B.K. Vaught recently walked into my shop with a vintage Strat that had been modified and refinished. While its changes represented a bit of American history, the guitar deserved to be restored.

B.K. got it in the spring of 2022, while helping sort the estate of an uncle who had passed away. Among his belongings were dozens of guitars including a ’53 Gibson J-45, a ’60s Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean, and an assortment of ’80s Fenders. This one caught B.K.’s attention because of the wear on its fretboard.

After he posted pictures online, someone suggested it might be a ’57 Strat, so he took it to Gruhn Guitars for evaluation, and they confirmed the body was indeed from ’57, while the neck had been modified and some components were original.

Cryptic knife-scratched engravings on the neck plate suggest it once belonged to a member of the U.S. Marine Corp, and it was oversprayed with what may have been an attempt at Fiesta Red, including an off-center stinger on the back of the headstock.

B.K. turned it over with instructions to strip the finish, replace the headstock decal, and do whatever else was needed to make it playable (and look closer to original). As you’ll see, there was a lot to do, so I created a three-person team.

1) Elyse Kautz started by using chemical stripper to remove paint from the peghead, starting on the back. She soon discovered why someone might have painted it; carved into the maple were the letters “USA” and “FLMC,” matching the neck plate. To keep stripper from getting into the holes and perhaps leeching into the wood, she wedged dowel plugs into the tuner holes. Many colors – especially red – can float out of the wood and bleed into the new clear lacquer that will be sprayed over the area.

2) After the peghead was cleaned and dried, Elyse scraped and sanded the letters. After air-brushing some tint over the bare wood, it looked old and worn, like it should.

3) The paint also hid two large chips in the first tuner hole, likely from someone using the wrong tool to remove the original bushings. They had filled the chips with glue and just painted over it. I bleached the head twice after stripping it but you can still see how red pigment remained in the wood.

4) I filled the chips with maple then used an air brush to spray thin coats of golden brown/amber “shader” (clear Colortone stain mixed with lacquer thinner and a splash of clear lacquer) to hide some of the red. It also added an antique effect.

5) The pickguard and body cavities were shielded with copper foil. Because Gene Imbody had to rewire the pickup harness, we ditched the pickguard and used a StewMac aged-white pickguard and pickup covers.
6) The middle and bridge pickup were original, but the neck was a replacement that Gene swapped for a Duncan Vintage Staggered ’50s he had on-hand.
7) He wired the pickups and harness with an Emerson paper-in-oil cap, StewMac CTS caps, and a five-way selector. After measuring the resistance of all three pickups, he decided to use the Duncan at the bridge and put the original bridge pickup at the neck. He had to flip polarity on the Duncan to make it match, but together, they sound like a dream.
8) Elyse gathered parts then installed the bushings and tuners.
9) I installed the string tree then applied the decal sent by the great folks at the Fender Custom Shop, who sent an appropriate version. While I was applying it, the middle of “Stratocaster” got twisted. I managed to unwind it, but the letters T, O, and C were damaged. After it dried, I chipped off what was left and chipped a few other places to make it look roadworn.
10) Strats from this era have fretboards that are narrower than most, enough so the strings are close to falling off the edges of the frets – especially up the fretboard. Adding fuel, this one was re-fretted and the ends were bevelled so steep that the frets had even less playing surface. The solution? Callaham’s V/N Strat Bridge, which has the standard 27/32″ mounting spacing, but narrower 21/16″ string spacing…
11) …versus the original’s 23/16″.
12) With a new bridge and bone nut, the ’57 Strat is now playing great in the hands of its proud owner.

Dan Erlewine has been repairing guitars for more than 50 years. The author of three books, dozens of magazine articles, he has also produced instructional videotapes and DVDs on guitar repair. From 1986 through his retirement in late 2019, Erlewine was part of the R&D team, and company liaison for Stewart-MacDonald’s Guitar Shop Supply. Today, he operates a repair shop in Athens, Ohio, as well as building replicas of the guitars he made for Albert King and Jerry Garcia in 1972. This column has appeared in VG since March, 2004. You can contact him at danerlewine@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared in VG’s May 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.