The Next Restoration (Mild): 2375 Sunburst Strat

[ChuckE99]

I'm going to put several posts here, because I have a lot of pictures and some questions about different aspects of this guitar. It's an interesting one and may serve to educate me and others on how to date the pre-serial Ibbie strats they come across.

History: I bought this from a guy on The Gear Page (uOpt) and got a great price on it, despite there being a noticeable crack in the neck running from the nut and around a knot in the wood. I've reinforced that crack with wood glue, though even before the neck was solid and held tune very well. It came to me as a "blackie" though the owner said it was definitely a refinish. That was immediately evident when I lifted the pick guard to find that the refinish didn't even extend under the pick guard. You could clearly see the original sunburst finish, intact. That made the decision to refinish it moot: Instead of stripping everything away, down to the wood, I decided to just pull off the black overcoat and restore the sunburst finish.

Here is a before picture of the guitar:



And here it is, in full shot and with closeups of the body, after stripping and a light topcoat of clear lacquer. Note that I decided to leave the "relic" look, even to the point of sanding the bare spots so they will stand out even more. I kind of like the results:

[ChuckE99]

The original seller described the body as being "multi-layer" and when I first pulled of the pick guard, it definitely looked like the body was plywood. You could see the horizontal layering evident on the sides of the routed area. I was dissappointed, and a little confused. None of the Ibanez catalogs describe a plywood body, and the 1976 catalog specifically calls out a solid mahogany body with a birch veneer top:

http://s93105080.onlinehome.us/Ibanez-Catalogs/catalog/1976-7/24.jpg

Earlier catalogs also show this model as having a rosewood fretboard. The maple fretboard does not appear until the 1976 catalog, yet mine is clearly older. More on anomalies later.

I was pleasantly surprized to find out the body is, after all, solid mahogany with a birch top. I did some scraping on the side of one of the routes to be sure:

[ChuckE99]

How to date this guitar? That's the question now. I turn to the innards of the thing and ask your opinions. Here are some facts:

Guitar is pre-serial
Small, white TRC
Old-style tuners
Maple fretboard
Mahogany body with birch top
Three-way pickup switch
Maxon-stamped pickups numbered with "34905"
500K pots inked with the number "6430" (no visible pot codes for dating)

Here are some related pictures:

[ChuckE99]

A necessary repair:

The big disappointment with this guitar turns out to be the first three frets on the neck. They are obvious replacements. While the fret ends for all the other frets are trimmed well, these first three have sharp ends that stick out from the edge. Also, the second fret is loose and right now notes on the first fret are unplayable. If I depress the second fret to where it should be, the notes play fine.

My question: Is there a way of securing that second fret so it stays where it should be? If not, I will probably need a refret of those first three frets. Second question: How can I deal with those sharp fret ends. I'd rather not have to bring this in for work. (Though, truth be told, this baby absolutely SINGS, and the neck is wonderful. A full refret and professional setup may be worth it.)

[Roland_G303]

Neat process Chuck.  Tell me that you're going to do something about those knobs .

StewMac sells a tool to reseat/install frets.  It's basically a clamp that disperses even pressure across the fret.

I think Jeff posted a link to refretting somewhere on the site.

Patrick

[Roland_G303]

Here's the link to refretting tools that JeffSailor posted about.

Fret Work

Patrick

[ChuckE99]

I've already taken those knobs off. I need to get some "relic'd" knobs though, since the pick guard is fairly yellowed. Brand new white Fender knobs won't cut it. The search begins!

If anyone has three old white knobs, let me know. They have to at least "look" old.

[Roland_G303]

I just did a quick search and found this site with Relic Strat knobs for $7.

http://www.relicmasters.com/strat.html

Patrick

[KD]

Maybe you'll want to replace the 2nd & 3rd frets, they look to be bigger wire than the others. It might be the tangs were pinched by the previous installer for ease of installation. Stew-Mac has a method of applying thin super glue to the frets. I have one of their news letters addressing this if you're interested.

[ChuckE99]

An update on my sunburst 2375. That neck crack coupled with the bad first three frets spelled doom for that neck. A refret to a high-gloss neck would have been hundreds of dollars, and even to try to fix the first three frets would have cost over a hundred in labor alone. I decided to set my sights on buying a vintage neck, but none has surfaced and I'm nothing if not impatient. I decided to try to score a "relic'd" neck off of eBay and last week, one surfaced that was a near perfect match for the original. I've put it on the strat and it fit snuggly (though it needed some shimming to get the angle right). And, to complete the transformation, I hand-painted on an Ibanez logo and transfered the white TRC from the original neck to the new one. The TRC covered up nothing on the original neck, but now it actually covers up the TR hole. I think the neck is a mighty might or some other licensed neck, though it may also be one of those Chinese knockoffs. In any case, it works just fine. I've also purchased some new white knobs for the volume and tones.

This thing has a great, classic Fender strat sound. Plus, it's got that honest relic look to it. (Nothing over the top, like the ones you buy new from Fender these days.) To see the before pics, go back to the beginning of this thread.

[Roland_G303]

Looks cool Chuck .

Patrick

[KD]

Great Chuck. How's the hum? Did you do any shielding, or leave things alone? It's interesting it has 500K pots.
That solder job on the neck tone looks a little ratty but everything looks to be original. Also interesting how the cap ties the two tones together but I guess that's the way three-way switching is done.

[talmanut]

Fret ends that project (fret "stubble") is a problem I've dealt with on a couple of Mexican Strats where the wood shrank over time but the frets didn't.  I used a mini-file from an inexpensive set I bought from American Science and Surplus (they still have them online).  I think a nail file or emery board would work fine, but my mini file tapers to a point which makes it easier to watch the work.  You can protect the finish using painter's tape on either side of each fret you're filing.  Use very gentle file strokes, directed downwards to avoid pulling up a loose fret.  Check your progress and stop when the file is just gliding on top of the tape.  If you have a steady hand and a light touch, you won't even need tape, but use it just in case.  Finish with dry 400, 800, 1200 abrasive paper (see my post ANY WEEKEND WARRIORS DONE A FRET JOB).

[ChuckE99]

Great Chuck. How's the hum? Did you do any shielding, or leave things alone? It's interesting it has 500K pots.
That solder job on the neck tone looks a little ratty but everything looks to be original. Also interesting how the cap ties the two tones together but I guess that's the way three-way switching is done.

Hum is fine. I've learned to set strat single coil pups a little lower than I would humbuckers, to avoid the flutter in the sound. It does have a fair amount of buzz, but it's gone when I touch the strings. Another single-coil drawback. (It's not bad enough to think it's a grounding problem.) The last thing this baby needs is a few more tremelo springs, because right now it floats when up to tune so it's tough to get the thing exactly right. I don't use the whammy bar anyway.

As far as the wiring goes, I didn't touch it, and looked at it just long enough to make out the pickup stampings.