what can i do to my '95 mexican strat? suggestions, tips, etc! please!

[treymonfauntre]

this was my first electric. its sunburst with a white pickguard and a rosewood fretboard. so basically its the most generic strat possible. i have done simple stuff like resoldering/rewiring and replacing pickups in other electrics, but thats about it. i want to mutilate... er, customize.. this strat.
first off, i hate sunburst. i would love nothing more than to sand the sunburst finish off and refinish it in a natural color. is this something a complete newjack can do? i don't care if it comes out perfect.. but are there any huge reasons why this is a bad idea?
secondly, all the hardware is rusted. everything buzzes like its not grounded. i figure i'll want to replace the bridge pickup at the very least since thats the one i imagine myself playing the most. i am going to be playing this with a bright light overdriven tone. clarity is absolutely vital. its going to be the twangy guitar over a loud acoustic punk rock kind of band. right now its going to be plugged into a fender champion 110 amp, because anything else is just overkill. any suggestions on pickup?
ALSO, is there a mod to get rid of the pickguard? cause i really don't like them.
oh yea, my 3rd and final question-- what the hell can i do about the tremelo bridge? i'm never ever going to use it. hell, i have no idea where the bar even is. what do i do to keep it from moving?

thanks in advance to anybody that helps with any of this!

 

[Outlaws]

this was my first electric. its sunburst with a white pickguard and a rosewood fretboard. so basically its the most generic strat possible. i have done simple stuff like resoldering/rewiring and replacing pickups in other electrics, but thats about it. i want to mutilate... er, customize.. this strat.
first off, i hate sunburst. i would love nothing more than to sand the sunburst finish off and refinish it in a natural color. is this something a complete newjack can do? i don't care if it comes out perfect.. but are there any huge reasons why this is a bad idea?
secondly, all the hardware is rusted. everything buzzes like its not grounded. i figure i'll want to replace the bridge pickup at the very least since thats the one i imagine myself playing the most. i am going to be playing this with a bright light overdriven tone. clarity is absolutely vital. its going to be the twangy guitar over a loud acoustic punk rock kind of band. right now its going to be plugged into a fender champion 110 amp, because anything else is just overkill. any suggestions on pickup?
ALSO, is there a mod to get rid of the pickguard? cause i really don't like them.
oh yea, my 3rd and final question-- what the hell can i do about the tremelo bridge? i'm never ever going to use it. hell, i have no idea where the bar even is. what do i do to keep it from moving?

thanks in advance to anybody that helps with any of this!

So shit buzzes like it isn't grounded....so maybe your soldering work wasn't all the great.

No, a noob cannot remove finish from a gutiar. Sure you can try to sand it off, buts lets face it....you are not gonna be happy with the outcome if this is your first foray into refinishing. You want original? Go get the thing sprayed with some Line-X and maybe it will turn out cool looking. Hell, that might even help you get an interesting sustain effect by effectivly limiting the sustain to pickattack only.

You want 'twangy'? Get some brass saddles for your bridge. You hate your tremolo? Get a fix bridge off eBay, it should just drop right in. But hell, just kill two birds with one stone and get a Telecaster bridge with the 3 brass saddles and drill the body and screw it in place. But then thats a lot of work....


But after all this money, maybe you should just go buy a new guitar.

 

[treymonfauntre]

i haven't even touched this guitar yet. it has been sitting in a case for the past 5 years. i played it a bit and was surprised at how nice it sounded since i remember hating it years ago.
i have sanded a terrible finish off of a cheap acoustic guitar so i could repaint it with normal paints, but i never finished it or anything. i really hate colored guitars so i'd like/love/prefer even a terrible natural finish compared to an cheesy sunburst finish.

i can probably live with the tremelo bridge, but i recall when i'd put new strings on it before it would rest at random places. there has got the be something i can do to make it stay "down", isn't there?

 

[Phyl]

Put some Kinmans in it and do the tone pot mod outlined on the Kinman site. It changes the tone pot to a 'blend' pot by mixing varying amounts of the neck pickup with whatever pickup combo is selected.

 

[bileshake]

For the bridge, if the saddle angle is good for you when the bridge rests against the body, then add a spring on the back or tighten the ones you have.
The body, I wouldn't bother stripping it down. The sunburst isn't that bad of a finish across the board. I'd shop for another body on ebay. When the new one comes in and it works, sell the old one. You might even come out ahead of the deal.
Pickguard, get funky with it. Order a weird PG that'll make up for the distaste of having one. Theres some messedup shit out there and strats are so standard you can have anything.

Oh yeah, my legal advice would not to forget to Rock out.

\m/ \m/

 

[hiwatt357]

this was my first electric. its sunburst with a white pickguard and a rosewood fretboard. so basically its the most generic strat possible. i have done simple stuff like resoldering/rewiring and replacing pickups in other electrics, but thats about it. i want to mutilate... er, customize.. this strat.
first off, i hate sunburst. i would love nothing more than to sand the sunburst finish off and refinish it in a natural color. is this something a complete newjack can do? i don't care if it comes out perfect.. but are there any huge reasons why this is a bad idea?
secondly, all the hardware is rusted. everything buzzes like its not grounded. i figure i'll want to replace the bridge pickup at the very least since thats the one i imagine myself playing the most. i am going to be playing this with a bright light overdriven tone. clarity is absolutely vital. its going to be the twangy guitar over a loud acoustic punk rock kind of band. right now its going to be plugged into a fender champion 110 amp, because anything else is just overkill. any suggestions on pickup?
ALSO, is there a mod to get rid of the pickguard? cause i really don't like them.
oh yea, my 3rd and final question-- what the hell can i do about the tremelo bridge? i'm never ever going to use it. hell, i have no idea where the bar even is. what do i do to keep it from moving?

thanks in advance to anybody that helps with any of this!

Screw down the bridge to block it.

And if you're in a punk band, I have a solution for your sunburst finish...STICKERS!

 

[treymonfauntre]

yea but what do i screw down? i tried tightening the screws attaching the springs back when i was playing it as my primary electric and it might have helped now that i look at it, i didn't think it did at the time.

thanks for responding guys

 

[Outlaws]

yea but what do i screw down? i tried tightening the screws attaching the springs back when i was playing it as my primary electric and it might have helped now that i look at it, i didn't think it did at the time.

thanks for responding guys

I had a strat once upon a time. I found that any string gauge over 10 was too much for the tremolo system to handle without caving up way too much.

 

[hiwatt357]

yea but what do i screw down? i tried tightening the screws attaching the springs back when i was playing it as my primary electric and it might have helped now that i look at it, i didn't think it did at the time.

thanks for responding guys

There should be, like, 6 screws in front of the saddles. Just tighten all of them down.