The JV '57 | Partcasterism

Japan 1982 JV Stratocaster

Bought a nice, but well worn and modified 1982 JV Squier from a guy who has had it since he bought it in London the same year. He sent it to me with some original parts he had replaced in a old beat up Tokai case from the same era. So many guitar saw modification in the 80s. And here we have another transformed beauty waiting to be restored. Bought for $600.

Specs on arrival:

Body: Well worn 2-Tone sunburst

Neck: Good shape Maple neck with very dented neck profile.. Decal had flaked off by age according to owner.

Pickups: Equipped with Fishman Fluence pickups and batterypack. Trussrod maxed out.

Tuners: Guitar Workshop Locking Tuners (Has a history of its own.. read on)

Tremolo: All original 6-Screw Synchronized Tremolo

Case: Tokai 80s Brown case.

He said he found the original pots, and sent them to me on a old hacked-away HSS pickguard. A Dan Smith era 5-way switch that barely would move came with it. The original 3-way is also long gone.

Two of the old pickups came with it.. the Neck and Middle. The bridge was taken out and placed in another guitar in the mid-80s to give room to a humbucker.

Volume knob is original and came with. Both Tone knobs are gone. original Back tremolo cover also came with it.

He also sent me an old cream 80s Dimarzio SuperDistortion, he did not know if it worked. It did, and i got $80 for it. So, it earned some for the restoration.

Photos of guitar on arrival..

Plan was simple. Bring it back to original state as much as possible. I decided to not buy vintage parts, too expensive, but retrofit aged parts. Restore the decal and leave rest as is simple enough. If i ever go to Japan again, i might go on parts hunting.

When seller mentioned about the guitar once being installed with a humbucker 30 years ago, i could only imagine: humbucker means one thing on a 57 reissue.. Cavity rout out.

When i got it and removed the pickguard i was shocked that not only was the humbucker routed out by hand, the whole pickup cavity had been hacked out to a full swimmingpool route. I could easily restore it back to original SSS route if i was back home. But just gotta live with it. Besides, i have seen far worse jobs done.

It is all too common to find old Strats done home surgeries on. Eddie Van Halen has a lot to answer for...

However, pulled out all the Fishman stuff and stripped the lady down to its bare wood.

The Tuners that came on it..

The tuners took me down a research path. And very few abroad know the history on who invented the first locking tuners in the world. So here goes.

The tuners are Gibson closed tuners with offset mount screw. They are probably early 80's.

Apart from paperclips and cheese slicer, Norway can also boast to invent the first locking tuners.

In December 1983, a company was started in Oslo called Guitar Workshop that was a luthier/service for guitarist. They built several guitars and became a community hub for any pro-guitarist that crawled around in Oslo. They also started engineering stuff, and tuners was one they experimented with and made success out of.

They came up with the first type of locking tuners. By cutting the top off the shaft, tap threads into it and put a washer and and a screw on top, the goal was to achieve better tuning stability. A local machine shop worked out most of this in the start where they rebuilt Kluson and Schaller mostly.

Then they shopped around for distribution, and landed a dead with PING (who makes Fender's budget tuners today) to produce a proper issue of these.

After a short time they signed a deal with Grover and the rest is history.

I had no use for these tuners and put them for sale. A couple weeks later some guy contacted me and asked if we could trade. Said he had similar tuners but claimed they were the first one ever made and had once belonged to Marius Müller (Norwegian legendary guitarist). So i said "sure" and he sent me a pair of black Klusons made the same way as mine had been. Still have them.. gonna keep them.

So that is the story of locking tuners and their origins.

Fixing the neck...

I ordered a decal from Voodoo Decals. and i removed the old one. But i did one thing wrong, i only removed the decal and nothing else. Thought i wanted to preserve the Polyester finish as much as i could and i left a "valley" where the old decal was. When i applied the decal it was impossible to match the decal with the "valley" of the old one, i looked wonky. I sprayed it with Nitro but i screwed up and ruined a little bit of the decal. So i just thought, to hell with it and i sanded off everything and flat-sanded down the whole peghead, but preserved some of the finish, because the decal need a laquer surface to adhere to. It was not recommended to put a decal a wood surface. Mind you, i never applied a decal before :)

I then ordered a new decal from Crox Decals and when i applied that one, i let it rest for 10 hours to dry. Then i heated the nitrocan in a hot bath so it would flow out easier. When i now sprayed over it looked better. So i put two layers with sanding in between and finished with a third. It came out pretty nice this time..

The small things..

Now for a pickguard replacement. I had a 8 hole guard around, had all the age and wear and would fit beautifully, but if it was not for the drilled hole between tone pots i would keep it.

In search for a 8-hole Single ply i landed at Charles Guitar in UK. Not only did they have a nice pickguard, they were the only one who had small-number tone knobs that would go with my original Volume knob. Ordered them both with a set of butterfly String retainers.

When i got it and put it on i though.. well.. it looks maybe too white.. Should taken the vintage white one.

Will probably leave it out in the sun when i arrive back to Sunny Manila.

But the knobs where great. It was very similar in font and color to the original Volume knob. so i slightly aged them to match it. Gave the String tree a little relicing with vinegar and salt for 24 hours.

Loaded up the pickguard with its original pots and a new switch.

The pickups for neck and middle went on. But for now i only had a GFS bridge lying around. Wound the wrong way but polarity of magnets are the same..

Reamed hole for convertion tuners and put on the SD91. These also aged.

The frets were a little flatworn and could use a crowning. But that is another job for Manila. Further down the road, i will have to refret it. The small frets feels just right for this neck and radius. So might just put Medium ones on it some day. The medium is the one between Vintage and Medium Jumbo. Not to big, not too small.

On tweaking the Trussrod, it was maxed out. It had a slight forward bow and could use a tension but it could not move no more., so ordered washers to space out the adjustment nut so i could reduce the relief a little.

By now Decal on, Pickguard on, Frets polished, Truss adjusted.

Strung it up with 009 and gave it a setup. The neck felt good, but very bumpy and dented on the back. So i took some micromesh and started to take off some of the lacquer to smooth out the bumps.

Went fine. Set up the rest. Neck had no buzz and got pretty low action without issue with it.

Neck pickup was out of phase on pos.4 but probably because i did not reverse the leads. Do that next time.

Compared to my other JV, this one is easier to play and weigh less too.

Now wondering if i should keep it or sell it.. If i keep it i will let my Tele go.. i have too many guitars so im still considering.

The Tokai Case

The case it came in was something that screamed for restoration too. Most likely from the early 80s as well. made out of veneer wood with faux leather. The left latch was broken. Key missing (you don't say..) Holes here and there and generally been seeing a long life. But it was still functional.. The lining inside was Pink but worn trough a hole in the lid and bottom where butt end of body was resting. and seemed fit for a new dress..

After some thinking, a classic velvet red velour was decided.

I never restored a case before. So some reading up would do. Had no idea how to adhere fabric to hard surface.

So once i got the velour i just stripped it. The craftmanship of this case was marvelous. Just imagined the guy who put this together. It had been glued on and stappled. So i removed it all. Bought some thin car insulation for extra padding.

Now there was no strap to hold the lid, and after years of not having one, the wood flexed all ways when the hinges could not go futher, the woodframe started to bend back. So i made a bracket of aluminum at work and attached it to resupport the lid and keep it more sturdy.

To get the fabric on, i tried textile glue, but that was just a mess and the glue just seeped trough the fabric. So i grabbed a can of aerosol contact glue. Sprayed on the wood surface and let the fumes vaporize leaving a sticky surface, then just tacked on the fabric little by little. It sat very well and did not ruin or seeped trough the textile.

I tried to staple the fabric at the ends but the wood was too hard for the staple to do any penetration. So i just sprayed on glue, rolled up the ends and glued it on. Holds up.

The dividers came off and was redressed in red. The compartment lid was redressed as well. No hinges. Then just screwed on again with longer sturdier screws.

New latch ordered and attached.. Case is now ready for a new century,

Not a great job, as it was a trial and error kind of thing., but if i ever do this again, i know what to do for better results.