samgoody

Jonny, leicester, thanks for the advice. I guess I'll just go with blocking the bridge, then. I haven't gotten round to measuring the dimensions of the neck heel or the neck pocket to see if a Strat neck will fit, but if I do I'll be sure to let you know. On the topic of 60Hz hum, I noticed that it quiets down a bit when I touch the strings or bridge. Could there be a problem with the wiring or electronics? As promised, some pics of my guitar:

Hello from the Land of Sand (Saudi Arabia), I own a Stratocaster copy made by Epiphone, with serial number J00070124. The guitar was bought in Saudi Arabia in 2002. The plate at the back says it's made in Korea, but I have no idea what year it was made. I'm also not sure what the model name is (configuration is three single coil pickups, and a batwing headstock). In any case, I'm looking to turn it into a project guitar. The frets are all worn (most of the wear is between frets 5 and 8), and there are no luthiers where I live to do fret leveling/crowning, so I was thinking of replacing the entire neck with a new one that has better frets. I was wondering if a Stratocaster neck would fit my guitar. I'm also looking to turn it into a hardtail (as opposed to blocking the trem) as I really don't use the whammy bar on it, and would like the guitar to have more stable tuning. Is this easy to do? Any parts I could use for this? Any other ideas that would make the guitar hold a tune better would be very much appreciated. Finally, I hear a lot of 60Hz hum when the pickup selector is in positions 2 and 4, which I thought were hum canceling positions. What could be the problem here? I'd like to share the pictures of my guitar, but I'm not sure how to insert images in my post. Thanks. Edit: I uploaded a picture of it in my avatar.