I spent YEARS wandering around Hock-shops and flea markets buying, upgrading, and re-selling guitars of all kinds. One statement I support completely is that you'll NEVER get a strat to sound like a Les Paul....or vice versa. Puttin' humbuckers in strats, and splittin' the coils in the LP....all to add variety.....it's all nice, but each guitar has a personality of it's own. I'm all for creating new and different instruments out of old ones....but when you do, you lose what you had in the first place. Today the market is FLOODED with instruments to experiment with. There are so many knock-off versions of strats, Les Pauls, SGs, Teles....and everything else ever produced, that if you're looking for something to tear apart and re-build your own way, that should NOT be a problem. I've got a couple of closets full of guitars, some of which are considered very valuable and desireable. Yet, to me, a couple of my favorites are an old Peavy Strat knock-off with Fralin pups, and a later model Jay Turser SG knock off with some PRS Pups in it. These two guitars play and sound better than most everything else I have, including my old '62 LP (sg body style), all my 7 PRS guitars, and my old '67 Strat. I'm well beyond the 'ego' aspect of what I play, and I've found that many of these older knock-offs are starting to 'age' very nicely. Good pickups make a huge difference....but then 'cheap' pickups have a sound that can be very appropriate to a given type of music. Tiasco DelRay was a cheap guitar back in the day....made in Japan....and NOT very playable even when new. But, find one today.....do a good set-up, clean the pots, and put on a good set of stings.....and you've got an instrument with plenty of character and some very interesting and alluring sounds. I guess my point here is simply this: Don't kill your MIM Strat trying to make it become something it can't. Kinda the old "You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear" philosophy. You've got a good strat that you can make a better strat. And for the money you'd spend trying to make it into a LP....you could buy a knock off that would be a good 'starter' LP. I see Set-Neck LP guitars on ebay for about $150 that with a good set of used pick-ups you'd probably never be able to tell them from a typical 70's Standard. So...there's my 2 cents worth. Good luck! TSD
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