Cheap Practice guitar rebuild.

**tbkmagic** · 7th September 2009, 09:02 PM

Hey all got a few questions for the mob around here,

I have a crappy 300 dollar AXL electric guitar which i'm pulling apart and pretty well replacing everything on it just to practice on. Nut, frets, tremelo, pickups the whole lot.

First up what do you all think of simulating string tension when levelling frets?
necessary or not??

Second
I'm putting new pots in also and its taking a bit of getting my head around this electrics talk. The guitar is setup with a humbucker at the bridge then two single coils for middle and neck. For the humbucker i'll be using a 500k pot then for the singles a 1 Meg pot so i can hopefully wind it all the way to scream! i think that sounds right to me but not sure about volume control? Stewmac has info on pots for tone but i wasnt sure what sort of resistance is right for volume control? or if it even mattered for a volume control?

I'm going to repaint it a metallic white with pearloid pickguard and spring cavity cover then white single coils and a chrome humbucker. All the rest of the hardware chrome and then tele dome knobs instead of bell knobs like a strat.

I'm having a bit of trouble sussing out the finishing as well? nitro? cellulose?
I went to my local supposed "Paint specialists" and the dude couldnt even tell me what nitro cellulose was?

Any advice very much appreciated.

Cheers Keegs

Heres a pic off the net of the generic pile of junk>>>

**peterbrown** · 7th September 2009, 11:26 PM

Hi Tpkmagic,

I personally don't think simulating string tension is necessary for leveling frets. You just need to make sure the neck is straight when leveling the frets. Also a higher resistance pot won't give you more output than the picup is capable of without any resistance at all. When selecting a resistance pot, you want to choose something that gives you volume control variability. generally I use 250k for low output pickups and 500k for higher output picups.

As far a finishing in nitro goes, to get answers, all you need to do is call out Stu... and wait for the echo. He is loaded with finishing knowledge

Cheers,

Peter

**tbkmagic** · 18th September 2009, 01:48 AM

well i feel awfully silly!! went and bought a whole pile of stuff from stewmac to fit this thing and the bloody new pick guard is completely different and i thought it would be at least the same shape! but nooooope not so!! well now i've got all this gear for a strat and no strat to put it in!! prob buy a body then just finish it. not really a special guitar to me just one that hopefully plays and sounds better than the afformentioned pile of junk. thats been put back together in satin black now.
doesn't look to bad just a quick spray can paint job. bit lazy on my part too.
oh well i did level the frets on it though which was pretty good practice like i set out to do so i guess that is a bonus??

**JupiterCreek** · 2nd November 2009, 01:27 AM

I've done rebuilds on an AXL Tele and 2 AXL Strats when they were available here in Adelaide and always found them to be fairly honest guitars. With replacement pickups, pots, cap, socket, tuners, pickguard, a decent setup and reshaping fo the headstocks they're not half bad. In fact if you're ever in Adelaide and you see a band called The Bluescasters their lead guitarist leaves his 25th Anniversary Strat safely at home and plays the upgraded AXL Strat or an upgraded Cimar Strat as his main guitars.

**mannym** · 2nd November 2009, 10:40 PM

One of my fave guitars to play is a '96 Korean Squier Strat which I overhauled. The biggest improvement i made was completely shielded the cavities and pick guards/covers, new pots and wiring, replaced the HB, S,S Config with 3 x Wilkinson Vintage Single Coils, and a new Wilkinson Vintage Trem Bridge.

Sounds and plays great.

I followed these 2 guides carefully.

Paul Bothner Music - The Musical Instrument Specialists - Articles: Hotrodding a Stratocaster Part 3: Pickups, Wiring & Control Hotrods

Reworking a Korean Squier Strat

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