Turning A $75 Guitar into A Professional one. Sharpen My Axe

[@adriandelacroix]

Love this series Phil. No guitar should ever go to a landfill.

[@Peter-hannDe]

Agreed; with the exception of the ones made from chipboard and plywood.

[@johnpanchuk9993]

I have a 21” scale FirstAct made of plywood that I swapped the bridge on and is awesome for “Cartaring" !

[@adriandelacroix]

Wow, thanks for the likes everyone 😄

[@TheLenaweeTrekker]

I totally agree!

[@arturoestrada9441]

@@Peter-hannDe New bodies for those, I actually never seen a brand new guitar neck beyond redemption, as long as it's not twisted can be rescued.

[@SomeJustice19k]

Fantastic series. My dad just gave me a Squire standard Strat that he's had for some years, and even though I can go buy a better one, I'm going to upgrade it. This series has been my go to resource!

[@wjewell63]

I'm 57 now and I tell you the squier is the best beginner guitar .,I still have one I've upgraded

[@caseylee12]

My favorite guitar (out of 19) is my grandfather's old Harmony archtop he bought at Sears in the 50s? 60s?. Nothing like a hand-me- down guitar from your dad!

[@strumlead8741]

Great idea, you'll love it. I had an old Squire Strat (made in S. Korea) that I modified with hot rail humbuckers from Guitar Fetish. It has a toggle switch for each of the 3 pickups for either single coil or humbucker, in series.

[@bryantwalley]

If it is a Squire Standard Series, and you are honest with yourself, it may not need to be "upgraded". The Squire Standard Series is pretty solid as is. The exception is the crazy plastic nut on the early 90's models. Even so, the TUSQ replacements drop right in and thats a $14 swap.

[@Dreamdancer11]

Got a pink squier for fun,used and abused for less than 40 bucks...now that guitar has big stainless steel frets,new inlays,gotoh tuners and bridge,scalloped fretboard,aluminum nut and kinman woodstock plus pickups...of course that may seem overkill for some but that guitar isnt just an upgraded squier now that got a little better..its a beast of a guitar that plays and sounds even better than guitars costing thousands. You owe it to yourself to start learning to do guitar work on your instrument....you ll find out that way, that most of the guitars you ll buy are insanely overpriced for what they offer.Its better to buy a cheap instrument and mod it with great parts....

[@thetonekingofficial]

Sounds great. You are a master!

[@AndyDion]

What axe can’t he sharpen? We gotta give Phil give a shoe string and a broom stick next time.

[@Sjrm126]

@@AndyDion you’re on to something!

[@Max-el7zd]

Your profile picture has a very similar color composition as the album cover of St. Anger by Metallica.

[@jarodreddig63]

Wish Phil would have changed the color!! He said he something exciting planned too

[@christophersmith97]

Masters don't get super glue all over the fretboard when they do a refret, and say it is just dirty.

[@ricmel8008]

It's a blessing to see a guitar tech who can actually play.

[@RNAMusic]

Very cool upgrades! I just modified a Strap that wasn't as comfortable as it should have been.... feeling proud, then I watched this lol!

[@Peace_Dog]

I love the guitar, your craftsmanship and your attitude. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and brightening my day.

[@augustfeola8347]

Truly, you made a silk purse from a sow’s ear. Well done!!

[@michaelmaier7262]

DUDE! 2:36 to 3:22 freaking ROCKS! Well-done. I bought two of my nephews Stew-Mac kits to assemble. I intend to share this video with them to see that they can upgrade their axes and make them their own for real.

[@caseylee12]

I'm so glad you did this video! I've learned so much from your channel, from ''rescuing'' a Squier strat from a pawn shop for $20 and getting it up and running into a good guitar, to finding a '98 USA Peavey Wolfgang Special this past summer for $250 (AND IT'S PURPLE!) and fixing the input jack, to repairing my son- in-law's old Epiphone Rebel 2 guitar, after he had passed away, for my grand daughter. She was so tickled to hear it play again! Thanks so much for making this channel about more than just guitars, at least for me and my family! Great job!...P. S.... Does GAS stand for ''Glarry Acquisition Syndrome '' now?!!?

[@jackpot848]

That guitar will be around after I am gone. For some reason that totally lifted my spirit. I look around the place, I own about twenty guitars (I always forget one or two) and I realize that after I'm gone my kids will divide up these axes. And after they're gone my grandkids will play them. Dude, you totally, unintentionally made my day!

[@franzinauen8443]

Agree, the guitar will be here also when I am gone. I am 63 now. It's a beautiful, very good guitar. I wish I could do that too.

[@christopherkelley5875]

Oh man that middle position in particular sounds fantastic! And unless it has been broken into firewood, no guitar should go to the dump. Often just a few minor tweaks and a good setup can dramatically improve the sound. And even with a cheap guitar, there's some kid out there with almost no money who would love to make some music on that instrument.

[@TheLenaweeTrekker]

Exactly! Hell, I was that kid back in the late 70's. Inflation was going nuts. Gas prices rose to record highs due to the embargo. It was a time of subsistence. So an electric guitar was out of the question.

[@arsenaultgilles4557]

Love the sound of this instrument love the outcome of your project thank for sharing expertise

[@avielkharrat5788]

Brand X was a fusion band in the late 70s featuring Phil Collins and Percy Jones among many others. They were really awesome. Should try !

[@soleneisconbi7302]

I might be wrong but I think it was also Russel Brands American talk show.

[@c3N3q]

It is also a name of a company making cycling hardware...

[@markhammer643]

Believe it or not, I have one of their albums on 8-track tape.

[@eric_z_]

Let me go ahead recommend a song called Cambodia: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGO0o5d3jbqWlck

[@kevinsmith7841]

John Robinson, John Goodsall. "Do They Hurt" great album.

[@AZshootist]

Not only is the guitar a professional, but you as well. Great presentation.

[@jingles53]

Did an Affinity Tele as a COVID project. Locking tuners, all new electronics, custom shop noiseless pickups, metal jack plate, new plate with fender knobs and top hat. It’s become one of my favorites! Great job on the strat!

[@willisgreenstreet5322]

That was fun to watch! After watching Darrell B. a buddy of mine bought 2 glarry teles. I upgraded both of them then he gave me one. We put humbuckers in the neck, new tuners (grover), Worked on the frets. When we finished two nice teles. I like it as much as my MIM teles. Turned out nice. Keep up the great videos....

[@mickwells9431]

Dang Phil, I love how you wound the humbuckers. Awesome vibes and I like the country sounds they display. One thing about it, you and your kids, grandkids, and great grandkids are going to enjoy it throughout time. ENJOY!!

[@GuitarOverdrive]

Great job. I love the sound of your pickups, and I love that you took a sub-$100 guitar and gave it all the bells and whistles.

[@benjaminnielsen4288]

Wow, really great! I own a cheap starcaster that I got for 100 bucks. It was crap. I wanted to toss it. But I just made it better! Few years ago I put a new neck, pickguard, electronics, gold hardware and it was a whole new guitar! This video has really motivated me to build my own "Van Halen-style" strat in 2020. I hope someday you can see it, as you've inspired me to do so. Just ordered a body and a neck. RIP EVH, I miss you, and this build is for you! Love your work, Phil. Thanks.

[@LowMyco99]

Such a cool video series. I converted a squire strat HSS into a hot rod myself. I changed the nut to a bone nut. I replaced the humbucker with an Enforcer. The single coils were changed to an Eric Clapton noiseless in the middle position and a Jeff Beck noiseless in the neck position. I blocked off the tremolo for more sustain and finally I cut the seventies strat headstock down to a regular strat headstock. That guitar played and sounded better than the two American Strats I owned and it cost me all of $300 to do the whole build because I worked at a music store. Man what a great guitar that was.

[@kevincarlos973]

"Everybody watching this video - this guitar will be around after you're long gone." Glarry's revenge at the hand of Phillip McKnight.

[@simonzirians9080]

Thank you Phillip for your awesome idea's. I got a Glarry too and modded it up! with Three humbucker Rail pickups and coil split! followed your fret work ! it sounds amazing now!. Thank you again, and keep them coming!

[@jaistanley]

I absolutely couldn't agree more about your landfill comment. The idea of anything; let alone an instrument someone could love, going to waste is abhorant. Great video!

[@zS39SBT4fe5Zp8Q]

Thanks for the video series. Love the build and the philosophy behind it!

[@citygirlfarm]

The great thing about this video series you've made is all the outstanding information and details you've provided. These make great repair and upgrade videos. As far as the trash comment I get where your coming from. I don't know one really good guitarist who started on an expensive guitar. I'm 64 and started playing when I was 10, I still test the cheap stuff out. It's kind of fun. Good job Phil.

[@bobgreen3116]

This has to be your best video on sharpen your ax as of yet. Love what you did with that guitar. I too have a Glarry. It's a red thinline and it needs work, but I have a special little place in my heart for it.

[@martinflemin]

That's great. I hate it when people make those negative remarks about cheap guitars. They need to see the bigger picture!! Great build

[@rayschoch5882]

The guy who made that "landfill" comment should apologize. I did something very similar with a Squier Affinity Tele - I bought it purposely as a low-cost mod platform, kept the neck, frets and body, replaced everything else, including adding a pair of Seymour Duncan stacked single coils. It looks good, plays great, sounds killer, and it suits me, which is the point.

[@ronwolenski-n8wcr]

As long as it has a good straight neck and a solid body there is no reason you couldn't mod it and make it work as well as any other guitar more than twice it's price...

[@rayschoch5882]

@@ronwolenski-n8wcr That's what I was hoping, and it's turned out fine.

[@AshRavens]

"McKnight Guitars" have a nice ring to it, Philip!

[@shaneworden1325]

Proof that a little time and money you can have the guitar of your dreams. And you dont have to dump all the cash at once. Great video as always. Wonderful guitar.

[@juananonly33]

That tone is fantastic. Being very fond of a "swiss army" guitar, the tonal range and versatility culminating from your mods is well worth the work. Thank you for the explanation and description of the effects each of the changes made to the sound(dead on), Tons of ideas for my next build. Keep up the great work, looking forward to checking out your previous videos and finding out what the next one has in store. New sub.

[@mikedtubey]

Love the customization! Great Job as always!!!

[@jonjackson8811]

Brah, this is sick, you killed it, love the final result.

[@joshchristian8598]

I'm way late to this one but ill echo everyone's comment that your heartfelt love for our favorite instrument/passtime/passion resonates like 70 year old mahogany my brother. This was a great build and I loved the finished product.. I would not be able to put it down for weeks. Ty Phil great channel 👍

[@erikpaterson1404]

I also had me doubts, I'm glad a stuck around to watch. Good on ye mate. Nice video Much respect

[@chris_2714]

I accidentally wired one HH guitar out of phase in the middle position, ended up keeping it as it's a unique useful tone. Great job on the build Phil!

[@russelllucas1043]

Haha, I did the same thing. I love it 😎

[@InfiniteDesign91]

I have zero experience with wiring, but I plan on learning it. How to wire pickups out of phase?

[@unitedwallsystem2941]

Phil, you are a wonderful person, & very, very knowledgeable, & I really appreciate your time, in producing these videos, they are all, very enriching, thank you , Mike Parsons.

[@trevorarthurson6815]

Very nice, very, very nice tone from your pickups & wiring.

[@sgt.grinch3299]

Very impressive build. Love the tones. Thanks

[@dakistle]

You inspired me! I did a Glarry strat up with fender humbuckers, tele wiring, and an imitation floyd rose after seeing this.

[@garydmercer]

I want that guitar!!!!! Love it. You did it justice! No way would I throw my Glarry guitars away. Even thought they are flawed and not perfect, I still love playing them. :)

[@fnersch3367]

Am building a Glarry kit now. Amazed at the quality of the parts. The body is solid mahogany so am varnishing it (gorgeous grain). Neck is very solid with ebony fingerboard. Will assemble with all original parts for evaluation then will swap out tuners, nut, and bridge, later; pickups and wiring. This is a fun and educational project. Then on to a Stoessel Lute.

[@rocktorrocks]

I happened across a Squier SE strat someone had thrown out, and brought it back. Really glad I did, this video has me super excited to fix it up and give it a new life. I agree, no guitar should go in the trash.

[@TMmodify]

It's not only that I love that guitar. What really gets to me is how much you seem to love it.

[@markbaum9615]

No dubious glaring at your glarry Just looks of affinity...... Great Job Phil...... Love the SS frets and unfinished maple ...like my 1988 Jackson USA

[@michaelangres4444]

Great job Phillip!! Love your Chanel. And great to finally get some cooler, cleaner air in Az!!

[@alienvolt7741]

makes me appreciate the guitar i bought from a friend who had it all dirty and dusty with a bad setup. After fixing it up it's played very well.

[@barnettg66]

Great series of videos on this type of moding. Not too much worry about value means you can try things that you'd never even dream of with a high end guitar like a real Strat or Les Paul. Start cheap and build to priceless.

[@duanewelsh5611]

Nice work! Turned out way better than I thought it would.

[@a456987]

Amazing pickups, I really like the middle position and that bridge pickup absolutely melts your face when you add overdrive

[@nicolamontoro]

So warm, love the color. Great job Phillip!

[@ambu6478]

Man what an awesome video and an absolutely beautiful amazing guitar. You're getting sounds at of a Strat I didn't know they could make!!!

[@rodennis418]

Super cool and sounds great. Fun series to watch.

[@jeffcampbell6898]

It's odd, I have some expensive guitars and was bored one day and took a Squire and put in a Paul Reed Smith 58/15 S Humbucker set with a push-pull slitter in it, and out of my Guitars, I think it sounds and plays better than all my expensive ones.

[@jc6721]

I have not had the pleasure to play a Glarry but I have done something similar with a 1997 MIM Squier and a Monoprice Cali Classic. Both turned out nice, then got modded a few more times before being sold or given away. The more expensive Monoprice DLX Plus line is a pretty dang good axe for $200-$250 range! Cheaper if you get them on sale! Phil I love those pickups and the way you have them wired! Very versatile! You have a Strat a Tele and a shredder all in one! Great job!

[@electroKrunch]

Great vids, Phil! I missed it when you made them. I've taken swapmeet guitars and ramped them up & it's quite satisfying! I've got a couple Harley Bentons I'll be working on one day, will post those vids. Thanks for the vids Phil!!

[@nikkoberserker]

Hi Phillip , it's a good project ,i have a couple of cheap guitars and i customise them to make a better guitar ,for me it's a good way to make a very personnal guitar for a good price . I use Squier and Harley Benton brand to make a custom guitar . My favorite is a Squier Bullet Mustang ,i put wilkinson ez lock tuners , a pair of Fender Shawbucker pickups (used) and a custom pickguard ,rolling string tree .and the result is awesome very hot sound ! I love this kind of project , cheap guitars are good platform to make a custom guitar for less than "medium-high end" guitar brand . Thanks for the videos ,take care and be safe.

[@Luislazarosolana]

I enjoyed this project much. I received time ago a cheap guitar, dismissed by its former owner, broken, wounded and just with some time, effort and new pieces became my prefered guitar. Light weight, powerful sound, and really easy to play... thanks from Spain!

[@absproducoes8871]

Simply Fabulous! Thank so much for sharing your great idea and your great, awsome work.

[@zaldstudio]

This month, i working on my 2 Cort guitars. Yes, they're cheap used entry-level Cort G series and Zenox Series. But like this video, Guitar deserves more love. So i refretted, change pickups, change bridge and nut, change pots.. parts not as expensive as this video, though... but still better parts than stock parts...... now both guitars sounds and plays fantastic

[@iainholmes2735]

Enjoyed this, Phil. Looks & sounds great.

[@moparbryan]

Nice job! I think you’ve demonstrated what Lee Anderton refers to as the law of diminishing returns in respect to guitars. With modern cnc and multi step skilled assembly processes you almost have to go out of your way to build a poor quality instrument. In as much as it’s really down to good QC, reasonable wood and parts selection, and industry standard build methods to get a good basic instrument. $175 will get you a functional instrument. $350-400 will get you, today what would 30 years ago have been a great guitar. And for $700-900 your getting a rock solid excellent quality gigging work horse that you can take on any stage anywhere. Everything above that price point is really about personal preference, artisan time and effort, exotic wood etc. After about $1,000 it becomes less about performance and capability. All you’ve really done is put the time and parts into it, that at they’re price point Glarry couldn’t. The bones were there just not the labor and parts. Imho is a $3,500 Les Paul really that much better than a $1,000 Ltd ec1000? Or a $1,200 USA Strat vs a $700 mim? Once you get over a certain price point your getting less and less for your money. One thing though, my ocd kicking in here it’s pronounced fer ul like a feral animal, not fur ul.

[@geraldsmith4806]

This guitar sounds great looks great. Your the best Phil

[@KainzMusic]

I'm really loving those tones!

[@lukegoffkat]

I loved the video~! The two guitars you see as my avatar are both Fenders that I upgraded. The black Strat I had played until I had worn out the neck, not just the frets. Replaced it with a $60 roasted maple neck. Of course I had to do the work of leveling the frets and all. Lots of work, but I finally got my old battle axe back up. It has always sounded so great for a MIM. The other Squire you see there was $200 but sounded like a real badass. Once again, had to level the frets. I changed all the hardware to gold and pickguard and now it looks like it's worth thousands. Your guitar sounds fantastic! I'm More of an HSS guy, but yours's has real depth to it!

[@tipplers3417]

I love this channel & EVERYTHING Phillip teaches us. I love that he loves what he does. Great guy

[@jonathanstrand2474]

Helps when, like Phil, you can do your own install work, how about a Sofia trem, Graftec nut, SD pick ups and custom switches in a $65 (yard sale) FX series Ibanez strat copy, Basswood body. It’s sounds great, frets are a little weird, compared to the jumbo’s I prefer, but I spent quite enough! Just the parts were $800, but now that it’s done, I’m glad I did it. HSH but with 3 sounds per humbucker, AND a 5 way, it will literally cover any type of music, including in effect, 3 single coils (split position) like a stock strat!🙂

[@maurashannon4797]

I really like the warm sound of your guitar.

[@ErikCIng]

That came out great! Nice build!

[@jray5363]

Man, that came out great! I’d be proud to own it. You might have a future as a pickup builder.I actually enjoy the clean tones on guitar demos, and those sound great. Grandkids or not, somebody is gonna be lucky to have it someday. Ir would be cool!

[@WesternWearEnthusiast]

I absolutely love that guitar. The look, the sounds and the overall great craftsmanship that you put into it is simply fantastic. Well done 👍.

[@wvincagold]

3 of my guitars are under 200.00 dollars I'm sorry for purest but wood is wood. With today's poly paints and machining techniques and adhesives in many ways better than materials used in the past. Each one of the guitars I did I upgraded just like you did. Upgrade nut. Alnico pickups better tuners. And way better bridge and everything is on rollers. I replace all the electrics using high quality pots and switches. The only thing I did not do was the SS frets. If I ever wear out the nickle thats something I will do. Your videos inspired me and I love doing it. It's a lot of fun and people have played my guitars and ask me the brand (I remove all badging) since all I put is a kokepeli on the headstock. I tell them its my brand. They all have thought my super strat was made in a boutique wear house as it has no pick cover. But it truly rocks. So thanks for inspiring me.

[@galeliyalevi]

love the Phaze reverse option. Really adds tonal flexibility and great choices with the pickups and pots chices and wiring.

[@briw4647]

Awesome job. I did something like this except I used seymour Duncan humbuckers. I also added les Paul style wiring so I can control the tone on each humbucker and also coil split each

[@awsumawstun]

This is awesome! Sharpen My Axe idea - Danelectro! They’re still viewed as the “Sears catalog guitar” but I think it would be cool to see what you’d to do upgrade it and make it awesome.

[@brocluno01]

Nice, I really like the way it came out - both visually and sonically. Well done. And I like the out of phase tones : )

[@ryban1001]

The countryfied middle position is genius!

[@fishhooks100]

Nice build! Great sounds!

[@dalehockin]

Awesome job, sweet guitar! Pick ups sound badass!

[@willland1243]

Amazing work on this Turning A $75 Guitar into A Professional one! I never could afford a high end guitar and this is a perfect way to take nothing and turn it into gold! Oh, man you can really play too, Awesome Job and love the show!

[@Russell_Optics]

I think it turned out great ! It really has some very cool tones and a bit outside the box. Well done Phil.

[@MrJonken70]

Nice goin'. As a luthier; i'd like to suggest and recommend another uppgrade for You. This should be right up Your alley: How to trick out the maximum tone from all the wood in a guitar. This thing is accually in two different parts: -Neck joint contact -Clean inner cavities This is a bit tricky: But after watching Your video; i confident that You have got the hands for this: How much more acoustic tone do You gain by having a perfect wood-to-wood contact between the floor on the neck pocket -and the straight bottom alignment surface on the neck? This is done by removing all the laquer on the neck pocket floor -and making a perfectly flat wood surface. Now; this surface also needs to be angeled slightly -to offer the correct neck tilt for the neck. This can be done by using straight sanding blocks -or using a guided router. (A perfect fit is when You can't stick in a corner of a paper between the neck and the neckjoint heel -when the neck is mounted.) To preper the neck is accually a much more simple process: Simply sand the neck bottom against a flat surface. And refinish the surface. This ususally doesn't take off much wood. (But You might wanna double check the length of the mounting screws -since you already switched from neckplate to ferrules on that guitar.) To get a maximum tonal properties from instrument wood; has very much to do with the paint covering the wood. However: All the wood does not need to be covered by paint. As a matter of fact; the less wood covered by paint = More tone. We've all seen and played the reliced guitars -and probably wondered why theese instruments seem to have so much more shime and tone -compared to the the same non-reliced ones. Why is this? What if the same - or more ammont of paint could be removed from a non reliced instrument? This is accually possible. The difference is that You only remove -or thin out the paint -from the inner cavities on the body. The trick is kinda to look at paint as the peel of an orange. You only need to have it on the shoving outside surfaces. ALL the other wood surfaces only needs to have a light protection. Many pros simply choses to cover theese surfaces with a thin laquer coat -or in most cases only superglue. Offcource it's possible to put shielded paint on top of the dryed superglue too. So: How would a cheaper/multi piece -wood guitar body accually react to this? The answer is: Exactly the same way as an expensive -or one piece guitar body. The 100 dollar question here is: How big of an difference would this accually give? -Feel like you would like to give this a try? -This mod does not require any upgrade parts: It olny requires 'the know how' -and the work. -I assure You: THIS is a real game changer -if You put in the work and do it right.

[@picksalot1]

The design of the RockRabbit Tremolo looks like its properly addressed the tuning instability issues of vintage tremolos. That combined with the Hipshot Locking Tuners was a great solution for the dive bombers. The guitar's a keeper now. I'd call it a "Brand eXt" for Brand Extension or Brand Extreme. Thanks

[@HatOnAHat]

Phil those pickups are KILLER! You got some great tone! Nice work on winding your own pickups!

[@dennisjohnmorse2043]

i really like the tone, sounds great clean. sounds great dirty also but I'm impressed with the clean sound of that guitar, great job on the pickups

[@makolies]

I love this phil. Keep up the good work.

[@brettneuberger6466]

Very cool guitar. Fun to have a one of a kind that you did yourself as well.

[@chevymetal83]

It sounds great it looks great! A perfect example that some work can make any guitar good.

[@MosriteCharlie]

Nice job. Impressive conversion. Worthy of giging.

[@craigsmith9168]

Cool vid! I did similar with a Focus 111s, I had a bunch parts that I accumulated over the years that I used, that combined with a some luthier work made a nice sounding/playing guitar. I have about $50-$75 in the project, worth every penny. Big bonus was how much I learned and just the pleasure of the project.

[@scottreynolds6317]

That bridge pickup sounds amazing!!!!

[@kcb9455]

Nice work Phil! Sounds great 👍

[@samringwald]

Brass? Soft? That's why people use the infamous "bone knuckles" to break our brass skeletons.

[@npBOgory]

Ha!

[@leoglasmeyer2853]

i hope you do realize that soft refers to the fragility and capacity to deform without breaking. Which is exactly why brass knuckles are made of that material, because they might chip or deform with the hits, but they'll never break like another more fragile metal

[@TexanUSMC8089]

No kidding. Brass was used to make swords a few thousand years ago. lol Brass is much harder and stronger than a plastic or bone nut.

[@JohnOhkumaThiel]

I bought a 2013 Made in China Squier Bullet Stratocaster in a thrift shop about two and a half years ago, and been upgrading it since then. It's finally complete just recently. The only original part left on it is the body, and even that I modified. I want to make a show and tell video about it, but it might be helpful to beginners--and me in preparing the video--to give a basic overview of what I did and why. This was only my second stratocaster, and the first genuine Fender anything I've ever owned. I totally wanted the real thing, but at the time could barely afford a made in Mexico Player, which was the one I had my eye on. Still this was an upgrade from my previous Selder stratocaster even before I did anything to it. When I bought it, I'm pretty sure the strings were still the ones it came with, the fretboard was dried out, and it had marks on it which indicated to me that it had been sitting on a stand for years, rarely if ever played, like maybe it was a leftover from a store that simply never sold. I wouldn't know a thing about guitars if it weren't for Phillip McKnight and StewMac. I had watched their videos for months before buying the first guitar so that I knew exactly what I wanted in terms of make and model. First thing I did was clean it with naptha (lighter fluid), polish it, oil the fretboard, and put on new strings. The first stratocaster by the way was great for learning basic maintenance like this on, and again it was the videos on KZbin which taught me how to do this. It would not stay in tune at all. As soon as I did a bend in particular, much moreso if I dared to use the tremolo, it would be out of tune. In fact if I played it at all it would be immediately out of tune. So I replaced the nut with one by GraphTech. This was very labor intensive to make it fit correctly, but also very easy to understand how to do it. I basically just sanded it down to the same size as the original nut. This was an improvement, but still didn't provide great tuning stability. So next I replaced the tuning machines with Fender locking tuners. This was a bit scary because every hole, I would discover, on the entire guitar and pickguard is 2mm smaller than the Fender standard of 10mm (1cm). I had to get a reamer and make the holes bigger by hand. I feared that if I messed it up, I would have ruined the neck, but that turned out to be the relatively easy part--they don't fit until the holes are big enough, so just do them one at a time, be patient, ream a little bit at a time until they simply drop into the holes, and if you make the hole slightly too large, just wrap a little tape around the peg, which will be invisible once you finish the installation. With the Fender tuners I also had to add two little holes for each of the tuning machines, and that I did mess up, but because I used to be a ski mechanic I knew how to fix that nice and pretty until I got it right by mixing the sawdust from the reaming (you should save the sawdust by the way for color matching) with some clear glue and filling in the holes and trying it again after it dried. I wish I could include a photo here of the back of that headstock because it was a bit of a mess, but again absolutely invisible once the new tuners were installed. Again, better tuning stability, but it wasn't really excellent until I also replaced the string trees and bridge saddles with GraphTech as well. After that, I could carry that guitar around in a gig bag for days and it would still be almost perfectly in tune, including after using the tremolo. At this point I had spent about $60 in parts--of course I also had to buy tools, strings, a lead wire, some kind of amp, a strap, and so on, but this is just about upgrading so $60, and worth every penny. Why did I do all this and that which follows myself? Because if I had a pro do it, it would have cost as much as buying a better guitar. In hindsight, doing it yourself, learning the hows and whys, you're going to do a better job than a pro because you will spend much more time and attention on details specific to you. You will also end up with a guitar which is genuinely better than one you can buy new in a store. But also realize, this is going to take months to a few years, and in that time you're going to get better and better at it. The other stuff was fairly easy so I'll just list it here in the order that I did it: * Replaced all the knobs and such because they looked almost like they were nicotine stained. * Should have done this next but actually it was several steps later, I replaced the pick guard, which even though it was expensive was well worth it for technical reason--like the sizes of the openings for the pots and pickups, which I had to alter to fit each and every time, and was a major pain in the butt. The pickguard wont change your sound, so it doesn't seem worth it, but the Squier pickguard is a one ply ugly sheet of plastic that, again, is not standard Fender size. * Installed an ObsidanWire Blender which is plug and play, no soldering required, and which comes with all top of the line parts including a new five way switch and output jack. The difference in sound quality is huge! * Replaced the pickups with Fender Tex-Mex--which not only sound the best to me out of the Fender options, but are also the least expensive. Especially with the ObsidianWire blender, this is an easy install. * Added copper shielding to the cavity. There's a lot of debate over paint versus shielding tape, copper versus aluminum, how you can use just plain aluminum foil that you have in your kitchen and so on. It seems to me the reason they use paint at the factories is because it's less labor intensive and therefore cheaper. Copper or aluminum tape works great, looks great, and it's a fairly easy DIY project. I also think tape is actually easier to DIY because you don't have to wait for it to dry, then add a second coat, dry again, add a third coat, then test it. Tape, there's no waiting and really no need to test it, so there's one more pricey one time gadget you don't need to buy--a multimeter. * Ernie Ball Strap Locks: Simply put, get strap locks, or you will regret not getting them. * Replaced the bridge and block with a Fender Vintage style Big Block. Again, huge difference in sound and performance. The Squier Bullet body is just a slight bit too shallow so I had to leave the back plate off, but I prefer it that way. In fact some PRS guitars now come with no back plate because that's how John Mayer has his. The Affinity is quite a bit thinner body, so the block might actually stick out, but on the Bullet it's only just about touching the backplate if I put it back on. In any case, you don't need the backplate. If and when I buy another Stratocaster, I'll probably remove it first thing. * And finally, I replaced the neck with a Fender roasted maple, deep C neck that cost about $300 and made the whole guitar a thousand times better even after all the other upgrades. Bottom Line: What and how you choose to upgrade is a wonderful process that only you should decide. Anyone who says it has to be all Fender, all USA, such and such part is the best, no options, ignore them. It's your guitar, not theirs.

[@IrisGalaxis]

LOVE that neck pickup!!!

[@adecree]

Love the tone on this!

[@rockdaddy2168]

What a great project. Really thought the brass nut would brighten it up but it remained "quite civil".

[@Bluedragonfly5150]

Super cool. I wish I had the time to do something like that. You should be proud.

[@9th_note]

that's kick ass... I have always gravitated towards guitars like this, something about it having a little bit of character just does it for me. That's a cool axe phil... 🤘🏼

[@fattboyzz1355]

Partscasters freakin rule ! 😎😎😎 Great work Phil !!!