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Re: Fleetwood strat
Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2022 11:38 pm
by Pepe
laurie wrote: ↑Thu Jun 09, 2022 10:57 pm
Pepe wrote: ↑Thu Jun 09, 2022 12:44 pm
I confess that I am not actually sure what that emoji is meant to convey
It looks damn cool!
Re: Fleetwood strat
Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2022 11:58 pm
by laurie
Pepe wrote: ↑Thu Jun 09, 2022 11:38 pm
It looks damn cool!
Re: Fleetwood strat
Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2022 12:04 am
by laurie
Finally got the pickguard on. What a pain in the arse!
- None of the holes lined up properly. Had to dowel the old holes and redrill.
- The dimensions weren't quite right. Had to spend a few hours with rotary tool, file and sandpaper to make it fit.
- The holes for the switch were for a standard strat switch. The one in the guitar was not standard. Had to swap in a standard 5 way strat switch.
- The single-coil-sized humbucker in the bridge position was slightly larger than the standard cut-out. Another hour with a file and sandpaper to ease the hole.
- Half the screw holes in the pickguard didn't have countersinking for the standard screws. Had to countersink a bunch of holes.
- AND... the hole in the new pickguard nearest the middle pickup tone control lined up with the cavity, not the wood. Had to chisel out a flat spot in the cavity and glue in a wood block so there was wood for the screw to screw into.
- Replaced the dodgy original jack - it was falling apart.
Blah! But done now and it looks great, and the noise from the original flimsy pickguard is gone.
My $50 thrift store find is now a perfectly credible guitar. Nice feel,
great sustain, quacks just like a real strat.
This is before-and-after.
.
- Fleetwood_redone.jpg (259.29 KiB) Viewed 4129 times
Re: Fleetwood strat
Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2022 8:01 am
by Pepe
Great work! Yeah, those pickguards can indeed be a pain in the arse as you say it. I had to replace the pickguard of my MIJ Fender Stratocaster when I bought it in 2001. Some of the screw holes weren't at the same position.