The JV Strat
To afford this, i sacrificed and sold off my Red Strat.
The body of this guitar showed up on the market, and i immediatly saw my #2.. (#1 being my missus)
The body is is almost as old as me.
It is a 1982-84 JV Squier from Japan.
What date exactly is not known. The neckplate is long gone that bear the serial number.
Previous owner was the guitarist for Comet Kid. A Norwegian band that existed from 2012 to 2018. They got local success and toured extensively for a few years. This body was trough pretty much every concert they did.
THE BODY
The body is in Polyester finish. And the wear on this one is not relicing. It is real. It has seen hundred of live shows and thousands of recording hours. It stands as a proof how durable Polyester finish is. It only have surface scratches and no sign of anything wear that has gone trough it yet. It is really tough and durable.
THE NECK
The original neck is just as lost as the neckplate. But i got hold of a American Professional neck that popped up locally.
Those necks are pale & white compared to their Am Pro 2 necks. and a brand new finish that would look off on such a worn body. So i stripped the Poly finish and got working with dye. The front of the headstock got a few coats of Nitro and the back was simply oiled with Tung Oil.
For a 52 reissue body, a Rosewood neck would go against the law almost. But its a Partcaster now and RW necks is becoming more and more my prefered material.
Equipped with Gotoh factory reliced SD91´s tuners.
I actually had to widen the neck pocket a little bit to fit it.
THE ELECTRONICS
I did some tidy up in the wiring. (No pictures yet) Some unorthodox wires was used and got changed. The original wiring had detorieated badly according to previous owner and was changed out entirely. I kept the original setup that had a small jumper wire that was in place to have the tone working for the bridge pickup as well. But for the pickups themselves i had some other plans.
It came with Klein Jazzy Cats which ain't bad for some Mayer-ish tones. but i threw in a set of Don Mare Formvar 50´s for a while, but they are more in the 60´s sound. I wanted that Buddy Holly tone, and i eventually got hold of a Ltd Edition 54 Fender Pickups. These are bright and i added a .1mf capacitor to get my tone to act the way i wanted. and a 500k pot for tone.
THE HARDWARE
It originally had one of those 010347 stamped Mazak tremolos from the 70´s CBS era (Seen above) equipped with Raw Vintage saddles as the original cast saddles have short shelf life. But these trems are one-piece cast and fetch a few pennies used.
The pickguard is almost the best part. Very worn and aged to full matte finish and the knobs has seen much use. The pickguard was attached with a size too large screws. so i plugged the holes, re-drilled and put in correct size ones. The screw between pickup switch and lower Tone knob has no wood under and was glued on. Went trough three Tremolos. Eventually ended up with an 82 AVRI Strat Tremolo unit.
Here is a You Tube video from Comet Kid with the guitar in action using Jazzy Cats.
Looks like he has a Pre-CBS style neck on it.
SPECS:
Body: JV series Squier Vintage '57 (1982-1984) 2 tone Sunburst w/ thin Polyester finish
Neck: 2019 USA American Professional 22 Fret Rosewood. tinted and refinished.
Pickups: Pure Vintage Limited Edition '54 Pickups
Tremolo: USA 1982 AVRI Tremolo Vintage Spacing.
Pickguard: Mint Green Fender
Tuners: Gotoh SD 91 Reliced
Wiring:
- Standard cloth wiring with Tone adjust for Bridge PU-mod.
- .050 Ceramic Dime Cap. I removed the Treble Bleed.
- CTS Standard Audio Taper Vol. 250k / Tone both 500K
