Got it back today.
There are good and bad things about it, mostly bad, sad to say.
First, the pickguard fits well, and the whole package looks great, the fretboard has been oiled, and now looks a thousand times better. New graphtech nut. One of the string trees was wonky and has been corrected.
Even though this is faint praise, sadly it's about the best I can say about it. My luthier did a grand job, but he was fighting a losing battle.
The frets need to be redressed. Even though the action is super-high, the guitar still buzzes like mad. It's possible that the pickups sound good, but it's very hard to tell, as the guitar is very, VERY quiet. Using my Telecaster, I have my anp set at about 2 to get good room volume. With the strat, I need to push to about 4.5 to get the same volume. On this volume, the tele is far too loud for living room play, but the strat just cuts through. I have no idea why this is the case. Also the fretboard still feels dry. When bending, it feels rather rough, but this might have something to do with the frets as well.
In all, at this stage I have a guitar that looks great, plays poorly, and lacks volume.
Does anyone have any ideas for sorting out the volume issues? I very much don't want to have to buy another set of pickups.
