I bought this Arctic Frost 1990 Squier II Stratocaster new in the summer of 1990. She's solid body (not plywood) and remained stock until January 2020.
March 2022-
December 2022-
In January 2020 I changed from a decked trem to a floating trem, but discovered the all-too-common issue of a degrading block. I replaced the whole system with a 'Shorty' steel block/tremolo from Guitar Fetish, with some redrilling of holes in the body. Shorty there after the original black-box switch started to get wonky, so it was replaced with a CRL blade switch, and while I was at it I replaced the original pots with CTS pots, and knobs to fit (aged in coffee). In January 2021 I replaced the original jack with a Pure Tone multi-contact jack, as the original was getting corroded/crusty and cutting out.
With some money to spend I waited about 6 months for Sweetwater-exclusive 57/62 RWRP pickups, added a tusq nut and getting some slippage from one of the original tuners, a set of Gotoh vintage-style. The tuners are not an exact fit (the lip of the 6th string hangs out a bit from the headstock), but I like the look and feel of a Kluson-style with the added ease of re-stringing. Since the new pickups are a different size than the import single-coils, I made a custom pickgaurd based on a 62 Strat template, with modifications to fit around the bottom half of the guitar. The neck and middle pickups are now where they are supposed to be, at the harmonics like all other Stratocasters.
But that's not all I did to her.
The big one- This Squier II came with Dunlop 6100 fretwire, and I have never been a fan especially past the 12th fret. Today I finished re-fretting her with Stew Mac Medium-Medium, the same wire I put on my two Telecasters, Epi Sheraton, and Les Paul. Huge difference! 6100 are .110 x 0.55, Medium-Mediums are .084 x .039.
There has always been a slight twist in the neck, one of the reasons I got into repairing/building guitars was because of this issue. Yesterday without any frets on the rosewood, I was finally able to sand the problem away, along with my learner's divots at the cowboy chord positions
. Alas, this guitar has no more mojo to show.
(BTW, I was on the fence about turning the 12" radius into a 7 1/4", but decided my two Teles satisfied that desire.)
March 2022-
December 2022-
In January 2020 I changed from a decked trem to a floating trem, but discovered the all-too-common issue of a degrading block. I replaced the whole system with a 'Shorty' steel block/tremolo from Guitar Fetish, with some redrilling of holes in the body. Shorty there after the original black-box switch started to get wonky, so it was replaced with a CRL blade switch, and while I was at it I replaced the original pots with CTS pots, and knobs to fit (aged in coffee). In January 2021 I replaced the original jack with a Pure Tone multi-contact jack, as the original was getting corroded/crusty and cutting out.
With some money to spend I waited about 6 months for Sweetwater-exclusive 57/62 RWRP pickups, added a tusq nut and getting some slippage from one of the original tuners, a set of Gotoh vintage-style. The tuners are not an exact fit (the lip of the 6th string hangs out a bit from the headstock), but I like the look and feel of a Kluson-style with the added ease of re-stringing. Since the new pickups are a different size than the import single-coils, I made a custom pickgaurd based on a 62 Strat template, with modifications to fit around the bottom half of the guitar. The neck and middle pickups are now where they are supposed to be, at the harmonics like all other Stratocasters.
But that's not all I did to her.
The big one- This Squier II came with Dunlop 6100 fretwire, and I have never been a fan especially past the 12th fret. Today I finished re-fretting her with Stew Mac Medium-Medium, the same wire I put on my two Telecasters, Epi Sheraton, and Les Paul. Huge difference! 6100 are .110 x 0.55, Medium-Mediums are .084 x .039.
There has always been a slight twist in the neck, one of the reasons I got into repairing/building guitars was because of this issue. Yesterday without any frets on the rosewood, I was finally able to sand the problem away, along with my learner's divots at the cowboy chord positions
. Alas, this guitar has no more mojo to show. (BTW, I was on the fence about turning the 12" radius into a 7 1/4", but decided my two Teles satisfied that desire.)
