- TVL 'oxblood' body
- Allparts D&B Strat neck: 7.25", vintage frets, comfy smooth relic finish by HNB
- SD SJM-1 Vintage pickup set
- 500k pots
- rhythm ckt switch rewired to put both pickups in series
- AVRI tort guard
- modern mustang bridge (narrow spacing)
-Kluson RI tuners
I added:
-brass shielding
-Mastery Vibrato (the polished one)
-FenderBob '59 style logo
-vintage witch hat knobs
Originally I was just going to part it out cuz I needed money. I was trying to sell the guitar that I traded to HNB for it. I wasn't getting any offers so I figured I'd just part out this JM to get money quick.
The neck needed a lot of work. It needed to have its nut finished, a fret level (it also had sprouting so the ends needed to be filed and rounded over) and the binding needed to be scraped as it was a bit too sharp on the edge. It was pretty much unplayable when i got it but looked cool. I plugged it in and I was pleasantly surprised. So I told myself I'd get the neck set up and see how I liked it. Well, I love it and now it's my go-to guitar. Atm I prefer it to the Indomaster!!
For those that don't know the Indomaster, it's a Jan.1960 body with an old, very thin and poorly applied CAR refin (maybe from the 70s) with '59 pickups, an extremely rare original black '59 anodized pickguard, '63 tailpiece and a 2010 Warmoth JM neck with flamed maple and brazilian rosewood slab board. I've had this guitar forever. It used to have a '63 neck on it but I never really liked the profile
The finish on the Allparts strat neck is very smooth and fun to play. HNB was trying to do a Danocaster type finish. I've never played a Dano but this neck feels like an old guitar. It's just to inviting to play. I don't mind the smaller headstock. Usually that would bug me. Maybe I'll give it a '65 style logo in the future but who knows. I've also never had a set a the basic SD vintage pickups either and I can easily say that I prefer them to the Ant II JM pickups in my gf's JM. They work great with my amps and pedals. I may upgrade them to Sunday Handwired models soon but I'm enjoying these in the meantime. I LOVE the color of the TVL body. It's a nice medium weight. I prefer aluminum guards for noise reduction but I love how the 4-ply bevel of the AVRI tort goes with the neck binding. I don't want to 'disrupt' the look so it'll stay for now.
I'm the type that usually prefers nitro this and that on bodies & necks but this MIM body with it's poly metallic finish feels and looks great. They did a great job with these. The whole guitar sounds great so all that has gone out the window. I really love this guitar. I never expected to but it's perfect to me.
