Ok, luthier here. As we speak, I’m refretting a 1970s strat so I’m watching your video as inspiration. I can confirm that those lines beside the frets ARE sloppy luthier work. It’s from the crowning file with sandpaper. Such a shame. Thank you for making this video! I love it.

This instruments do sound nice but for me it's the feel and looks man 😍

The mid to late 70s neck profile is one of the most comfortable that I have ever held

The AY on the back of your pickups stands for Abigail Ybarra. So much mojo/voodoo about her pickup winding career at Fender

Simon Park 1 second ago The initials 'AY' on the pickups mean they were inspected by Abigail Ybarra - not made by her, but built by someone else and inspected/overseen by her. I bought a set of them back in 2007 and they came with a little sheet of paper containing that info. They're a set of Custom Shop '69 pickups.

I have owned and played meny 70s fenders. One in particular was my close friends 75 telecaster deluxe, and Ive seen a 73 telecaster custome with the most amazing frets. They had wide flat crowns that just gave me a personal playing experience that was heavenly!They responded like they were grabbing the notes faster than other frets. Probablem is, nobody can give info, and most have no idea what im talking about. Your strat appears to have same said frets!If I could find the fret wire i would refret all my strats with them. I know current trends say flat wide crowns are bad. Mostly for intonation. Im here to tell you that if any intonation problems existed, i couldn't tell or care on the Telecaster Deluxe I grew up with.

Whats happening on the front and sides is they went over the original finish with something else. The new layer didn't bond with whatever is underneath - Even if it feels like bare wood, there still is likely enough of the original poly in the grain to make the new layer not stick. Did this myself a few times by not thinking about what I was doing.

I am blessed with a 1973 sunburst version. There is a serious bolt under that neck plate, just as an FYI. I changed out the entire bridge but some people dig these pot metal bridges and the more midrange sound they offer. Mine is in desperate need for new frets ... I razor bladed off the poly from the fingerboard on mine. Congrats on your new Catastraster. I cleaned mine when I first got it (inherited from my late older brother), and tons of yellow from tobacco smoke, came off of it. Nothing ages a guitar like tobacco and sweat! I doubt that's polyurethane or polyester doing that checking!

Mojo is absolutely a real thing! I think Mojo is either introduced into the build during construction or bestowed by the player over many years, or both! I don't know that it can be explained through any language we are able to speak but you know when you play a guitar if there's mojo in there. Sometimes you know it just by picking the guitar up and holding it. You know what I'm saying man, not a physical thing but a feeling you get when the instrument speaks to you. Whatever you want to call it, it's a beautiful thing and it's just as beautiful to be able to feel that! Magic!! Love the video man. Peace & Love

Such a sick Strat! Congrats!

Sounds great bro. What a find.

Way cool! The care and respect you give to the relic patina is awesome man. I must admit, Strats and Fenders in general, were never for me or my fat fingers, but the history and provenance are the stuff of legends. BTW... sry to comment so much, just been binging your vids. I'm sure you're too busy with the workshop situation to read and reply much atm... hope all is going well with that.

Big headstock❤

Love it great guitar

Aged yellow Ash wood is Mojo...Gorgeous and timeless build.

Lovely video to watch! Also, Poly can definitely “check” over time. I have several poly guitars that have “checked”, including a ‘78 Strat.

This is literally my dream guitar. I was born in 1975 and want a birth-year guitar... so was looking to get one as a 50th birthday present to myself. Locally they had one like this, but with a hardtail, which would have been even more perfect. Sadly that went for more than I could afford right now. Your one has some gnarly but beautiful aging and if new pickups were put on in 2011 then I'd think that was a good sign they wanted to actually play it.

That high E string is right at the edge of the fret board which activates my OCD into overdrive!

Mojo is real……I bought a 66 Strat from an old Blues player who had it appraised by a so call professional. They never pulled the neck, and just listed as a Frankinstrat….I bought it for 1200….everthing orig other than Custom Shop Pickups…my luthier buddy pulled the neck and said wow you hit the jackpot. Stamped as a Mar 66B neck….unreal..if I mentioned the name of the appraiser half ppl here would know him….anyway just an unreal guitar….

The grooves on the fretboard are due to a re-fret. Original finish is applied after frets, so it needs to be sliced down the fret edges. This can chip the finish. Also easy to spot if the fret board is lighter than back of neck. The body finish may be a refin. Maybe compare to finish in cavities and under the bridge on the top. I have an all original 76 and it has thicker finish which colours unevenly in places such as strap areas. The 3 way switch is easy to live with and use for 5 tones on mine (with the simpler wiring and gives great Hendrix tone). These guitars can be great. If you love it and it sounds good…..winner. All adds ‘mojo’. Every guitar has a story.

@16:00 Canned air is how they make new poly check so it doesn't surprise me that if flakes off when you hit it with canned air.

I've been buying 70s Strat because they are much cheaper than even 60s Strat (1969 even). Just got a 77 Strat for 2 G. Missing one ferrule and one Tone knob.

Pickups are wound by Abigail Ybarra. It is a quite expensive customshop set. She wound pickups in the 60s for fender as well. They are period correct for the 60s, and wound on the old machines.

The green is most likely from sweat. WooF!

The green stuff - I was in a band for a while with a guy whose sweat was caustic to anything metal. He played my backup guitar for half a show and his sweat got under the pickguard and made that green stuff from the shielding on the back of the pickguard. But what's weird about yours is, there's no evidence of that on the shielding. My shielding was also copper and the green color was like the Statue of Liberty. Maybe it was a previous pickguard?

great video, I have one like that, maybe a touch older but very similar, I was wondering how much does it worth in these days?

it's been refinished with a thin poly, thus the thin crispy peels coming off.

Does the thin e string goes out of the fretboard at the 21th fret? It sure looks like that at 6.40. Bought a new one in -75 where the bridge was at least about 5-6 mm off so that the e string almost went off the fretboard at 21th fret. I was young and didn't noticed it when I bought it. A friend helped me and did some woodwork to move the bridge up so the strings became straight over the neck. Fender had some issues at that time I guess.

my birth year!!!!!!!

@13:25 FYI most screwdrivers are designed to fit inside of a Box wrench. It'll save you from marring up your screwdriver.

I don't know if I'm right but it looks like the jack plate screw is on the bridge and the bridge screw was on the jack plate

The green stuff is oxidation from the aluminium shielding.

The raw fretboard on the high e-string edge is most likely wedding ring rash. I’m not a finish expert, but I always hear that nitro finishes actually become part of the wood rather than sitting on top of it like polyurethane does, but maybe that’s different if the finish isn’t exposed to the sun and air because it’s covered by the pick guard.

The green stuff looks like verdigris. The colour of copper when it oxidises.

The Bullet Truss Rod era are my very fav, I own a 74 tele custom maple neck on a 82 Strat body, don't get the USA reissues, that are not accurate, the Japanese Fenders actually are!, I also own a 99 CIJ ST72, spot on...can't say that for USA models or Mexico. As for tight pockets in the neck, they were mostly all like that from my experience, I always assumed it was to give more stability for that micro-tilt system.

Fabulous looking guitar. I am about to embark on a partscaster build using a korina body. I hope to get close to the colour of your guitar. On bare wood what is your preferred poison as a finish, not including nitro! I was going to go with multiple layers of Tur Oil.

The grinding on the neck plate was probably someone removing a SS number. Back in the day people would engrave their number on valuable items.

What are the holes in the headstock by the tuners? Looks good though!

Great Guitar. Neck is not polyurethane it is polyester. the body is also polyester with a nitro overcoat which is what is lifting.

I would agree with the "green" being oxidation from copper tape used in the past.. and could that finish be lacquer OVER poly?.. not unlike the Japanese style Lacquer Taste which gives the appearance of a lacquer finish but only for show.. ? curious. but nice project.. i hope you went with a WOOD shim in the neck instead of the micro-tilt..

a y initial for abigail ybarra. now is josephina.. master handwound pickup

The Mexican Fenders made today are of higher quality, and are more playable. How do I know? I owned a seventies strat, and I grew apart from it, but If I would have loved it I could have easily fixed the major issues. It was heavy and a hardtail.

You don’t mention the weight of the guitar! Lucky you as it’s obviously not a problem 😊. I have a 1979 and it could double as a boat anchor. 😮

Pickguard is degrading and/or outgassing. Leading to the green corrosion and finish reaction.

Tell me you got a real relic without telling me you got a real relic

Abigail Ybarra pickup thye cost a fortune now

Mojo is not a description of appearance

Que le bois et d'origine 75/76 , pas les micros est les potards !!

the string alignment was really bad, even with the high E adjusted on the saddle. Thas why people dont like 70 neck and pocket system

Mid 70's Starts are the worst. I had one and it weighed a ton, tiny frets, shitty pickups shitty tuners. Finding a mint condition vintage guitar is boring ? That's ridiculous. Considering the rarity and value of a mint condition guitar most sane people would be ecstatic. I hadn't realized that dirt, corrosion, and rust were mojo. Somebody should tell those old Delta bluesman that they have it all wrong.

People love to shit on 70s Strats despite Both Ritche Blackmore AND Yngwie playing them and having sigs axes from that era LoL! Every era can have anecdotal examples of shitty individual guitars.

Dude, the custom shop PUs are Abby Ybarra's, you need to do more research on strats and Fender

This video is so full of inaccuracies. It's a poly finish for sure, poly does check given the right conditions. It may even been a refinished on the sides and top for some reason with another layer of poly. That nut is not original and cut crazy bad. Also, those tuners are not original, they are obviously reproductions added at some point because the originals were taken off because you can see the screw holes for the other tuners. Those marks on the neck board definitely a bad re-fret job from the past. The number in the vibrato block is a patent number they introduced those between 1971 and 1972, and there are similar ones under each saddle. The wear on the neck is from rings, not chemical reactions, its really common on this era of guitar. I love CBS era Stratocasters because they are great value, and there are a lot of good ones going for cheap. This one looks like an absolute train-wreck, and is the kind that gives the era a bad reputation.

In the 70 nobody wants those guitars, the first good Stratocaster was the Silver Anniversary, that I've owned

I’ll bet your now wishing you’d saved that purchase cost to buy a 1970-1972 model instead…?

I commented a while ago that the 1st string not being straight over the neck. Look at 4.03 where the string has been pushed over to the left at the bridge to compensate for this. That proves, for me, that this is a piece of shit as my own -75 was a piece of shit and shouldn't have left the factory. Now we praise the "mojo" of this wrongly put together guitar? Incredible.

He waers gloves like he is doing surgery... it is an old electric guitar ... not a person

Watch tour back

What's with the whispering??