I might not age this one

I bought this MIM classic stratocaster off Craig's List, for a relative song, with the intention of aging it to use a stunt double for my #1. I was planning on making the neck feel the same, and making the body contours match my 1960 beauty. I was even thinking I'd make the color look close as I could to the old darkened sunburst...

I'm liking this more and more as a clean shiny guitar.

http://ewilkins.com/fender/62_ri_top.jpg

http://ewilkins.com/fender/62_ri_angle.jpg

http://ewilkins.com/fender/62_ri_body.jpg

Real one:
http://members.cox.net/wilko2/fender...rat/60_top.jpg

Very nice guitar Wilko, well they are both very nice especially the vintage one. How different do they sound? Perhaps you could try to match the sound without changing the appearance of the MIM. Its interesting to ponder that your Vintage Strat probably looked much like your MIM the day it came out of the factory!

Be still my beating heart!

All it needs (really) is to be played!

Nice score, Wilko!

:appl: :appl: :appl:

i'm not much for sunbursts, so i say " doo it". but then again, it does look awesome the way it is... it's tough sometimes man. nice score though, congrats.

Nice looking guitar!

It looks great, but I'd be tempted to redo the whole thing nitro.

Looks great. Don't age it! Let it age gracefully.

That's my two cents, anyhow.

I agree with elicross. Just play it!

Your Right Wilco, looks great clean! The 1960 is also breathtaking, congrats on the new guitar!:party: :party:

Oh, go ahead and age it...

... one song at a time. :D

i think it looks good as-is :D

kinda like giving a supermodel a black eye for the hell of it.....why?!?

I'd age it

Nah, leave it alone, IMO. Besides, faux aged poly usually looks bad.

Just start your gigs with the shiny one and (don't let 'em see you switch) end them with the relic'd one....show folks how much wear you can put on a guitar IN ONE GIG!!

Why do the frets look beefier than normal on that MIM? Is it new or a special model? I like it.

Oh and the '60 is alright too. ;)

These guitars are great players & cheap enough that you're not risking anything by modding or altering anything on them. I've reworked both MIJ & MIM RI Strats & right now the two Strats I own & play are the results of such projects.
Wilko- I would say GO FOR IT! Especially since you have a '60 sitting right in front of you; you can't go wrong.
My '59 was a killer piece, but to me it was an impractical guitar: Great condition & not a solder joint busted. That means a three-way switch & brittle lacquer that would chip if you so much as looked at it hard, lol. A cool guitar to look at, & to take to shows, but not really playable if you like modern frets & electronics.
But I took ALL the specs off it & completely reworked the bodies of the RIs, & I mean everything. Kind of like Historic Makeovers for a Fender Strat!
Rick I'm sure you know what you are doing as many of your threads & posts demonstrate but I'll give you my two cents anyhow. If you are going to rework the contours you might as well re-radius the body as well. You are going to need to be careful on the back around the neck pocket (the area where the neck plate goes). That's like the entry-exit location for the router & you'll need to look at your '60 to see how the taper is on the radius.
The other trouble spots are routing for the radius on the back of the guitar, the opposite side of the forearm contour, & routing for the radius on the face of the guitar, the opposite side of the belly contour. I found out the hard way that on a body that has already had the contours cut out there is no leading edge for the router bearing to ride on & the router will cut right into the body. I'm sure that's the origin of Tom Anderson's "drop top", lol. You'll either need to make a guide for the bit or just freehand it there & take your chances. I ended up just going really slow over that area & then finessing it w/a palm sander. The contours I reshaped w/a hand-held belt sander. The differences are subtle, but *I* notice them, & that's what counts!
Good luck & I'm sure you'll keep us posted if you decide to undertake this project!

Stunt double. I love it. FWIW, I'd just leave it be, unless you really want a "project"...

The frets are pretty close to vintage Fender. The photos make 'em look bigger. The frets and my '60 are something close to 6150. They are a tad wider and a bit taller.

71818,
I remember some threads about the body reworking. that's some cool work. I had bought an 80 MIJ squire in black and was planning on using that as the "mule" for this work, but I found this and my wife wants us to give the squire to her nephew for his birthday.

The body radius is close enough for me, so I'm not going that far on this one. You can see how close it is around the treble side horn. This is not one of the boxey 3/8 radius bodies like the US puts out. It is either 1/2 or 5/8 already. The arm cut is not bad, but as you know is nothing like the long curve that starts near the bridge and goes all the way to the back radius!
the belly cut is actually quite lame as it is not deep enough (no reissue is) and is really uneven. Way to gradual from the horn end toward the back where it is normal from about half way to the back.

I would really like to have another guitar body that feels as nice as my #1.

The other big area is the neck. Mostly the shaping of the headstock. It's way to squared off and thick at the headstock. I like the curve that a vintage strat has where the fretboard meets the maple, too. I just got some great decals to use. My 60 also has a real nice taper to a pretty thin profile by the nut end (partly because of an over-zealous board leveling by the last shop to work on it-I've got a thread about that a couple years back).

I was thinking I'd use the early '62 style with the added pat numbers because almost all reissues have the standard version with no numbers.

This guitar will stay this way for a while. Who am I kidding? I'll never find the time to do this work...

Hey Rick, I think the stunt double idea is pretty cool, but I think that aged poly looks tacky most of time. I'd just let it come naturally :D

Brett

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Originally Posted by chuckocaster

i'm not much for sunbursts, so i say " doo it". but then again, it does look awesome the way it is... it's tough sometimes man. nice score though, congrats.

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+1 doo it.

Here're some shots that try to show just how drastic a real arm contour is:

http://members.cox.net/wilko2/fender.../topcut_sm.jpg
http://members.cox.net/e-wilkins/Fender/60_arm_cut.jpg
http://members.cox.net/e-wilkins/Fen...op_contour.jpg

[QUOTE=hippiebob01;485192.... I think that aged poly looks tacky most of time. ... :D

Brett[/QUOTE]

Not disputoing the claim, only saying that a good job on ageing poly can look frairly funkadelic.This MIM Fender JV body of mine was reliced by a TFF member who lives in Hawaii(sorry, forgot his handle).
Its a tedious process according to the relic'er, but I think it turned out fairly well. You can actually make out the primer coat in areas through the tons of Poly he took off. Looks rather like a Nitro finish vintage Strat. It took on a aged white color.;
[IMG]http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n.../jerr432-1.jpg http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...g1/jerr437.jpg http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...g1/jerr438.jpg http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...g1/jerr439.jpg http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...g1/jerr446.jpg[/IMG]

That DOES look good. Obviously, some are far more skilled than others.


I didn't once get the 'belt-sander' vibe looking at this one.

Looks like the jack is an "outie", lol

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Originally Posted by cooltone

Just start your gigs with the shiny one and (don't let 'em see you switch) end them with the relic'd one....show folks how much wear you can put on a guitar IN ONE GIG!!

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+1,that will freak out some drunks,LOL

JerryG, that's one cool looking strat man. It looks like a 90's body where the bodies looked a little slimmer near the top horn when looking at it from the front. Those are so comfortable to me and have a cool look. My favorite is that oly white fade with dark rosewood.

What kind of neck is that? Reversed w/22 frets.

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Originally Posted by 71818

Looks like the jack is an "outie", lol

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What up wit dat? The ageing dose look pretty convincing...:band

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The other big area is the neck. Mostly the shaping of the headstock. It's way to squared off and thick at the headstock. I like the curve that a vintage strat has where the fretboard meets the maple, too.

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Wilko, could you show me a picture of both headstocks? I'd like to see what you mean about the RI being squared off compared to the "original". Thanks. -h