I have worked on Harrison's awesome Custom Shop '60 Strat before, but in more recent months he has been running BIG strings on it for baritone tuning on standard scale, akin to the likes of Ariel Posen and Joey Landreth for example. But it's time for the Strat to return to standard pitch at E and with it a return to a slightly more common string gauge of 10-48s (we're going for Stringjoy Signatures specifically). So a new top nut was needed along with a tweak to the setup again.
The factory top nut came out with ease which is always a bonus! Surprised to find it was a plastic one though I must say, but a new bleached bone hand cut version going in. A task which does require some patience, but the methodical nature of it and doing things in as small increments as possible to ensure a tight fit, accurate slots and shaping is a therapeutic one. Could do without the awful smell of the bone shavings, even with the bleached bone which does have a slightly better smell than unbleached I always think!
With that completed it was onto the setup which all went smoothly. Monty's 'Instrument Food' natural wax on the fretboard looking great too. I spent my youth obsessed with Strats, so setups on these feel like second nature but still very much enjoy getting the best out of one. A quick clean out of the volume pot had this one finished up. Lifting the pickguard, it was nostalgic for me to see a gold signed 'Abby' set of pickups, I had a 2010 set of these on my own Custom Shop strat that I owned a few years back. Good to see another set from a similar period, brought back good memories!
This is a really, really good CS strat. I've worked on a number of them as well as once owning one, but there is something about this one I must say. Appreciate Harrison bringing it my way and trusting me to carry out the work, a really pleasure to do so!
Interested in booking your guitar in for some work? Feel free to check out the Guitar Services page HERE
The factory top nut came out with ease which is always a bonus! Surprised to find it was a plastic one though I must say, but a new bleached bone hand cut version going in. A task which does require some patience, but the methodical nature of it and doing things in as small increments as possible to ensure a tight fit, accurate slots and shaping is a therapeutic one. Could do without the awful smell of the bone shavings, even with the bleached bone which does have a slightly better smell than unbleached I always think!
With that completed it was onto the setup which all went smoothly. Monty's 'Instrument Food' natural wax on the fretboard looking great too. I spent my youth obsessed with Strats, so setups on these feel like second nature but still very much enjoy getting the best out of one. A quick clean out of the volume pot had this one finished up. Lifting the pickguard, it was nostalgic for me to see a gold signed 'Abby' set of pickups, I had a 2010 set of these on my own Custom Shop strat that I owned a few years back. Good to see another set from a similar period, brought back good memories!
This is a really, really good CS strat. I've worked on a number of them as well as once owning one, but there is something about this one I must say. Appreciate Harrison bringing it my way and trusting me to carry out the work, a really pleasure to do so!
Interested in booking your guitar in for some work? Feel free to check out the Guitar Services page HERE
