It looks damn cool!
Fleetwood strat
- laurie
- Posts: 1652
- Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:07 am
- Location: Canada
- SBZ: Multi Platinum
- Bossarea: Multi Platinum
Re: Fleetwood strat
Finally got the pickguard on. What a pain in the arse!
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.
.
- 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.
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.
.
- Pepe
- Posts: 1688
- Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 2:19 pm
- Location: Germany
- SBZ: Multi Platinum
- Bossarea: Double Platinum
- Contact:
Re: Fleetwood strat
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.