NGD: 1993 USA Peavey Predator

[MattFireblade]

I had been contemplating doing a Warmoth build for a strat next year or so, when a Predator popped up with a maple fretboard at a price I couldn't refuse.







It's not in the best of shape, but it's also almost 30 years old. At this point, I have stripped it down, and it's completely apart. I plan on doing a lot of customization on this one, taking my time, and doing it right.
The end goal is a graffiti yellow body, all black hardware, and all I'm essentially using are the neck, body, neck screws, and neck plate from the guitar. I plan on doing locking tuners, a graphtech nut, string saddle, and bridge saddles, Buddha pickups, a black/yellow/black pickguard, likely going to do a 'super strat' setup with master volume and tone, with three on/off pickup toggles, and then I'll be doing a Wilkinson WVS50 bridge.

Basically, it should look something like this when it's all done:

[MattFireblade]

So far, other than stripping it down, I have cleaned the neck, polished the frets (which are in surprisingly good condition for their age), and took steel wool to everything but the fretboard to knock back the gloss and level out some of the imperfections and small scratches and dings in the finish. The neck looks amazing now and feels like silk. The headstock still has a few places that aren't exactly as level as I'd like them to be, but it's close and not noticeable from more than 6 inches away, though I'll still take the time to hit it with something a time or two more to make sure it looks original.

Next steps are to strip the paint off the body, fill the bridge holes and the dings on the body, and then refinish it. I have to see if my brother-in-law has a spray gun at his shop, or if I'm going to do rattle cans in his paint booth.

[slowhand84]

So far, other than stripping it down, I have cleaned the neck, polished the frets (which are in surprisingly good condition for their age), and took steel wool to everything but the fretboard to knock back the gloss and level out some of the imperfections and small scratches and dings in the finish. The neck looks amazing now and feels like silk. The headstock still has a few places that aren't exactly as level as I'd like them to be, but it's close and not noticeable from more than 6 inches away, though I'll still take the time to hit it with something a time or two more to make sure it looks original.

Next steps are to strip the paint off the body, fill the bridge holes and the dings on the body, and then refinish it. I have to see if my brother-in-law has a spray gun at his shop, or if I'm going to do rattle cans in his paint booth.

Nice! I just scored a slightly newer (96 maybe?) one of these for $99 a few weeks ago with some Fender CS & Fender Noiseless pickups in it, they are VERY impressive guitars on the cheap:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=958

I had planned a whole bunch of mods but ended up canceling all those plans entirely and loving the guitar as is. The necks are amazing on these models and worth the price of admission on their own.

Since you're stripping it I would be curious to see if you can identify the body wood, I think they were alder or poplar but would be nice to have some confirmation since I have no plans of stripping mine.

[Rollin Hand]

And this reminds me that I need to update my Predator project thread.

These are massive value for money as a mod platform.

[pratteman]

Excellent haul

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