May Birthdays 
I have decided to sell this beautiful Fender Stratocaster MIJ formerly owned by Ivan Pongracic of The Madeira and Space Cossacks. Ivan described & upgraded this guitar as follows:
"Mid-nineties MIJ (Japanese) Stratocaster.
Blonde (also seen it described as Vintage White) with (dark) rosewood fingerboard, alder (not basswood) body. S/N: U019059. The guitar is almost like new - the only blemishes I can see are a bit of hanger-burn by the headstock, which was there when I bought it, and a tiny ding on the back/bottom edge of the guitar. Vintage-size frets, with very little wear (a bit under the B string), fret dressing professionaly done about a year ago, the frets are really smooth. Comes with a gigbag.
I bought this guitar a couple of years ago and heavily upgraded it with the following parts:
- Seymour Duncan SSL-1 pickups (billed by Seymour Duncan as exact replicas of the original Alnico V Stratocaster pickups)
- Fender US-made vintage tremolo bridge
- US-made volume pot (don't remember the brand, but it's a good one) and 3-way switch (the two tone controls are original Japanese, but disconnected from the circuit)
- bone nut, custom cut for this guitar
All the upgrade work was done by Elderly Instruments in Lansing, MI, a world-renowned store and service shop.
The guitar was set up for 12-gauge roundwounds, and it plays like butter (as long as you're used to heavy strings!). The trem stays in tune really well, and there's quite a bit of natural resonance to the guitar. With the great Seymour Duncan pickups it sounds indistinguishable from my '62 reissue Strats which cost hundreds of dollars more.
For the purpose of full disclosure: the person I bought the guitar from told me they removed the string tree, but it turned out that the string tree screw was broken inside the wood - in the process of getting it out, a small chip developed around the original hole. It is almost imperceptible unless viewed from very close up (the tech also added the second string tree, deeming it worthwhile in this case). Also, apparently due to different measurements of MIJ/USA parts, the USA bridge screws poked through the body into the trem cavity a bit - along the same lines, the USA bridge trem block seems to be a tad longer than the Japanese and the springs rub slightly against the backplate, which is why I removed the backplate - no issues with it at all once I did that.
What you'd be getting is a Strat featuring the great Japanese woodwork combined with high-quality US-made hardware and electronics, and already set up for surf music (heavy strings, floating trem). It's a great guitar, with a really comfortable neck, and the only reason I'm selling it is because I need the money to buy some other gear and because I already have plenty of Strats. This one just wasn't getting very much playtime. I've put way too much money into this guitar - over $900, including all the parts and servicing. It probably wasn't the best idea to do all these upgrades since I kinda knew I wouldn't be able to recoup that investment if I was to resell it, but there you go - I got a wild hair, and now my loss is your gain!"
More pics of the guitar (and Ivan's beautiful lawn personally mowed by him two days earlier) at:
http://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/13381/
It is in the exact condition it was when delivered by Ivan. I have too many guitars and never use this one. It comes with a new soft case. I can bring to the convention for you to personally inspect and will consider cash offers OVER $650.
ALL proceeds will go towards John Benton's medical bills.
Last edited: Aug 08, 2012 21:14:36
