Fleetwood strat

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Pepe
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Re: Fleetwood strat

Post by Pepe » Thu Jun 09, 2022 11:38 pm

laurie wrote:
Thu Jun 09, 2022 10:57 pm
Pepe wrote:
Thu Jun 09, 2022 12:44 pm
8-)
I confess that I am not actually sure what that emoji is meant to convey :?:
It looks damn cool!
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laurie
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Re: Fleetwood strat

Post by laurie » Thu Jun 09, 2022 11:58 pm

Pepe wrote:
Thu Jun 09, 2022 11:38 pm
It looks damn cool!
:D

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Re: Fleetwood strat

Post by laurie » Fri Nov 11, 2022 12:04 am

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
Fleetwood_redone.jpg (259.29 KiB) Viewed 3282 times

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Pepe
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Re: Fleetwood strat

Post by Pepe » Fri Nov 11, 2022 8:01 am

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.
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