This week we took apart a well-loved Fender Stratocaster and rebuilt it like a ’60s workhorse—waxed cloth push-back wire, vintage-spec AlNiCo pickups, CTS pots, CRL 5-way, and a proper treble bleed so the sparkle stays when you roll back the volume. We redressed the cavity with copper shielding, ran neat, right-angle harness routes, and flowed low-temp solder for clean, shiny joints (yes, plenty of tidy wiring close-ups for the soldering nerds). The trem got fresh springs, a floated setup, and a bone nut to keep bends in tune.
After a full fret polish and a 10–46 setup—relief at ~0.1 mm, action 1.6/1.4 mm (E/E), pickup heights dialed to balance quack and chime—the guitar woke up: glassy neck tones, snappy middle positions, and a bridge that finally sings without the icepick. Old soul, new reliability—exactly how a Strat should feel in the hands.
