70s Fender obviously you want to keep the neck/body. Shims on either side of the heel can help the repair stand up.

Paul, that's exactly it. The pocket is just wide enough to give it some play. I was also looking at the nut and I realized the slots are off. Both E strings were slipping over the side. The neck looks great with the Antigua, because it is one of those minty looking late 70s sluggers. I popped it into a natural Strat of the same era and it fits like they were made on Mt. Olympus from the same golden beam. Now the natural is almost finished and the Antigua is on hold until I can fret another neck.

Richard, I didn't even think of tweaking the holes. It's like hanging a door. I won't have to do it this time, but I will keep that in mind. I was working on three Strats at once and learned from every one of them.

The Maui blue one is still not grounded right, and I did them all the same way. When the tremolo swings into the jack, it kills the sound completely. Most Strat diagrams show pot to pot serial grounding, but I found one with a star ground on the #1 (volume) pot and had really great luck with it. I think the Maui is the only one with a grounding screw in the pot cavity. It's all santerria to me anyway. I do what the pictures say, without full understanding.

reggie bush built that fucking thing

antigua its so damn beautiful

antigua is so good. i'm regretful of not getting the mexican fsr in 2012