$400 of Blues Power
The Japanese Vintage Reissue Strats
Don’t laugh fellow Tonefreaks. If Stratocasters float your boat, the Japanese
vintage reissue Strats are flat out one of the wisest and most rewarding
buys you may ever make. Hey – even if you would never consider playing
a Strat as your main axe, but you’d like to have one around for those
Hendrix moments, this could be The One. And for you players who cringe
every time you take your vintage Strat or $1,600 Custom Shop rendition
to a beer and a shot Blues bar, the Japanese reissues are the worry-free
alternative to a an accidental relic job, or, worse…the dreaded
"disappearing guitar." Of course, these guitars need a little
help to reach their considerable potential, so here’s a step-by-step
account of our search for a 50’s Japanese vintage reissue Stratocaster,
and our inexpensive, yet highly effective makeover. Enjoy, and then go
get yourself one too!
For those of you who have experienced this
particular thrill, there is something profoundly rewarding about
acquiring an inexpensive guitar, fixing it up a bit, and finding that it
has become one of your very special favorites. The Japanese vintage
reissues remain a secret best buy for now, but we suspect like
everything else, as more players discover these gems supplies will
dwindle and prices will go up accordingly. But for now, you can find
them cheap, and I mean really cheap.
After consulting with our graphic designer and
Texas guitar thrasher Rick Johnson (who plays nothing but Strats
from the Land of the Rising Sun), we started searching for ours. There
are two distinctly different eras represented in the Japanese reissue
series, and the 50’s and 60’s Japanese reissues are similarly
categorized in the same manner as the Custom Shop and American reissue
models. The 50’s Strats feature all-maple necks and 2-tone sunburst
finishes, while the 60’s reissues were produced in the usual 60’s
colors with rosewood slab fingerboards. The most popular and frequently
produced colors appear to be vintage 50’s 2-tone sunburst, black,
vintage white and surf green. During our month-long search, we failed to
find any 60’s 3-tone sunburst models. A few 50’s hardtails were
produced, but they are very rare. Serial numbers are found at the base
of the neck, just above the point where the neck joins the body. The
serial number is discreetly printed in small gold type with "Made
in Japan" printed above the number, and all serial numbers begin
with a letter ranging from A-Z. Our efforts to decipher the
serialization scheme for these guitars were unsuccessful, but we will
alert you to our findings in a future issue. Readers who can shed some
light on the serialization and date ranges for the Japanese vintage
reissues are welcome to contact us.
The most frequently mentioned characteristic to
be admired and coveted on these guitars is the neck. They are unlike
most, if not all of the stock neck profiles offered in the U.S. outside
of the Custom Shop, with a soft "V" profile present on the 50’s
reissues and a clubby "C" profile with prominent shoulders
prevalent on the 60’s models. Ask any player who owns one, and they’ll
tell you how much they love the neck profiles on these guitars; they are
superb. We compared the neck profile on the guitar we ultimately bought
with that of a real ’56 Strat, and the similarity was plainly evident.
The ’56 had a tad more shoulder, but the profiles were very, very
close. Unless you’re particularly fond of the mid to late 60’s Strat
neck profiles, the meatier vintage profiles on the Japanese reissues are
a joy to hold.
A periodic search of several local music stores
in the Atlanta metro area known for good used inventory turned up one
Japanese 50’s reissue priced at $450. Since it was the first one we
found at the very beginning of our search, we passed on it, since it was
merely in OK condition. Then we resorted to the Internet – Harmony
Central classifieds, GuitarBase and Ebay. Surprisingly, we didn’t find
much of anything on GuitarBase and Harmony Central during the 2 weeks we
looked, and we ultimately decided to concentrate our search on Ebay. We
placed several bids on a few 60’s reissues, but the bidding exceeded
our self-imposed spending limit of $400 by a few dollars (more for a
couple of surf green Strats). Ultimately, we bought a 50’s reissue in
unplayed condition for $400, after searching and bidding on Ebay for
about 2 weeks.
The guitar arrived in mint condition in its
original Fender molded plastic case, just as advertised. What we didn’t
expect was a flamed neck(!), albeit finished in an attractive vintage
amber satin finish (we’ve since become enamored with the satin – it
doesn’t get tacky in the presence of sweat like some nitro or poly
finishes). The 2-tone sunburst nitro finish was very well done, with
virtually no grain evident on the 7 lb., 2-piece poplar body. The seams
in the body were matched up nicely with no odd pieces glued together –
just 2 slabs of lightweight poplar, and the body contours were
practically a dead-ringer for the originals, as verified by our direct
comparison to a ‘56. Our Strat was setup very well, we assume from the
factory, and it sounded good with its set of 10’s – a close
approximation of what you would expect from an average low-end Strat,
but the tone needed to be resurrected, and we had a few tone-enhancing
tricks in mind. Rick Johnson had prepped us on some of the standard
upgrades he routinely makes on these guitars, so we had bought a few
goodies in preparation for the arrival of the Strat. From John Sprung at
Parts is Parts we ordered a new set of 250K pots, a second
pickguard for an alternative set of pre-mounted pickups, a vintage
reissue tremolo arm, and an all-steel tremolo block (the official Fender
term for this part is an "inertia block"). Total bill: $54.00.
On an initial whim, we purchased a set of Fender Custom Shop Vintage
’69 replacement pickups at Mars for $129.00, to replace the
originals. We wanted to acquire a readily available set of comparatively
inexpensive replacement pickups, and these ‘69’s turned out to be an
amazing surprise. Hand-made and signed and dated by Abigail Ybarra (she’s
been winding pickups at Fender since the 50’s), the ‘69’s are not
wound for higher output like many of the other boutique Strat pickups
offered today. With a DC resistance of 5.8K compared to a resistance
ranging from 6.2K-7.6K on other Custom Shop pickups, the lower output
adds incredible clarity and harmonics. The result is a sparkling
harmonic shimmer and throaty bass response that is startlingly
reminiscent of you know who. More on that in a moment…
With all of our replacement parts acquired, we
disassembled the Strat for the upgrades. The original Japanese-made
pickups are quite different from a standard Strat. They’re potted in
wax, but you won’t see the same construction methods used beneath the
covers. The pole magnets aren’t AlNiCo 5, and the whole thing is
obviously inexpensively made in a vague image of the originals, with low
output and unremarkable tonal range. Do you really want the gory
technical details here? Suffice it to say that these original pickups
are cheesy, as are the miniature pots used, and the wiring is
flimsy-cheap. You could easily melt through the wire in 2 seconds with
an Ace hardware 18W soldering tool. With the guts exposed, we trashed
the entire wiring assembly, pickups and all. In went the new CTS 250K
pots and Abigail’s pickups, along with all new cloth-covered wire,
compliments of the thoughtful folks at Fender, who had left enough extra
wire on the pickups to wire 2 Strats (boutique pickups makers take note,
please – use cloth-covered wire whenever possible and give us lots
of it!). Only the original capacitor for the tone control survived
our tone-enhancement surgery.
With the new wiring completed, we focused our
attention on the tremolo, or inertia block, as Tim Shaw at Fender
correctly reminded us. The original block is made of pot-metal and
painted silver. It’s lighter than the standard U.S.-made blocks, and
even those are 4 oz. lighter than typical after-market, all-steel
blocks. We thought the tone and sustain might be improved by changing
the block, but it wasn’t meant to be. After lots of grunts and
quizzical head twisting ala’ Tim Allen, we realized that the spacing
of the string holes in the original bridge plate were not going to line
up adequately with the holes in the tremolo block. Metric vs. good old
American gauges were clearly at odds with each other, and Tim Shaw
confirmed that the factory in Japan used slightly different tooling
specs, so the trem block went back to John Sprung. With the guitar now
reassembled, properly wired and setup, it sounded better than good –
"killer" would be an apt description, as in "Robert Cray
meets the Voodoo Child at The Crossroads for a Cold Shot." Even my
wife Liz, who has heard a lot of great guitars over the years,
commented that "that one growls." Oh…yeah. But our
work wasn’t finished yet...
The frets on the Japanese vintage reissues are
a little cheesy too. They’re smallish, not of particularly
high-quality steel, and the finish on the maple neck 50’s models was
obviously applied after the neck was fretted, leaving a film of lacquer
on the frets. We found that the strings would "fret out," and
sustain would die a sudden death when we pushed the G, B and E strings
beyond a half-step increase in pitch. So having satisfied ourselves that
we’d nailed the electronics end of the Quest for Tone, we unbolted the
neck and sent it to TQR advisory board member and former
SRVguitar tech, now with Carlos Sanatana, Rene’ Martinez, for a
Gen-you-wine Stevie Ray Vaughan The House is Rockin’ Jumbo
Fret and Nut Job. Were we worthy? Well, I can tell you that the guitar
certainly was.
Rene’ cut a new bone nut and artfully
installed new nickel-silver jumbo frets without requiring any overspray
on the fingerboard. He promised to give us a "Stevie setup"
and there were some interesting features to note. First, the grooves in
the nut are cut very shallow, with the E, A, and D strings sitting
unusually high on the nut, making it easier to bend and abuse those
strings below the 5th fret. You may have noticed that with
the proper amount of neck relief (bow) adjusted with the truss rod,
there is often a sweet spot in the middle of the neck where string
tension and height are nearly perfect for effortlessly bending notes.
When the strings are seated deeper in the nut, the same feel in that
sweet spot can be lost in the lower frets. Rene’s technique seemed to
extend the sweet spot along the entire length of the neck. Rene’ also
extended the ends of the frets to the very edges of the fingerboard with
a steep but smooth angle to insure that there would be no typical
problems with the E strings slipping off the frets. And the frets he
installed were crowned very carefully to leave a gently rounded profile
that didn’t become flat at the apex of the curve. Frets will wear
slightly faster with the rounded profile, but the benefit of having a
super smooth neck makes the potential fret wear worth the wear in our
opinion.
When we received the neck from Rene’ (signed
and dated at our request) we bolted it back on, strung the Strat with
GHS Thick and Thins (.011-.052), and with no further adjustments needed,
we now had a $775.00 Tone Monster that compared to any Strat
for playability, tone and soul. The poplar body and the
"69" pickups lend a uniquely deep and bright growl to this
guitar that we enjoyed every bit as much as the mellower vintage tone of
a real 50’s Strat. This guitar is light, beautifully finished (the
flame was undoubtedly a fluke, but cool nonetheless) and a joy to play,
even more so because it was acquired and customized for far less than
the cost of a new vintage reissue. There is also a tangible enjoyment to
be experienced from customizing an inexpensive guitar and savoring the
results. In many ways, it’s far more satisfying than merely pulling a
new stock instrument off the wall and taking it home. So if you’re
inclined to take on a fun and comparatively inexpensive project, we
recommend the Japanese vintage reissue Stratocasters very highly. They
are no longer sold in the U.S., but for now, used supplies are fairly
plentiful. Go get one – and have fun creating your personal,
"take it anywhere" signature vintage Strat.
Publisher’s Note: TQR readers interested in
obtaining repair work by Rene’ Martinez can contact Rene’ at
guitarwhiz@hotmail.com. Please be sure to reference The ToneQuest
Report in your e-mail.
