Been occupied with my new project! It's my mod of a Made in China Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster. Guitar was bought 3rd hand and wasn't in the best of conditions. Moment I took it home, everything was stripped and cleaned. Upon some inspection, this Strat was assembled on Sept 1997. Maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard, bodywood's a 3 piece Alder. Planning began on that faithful night I brought "her" home...


Condition of the guitar the morning after collection. I've taken the neck and bridge off. Guitar was given a good scrubbing the night before. Electronics untouched and you can clearly see the grounding wire (black) and output wire (red) in this picture. Lack of shielding paint or anything in the cavity explains it's more-than-annoying hum. Clearly a swimming pool cavity but hey, it's a budget guitar!


Fingerboard was extremely dry and butchered. I coated the fingerboard in Pledge and left it to sit in the night before. Fake and useless "Kluson" tuners are still in place, yet to be stripped from the headstock.


Standard issue electronics. Stock pickups are whiney and shrill. Pots, switch & output jack crackle and pop from time to time.


Another view of the guitar after being stripped. Not a workbench, just the aftermath of a guitar cleanup.


Decent woodgrain from a budget Alder body.


Note the corroded neckplate and bridge screws. Fingerboard soaking in Pledge can be seen at bottom of the picture.


First shot of the guitar back from the workshop. Pearloid pickguard is new and was replaced over the old single ply one. Pickguard not in place yet though, the Squier uses a different version of the 8 hole system that Fender adopts and this brand new Pearloid's an 11 hole. Gotta fill up the old screw holes and redrill them, can't decide to use either epoxy or wood-filler. Previous owner left half-screws in the body, geez...


Yeah, GIANT Squier logo on the headstock. Brand new Planet Wave locking tuners. The black stringposts does detract from the appearance alittle. No shop in Singapore was carrying the Gotoh 6-in-line tuners and Sperzels were outta my budget range. Will replace cheap plastic nut with a Graphtech Tusq next month. Can't decide between replacing the string posts with a Hipshot string tree or a Graphtech butterfly.


Closeup of the brand new Gotoh 102T vintage tremolo bridge. Worthwhile upgrade! Beautiful saddles too!


Vague shot of the AGI Lace Sensors. Picked them up from a pal who didn't have a use for them. He took the silver one outta the set though. Am getting them wired Red for bridge and Blue for neck. Description of the pickups from website... "The Red is the hottest output of our Sensor Series. Perfect for the bridge position when fat, punchy humbucking output is required. The Blue's a 50's PAF tone mixed with Single coil tone, warm fat, Story goes once you tried a Blue in the neck, you just may be sold for life... many have claimed just that!". Note old "el cheapo" old bridge in the background.


Stock electronics on the Squier sucked big time. Scratchy 500k pots (who uses 500k for Strats?), horrible 5 way switch and an extremely unreliable output jack. Picked up a Switchcraft output jack, 5 way switch and 3 250k pots. Total of SGD$50 on the electronics.


Pickguard holes have been patched using a cherry colored wood filler from Famowood.


Closer shot of the original hole which had a broken screw inside now patched. Hole next to it freshly drilled.


Another angle of the patched and newly drilled holes.


Day 5 of the Stratocaster...


Pretty pretty pot shafts don't ya think? Pots and 5-way switch are now mounted on the pickguard, soldering/wiring comes next.




Unwired pots... Halfway through the wiring process. Not fun to wire everything up and discover that the cables for the Lace Sensors are all ground! Not fun for John, lol...