Actually... I lied. This is actually my third Stratotone rebuild.
It seriously kills me to find gutted Stratotone bodies and necks on Ebay... I'd never have the heart to gut one myself... and as much as I'd love to just buy a stockpile of Hersey bar pickups and do a purist restoration, the one pickup is going for the price of a body and neck together these days!
FORTUNATELY there are lots of OTHER DeArmond pickups out there... as well as some awesome vintage parts to be had for cheap!
The '61 Stratotone project... done up Les Paul Jr stylee!! '61 Stratotone body & neck.. '61 DeArmond pickup... '61-ish Bigsby B3 vibrato... fresh aluminum flat-top bridge, Kluson Keystone tuners, Alpha pots, VINTAGE Sprague tone cap (thanks to my grandfather), CUSTOM cut pickguard.
Sexy? Oh yes.