White Strat (part 1)

I bought this new, unbranded strat which I presume came from some part of Asia. First thoughts on opening the box were that it looked beautiful, white body with rosewood neck a la Jeff Beck. On picking up the guitar it felt about half the weight of my Fender Strat and I immediately thought that the online shop's claim of an alder body was bALDERdash. After removing the backplate and looking inside it was clear that there is no way this wood is alder. Nevertheless, it won't hang heavy on your shoulder and has a surprisingly nice tone. Played acoustically the guitar sounded loud, light and bright. Plugged in it had a good volume and bright/middley tone.



The action was surprisingly good and it had a slim modern neck albeit with a broad fretboard, good for big hands. In a couple of spots, the neck choked some notes on bending. This turned out to be due to a couple of frets sitting too proud. A gentle tap with a hammer and wooden block and they were soon properly bedded. I removed the neck from the guitar and gave the frets a light levelling file for good measure.


When removing the neck I noticed a couple of small hairline cracks in the laquer probably due to overtightening the neck screws when building. If you have trouble spotting them there is one on each side of the neck join. They are not a problem but it's a pity to have these minor blemishes on an otherwise beautiful and flawless guitar.


On the other hand the machine heads were a great surprise. Good quality metal machines with solid metal ferrules and nuts. Sooooo much better than the crap fitted to the Fender Squires. I might actually put these onto my Squier.


Once the neck was bare I gave it a gentle sanding to remove the thin coat of satin laquer.


Then carefully masked the fretboard in preparation for laquering.