ordered used '99 MIM sunburst off eBay

[SolShred]

Hey I just bought a used '99 MIM strat in sunburst off eBay (some ppl may object to that but I can't afford new, just can't with Fender raising it's prices like that)
I bought it Buy It Now even though there were 4 days left in bidding because there was only a $25 price difference in buy it now and bidding and I was paranoid someone was going to get there first
bought it for $300 free shipping, there were 0 bids and it was at $275
did i get a good deal? it comes with a case and a whammy bar and he might add some other accessories like strap, strings, etc
also can someone look at the body and confirm that the wood is alder? i'm just paranoid about it not being what i think it is
last thing - look at the fretboard close to the head. it is a little worn out. first off is that natural wood or was it worn and secondly will it affect the play of the guitar?
btw i like that worn faded look

Fender MIM Stratocaster w/case
Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar Made in Mexico - eBay (item 350198964244 end time May-07-09 15:17:41 PDT)

[thaus]

Welcome to the forums!! Not a bad looking guitar.........it's advertised as a tobacco burst but that is a 3T Sunburst finish. It looks like a standard MIM. Not sure what the prices are now but I guess $300 is ok even though I would have picked up a Squier CV for that money. The necks on the MIM's are good. Not sure if that is wear on the neck or just the picture quality. Not exactly the best pictures. Have never seen wear on a rosewood neck like that...........

[Giant]

i think thats a fair price, considering that a brand new one only comes with a gig bag. you got a hardshell case with that one. with the price skyrocketing i would say that a decent deal.

[eyerish]

I just bought a used MIM strat from a pawn shop by me and it just has the gig bag. The whammy bar is with it as well. I am paying 250.00 plus tax so just over 270.00 so you are getting a hard case for 30.00 bucks plus maybe some extras? I say as long as its a good player you get a good deal. The one I bought is also 3T burst but with maple neck and the body and neck have some beautiful grain. Mine also has that iridescent flame in the body like yours. I think its pretty sweet looking and alder for sure. That looks like a great guitar. For me MIMs usually need only pickups and little else to make them sound as good to me as MIA's do. I have 2 MIA's and now 2 MIM's and I like them. So play on and enjoy the Strat'ness.

[Kid Klash]

Looks like you got yourself a good Strat... $300 for a MIM SB Strat in great shape, including a HSC and free shipping is very reasonable.

[Boris Bubbanov]

The proof is in the playing of it.

This looks like a MIM Standard neck but the body may be something else. It appears to have the wide USA style 6 screw spacing and not the narrow screw spacing - and the bridge is the wider one obviously. So, partscaster to some degree - not a pristine factory specimen but it may end up being (and playing and sounding) nicer than stock. We just won't know until she arrives and you get a chance to try her out.

[SolShred]

lol partocaster how fun
so you sure its a upgraded bridge? would that be a good thing or a bad thing on a MIM strat also i was told the tremolo bridge might be a full sized one which didnt come out till like last year (better sustain?)

[Iagent]

That's a fair price.

I paid 260 for my mim Gunmetal with a couple Seymore Duncan rails on it.
It really didn't matter how much, because I wanted it, and they are just not made anymore.

Have fun with it!

[elementlax]

sound like a deal to me, especially with the HSC

[still_fiddlin]

That tremolo block is not standard for a 99. It looks full size to me. I agree with Boris about the body. MIM bridge would have strings going more over the center of the poles. But, it's nice looking.

My 2000 has the same bit of fingerboard fade right at the nut, and I've seen at least one other besides your auction that's the same way. I don't know why it's like that, but it's irrelevant. No worries there.

[eyerish]

I don't think its a partscaster. The reason being I just bought a MIM strat at a pawn shop here in Tucson(mz2159697,prob a 2002) that except for the maple fretboard looks exactly like the one he bought. The grain/flame in the body the Vibrato the whole thing. As a matter of fact I was surprised that our guitars are about 3 years apart,because as I said they are identical except for fretboard. When I get a better camera(my cell cam sucks) I will post pics,SolShred post picss when you can.

I noticed some more MiM's on Ebay right now which look like the one SolShred and mine as well.

[SolShred]

sure thing
obviously i have to get it first
can't wait

[Sprocket]

I think you did good, I had a 3t burst with rosewood, I paid $200 last year and just recently sold it for $300...I did nothing but shield that guitar and went with a black 3 ply pickguard. I even loved the stock ceramic pickups, at 10 theyve got a nice breakup but at 8-9 they clean up very nicely with little actual volume loss...very straty and also nice and warm toned with the rosewood. I think you did very well...especially with the hardshell case, as mine only had the older standard Fender gig bag which was very thin.

The string spacing? Wow, I cant believe yall spotted that...was it the block that gave it away? Or calibrated eyes??
That shouldnt really be a problem should it? Or is it going to be a cliff hanger on the high E?
Ive got all vintage spacing now(4 guitars), and it took me a minute to get used to it...I even went as far as to get the HWY1 bridge with the vintage screw spacing but the modern string spacing, but eventually just got used to the vintage spacing and swapped back.(and boxed the HWY1 trem up)
Seems like a nice upgrade...if not $50 would "fix" it.
Eh, who knows...could have a new nut too?

[S. Rock]

looks like you got a nice guitar to me. play it untill you wear it out, which should be 20 - 30 years down the line. go have some fun. ;o))

[jjkurtz]

That's a fair price. I recently sold one for $300 without a HSC so you could've done much worse.

Are you planning on changing it any?

[SolShred]

at the moment i really cant afford it
im just a kid learning to play right now and i felt like i wanted a better guitar at a decent price
saw this on ebay as a buy it now and decided to snag it
ive been watching a ton of guitars on ebay and i know the avg price they usually sell for which is around 280 without a case and like 350 with one
of course not taking into consideration the condition
of course when i get better i may decide to mix and match stuff in it
if the tremolo block is the standard skinny one i may put a Callaham one in because i heard it improves sound a lot (SUSTAIN ppl)
pickups i may change along the line too, depends on how i like the sound

all in due time

right now i just want it to arrive

[Giant]

well, update the thread when you get it. take some pics and stuff too. ha ha

[SolShred]

its most definitely an upgraded tremolo block
compare the one on my guitar and this one

http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages/...0,0,0&format=0

its much smaller and doesn't come up as much

[Lowdown]

[quote=Sprocket;70272]
...I even loved the stock ceramic pickups, at 10 theyve got a nice breakup but at 8-9 they clean up very nicely with little actual volume loss...very straty and also nice and warm toned with the rosewood.

Funny that,'cause I actually didn't mind the ceramics either.
Didn't say I prefered them over alnico's,but for all the **** they cop from just about everyone,to my ears they were quite surprising. Sure were noisy bloody things though!

[Sprocket]

Originally Posted by Lowdown

Funny that,'cause I actually didn't mind the ceramics either.
Didn't say I prefered them over alnico's,but for all the **** they cop from just about everyone,to my ears they were quite surprising. Sure were noisy bloody things though!

I think the ceramics really benefit from shielding.
I shielded both of these MIM standards(no star grounding needed, IMO)



The rosewood and sunburst cleaned up and was one of my favorite guitars Ive owned.

[SolShred]

beautiful guitars you got there
how do you shield them and how much does it cost
i dont know anything about wiring the pickups
but i do have solder kit somewhere in the house
how hard is it to drop a new pickguard in to the body?

[Orbit]

Sprocket... nice shielding job, very tasty

[Sprocket]

Originally Posted by Orbit

Sprocket... nice shielding job, very tasty

Thank you

Originally Posted by SolShred

beautiful guitars you got there
how do you shield them and how much does it cost
i dont know anything about wiring the pickups
but i do have solder kit somewhere in the house
how hard is it to drop a new pickguard in to the body?

The shielding tape can be found at StewuMac...buy all 3 sizes.
Its easy to do, just wait till you need to change strings so pulling the pickguard will be easier...then get that out of the way, youll have a few wires still connected but they are easy to work around.
No soldering skills needed...leave the stock wiring as is, its perfectly fine.

A pickguard change is easy to do at this point, just remove one component at a time and tranfer it over to the new guard.
After replacing mine with a black one, I began to appreciate the vintage white look and regretted ever swapping mine...but didnt wanna go through the trouble of swapping it back, and the $35 wasted.

[SolShred]

i am really hesitant to mess with the stuff under the "hood" of the guitar. Is it really hard or does it just mean a few solders or not even
for changing the pickguard do you have to resolder all the parts of the pickups and stuff
any one have diagrams or links to threads on any forum to help in this?

[Sprocket]

Originally Posted by SolShred

i am really hesitant to mess with the stuff under the "hood" of the guitar. Is it really hard or does it just mean a few solders or not even
for changing the pickguard do you have to resolder all the parts of the pickups and stuff
any one have diagrams or links to threads on any forum to help in this?

No soldering.
All you will need is a phillips head screw driver...
...and the ability to apply sticky copper tape.

I will also say that sheilding is absolutely not necisarry to play guitar and have fun...this only something I did and noticed an improvement.
BTW, I hear things, some dont.
Rock whatchu got...and have fun.

[gcxandrew]

i got my 2007 mim sunburst with hsc, tuner, cables, guitar books, strap, picks, etc. for 300

[SolShred]

hey guys thanks for all your responses.
i got the guitar today and it was in a used condition
with more dents than i thought it would have
it didn't kill me but moving on,
the first thing i noticed was this weird smell coming from the guitar
i didnt know what it was but i think it was coming from the fretboard which looks to have something on it. its all shiny and doesnt look like my rosewood from my other guitar. the lighter part seems to be missing that weird finish that is slick and i think that is what seems to smell
i can't really describe the smell but i think it kinda smells like valve oil for trumpets. . . (i played trumpet in elementary school)
next thing, the trem block is indeed bigger than a standard zinc one but im not sure if its steel
another thing is the volume knob and 5 switch selector scratch when they are used not to mention the rust on them...
the pickups were really close to the strings, idk if thats typical, but i kept hitting the pickups when i was trying to play
also the poles of the pickups kinda seemed off to me meaning the middle two magnets were really high and the rest were really low which seems weird

lol i know i know this isnt going anywhere good

finally the frets are small because it is a stratocaster and i have to say they are really hard to bend on, like really hard.
actually on the 15th fret high e i would bend and it would just stop making a sound like it was being muted

the most important thing was the sound, and that wasn't too hot considering i payed $300 for it. it seemed just not very good sounding
and the g string had buzzing on almost every fret wtf

so the question is, what to do?

[still_fiddlin]

Sounds like a good opportunity to learn how to set up a Strat.

Buy a new set of strings. You'll need them anyway. Loosen all the strings and take off the pickguard, flip it over, and shoot some WD-40 in the switches. Clean everything up while you are looking around and take a picture of the pickups and post so we can express our opinions . The stock PUs from my 2000 MIM were staggered so the 2 in the middle (D & G) were the highest, but the next outside ones (A & B) were also a little bit raised with the 2 outside poles the lowest. The poles are also beveled.

When the strings are completely loose, get some lemon oil and clean the fingerboard. Let it dry. Use 0000 steel wool if it seems to have gunk on it, but my guess is someone tried to oil it up since it sounds like the guitar may have been sitting somewhere unused for a while.

[eyerish]

Originally Posted by still_fiddlin

Sounds like a good opportunity to learn how to set up a Strat.

Buy a new set of strings. You'll need them anyway. Loosen all the strings and take off the pickguard, flip it over, and shoot some WD-40 in the switches. Clean everything up while you are looking around and take a picture of the pickups and post so we can express our opinions . The stock PUs from my 2000 MIM were staggered so the 2 in the middle (D & G) were the highest, but the next outside ones (A & B) were also a little bit raised with the 2 outside poles the lowest. The poles are also beveled.

When the strings are completely loose, get some lemon oil and clean the fingerboard. Let it dry. Use 0000 steel wool if it seems to have gunk on it, but my guess is someone tried to oil it up since it sounds like the guitar may have been sitting somewhere unused for a while.

I agree with the entirety of this post. The pup poles sound right,sometimes that smell can be oil,glue or paint,if it was hot.not usually a problem though. Like still_fiddlin said take it apart and clean it up. As for the G string that has been the bane of Geetarists for as long asa there have been G strings(seriously,its the hardest one to make and keep right)there are nuts called "Earvana" that help. look and some guitars and you will notice the G saddle is in a way different place to the other five. I have spent the last 2 days dealing with a Squire Strat and my 97 Am Roadhouse G's. If it gets to be more than you want to deal with take to a luthier or someone who sets upo guits professionally and pay the 50/60 bucks its worth it the first time at least.

[still_fiddlin]

Once you have it apart, there are several threads here, as well as folks that will offer helpful, if not conflicting, advice, on how to set it up. There are books and other sites, probably Youtube videos you can consult. To start, you need to get the allen wrench for the saddles and one for the truss rod. Your local hardware store has the right size. The truss rod measures 5mm from flat to flat, but that's not the size you buy - don't remember. You can take one of the saddles in to find the right wrench for them - buy a couple while you are there. They disappear.

Easy enough to tell if the block is steel. See if a magnet will stick to it.

While you are at it. Measure the distance from center to center of the outside screws holding the bridge plate on, and also measure the distance between the E-strings at the bridge or the saddle centers, if you already pulled the strings off.

[eyerish]

The fret board looks like some light spots between the 12th and 15th frets around low E side as well. Many companys Fender included "dye" the rosewood as a matter of consistency or simply to make it dark like a lot of asian knockoff co's. You say it feels like missing finish,try what Still_fiddlin said oil and steel wool. I have done the same and it can help. I say try not to get to heavy with the oil but it can help and I think something bleached or leached the dye in those light spots. Does it look like the nut has been changed or messed with? Once you get it cleaned up you will have a better idea where to start with the "rehab".Pickup height can be adjusted with the screws on each side of the pickup. Go here
.:: Fender®.com ::. for lots of good info straight from Fender themselves. You will end up with a great guit.

[Sprocket]

Betcha its olive oil on the fretboard...strange smell, film.

[SolShred]

yeah i really want to learn how to setup a guitar
but i feel like i dont have the expertise or equipment (or $$$ for that matter) to do it right
but im willing to learn and ill have plenty of time once summer comes along

[Sprocket]

Just keep coming back here, read the topics that interest you...or use the search feature for more immediate results. If youve got a passion for it youll find the answers...and this is a great resource.

[Kid Klash]

Originally Posted by Sprocket

Betcha its olive oil on the fretboard...strange smell, film.

I'm guessing it's mineral oil. Many guys use mineral oil on a rosewood fretboard instead of lemon oil. (I played trumpet too, and valve oil smells like mineral oil to me).

And like everyone else said, I think it just needs a decent setup. I'm guessing whoever owned it never had it set up properly since they had the pickups cranked way up close to the strings. Crank'em down about halfway, and you'll get better sustain and more top end, plus you won't be "clanking" into them as you play.

[E of R]

Here's a couple sites to learn from
Guitar Wiring Site
GuitarNuts.com - The Internet Home for Wayward Pickers
free information at Stewart-MacDonald

[Shadowfan]

I would not use WD40 in the pots or switch. You can get contact cleaner at Rat Shack. Their's is not great but it's better than WD40 which tends to leave a film. A good HIFI store should have decent contact cleaner/pot lube.
I would not worry about the rust too much (it gives that "aged" look ). Sounds like your neck needs adjustment, either by using the truss rod (careful here, though, don't force it and if there is rust there, then you can use WD40 or a dab of penetrating oil)...or by shimming it at the heel. For the fret board, first I'd clean it with mineral spirits and fine steel wool, let it dry, and then oil it with lemon oil, tung oil or even teak oil and buff.

[SolShred]

turns out the block is steel
i used one of those refrigerator magnets to test it and it stuck
idk the sound of the guitar is not pleasant... it's probably the setup but i feel like its not "right" the neck feels good tho, its real smooth and soft. very different from the LP knockoff neck
also the frets are small so sliding is so easy
only thing is bending with them, but i should change the strings before i really judge that
i'll try to return it but i probably wont be able to and will have to get it set up by someone
if i unscrew the pickguard how would i clean stuff?
also which wires are the ones that need to be connected to the output jack and the other place
i want to know so if i get a loaded pickguard i can just pop it in there
oh and i think i found the source of the smell because i took the back plate off and the wood had that smell too
SMOKE (grrrr)

[SolShred]

he just offered $50 for a setup and i think im going to accept to resolve it
im more concerned about the pickups and the sound
might get a pickup loaded pickguard set to drop in there with the leftovers from the setup
how do you drop it in? it should fit in

[Offshore Angler]

In answer to the wood type, the guitar is veneered and either poplar or multi-pieced alder beneath it, probably poplar if it's a '99.