I had a late 70s Strat when I was on the road back in the day. Thing felt like a Les Paul hanging off my shoulder. Like this, it was a maple neck, and if ever there was a poster child for the stereotype of crappy 70s Fenders, this was it. The most unstable neck I've ever had in my life. You even looked at it the wrong way and it went out of tune.
I completely agree. I mean, if you're interested in maintaining "vintage" value, refinishing a guitar does bad things to your sale price. If you want to keep it, then I'd modify it extensively, starting with a leather grip wrapped around the first five frets to make it easier to wield in battle as the blunt instrument that it is.
The things starting to grow on me, I think I can appreciate it for the overweight uncouth brute that it is. The neck feels solid, I got the trem floating straight away and have barely tuned it since.
I'm going to refinish it and keep it, at least it will make my Les Pauls feel like featherweights.
The way I've described it to my non guitar playing friends is that if you were to hit a home invader with it, they're not getting up ?