I thought I would start a project diary for a make-over project I am about to start on my very first guitar. A guitar that I have had now for over 30 years! The Strat in question was the first guitar I was brought as a young willing guitar slinger, and whilst perhaps not the greatest guitar in the world but it was a very decent Strat copy. The guitar itself has already had one transformation in it’s life, where as a project with my grandfather, I stripped the guitar back to it’s natural finish and stained it. I am currently trying to track down a original picture of the guitar which was an all white finish. I will endeavour to do this.I have always loved natural finished guitars, it is no doubt a slight psychoacoustic issue, but I feel that the body resonates better and those additional vibrations from a body which have been trapped (or should that be dampened) but the tight layers of paint and finish. The guitar has been in storage for a number of years and as a result became some what unplayable. The neck was never the greatest, and need some serious attention (or even replaced entirely). But, the reason for me undertaking this project, is that the body is a really lovely piece of wood, it is one piece too, not glued together as you might expect from a cheaper instrument. Guitars should be played and loved and not in storage, so my goal is to make this in to the best instrument it can be, as well as make something to my own personal specs, something which is hard with off the shelf guitars.Here are some pictures of the guitar in it’s current state.

My plans are as follows :-- Re-stain and sand the body, or potentially wax/oil the existing finish- Refret, strip and repair the neck and fingerboard, and add a new nut…if it is doable, otherwise replace the neck entirely. At this point in time it would be with a Maple fingerboard as I love maple, but then again I already have a maple Strat, already so I might actually go with rosewood.- Replace all the electronics. I am currently exploring pickup options, do you guys have any thoughts?- Replace all the hardware, with black finish. So that would be tuners (will be replaced with locking tuners), jack socket , bridge and tremolo unit.- Add a custom decal to the neck.I will be updating the progress on this project on my blog, with the successes and failures as I go along. So watch this space! I hope you enjoy!PeaceNeil