Mod my strat? Lefty needs help!

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flat1ine

New member
Hi all!

Quick question for ya. Guitar-wise, I'm a lefty, so my collection is limited - it's hard to find anything decent that i like that i can justify buying.

I'm looking for a different electric sound. I've been playing a Mexican Made Strat for the past 12 years, and it's not cutting it for me anymore. It's getting noisy, I'm getting tired of it, and I want a different sound.

My question is this: I've got a nice pair of humbuckers from an old project (Seymour Duncan '59 and Duncan Custom) - should i buy a new pickguard and re-wire my strat with them, or should i buy something cheap from Rondo like this, this or this, and toss my pickups in there?

Or is there an easier option, short of shelling out tons of loot for a brand name?

Before I get flamed on wanting to go cheap, I'm nothing more than a hobbyist, I'm a fairly poor guitarist, and I've left aspirations of greatness (an mediocrity) behind long ago. I do this for my own sole enjoyment, so I'm really not looking for expensive solutions, nor do I need a great guitar.

The way I figure it, if i can deal with a poor quality Mexican strat for more than a decade, I don't need a massive step up in quality.

I'm looking for something functional, different and affordable.

Thanks guys!
- Erik
 
I'd do an electronic upgrade on the Mexi-strat rather than buy a $150 guitar. Lots of people say bad things about the Mexican made stuff, but I've never noticed these same issues and I've played many of these over the past few years. As far as I know, the Mexi's use different body woods, the cheap electronics, and don't come "set up" from the factory (not that I'm sure if the American series are *really* set up all that well either.) Oh, and they're made by Mexicans. As far as I'm concerned, American workers are NO better than Mexicans, they just have a better parts bin to pull from, and are paid more.

Or, you could buy a Custom Shop Strat. ;) That's a difference you can hear and feel.

Don't fall for statements like this:
basically the difference is whether you have pride in your country or not. If you have pride, then you must pay for it.
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A Mexican Fender will be better than any new $150 guitar.
 
mwthompson said:
I'd do an electronic upgrade on the Mexi-strat rather than buy a $150 guitar.
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Thanks! I think I'm leaning in that direction. I might miss the flexibilty of having a strat around though ...

mwthompson said:
Lots of people say bad things about the Mexican made stuff, but I've never noticed these same issues and I've played many of these over the past few years. As far as I know, the Mexi's use different body woods, the cheap electronics, and don't come "set up" from the factory
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When I got mine, the nut was backwards, the intonation was horrific, and the action was unspeakably bad - not saying anything negative about mexicans in the slightest, but the QC guy must've been out for a smoke when mine came down the line :p Nothing unfixable,

mwthompson said:
Or, you could buy a Custom Shop Strat. ;) That's a difference you can hear and feel.
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I've played a fair amount of nice instruments - although finding a lefty at GC is damn hard, but the only guitar i've played that I thought was worth the $2,000 was an older Heritage - the lefty Gibsons, Fenders and PRS's i've played were sloppily made - not nearly as bad as my strat, but if i spend 2 grand on anything, it better be PERFECT. Maybe I just got bad ones, but I'm all about doing this on the cheap. At some point, maybe a nice custom job.

Thanks!

Any other opinions?
 
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http://www.southpawguitars.com/

And don't buy a cheap guitar. You'll be unhappy with it, and why would you want to do that to yourself?

Most of all, though, if you are unhappy with the guitar you have, you need to get a new guitar, not modify it. If it isn't what you want now, it's not going to become what you want. They just don't do that.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
mwthompson said:
A Mexican Fender will be better than any new $150 guitar.
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From what I've seen with basses, not all new American Fender guitars are better than a new $150 guitar, much less Mexican Fender guitars. Lately, I've been trying out 5-string electric bass guitars. I thought it would be a good time to move up from my $60-ish Rogue bass to something better, and I find myself detuning to drop-D so often that it would be really nice to have that 5th string.

Anyway, I tried out a Fender American Standard Jazz V at a local shop that is closing. I liked the brighter tone, and I certainly liked having more notes, but... it produced a lot of hum unless both pickups were set at the same level. It definitely didn't strike me as being worth 20 times as much as my Rogue (which doesn't hum significantly, despite having single coil pickups).... :eek:

In the end, I concluded that modding a $1600 Fender (even if I only paid $1100) is almost like doing a grille mod to a vintage U47. If I'm going to spend a grand on a bass, I don't want to diminish its resale value by having to do massive surgery just to make it sound like I want, so if I don't like it out of the box at that price, I shouldn't consider buying it no matter how good the "deal" is.

I'm probably going to buy something sight unseen from Rondo. Besides the active electronics, I figure that even if I have to completely gut the thing and replace all the pickups, wiring, and hardware, I'll still have a nice sounding instrument for less than the base price of the Fender (which might still take hundreds of dollars of rework before I'd be happy with it).

To that end, my advice is that unless you don't like some fundamental aspect of the action (massive fret buzz, twisted neck, tension rod issues), your best best is to probably mod your existing guitar rather than replacing it, if only for cost reasons. You might also consider trying some radically different single-sized pickups like the Seymour Duncan rails series and save the standard-sized humbuckers for another project.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/stratocaster/cutting-edge/
 
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I've had several lefty Agile and SX guitars from Rondo and I've not been that impressed with them. I say hack a hole in the pickguard with a dremel and toss in the humbuckers...

I found deals on a few lefty Ibanez RG 550 and 570s on ebay. Ibanez rocks...
 
flat1ine said:
Thanks a lot for the response man - I'm also thinking I might have to try Rondo out ...

Those SDs look AMAZING ... I really wish I had $300 to drop on pickups ...
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You might try what I did: replace whichever pickup you like the least---in my case, the neck pickup. BTW, ActiveMusician has a lot of their line at $76 apiece, which would only be $228 for three (and free shipping over $199). Not that that's a lot better, but it's a little better, anyway. :)
 
if that was financially an option, believe me, i'd jump on it.

Sadly, I'm looking for a lower-cost solution - along with not swimming in money, i'm getting married in a few months, and spare change is non-existant right now ...

i'm still leaning towards this bad boy ... Agile AL-2000 - i've got more time than money, and from what i've heard a little tweaking to these agiles, and they're pretty sweet.

emphasis on "pretty" sweet - i don't need a flawless guitar. i need something that sounds different than my strat that won't shit the bed anytime soon. please don't flame me for wanting to do this on a budget - i know that i'll get what i pay for, i'm just trying to maximize what i get for my dollar is all.

the way i figure it, $200 for the rondo, and i get a new guitar with badass pickups, plus i get to keep the strat ...

if i'm a moron, please let me know.


dgatwood said:
You might try what I did: replace whichever pickup you like the least---in my case, the neck pickup. BTW, ActiveMusician has a lot of their line at $76 apiece, which would only be $228 for three (and free shipping over $199). Not that that's a lot better, but it's a little better, anyway. :)
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flat1ine said:
if i'm a moron, please let me know.
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You're not a moron if you've made an educated decision. It sounds like you've thought this out and weight the pros and cons. It's definitely smart to factor in your financial situation.

But, you may want to get your stuff before you get married. (While you're still allowed.) ;):p
 
flat1ine said:
You sir, are a smart man. I'm shocked that I didn't think of that ... the wife-to-be is awesome, but I think you're right regardless :eek: :D
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Oh, they're always awesome, until you're legally their property. Just remember, she's always right, even if she isn't. ;)

Btw, congratulations on your upcoming nuptials!
 
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