Black MJT Stratocaster Project

[HNB]

This one is a 2001 Standard Stratocaster. I wanted a black maple neck Strat and this seemed to be a good one. Got it home and took the loaded guard off. Going to put a black guard on it. Working on shielding it.

20180609_104038 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180609_104042 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180609_104051 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180609_104106 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180609_102356 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180609_102403 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180609_104354_HDR by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180609_110150_HDR by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180609_110128 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180609_110134 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20180609_122448 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[countertext]

100% approve of this project.

[HNB]

Parts came!

20180613_134348 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

So I got to wiring the pots, jack, and switch. I just need the pickups. Putting a Seymour Duncan California set in there.

20180613_152353 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180613_152356 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[HNB]

Did a body swap. I found a light nice black MJT body with checking and nice wear. The neck and guard fit great, but the bridge screw hole spacing was too narrow so I put a different tremolo bridge on it. This was the first time I had drilled tremolo claw screws. It went pretty much without a hitch. I already had a 1/8 long drill bit for drilling wire cavities. I taped a credit card to the body so the drill wouldn't mar up the finish as I drilled. I premarked and indented where I needed to drill and taped the bit for how deep I wanted to drill. Turned out great. Pictures below. I am doing shielding on this body also so it will take a few days to be able to put it all together.

20180620_201536 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180620_201528 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180620_201513 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180620_201536 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180620_201609 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180620_203039 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180620_204253_HDR by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180620_204243 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180620_205421 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[HNB]

Just finished a second coat of shielding paint. Also "upgraded" the block saddles to stamped ones. (Both work just fine, but I wanted it to look a little more traditional.)

20180621_130755 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180621_130747_HDR by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180621_130739 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[HNB]

Got it all put together and then the problems... LOL Once I got it all together, I noticed the dots were not lining up with the strings well. I loosened the strings and tried to get the neck moved better but it wasn't working... so I did some neck pocket sanding to be able to rotate the neck better and I got it pretty good, but the dots were still off. I know this happens with a lot of guitars, but I figured I had a tusq nut around and would swap it out in case the nut wasn't cut right. I got the new nut installed and it was a little better. I am thinking the dots on this neck might be slightly off center. Next part, I went to tuning the neck up and found out that the action was too high even with the saddles all the way down, so I added a shim. With the shim the upper notes were fretting out.... so I checked the relief and it was really curved. More relief than I think I have seen on a neck. I did a turn, let it sit for a good while, did another turn... I have done like three 1/4 turns so far and it still has too much relief. I am going to let it sit and do some more turns tomorrow. I took the shim out because the higher action is helping keep the upper frets from bottoming out. When I first strung it up, I had 9's and those were too slinky for me. I went and got some 11's and those are too hard on my fingers.... I am going to order some 10's I guess..

On the plus side, the pickups sound great. Here are pics.

20180623_185309 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180623_185339 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180623_185404 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180623_185414 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[HNB]

Swapped necks with a different strat. Put a nice worn Allparts neck on it. I like it much more. I am still fiddling with the MIM neck but at least the black project is done.

20180623_211049 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180623_211056 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180623_211158 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180623_211107 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180623_211205 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180623_211102 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180623_211132 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[HNB]

Ironically the only part left from the MIM strat is the tremolo claw, tremolo screws, tremolo springs, neck plate, and neck screws. Everything else is swapped......

[HNB]

Here is what the neck looks like on the other body. Same issue where the strings are all pointing towards the high E side. Not going to bother with it anymore since I have the truss rod about as tight as it goes and it still has a bunch of relief. Probably will pull the tuners and nut off it eventually and scrap the neck.

2018-06-24_09-39-05 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[Con-Tiki!]

That neck looks like it has a sweep.
The strings are closer to the edge in the middle than at either end. (At least I think, looking at that photo). Very sucky, and a strange problem to have.