The goal was to make a Squire Mini-Strat look like something more vintage and off-brand. It ended up looking like a 70's Harmony I used to have. But, of course, with a 22.7 inch scale length and a better fret job and better electronics than the Harmony. I did not see any need to upgrade the mini-strat's electronics or hardware. This job was done for the sake of appearance only.
So, this was what I started with:
Taking the guitar apart was no problem. I removed the tuners because I was not sure whether I would want to refinish the headstock. Instead of unsoldering the wires shown here, I simply cut them. After I removed the bridge I discovered that I did not need to cut the black ground wire. Oh well. And, cutting the thicker gray wire created a little complication when I had to solder things back together.
Too late now.
That ground wire was not soldered to the bridge.
Parts!
I could have pulled out the ground from the other end.
Note the shielding on the backside of the pickguard.
I did not expect to see a neat control/PU cavity in such a cheap guitar. Or the shielding.
The horns are marked for cutting.
The horns are cut. I used a Skill saw for the rough cut and then a sureform tool for the first rough shaping.
I had to get a sense of what it would look like. Still undecided about the body color and headstock.
There were several stages of sanding by hand with coarse paper, priming, sanding, etc. Then some painting and finer paper.
I thought about leaving it like this, for that "distressed", or "worn" look.
I removed the logo with acetone and applied Tung oil to the fingerboard and neck. The logo can still be seen faintly.
At this point I was tired of sanding and decided to paint it black. I remembered the old Harmony, and it was black.
First I had to do something about the pickguard. I cut it to shape with a jigsaw and beveled the edges.
Black paint hides a lot.
It turned out to be a semi-gloss finish. Looks old. Looks somewhat "distressed".
All finished and restrung with Ernie Ball strings, .011 to .048. When I resoldered the wires I had cut earlier, I found that the thicker gray wire was coax. It had an outer layer of strands and an inner wire with white insulation. All these needed to be sorted out on both ends and soldered correctly. A little tedious.
I like the way it looks. It no longer looks like a midget strat.
I'm kind of considering doing some mods on a bullet strat. The pic above is retouched to indicate the shape I want. If I find one very cheap in a pawn shop I might try it. I would put more effort into the finish and reshape the headstock.
So, this was what I started with:
