u6crash

Yes. A serious contender. I feel like I read the specs wrong the first time not realizing they were labeled with different heights for the neck and bridge pickup. Similarly, the Guild DeArmond pickups in the neck position are 7/16" (0.4375) and would work. I'm not super keen on putting eight more holes into the body, but I might do a custom mounting ring the covers the four mounting holes and makes use of the two original holes. The Lindy Fralin Dynasonics might work. Guitar Fetish has some options too. At the moment I think I am leaning towards the TV Jones or Guild DeArmond now that I read that spec correctly. The Guilds are made in Korea and half the price. The TV Jones are available in a number of varieties. As far as looks, I like the ones the resemble the Dynasonic best. Maybe I'll do some reading tonight and place an order in the morning.

Maybe if I found some with a shallower cover. Rechecked again this morning, and I have a little more room than I thought. About 0.625" from the body to the top of the frets. I will probably try to keep pickup height in the low side as much as possible. I could potentially shim up the neck, but the pocket is angled. The heel doesn't sit far into bridge end of the pocket as it is.

Progress is slow. Clamped the neck on to take measurements for possible pickups. Conventinal P90s are out; they are too tall. Dynasonic replicas fit, but only the versions that mount with four screws. Going to keep looking. Curtis Novak has some interesting models with shallow heights. Need a bridge, too. Since I went with a compound radius, I'd like one that isn't pre-slotted. And also in nickel. And a rosewood base instead of ebony. I was shocked when I measured about where it would go. Then I looked up vintage examples of the Coronado II and saw the bridge was in fact almost right up against the pickup.

Early in March I acquired my dream project body: an original Fender Coronado. On March 30th I placed an order for a custom neck with Musikraft. It arrived yesterday, five months later to the day. Work will be slow on this. I'm trying to transition careers right now. Still uncertain of the color, but it might be a silverburst. I miss my Inca Silver Strat and will probably part with my tobacco burst Dot when this is done, so it's like replacing two color schemes at once, right? Won't be a faithful restoration. I aim to use my own headstock shape and I don't feel like paying for the original pickups.

I did read that somewhere after posting this. I might go as far as trying to cut a new nut for it. I have some nut files somewhere...I think.

Purchased a Squier Mini-Strat for my niece for her birthday. I'm not expecting the thing to be perfect, but if there are some little things I can do to make it a little more consistent, that would be awesome. Impressions out of the box: It isn't great a keeping in tune. Strings on it have some corrosion. I'm going to switch to a set of 10-46s. I would kind of like to polish the frets a bit, but not sure if I have the right stuff (or where it is at). Action is not too bad. Intonation is not as awful as I thought it would be. I'll tackle it more when I get the new strings, but the D string was most off. I wonder if the tuning instability is mostly in the tuners themselves. If so, I have a set of All Parts tuners that I might try to drop in there. Kind of want to get some thoughts on that before I go ripping tuners of a guitar. The ones I have are staggered height vintage style (7880-001 if anyone cares) and no telling if they would fit until I take off the old ones. Bought an Orange Crush 20 for it and man...I kind of like it. I don't have a lightweight solid state practice amp anymore, but this almost makes me want to get one.

Broken limbs have kept me from it a couple times. There have been other times where I just didn't find the time. At the beginning of 2020 a musical friend of mind asked me to open for him at a small show at a local brewery. It was the first time in ten years I had played in front of people and it demanded I put some practice in. Playing that show ignited something in me again. Then lockdown happened and at one point with two weeks off and nowhere to go I started playing live mini-sets online. I played more guitar in 2020 than I had in the previous 2-3 years combined. In October Jack White played "Ball and Biscuit" on SNL and I decided I was going to learn how to play it once and for all. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm close. SImilarly to OP, I'm 40 and have been playing for 25 years, but it sure doesn't sound like I've been playing that long. I think it was Teddy Roosevelt who said, "Comparisson is the thief of joy." I can do some almost impressive things on a guitar, but sometimes it feels most fun to relax and play E and A back in forth covering Wreckless Eric's "Whole Wide World". ....and I just realized how old the first post was. Oh well. I'm hitting reply anyway in case these words help someone else.

Very cool. I don't have a Yamaha yet, but there are so many that catch my eye. I'd probably buy a vintage RNR or Studio Lord before I picked up a Strat or Les Paul.

Trying to remember when I joined. Late 90s? Early 00s? Not super active. Forums like this seem over shadowed by Facebook and Reddit, and I'm mostly on the former for my family.

Congratulations! This is the second electric guitar that you have ever owned, or just number two in your current collection? I've played some of the hollow/semi-hollow Ibanez guitars and liked them quite a bit. Enjoy!

I needed the money at the time and sold the only electric guitar I had. A 1997 Fender Standard Stratocaster in Inca Silver with a maple fretboard. And I didn't get a whole lot of money for it. Years later when I was finally in a position to start buying guitars again, I couldn't believe how much that same guitar was commanding used. Still haven't technically replaced it, but I've added three other electrics since then. What I really want in a Strat is a two-knob version with a hardtail bridge, so I'll probably put together a partscaster at some point.

Good deal with maltomario. Melody Maker arrived fast and in great shape, thanks!

Good trade with rog951. He picked up a tube amp book from me.

My Carvin Cobalt 850

My Yamaha APX-SPLI Here you see some of the pain it's in. Also you can lines where the braces are in the top picture. I don't know what that means, but it's probably not good. I haven't always been able to see them.