[jb welder]

Show of hands, how many of you have a set neck strat? Boy those crickets are loud!!!

If I could get my hands on one of those set-neck Tele's from the 90's (for less than a kidney) I'd get on the Fender bus.

 

[JacquesP]

Seems like you will be shopping for some pickups.

Please keep us updated regarding the progress with bringing the guitar back to being playable. Thanks

Will do !

 

[troyhead]

I'd be curious to know what it looks like under the pickups. If it is some sandwiched plywood like the guitar in the video below, I'd say it's only worth it as a sentimental decoration. As in the video, yours looks like it was made by someone who was working from a photo of a Les Paul, doing their best with the parts that they had. Does the neck fit well, or are there lots of gaps?

Oddly, I thought it actually sounded kinda cool, even if he thought it played terribly.

 

[zontar]

I'd be curious to know what it looks like under the pickups. If it is some sandwiched plywood like the guitar in the video below, I'd say it's only worth it as a sentimental decoration. As in the video, yours looks like it was made by someone who was working from a photo of a Les Paul, doing their best with the parts that they had. Does the neck fit well, or are there lots of gaps?

Oddly, I thought it actually sounded kinda cool, even if he thought it played terribly.

Certainly some substandard hardware & electronics.
I knew what the tuners were like from the back cover.
I once bought a Les Paul style neck from a Pawn Shop for a project that never happened & it had tuners like that (The plan was too replace the them any way)

However the top isn't a big deal to me.
My Les Paul copy has a similar style top but the body is solid wood, not plywood. (Done in the pancake style Gibson used in some of the Norlin years)
Many archtops use a similar idea for the top--so it wasn't something they reverse engineered, they borrowed it.
On my LP copy I did fill the gap around the pickups with wood to make them sturdier.
That was the only potential problem is there is less wood to hold them--but you can get that in an archtop as well.
(& yes high end arch tops do tend to use carved tops--& that is more work than what they did for the guitar in the video--so he's wrong on that)

I am certainly glad my LP copy didn't come with cheap hardware like this one though--and the pickups are humbuckers (Although they did become a bit microphonic.
On mine I changed the machine heads and the strap knobs & the jack plate (it was cracked--I used a metal one)
I do have a different bridge & tail piece--but that is cosmetic, not because the ones on it are trash.

So the guitar in the video was likely not that good--but I am sure there are people that would love it-or at least like it enough, for something to be redeemable on it.