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japanese fender

Component swap :: 1986 Fender MIJ Stratocaster Contemporary [7.9 lbs]

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Component swap :: 1986 Fender MIJ Stratocaster Contemporary [7.9 lbs]

A local player for a funk band picked up this made in Japan Strat years ago and loves how it plays, but not so much on how it sounds.  He found the original pickups to be lacking output (all pickups 6.0k) so he brought it by the shop to install new guts under the pickgaurd.  The new pickups he supplied are GFS 1963 Strat Texas wound pickups with their outputs reading 6.1k (neck), 6.5k (middle - RW/RP) and 8.6k in the bridge.  The middle pickup's "RW/RP" stands for "reverse wound / reverse polarity" which means that it is hum cancelling when combined with the neck or bridge pickup (positions 2 & 4 on the 5-way switch).  He also supplied CTS pots, a 0.022 µf Orange Drop tone cap, new 5-way switch and Switchcraft output jack.

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Intonation out of whack :: 2011 Fender Pawn Shop '51 [7.6 lbs]

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Intonation out of whack :: 2011 Fender Pawn Shop '51 [7.6 lbs]

Yikes! The intonation on this Fender Pawn Shop 51 is way out of whack. In the photo above I adjusted the high e to it's proper location. Note that the high e is set roughly at the scale length (25.5"). The rest of the saddles all need to fall behind this one. The player is into jazz so no wonder his chords sounded so out of tune, even for jazz!

The main reason this ended up on my bench though was for a missing output jack nut.  Since this guitar was made in Japan, the threads on the jack are metric.  I could not find a metric nut in my parts cabinet so we decided to install a much more robust Switchcraft jack along with a serrated washer to help keep it tightly mounted.

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Flatter Fingerboard Radius :: 1994-95 Fender Telecaster

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Flatter Fingerboard Radius :: 1994-95 Fender Telecaster

Flatter Fingerboard Radius :: 1994-95 Fender Telecaster

The combination of the vintage 7.25" fingerboard radius and rise over the body was choking out big bends high up the neck for this player.  We decided to flatten the extreme radius down to 10"R and plane down the body hump in the process.

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Installing a middle pickup :: 1997 Fender Jaguar [8.9 lbs]

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Installing a middle pickup :: 1997 Fender Jaguar [8.9 lbs]

Installing a middle pickup :: 1997 Fender Jaguar [8.9 lbs]

A made in Japan Jag in for a middle pickup installation.  This guitar has been in the shop a few times before to remove a Buzz Stop, replace a Tuneomatic with a Mastery bridge and swapping out the pickups for Lollars.

Adding a middle pickup involved routing the pickguard, copper top shield and the body (prep photo here).  The low-cut / strangle switch was moved to a Bourns 1 meg push-pull pot that replaced the stock tone pot.  The original Lollar neck pickup was moved to the middle position and a new Curtis Novak went up front.  All pickups are selected via the three-switch plate.

This setup sounds incredible.  Wow.

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