This was a workshop job I couldn't resist sharing here on the workshop blog too. A customer booked in their 90s Clapton signature Strat for a few jobs, so I wanted to document the guitar as I'm sure it'll interest others like it did me.
Although my music tastes/guitar tastes have changed a lot over the years, I really have to credit the 80s/90s Clapton music and his guitars as the key ingredient that sparked my love for guitar. In particular, things like his Knebworth '90 performances, or the 24 Nights album/video sporting his pewter grey signature Strat, were personal favourites at the time. So opening the old tweed case and revealing this example instantly hit me in the feels! The right colour, amazing condition, very much looking forward to getting stuck into the job.
Nothing major for this one, a general check over, wiring inspection, full setup and a new bridge. So let's get stuck in
Bringing the strat onto the workbench to make a start, and first impressions were great. Superb condition overall, clearly well loved and cared for since production. Colour has aged a little, with a little browning overall and the maple/lacquer yellow'd a little but overall this one has aged great and next to no wear, dinks etc. Superb condition guitar. I plugged it in and found some fairly troublesome crackling from the jack so will inspect that, and also a bit of a weird 'hump' in the volume pot taper, where it jumps quite a bit just after turning from '10', and then backs off normally so a hint of something not quite right there. But otherwise plays well and looking forward to getting it playing even nicer after the work.
The owner has asked me to install a lovely quality Callaham bridge unit, with the original being kept aside. The bridge/vibrato has, of course per Clapton specs, been blocked off, but the customer wants to be able to use the vibrato going forward with the new Callaham unit.
A quick removal of the rear spring cover plate, which is also where the mid-boost circuit 9v battery is stored, reveals as expected. A wooden block, all 5 springs and a fully tightened up spring claw. So time to slacken the strings, loosen those springs and get the old bridge unit out of the guitar.
A pretty shocking amount of polishing compound debris remain in the cavity however! So will be nice to clean that out when it's stripped down.
With the springs slackened and removed from the rear, it was time to remove the 6 wood screws holding the bridge in place on the front of the guitar.
So much better!
The Callaham bridge unit comes complete with a new spring claw. These are notoriously tricky to solder due to the density of the metal making it hard to heat the surface for the solder to take. So a quick pass over with sanding sheet to mark the surface, and armed with a nice clean iron tip to ensure good heat transfer, it was nice and easy work getting a pre-tinned area on the claw ready for final ground connection upon install.
I inspected and measured the threads on the new Callaham claw mount screws and they were the very same as the original pair, so I opted to use the new ones for this application.
However, I opted to use the original set of 6 bridge mount screws. The Callaham ones were a few mm longer, and it's a pet hate of mine to see bridge mount screws poking out the other side into the spring cavity. So the originals will be used, to ensure that doesn't happen on this nice old Strat.
New Callaham unit on and looking fresh indeed! I then make the final ground wire connection to the claw, and install three springs. The guitar will be setup on 9s, so the traditional 3 spring setup should suit nicely.
With the bridge swap done, let's take a look at the wiring.
All in all, it's in good condition. No signs of weak or broken connections, but I do spot quickly as to why the volume pot was behaving oddly. Incorrect spec! The Clapton strats require a 50k pot, but this one had a regular 250k installed. The customer did mention that there was an old 50k pot in the case, so gut feeling here is the original pot began to fail, and most likely unknowingly, a common strat spec 250k pot was installed by mistake. In an effect to get this guitar working it's best, and the fact I have the correct spec Fender / CTS 50k pots in stock here on the shelf, I installed one during the work.
I noted earlier about the trouble, crackling jack socket. I unfortunately didn't take a photo of this, but it was simply worn. It is common for Switchcraft jack sockets to wear significantly where the jacks tip comes into contact. You can't simply clean that surface, so it is best to replace when they reach this stage of wear for reliable use going forward. The Clapton Strat, due to the mid-boost circuit and 9v battery power source, it has a Switchcraft 12B stereo jack. So a new 12B went in for many years of use for this guitar.
With the wiring work done, bridge installed, it was time to get stuck into the setup. Starting off with a fret inspection and polish up. Overall, frets were good, but were tarnished. I suspect they've never been properly polished as there was still plenty of lacquer left on the fretwire. So I set to work giving those some TLC, which will I think really benefit the playability of this old Strat.
They polished up great, so on went the new set of customer supplied D'Addario 9s, and began work dialling in the setup. Here are some photos of the finished guitar for you all to enjoy (I hope!). Thank you firstly to the owner/customer, Jason, for booking this job in with me, really enjoyed working on it. And thanks to you guys for reading it :)
