Bought back my modded USA Strat; anyone else done it too?

[DanTravis62]

So, this guitar was originally bought from musician's friend by my best friend in high school. (if you're on RT, sup nyoko?)

In maybe.... 2001? 2000? So 20 years ago. My best bud was obsessed with that one live Nirvana performance where Kurt plays the white stratocaster, and bought a right handed version for himself. It is probably the best playing non-vintage strat I've ever encountered. Yes, better than a shishkov I tried.

Someway, somehow, this USA strat was just immaculately pieced together in the corona factory.

Kyle eventually because obsessed with Kirk Hammett, and tossed the original pickguard (literally in the trash) and installed a loaded Kirk EMG pickguard, 81+85.

He then sold it to me; I owned it for a couple of years, and sold it to our mutual friend Jake (whom I know is on Rig-Talk) who then sold it to a rando, and it disappeared from all knowledge, like the ring of power. Until, by chance, the most unlikely of encounters took place - i found the very same USA strat, with the same emg pickguard, hanging in the window of a pawn shop in town. This was maybe 5 years ago.

I bought it, gutted the electronics, and started experimenting. This guitar is hugely sensitive to pickup choice - hence why no one *removed* the emg 81+85 set - I imagine the pre-pawn owner trying a normal strat pickup compliment and being completely bewildered by it.

I intended to use the guitar for power metal style music - Iron Maiden, Priest, Scorpions/UFO, Accept, etc, so I tried dozens and dozens of pickups and pickup combinations. HSS, SSS stacks, standard SSS, and finally settled on a simple HS setup.

Weirdly, the singlecoil neck pickup that seemed to work best was a cheap alnico wilkinson. The passive humbucker that worked best was a duncan sh-14 (custom 5 alnico) - Draw whatever conclusions you want to about the idiosyncratic "sound" of the guitar before electronics. BKPs were awful in it. Fender stack singles were too low of output in the neck slot. Etc, etc.

I eventually was hard up for money (to buy my first larry) and HAD to sell it. So I sold it to a mutual friend who gave me "first right of refusal" if HE ever decided to sell it - at 650$. This was 4 years ago. And I just bought it back, and its not flashy, its not sexy, but god damn does this guitar do it for me.

 

[japetus]

Sweet looking guitar, and hey with the market as it is, you sold high and re-bought low!

 

[PDC]

Agree. That guitar would totally do it for me, too. Congrats on the re-acquisition!

 

[PBGas]

Neat story! I bet that guitar has a few to tell as well!

 

[Smash]

love the single volume/no tone. You have too many pickups, but I will forgive you. Man, when this whole soldano retiring thing happened, I listed my blue avenger for an absurd amount on reverb just to get offers so i could figure out the market. And to make my wife think I was trying to downsize the gear I had. Some asshole bought the thing...no message or anything. If I could buy that thing back. It wasn't as good as my current amp, but it was a special amp, and probably the best avenger ever made. I bought another later when the market stabolized and it wasn't the same. Congrats, man. I can only imagine how good it feels.

 

[DanTravis62]

Im doing a track with another, way more talented lead guitarist who's doing the solos for the second half.

I've done most of the rhythm guitars and all of the leads so far with this strat.

(edit: final track with Chris Delis' fingerstyle solo at 2:45ish; what a badass!!)
Listen to Testforchris - 011 by Daniel Travis on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.com/daniel-travis-964376596

 

[Donnie B.]

Sounds and looks great.
Cool story.

just immaculately pieced together

Magic sauce right there.
Marry the right neck with the right body and it's heaven.

 

[blackba]

Congrats on getting your guitar back. amazing how many pickup configs you tried. So satisfying when you find the right one.

I did that with my mid 80s fender contemporary tele. It was my 2nd guitar and one that I played my hs talent show with. Not much of a looker and heavy, but plays well. Sold it to my buddy like 10 years ago, then he wanted a les Paul, so I found him a les Paul and we traded, plus cash. I had already changed the pots and wiring, but changed the pickups to Anderson h1n and h2+ along with making the bridge be able to in series parallel with a push pull pot and it already had a coil split.

 

[DanTravis62]

Sounds and looks great.
Cool story.



Magic sauce right there.
Marry the right neck with the right body and it's heaven.

Isnt it weird? I've played a million high end bolt ons, suhrs, TAs, fender customs, nash, grosh, but somehow THIS one has some magic the others dont have? It just works, and plays, and theres no issues. It's inoffensive.

Congrats on getting your guitar back. amazing how many pickup configs you tried. So satisfying when you find the right one.

I did that with my mid 80s fender contemporary tele. It was my 2nd guitar and one that I played my hs talent show with. Not much of a looker and heavy, but plays well. Sold it to my buddy like 10 years ago, then he wanted a les Paul, so I found him a les Paul and we traded, plus cash. I had already changed the pots and wiring, but changed the pickups to Anderson h1n and h2+ along with making the bridge be able to in series parallel with a push pull pot and it already had a coil split.

So then, you know the pain of "matching" a guitar and its natural sound it wants to make with pickups. Sometimes it can be a fickle business. But somehow, you just KNOW, right?

 

[Racerxrated]

When you find a guitar that just feels/plays RIGHT in your hands, it's like the best day ever. Both my Charvels are so easy playing, feeling and sound very good. I made the mistake of selling another just like my 2 and I spent 3 years trying to find another. Found 2. Never to leave.
Congrats!

 

[DanTravis62]

When you find a guitar that just feels/plays RIGHT in your hands, it's like the best day ever. Both my Charvels are so easy playing, feeling and sound very good. I made the mistake of selling another just like my 2 and I spent 3 years trying to find another. Found 2. Never to leave.
Congrats!

It's just so weird how you know , whether you cant quantify it or not, whether the guitar is put together in a way that fits you as a player.


I'm a songwriter type, band leader type, who has only recently dipped toes into lead guitar and improving my chops.

 

[Racerxrated]

I'm an amp guy, and can survive with only 2 guitars. I gigged that way for 30 yrs; played one all night and my other had a drop D for the more modern covers we did. But the guitars I have need to fit me perfectly..I found the Charvel neck was IT for me and early on found a 2008 Candy Blue USA that was magical. Effortless player. But, it was a little damaged on the back and I thought I'd return it and find another. I went through another 20-25 of them before I found an equal. They all were good but not magical like that blue one..after finding a Candy Purple SoCal now I lucked into another Candy Blue about 8 months ago and they play so well not even the 3 Charvel Custom shops or the 3 early 80s OG Charvels I used to own are their equal. Guitars are just so personal that when you find one that fits you, don't ever let it go.

 

[Donnie B.]

Isnt it weird? I've played a million high end bolt ons, suhrs, TAs, fender customs, nash, grosh, but somehow THIS one has some magic the others dont have?

Back in the 90s I had to get a strat for a cover band and had enough cash that anything less than Fender CS was in play.
Spent a day visiting 3 large stores and blindly testing them unplugged.

Found one that just rang from the bottom strap button right to the tip of the headstock.
Plugged in it was even better.

MIM, maybe $500 at the time.

 

[DanTravis62]

Back in the 90s I had to get a strat for a cover band and had enough cash that anything less than Fender CS was in play.
Spent a day visiting 3 large stores and blindly testing strats unplugged.

Found one that just rang from the bottom strap button right to the tip of the headstock.
Plugged in it was even better.

MIM, maybe $500 at the time.

i totally understand. A friend has a MIM that somehow is the best playing strat ever, for him.

 

[DanTravis62]

love the single volume/no tone. You have too many pickups, but I will forgive you. Man, when this whole soldano retiring thing happened, I listed my blue avenger for an absurd amount on reverb just to get offers so i could figure out the market. And to make my wife think I was trying to downsize the gear I had. Some asshole bought the thing...no message or anything. If I could buy that thing back. It wasn't as good as my current amp, but it was a special amp, and probably the best avenger ever made. I bought another later when the market stabolized and it wasn't the same. Congrats, man. I can only imagine how good it feels.

Man, I NEED that neck pickup, at least for what I normally play on that guitar.

Here's an Instagram post of an old video I found of me with the guitar, long after I sold it. (Please forgive the clams, and that it was recorded with a potato.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/B12P8BLHZri/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Congrats on getting your guitar back. amazing how many pickup configs you tried. So satisfying when you find the right one.

I did that with my mid 80s fender contemporary tele. It was my 2nd guitar and one that I played my hs talent show with. Not much of a looker and heavy, but plays well. Sold it to my buddy like 10 years ago, then he wanted a les Paul, so I found him a les Paul and we traded, plus cash. I had already changed the pots and wiring, but changed the pickups to Anderson h1n and h2+ along with making the bridge be able to in series parallel with a push pull pot and it already had a coil split.

I'd absolutely love to hear a demo of all those wiring options with the TA pickups.

I'm really picky about pickups, but every Tom Anderson guitar I've played with stock pups has been great.

But I especially like the idea of the series parrallel and coil split added to a guitar like that.

 

[SpiderWars]

I had 3 friends/bandmates that kept selling the same Mexi Strat to each other only to want it back. We called it the red whore. It was a great guitar tho.

 

[DanTravis62]

I had 3 friends/bandmates that kept selling the same Mexi Strat to each other only to want it back. We called it the red whore. It was a great guitar tho.

I don't even want to tell you what we called this one; but I'll give you a hint. The reason we tried so many pickup combos with it was because absolutely everything gets a loud, strident effect with it. It's actually a bad strat for classic strat stuff - but great for high gain because of how it seemed to have "power" behind the pickups. Then there's the color.

Draw your own conclusions; but remember, this was the era of Dave Chappelle and "Clayton Bigsby."

 

[Dimebag11]

Really dig the look of that

 

[Donnie B.]

Now I don't know which cosmetic I like better.



Clayton Bigsby

 

[DanTravis62]

Really dig the look of that

It's funny, rig-talk is full of rockers and metalers, so this is the ONLY place I would get compliments on this guitar. I get slagged in strat groups for "ruining" the guitar because I use it for power metal.