Yamaki Stratocaster Copy

Bog standard....no changes made but I must get some new 'pots' and pups cause these are pretty crap

Fairly reliable once you get shut of the tuners......kept going out of tune. Body is fairly solid but the wood joins are so odd....woods no where near matching but ok I guess. Only let me down once and that wasnot a complete disaster.....selector switch failed but only on neck position.

mmmmf????????

Its not a bad one this one but I could do with a real strat I think!

Japanese-made, mid- to late-70s vintage. Bog-standard tremolo Strat copy. Correct number of frets, you already know the pickup layout and controls. It has a 3-piece glued body of unknown wood type, and was originally painted gloss black.
The slim neck is maple/maple capped with a mild 'C' profile, and overall, is very comfortable. Then again, I have been playing it for over 20 years ...
The bridge, tuners and pickups were nothing special. Shaller minis were the first replacement I made to the headstock, which had the big 1970's outline.
So, I took the profile from a Dan Smith Strat and shaved the headstock, having first obtained a black-market set of original 50s stickers, fooling only myself I might add. There were still two string-trees, and the neckplate says "Epochal Yamaki truss-rod adjustment system" or something, just where the allen key goes in.
So I now had the headstock looking very smart, but it wouldn't fool anyone and wasn't intended to. I even painted a brown truss-rod 'bullethole' on the headstock behind the nut.
Gradually, I came across enough genuine Fender parts to make a new bridge with bent-over saddles as mine were cast alloy and the bridge was in one solid block. Good move. So was the bone nut.
All the wiring was re-done recently, as neat as possible. I also took this opportunity to fit a 3-way switch.

My favourite Strat sound is that hollow, clear, barking tone used by blues players. Ideally using the neck pick-up, clean but edging on pushy. I don't remember if the original pickups were capable of that, because I pulled them out in the mid-80s. The prevailing climate at the time (maybe assisted by questionable quality real Fenders) was to replace everything you could with bigger, bolder and brassier bits. I didn't go that far, but I did install mini-switches for phase options, then a trio of original 1960s Vox pickups I came across for a steal.
That meant churning up the scratchplate to fit the switches and the square-shouldered profile of the Voxes. Hey - I had an AC30. It made sense.
Then I replaced the Voxes (saving them for an as-yet-unbuilt project)for 2 ESPs bought new in the mid-80s, and quite recently, a bargain DiMarzio SDS-1 for the bridge.
When I was doing all this, I didn't realize my ideal sound came from a Fender guitar WITH a Fender amp. Now I have a black-face Champ, I have something close to my preferred sound. Replacing the bridge saddles really helped the sound, too. I should maybe put the original pickups back in for a comparison!
The neck is aging very well and sounds nice, encouraging me to "dig in". The first five frets have only ever needed a mild stoning, and the fretboard is showing cool age patterns where I play most.

It plays well, but loses tune with old strings. I got bored with black, and painted it red, like Hank's. Then, I covered it in stickers and stuff, then red again.
While I was respraying my 1959 Lambretta a really cool turquoisey VW colour called "Beat Blue", I did the guitar as well. A new white scratchplate had it looking good as new.
Until I saw the great brown/red shell one that is on it now. :)

It's always done the job, whatever state either one of us has been in. I may even have finished fooling with it, and maybe it will regain some dignity after I robbed it of its name all those years ago.
When I emigrated, it was the only guitar I brought as carry-on, and I would depend on it for any situation.
When you think about what I've done to it, I giver it this rating without question.

nope, never, nada, nix.

Judging by the feedback on this site for other Yamaki/Joodee guitars, Daion had quite a brand, back then. What happened?