Face lift to my strat

[Brian Yarbrough]

I recently picked up this NOS hardtail strat from a local store on a swap. It had beeb around a while. It is one of the earlier new american series US strats. I think this thing is great. I am really impressed. It is probably the first strat (other than a custom shop '62 I use to have) that I have not felt the need to swap out the stock pups. I changed it around a bit. here are some pics:

before
http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/goldtopprs/detail?.dir=/Brian%27s+gear&.dnm=79c3.jpg

after

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/goldtopprs/detail?.dir=/Brian%27s+gear&.dnm=d1f0.jpg

[Chiba]

Very cool looking guitar Brian. There's nothing quite like a Strat, and my favorite Strats have all been hardtails, except the one I've got now which is my #1 fave Strat of all time and has a blocked bridge. Hardtails are the way to go!

--chiba

[vangit]

I never played a strat with hardtail. Chiba, why is it your choice? Is there a reason or is it just personal preference?

[psxguru]

I used to have one of those until I sold it last week! It was a '98 with a maple fretboard.

It had Kinmans neck and middle pickups, and a SD JB jr in the bridge though.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/psxguru/fender.jpg

[Ripcom]

Great face lift.

What a difference.

Must sort my Charvel out.

[kikujiro0208]

My favorite strat is a hardtail (CS Cray). More resonance, but the bridge pickup sounds close to a tele. I replaced the pickup with a little '59 (had good experience before on a MIM Strat), but still the hardtail sounds too close to a tele. Anyone of you that has the same experience?
Regards,

[Baba]

Nice. I have never liked the black body/white pickguard combo, looks so cheap to me for some reason. Nice facelift.