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2K views 20 replies 8 participants last post by  BGood 
#1 · (Edited)
I've been looking for a nice 25½" scale C shaped neck and found one this morning. Real cheap and bonus ... it's attached to a Jay Turser JT300 Vintage Series Stratocaster copy body with trimmings. Just got it the studio and plugged it in. Nice tone, but bridge and middle pups are squealers. It needs a good clean up over and under the pickguard. Scratchy pots and switch. Might have to rethink those.

That neck is one good chunk of wood with nice frets. No sharp ends and intonation is good. Neck might get shimmed to lower the action, or maybe I'll shave the heel. Doesn't need much. Bridge is solid dense metal. I haven't opened up the back yet to look at the block.

Body is thick and heavy, I'd say near 8lbs. If I remember my research, it's not plywood and might be mahogany on those Vintage. Once under the spotlight, I discovered it has a real deep blue flame. I'll see if it's veneer or a cap when I go inside. I didn't see the flames before, it's so dark.

Anyway, nice project and here are some pics.



 
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#2 ·
That's a nice score man, congratulations. I have to say though I followed a previous thread of yours that had much debate on values and different perspectives. If you don't wanna have your thread derailed again by senseless arguing I would suggest not inviting such debate by instigating with such a title. You'll notice that there are some of us here that believe guitars can be good at $100 or $1k and price point is just a matter of what you're comfortable with.
 
#7 ·
Cool--if you like it--that makes it worthwhile--especially if it was a bargain.

Enjoy!
 
#8 ·
I have actually heard nothing but good things about these, especially for the price. On another forum, someone contacted US Music (they own Jay Turser), and they said the wood was either Poplar or Basswood, depending on what they could get at the time.

A trip to Guitarfetish or bezdez on eBay, and you can make these into something pretty cool.
 
#10 · (Edited)
This is where I'm at now.

Tried to gently strip the top finish with a heat gun. It's like a real thin dark blue vinyl lacquer of some kind. Sooo thin it's hard not to go through the thin veneer. Looks like bacon in this pic.


So I sanded a little more surface and the wood seem nice, Probably basswood.


So I went for it ...


Color is all gone, most of the sealer too. Some left here and there to be scratched off.

Next I'll test some colors on the pickguard section. Maybe a nice rich blue, maybe it'll stay natural with some oil finish. I'll try things in Photoshop before I go live.
 
#17 ·
So ...
Been tweaking the neck finish. Using Scotch Brite, I got the back of the neck all smooth and it got me thinking ... why not do the whole neck and get rid of that headstock and fretboard mega glossy finish. Well ... I did and am real happy I did. This neck now looks and feel like a million bucks. The by-product of bringing down the luster on the fretboard is some nicely polished frets.




Tuners are nice, but one is all loose even after re-tightening all I could. They might have to be replaced. Shouldn't be hard to find cheap replacement, they look pretty standard to me.


Nice attention to detail on the string trees. See the different spacer heights.

 
#18 ·
Even though all the metal on this guitar is pretty heavy and solid (scratched spots are a brass or copper color), the trem block was a small one. Not so anymore. What's the deal with a big block ? To add more mass to ? I cut a piece of ¼ inch iron and Super Glued it to the block. TADA ! Instant big block for nothing.




Body color/stain/lacquer is mostly done, but that's for next time
 
#21 ·
So ... I just strung her up with the old tuners on, couldn't wait anymore. Since I shimmed the neck, I had to raise each saddle. The benefit is that the hex key screw heads are now flush with the top of said saddles. Real smooth.

Intonation is in the ball park. It'll get it tweaked when new tuners arrive.

Neck is great. Good thing, since that's why I bought the guitar.

The pups are real nice, very Stratty. Bridge and middle just don't want too much dirt though, they'll yell at me if so. Got plenty of other guitars that take gain well. I might just keep it as is for clean single coil tone ... for now.

It doesn't just look like denim, it already feels like an old pair of jeans.





 
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