I loved the Mike McCready Strat – the playability and sounds were the best I've encountered on a Mexican Fender Stratocaster and I said so in my review. But there was one area I was less sold on, and it highlighted the possible limits of factory relic'ing. Though impressive – especially the artificial neck wear – there were areas of the body aging that weren't as successful for me.
It was somewhat understandable – Fender was recreating McCready's specific 1960 Strat and its areas of wear on the body from decades of use. But could it actually be improved by a buyer? Zach Broyles of Nashville's Mythos Pedals wanted to find out.
As Zach makes clear in his videos on modding (which are excellent BTW), he just enjoys doing this stuff – he's not advising we all do it. So when he takes a leaf out of the Tom Murphy Lab toolkit on how to add dinks and knocks to a body, and it's on his own personal instrument. We just get to watch vicariously. But any fears he might overdo when relic'ing the McCready Strat prove unfounded.
Zach's M.O. to "see what kind of realism we can add to this guitar" relies on knowing when to stop. It's important to note that the McCready Strat has a nitrocellulose finish and the polythene finishes found on more affordable Fenders will not respond to the techniques Zach tries anywhere near as well, or should I say, authentically. Poly finishes tend to be thicker and don't wear down in a way that looks anything but fake when it comes to scuffing the finish with Scotch Brite, as Zach does in this two-part video series.
The most interesting part of the video for me is when Montypresso is used – this is a guitar relic wax made by Monty's Guitars in the UK, who also make fabulous pickups. I've used it myself to darken a pau ferro fingerboard on my own guitar, but here Zach actually applies it on the McCready's Strat's body. And it effectively improves some of the hue of the less convincing relic'ing areas where the alder underneath looks a little too 'new'.
As Zach admits, adding ding and dents to the body with items like bunches of keys is the most fun part but the Montypresso staining offers a subtle but definite grimy improvement to the patches of exposed wood. I even think it could have done with some longer marination on the Strat myself.
What's especially appealing about these videos is that Zach is so willing to experiment and learn in real-time here, and in that respect he's chosen a good subject in this already heavy relic Strat. "I'm not being too precious or worried because Mike's guitar is just destroyed – it's annihilated." So what's a few more dings and scratches, eh?
There are definitely some good tips to be learned from him here on how and where to add artificial wear that looks convincing. The results speak for themselves.
Zach's next video will find him upgrading the electronics on the Strat to make it as "vintage accurate as possible". As I said, this is something he likes doing, but I'll add that the stock pickups in the Mexican McCready Strat are some of my favourite Strat examples I've encountered so either way you're getting a great-sounding Strat.
Stay updated over on the Mythos Pedals YouTube channel and check out Monty's Montepresso over at montysguitars.com
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