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Well, lets see. I bought the guitar on New Years Eve, so I've had seven full months to do this. I'm not doing too bad.

Anyway, I bought the guitar from a local pawn shop for $50. It was hideous; faded white paint, stickers all over, strings that had never been changed, and a home-modified strap with spikes like a dog collar. Normally I would have dismissed the guitar without a second glance, but the neck caught my eye. It had a beautiful-patterned maple neck, and upon playing it I discovered that even with the old strings it played remarkably well.Would you have bought this guitar?So I took it home thinking, quot;this neck is worth a couple hundred dollars, so why not give the rest of it a shot.quot; I was originally considering buying a body kit from Warmoth, but I figured this might be a better start. I plugged it into Luke's Vibro-Champ to see how it sounded. It seriously needed new strings, but considering that, it didn't sound too bad - about what I expected from an old, abused American guitar. I'm a humbucker man, so I knew before I heard it that the pickups would have to be changed, but they would have been alright if I wanted single coils and didn't want to spend any money. I've heard people do a lot more with a lot less.After sticker removal.The next step was stripping the stickers and paint. The stickers peeled off the neck with no problems (whew!!!) and it cleaned up quite nicely. Upon stripping the body, I found that the guitar was actually built from six pieces of wood: four main sections and two veneers. I'm still not certain what type of wood it is, but I was told by a local guitar store owner who used to deal in Predators before they went overseas that it is alder. Despite the piecing together, it looks really good. The grains are very well defined - something that leads me to believe it may not be alder. Nevertheless, I cleaned it up and shot it with some clear polyurethane.I thought I had some pictures before I put any hardware on. Oh well.I decided to go with all black hardware. The neck plate and truss rod plate were black and the nut was graphite, but everything else had to be replaced. My friends (including Luke - Thanks again) pitched in and bought me planet waves tuners for my birthday, and I purchased the other parts and a new black pickguard for about $200. Next came the pickups: a Cool Rails for the neck (upon Luke's recommendation that a HR might be too bassy in the neck), a Hot Rails for the middle, and a Custom Custom for the bridge. I also got a mini toggle from Radio Shack to split the CC.

I got it all assembled and soldered together, plugged it in, and voila...It worked! First try. I checked the split bridge position for noise (I didn't shield it beyond the factory shielding on the pickups and pickguard), and I found there was not a serious noise problem. At low levels, it is impercieveable. I took it to another guitar store and had the intonation and everything set up professionally. I quot;knewquot; how to do it, but I wanted to make sure it was done correctly the first time. I'll be doing it myself from now on.

I've commented on the pups in several threads, and they're pretty common, so I'll wait on a pup review for now.

Here's the final pics. The guitar sits on the stand when I'm not playing, so it's a bit dirty.This looks really good! I'm thinking about buying a used Peavey USA predator as my third guitar, just as another project when I get done with the Charvel model 1a. They seem to be a good bargain That's a good looking guitar dude!

thats a beautiful guitar! if i knew how do go and do all that stuff id turn my squire into a MACHINE! lol

nice job!

I LOVE that guitar, excellent choice on natural Black hardware/pickguard. but hell with a neck pickup :P.

And yes, If I saw that guitar at the pawn shop for $50 I would have bought it.

Thanks guys.

Pierre, it's pretty common to see them for around $100 here. I know of two others and a couple that are more like teles.

tfb, what I did wasn't too bad. I was afraid I was going to have to paint it. The whole project took less than a month, and most of that was waiting for parts.

Mephis, I'm sorry I don't have a tele pup in the neck.

bump

nice work, friend !!

how hard was it to strip the body down to bare wood?

is the neck 'socket-ized' where you use those threaded inserts and machine screws to attach it, or is it wood screws straight into the wood?

how well does the trem work? does it ruin the tone / resonance / sustain ?

cheers
t4d

wow you turn a cheap guitar into a killer! looks pro now.

Man, that looks AWESOME! Very cool! Makes me want to go do some pawn shopping...

Yea you guys said it, im gassing to do the same! Do love that natural finish look though.. reminds me very much of a fender lite ash strat i keep wanting.

Man . . . that is gorgeous. I can't believe how well you got the paint removed. I also love you pup selection. I bet it sounds killer.

This is great inspiration for me to get my Patriot project finished up.

Great job man.

Artie

Thanks, guys. Suislide, I know where another of the same model is for $100, if you don't mind a drive to Arkansas....LOL.Originally Posted by tone4daysnice work, friend !!

how hard was it to strip the body down to bare wood?

is the neck 'socket-ized' where you use those threaded inserts and machine screws to attach it, or is it wood screws straight into the wood?

how well does the trem work? does it ruin the tone / resonance / sustain ?

cheers
t4d

I acutally bought a can of Citri-Strip Antique Furniture Stripper from Walmart for $7. You spray it on, wait an hour, and scrape/brush it off. It took a couple of coats, but it was pretty easy. The cleanup was the bad part, but that's because I didn't notice the bottle of cleaner/prepper sitting next to it (I just saw that last week, actually).

The screws go straight into the wood. I forgot to mention that it has a micro-adjust like a Fender. That really makes things nice, though the guy that had it before me had it set perfect for my preference, so I made sure I didn't change anything.

The trem works well. It's a little tight with the two springs and tremsetter (maybe I'm used to my Floyd?) but it's manageable. It stays in tune very well with the help of the new tuners (the old ones were worn out). As far as sustain, I didn't play it much beforehand, so I can't really judge before-and-after. But I'd say it's on par with a MIA Fender. I couldn't expect it to be any better. The rest I'll let you judge for yourself. I'm happy with it, though.

100 dollars? How come people aren't doing what you usually see in auctions and put 'genuine USA guitar made in the US with AMERICAN parts playing as good as any AMERICAN guitars out there' and sell it for more expensive?
How is the overall quality of the woods and fretwork on them? Is everything Strat compatible on it?

I wish MY peavey looked that good LOL

nice guitar man.
how are the planet waves tuners???

Pierre, I honestly don't know why they don't. IMO, this guitar is easily worth just as much as a Fender if you take the names off them. AFIK, pretty much everything is compatable.

Alex, I love the tuners. They're the self-cutting kind, so they make for a really clean looking headstock. They stay in tune very well - at least so far - and it's easy to get them there. I originally wanted the all black ones, but I think these ended up looking better

Holy hell! Excellent stuff, JacksonMIA.

I've been talking to my cousin recently about his Peavey Predator (black body, maple board... no stickers) and he says he'll sell it to me for $60 (I initially asked for $40, with no pups, knobs, pots, etc.), and after seeing this, I might just have to take him up on the offer. I've got about $300 put away, which I was saving for a Strat, but I'm considering going with a Tele if the deal goes through.

Anyway, great work on fixing it up, and I appreciate you posting it, because this was enough to get me dead set on buying my own.

No problem, man. I'd say go for it. The whole project cost me about $500, if you include the tuners, and you could do it for less than that. The biggest expense on mine was swapping out the hardware for black, so $300 should get you started quite well.

Well my dad lives in arkansas, so i make the trip often