Came across it in the Hollywood Guitar Center. 1PC body and sounded really good unplugged. So I bought it although I'm not sold on the stock pickups at all.
Once I got home and took it apart I found that it's really easy to separate the original pickup from the plastic cover to fit a strat pickup in it. The original pickups are bigger than strat ones but I chucked a piece of foam in the cavity to hold it in place. Sounding better now with a Dimarzio Pro Track in the bridge, might look into a BKP Trilogy Suite or Brute Force later on.
I like the look of the Maestro bridge but the arm just gets in the place, it also press against the hardcase lid. So I unscrewed it but kept the tailpiece (instead of just going wrap-around like most do).
Good score. I had a couple of the single cut models way back. Big fat neck's on a nice slim body, very resonant and cheap as chips ( relatively )
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench - a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
Hunter S. Thompson
These are sweet guitars. Yeah, some of them Strat sized humbuckers might work too.
Well done!
"Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible god and destroys a visible nature. Unaware that this nature he's destroying is this god he's worshipping." - Hubert Reeves
GrantB wrote:Looks like a wide nut? Early 65 then?
Yeah ~42mm nut. Strat pickups seem like the easiest way without routing or new pickguard.
Dharmajester wrote:Good score. I had a couple of the single cut models way back. Big fat neck's on a nice slim body, very resonant and cheap as chips ( relatively )
It's crazy how practice guitars from back then have better specs than some of the current "high end" guitars...