Strat Affinity Refirb (picture heavy)

Christian 71

Looks great worth all the effort!

Well done mate she is a looker!

Philly112

Yes and the guitar isn't bad either.

Phil

KungFuPro

Looks very nice mate, I like the shielding work, colour is cool and the clear coat looks like a mirror finish, great work all round! Wouldn't worry too much about any small blemishes, a lot of factory finished guitars have the odd blemish here and there. I doubt they'd be noticeable to anyone other than yourself unless they're pointed out.

In the back door shot (nothing rude there), the saddles look quite low, those grub screws will tear your picking hand apart if you're planning on any heavy palm-muting riffs, Metallica style . I doubt this strat/single coil guitar was intended for metal, but you might want to experiment with shimming the neck pocket anyway, can always remove if it doesn't feel right.

A small piece of wood veneer (1/40"~0.6mm thick at the end of the pocket) will raise the angle/grub screws by 4-5mm, guitar factories do it all the time, found this graph-type tape inside a neck pocket of a guitar I took apart for cleaning.
                                                                               

Talking of cleaning, what dremel attachment did you use to polish the chrome bridge parts? look like shop-new parts in your pics. Bought some attachments a while back, got felt tip type ones and softer brush attachments. I usually use brasso but I think something more industrial might be needed.

hyperfish

Hey KungFuPro a big thanks for that about the shim. After a couple of hours playing yesterday it was apparent that the saddle screws were a problem to the point where I have ordered some shorter screws. I thought the strings were a bit close to the body when compared to my Tele. But because everything fitted back as it found it, it never dawned on me that the neck wasn't set right in the first place.

Looking back at the pictures the saddles were like that originally.
                                                                               

So, I removed the neck and tried 3 different shim combinations until happy. I settled for a double layer of cereal packet totalling 45 thou.
                                                                               

I retuned, set the action and checked the intonation. This is where the bridge screws sit now.
                                                                                 


Better than before, plenty of clearance underneath the saddles, but the screws are still slightly proud of the strings. At 12mm I'm inclined to think these are longer than need be and I am going to fit the new M3x8mm screws I have ordered.

The buffing wheels are 25mm felt. I got them from eBay for a couple of quid similar to those linked below. Included is a shaft with a thread to pierce and grip the felt.
25mm FELT BUFFING WHEEL KIT FOR HOBBY TOOL OR DREMEL PACKS FROM 6 TO 180 WHEELS | eBay

I tried Brasso on the felt wheels before when I cleaned by bass and got nowhere with it. It acted more like a lubricant and splashed everywhere. The gear for the job is jewellers rouge, a bar of very fine grade polishing compound. I got mine from work but in the link below you'll see several types for different applications. I used rouge which I believe to be the mildest?
100g Pro-Max Jewellers Polishing Compound Metal Cleaning Multi-Listing | eBay

KungFuPro

Some Fender necks have a micro tilt plate to adjust the neck angle but a shim works just as well . The saddles look a more comfortable height, 8mm grub screws should be spot on.

Thanks for the info on the polishing tools, I have a few of those 25mm felt wheels, so just going to order some of the rouge polishing compound. Brasso does an okay job on humbucker covers but I definitely need something more heavy-duty for the bridge, it's in a similar condition yours was in originally.

hyperfish

I use one of the those microtilt neckplates as a key fob.


The grubs screws arrived very quickly. Here's the difference.
                                                                                 

..and this is what the bridge looks like with them swapped out. Much better to play without the screws raking the palm.
                                                                       

KungFuPro

Nice key fob, new grub screws look a much better fit, should save on a trip to A&E after long jamming sessions. Funny how the original screws were 12mm, just checked a few of my bridges and 10mm seems the longest (sans bass, which are 12mm).