Daily Journal: Squier Stratocaster Rebuild

Hi all. I've had a nice Indonesian Squier Standard Stratocaster (1994) for a number of years, which has served me well. I recently decided to modify substantial portions of the guitar, to 1) increase my knowledge of guitar-work, 2) make it sound better! Here's a stock image of the guitar that I started with:

Squier Standard Stratocaster.

The list of planned guitar mods:

1. Pickups and Pickguard

2. Bridge

3. Tuners

4. Nut

5. Aesthetics

1. Pickups and Pickguard

This guitar has no-name pickups x3, as well as inadequate shielding:

In this photo, I've shielded the body with copper shielding tape. This is available at any guitar center, and I used the method noted at guitarnuts.com. As you can see, I ran out of copper tape originally, and had tried to shield the pickguard with aluminum foil.

Here, I've taken the new pickguard and shielded the areas around the pickups up to where the pickguard will contact the cavity of the body to ensure an adequate Faraday cage.

I've also now soldered in 3 after-market pickups. At neck, a Fender noiseless pickup (actually a stacked humbucker), at middle, a Kent Armstrong single coil pickup, and at bridge, a Lace Sensor Red pickup for some angry tones.

The finished pickguard.

I also swapped out the original white knobs for black ones to go with the style, as well as the pickup selector switch cap.

2. Bridge

I've removed the bridge and tremolo block, and compared it with my drop-in replacement, a GuitarFetish brass block that is substantially heavier and should add more sustain. I chose all-black for the bridge/tremolo bar as well to go with the motif. Some things I learned from installing this bridge: don't tighten the claw or add too many springs, as this will make the tremolo very hard to use, and will increase the likelihood that you will snap it off the tremolo block. However, don't leave the block too loose, or your strings will detune very easily, making your guitar unplayable. Play around with it and see how it feels. Furthermore, it is necessary to reset the intonation of the guitar (via the screws on the saddles) and the action (via a tiny Allen wrench on the saddle) after you replace the bridge.

Before and after views through the back (note the new block just barely fits):

And from the front:

3. Tuners

In lieu of the stock tuners that would go wonky on the G and B strings quite regularly, I ordered a set of Fender locking tuners.

With old tuners removed:

I had to drill holes for the new tuners to fit, and getting them finagled on was still an adjustment for my poor drilling skills:

4. Nut

The stock nut:

Removed (with a screwdriver and some force):

The old and new nut (a GraphTech nut with slotted bottom -- in hindsight, I could have ordered a flat bottom nut to fit this Squier):

And in place/drying:

5. Aesthetics

I bought this replacement neckplate on a lark. Old vs new:

I sanded off the original "Squier" logo from the headstock with ultrafine steel wool ("0000") and 400-grit sandpaper, as you can see in the tuner pictures. I had this waterslide decal made on eBay, and put some clear coat from Autozone on top.