New Strat Day

[Dillon]

Well, sorta...I've had this on loan for a while, but now it's officially mine.  It was my dad's, but my parents are moving, and he decided to give it to me permanently, since he doesn't play much anymore and has another Strat just like it.  
 
It's an '83 Standard model.  Used to be one of the ones with 2 knobs and output jack in the 3rd hole.  But he long ago routed it for a regular Strat setup.  It also seems to have had the finish removed from the neck, both on the back and the fretboard, with the fretboard being mildly scalloped.  I love the feel, but it looks a bit odd.  Might give it a light sanding to remove the dirt and put tung oil over it.  As I got it:
 

 
Although I have had it for a while, I haven't paid much attention to it.  So I decided to change that.  Cleaned it up, gave it a good setup, and a bit of a makeover.  Dyed the bright white pickup covers with coffee, and put a black pickguard on it.  Interestingly enough, the pickguard I bought, which is the official Fender brand, fit right on it without having to drill new holes.  The only difference being that the original pickguard had one more hole. I would've thought the layout of the holes had changed over the years.
 

 
These models are quite strange in that they don't have a back route for the trem.  The springs are mounted underneath the pickugard.  It has 3 springs right now, the most it can, and even with just 3 springs it's really stiff. But I think I'd have to remove the trem itself in order to take a spring out. (Tried and failed to pull the center one off from the claw. Too much tension.)
 

 
Anyway, I think it's going to become a regular player.  I'm not sure what pickups it has, maybe Texas Specials if I recall correctly (definitely Fender Custom Shop something), but it has that single coil spank none of my other guitars do currently.  The only problem being that the 60-cycle hum is particularly bad with any kind of distortion.  Searching for noiseless alternatives that might sound similar.

[Logrinn]

That looks really cool. Both the white pickguard and the black one.
Although I have seen that type of trem, I didn't know about the spring cavity routing on this model. Very interesting.
What's with the locking washer in the trem?

[Dillon]

One too many beers to care about it being there It's not a permanent thing, it just fell in there and I didn't realize it until I started putting the new pickguard back together. Goes on the pots.

The trem was designed by Schaller IIRC. I need to change strings, so if I end up removing it I'll look and see if there's any branding or patent info.

[dezb1]

Stuart from Mogwai plays one of them

[paul_]

That's awesome. I've seen those bridges a lot and never knew they had the claw and springs mounted in the body like that, I like it!