2005 Squier Trans Fat Stratocaster Electric Guitar (Modded)

My guitar-crazy buddy Billy sent this guitar in to get chop-shopped into a more-custom rig for his son. It came in as a stock, slightly-played, "Trans Fat" Squier Strat with normal wiring and left like this. Its original single-single-humbucker pickup outfit has changed to a pair of Texas Specials in the neck and middle positions and a fancy Novak "double lipstick" humbucker at the bridge. These were the largest upgrades on the guitar.

Following those changes, it also got new Gotoh tuners to replace the only-so-so factory locking tuners, a replacement Squier whammy bar, and new wiring -- master tone and volume pots and a mini-switch to split the humbucker into single/double modes.

After that the frets got leveled and dressed and it's setup to play like a champ with 46w-10 gauges. The whole result is a much-more pro-sounding/feeling guitar. The original pickups were "fine" but not inspiring, and I've never been a fan of normal Strat wiring and it was good to be rid of the 250k mini-pots so often found on import guitars.

It's nice to see a 2-point whammy on this instrument -- they're easy to use and easy to maintain. The body is solid mahogany, too -- which gives a bit more of a relaxed sound compared to Fender's more-usual woods.