Shall I hit the buy button? - Strat related

Man of Honour
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My mate is a Luthier and he reckoned about a month ago that my 79 Strat is the best he's ever played. He used to borrow it for studio recordings in the early 80's and I let him use it now and then for gigs. I told him that I had wrecked the guitar by putting a locking trem on, new pickups, changed the wiring and slammed it into drumkits a few times and it was virtually unplayable now.
I decided to let him see it and he nearly cried that somebody could mistreat a classic so much. He took the guitar away because I said i wouldn't mind a price on a customisation but he would have to fill a big hole in I made for the trem.

Anyway, in steps the wife yesterday saying that she never knows what to buy me and since she bought the guitar in 1979 for me (it cost £330) that it was worthwhile to get it back into shape. I rang up my mate and told him that money was no object (within reason) and he could turn it into his dream machine. He sent me this list -

Shopping Cart
Axesrus Guitar Parts UK Contact Axesrus Guitar Parts UK
Product Quantity Update Cart Price Amount
FENDER CUSTOM SHOP 69'ER's (set) ABIGAIL SIGNED 099-2114-000 £117.00
(STAINLESS) 20 OFF RAISED HEAD HALF INCH STAINLESS PICKGUARD SCREWS APS 62 £2.80
AGED WHITE (CREAM) USA STD SCSCSC 3 PLY PICKGUARD USA AW(CREAM) £15.00
STRAT FENDER/ALPHA WIRING KIT 250K (1XA250K 2XB250K .022 ORANGE DROP , WIRE, MONO, FENDER 5 WAY) KW1 £19.00
099-2049-000 GENUINE FENDER USA CHROME Vintage style USA trem unit AHW117 £75.00
FENDER AGED WHITE ACCESSORY KIT 099-1368-000 £16.00

Total : £244.80

He said it would sound like Hendrix/Blackmore and the neck was already the best he'd played on.

Shall I press the BUY button?
 
Just do it!
It must be good owning an older Strat with a bit of history.
I just bought an American Chrome red maple neck Strat and have some Tex Special PU's on order but it all looks so new and shiney!

I was looking for a place to have mine proffesionaly set up....is your mate in the Staffs area?

If you ever want to sell your Strat let me know as I would love an original seventies beast or a sixties one come to thin k of it!
 
Sure go for it, if you want it (hopefully) back to it's original form. Obviously any high value the guitar had is long gone when you Van-Halen'd it :p But it'll be as a strat should be again if all goes well :)
 
If you are going back to an original type Trem go for the Callaham bridge assembly..http://www.guitarexperience.co.uk/html/modules.php?name=Shopping_Cart&file=category&category_id=29 ... make sure with your luthier that the screw holes are in the right place , but no one makes a *better* bridge than these people at the moment including Fender... A proper milled steel trem block makes a hell of a difference to the tone of a strat...

The vintage sized screw hole placement on the trem block will NOT fit with a modern strat bridge... as i said ,check with your Luthier before ordering any parts..
 
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Well it took me long enough but I hit the buy button yesterday :)
My mate is really made up and he's already asked to use it for studio work when he's finished it.
 
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