Strat with an old vintage Kahler Steeler trem

So a number of years ago I brought a kit guitar just to see what the quality was like.  it was a strat clone......Imagine that?  Anyways, everything about it was cheap.  The body, the hardware, the electronics.....everything.  It has been sitting around the shop for years now and I've always wanted to build it using the existing body and neck, but upgrading everything else on it. 

So a few years ago I built a flamed maple pick guard for it.  It might be on this blog further down, if not, I know I have pictures of it on my Facebook site "liveedgeguitars".  And a few months ago I loaded it up with CTS pots and NOS DiMarzio pickups, Q-Parts knobs......Anyways, it looks killer.

So just recently I have been working on the body.  It's made of Basswood which is alright, not really standard strat body material but it was a kit guitar so what do you expect.  Anyway, the tremolo was routed for a standard 6 hole fender diecast metal trem.  I did not want that...AT ALL, so I've upgraded it to a Kahler Steeler trem.  This thing in the day was the best alternative to a Floyd Rose.  I've always loved Kahlers so I found this one on E-bay and picked it up pretty cheap.  Now the routing on the body for the tremolo cavity was horrible to say the least.  If it was done on a CNC machine they must have forgot to clamp the body down.  If it was done with a standard router, the guy must have not used a straight edge to guide the router....or he was drunk.....who knows?

I spent a few hours yesterday making the cavity larger to accommodate the larger trem and straightening out the drunk operators cuts.  I must say it looks great and is one step closer to being finished.

I will say that before I brought the Kahler I did prep the body, only to have to strip it once I received the trem as I did not know the actual dimensions and thought it would just drop in the existing space......Whooops.  I had only sanded it and applied white primer to it so it was not the end of the world to have to strip it after making the changes to the body.  This is a kit guitar so I was never going to be selling it anyway, it was always going to be for me with the proper upgrades.  I'm not upgrading the neck.  I'm happy with the feel and even the small vintage frets.......I would never build a guitar with small vintage frets but again, for a kit guitar what do I expect.

So tomorrow I'm hoping to re-apply the primer and maybe later this week get going on the color coats.  Well, let's get the primer on first huh?