A few years ago I purchased online an inexpensive, pre-owned Fender Road Worn Stratocaster, Made In Mexico, in a lightly aged Firemist Gold finish, to use as a workhorse gigging guitar.
When it arrived I was quite pleased with the purchase. It played pretty well and sounded pretty good, and had a certain mojo about it that I found appealing. And I could take it to gigs without worrying about it getting damaged!
But, and it's a fairly big but, I couldn't get on with the vintage style narrow frets. I do a lot of string bending in my playing, and I couldn't get the action to my desired height without the strings choking out on bends on the high strings. So I consulted my good friend Rob Mestric, and he suggested that a refret with larger stainless steel fretwire would solve the problem, so we booked the job in at Rob's workshop.
Rob removed the old frets, re-profiled the Pau Ferro fingerboard, installed the new SS frets, and did a PLEK setup on the guitar, doing the final fine tuning and set up by hand. When I received the guitar back I was thrilled with the improvements! The neck now felt amazing, and string bends were a breeze! Happy days!
But, that was only Stage 1 of Gold Strat's transformation….. In the lead up to the launch of his wonderful line of Mestric Guitars, Rob informed me that he had a personally aged pick guard loaded with his hand wound Mestric pickups, that would perfectly suit my Strat. And so began Stage 2 of Gold Strat's transformation. Rob wired in the new Mestric pick guard, and we plugged Gold Strat in to my Two-Rock Bloomfield Drive amp, and just wow!! What an amazing difference! The guitar just came to life with stellar single coil tones that were wide glide, three dimensional and warm, with a perfect sparkle on top, without a hint of shrillness. Sonic nirvana!!
What started out as a knock about beater had been transformed into an instrument rivalling the quality and sound of my Custom Shop guitars! It really is that good. It quickly became my go-to gigging guitar, and remained that way until just recently, with the acquisition of my Mestric Guitars M6064 Foundational Run #006 'Old Gold' — but that is another story…..
My Gold Strat still comes out on gigs with me as a back up for Old Gold in case of a mid-set string breakage, and I am still enjoying the playing experience of it immensely! A real life magic makeover!
David Hinds is an Australian blues/rock guitarist with 57 years playing experience. He is the veteran of several high profile Aussie '70s era rock bands. David lives with his wife Lyn at Lake Macquarie NSW, where they perform regularly with their award winning Bounty Hunters Band.
www.facebook.com/bountyhuntersband