Dixon Red

25.5         Scale Length

42mm     Nut width

S.S.S.      Pickup Configuration   5.3 ohms Neck,  5.6 ohms Middle,   6.6 ohms Bridge

7.0 lbs.   Weight

22            Frets

9.5           Fretboard Radius

Maple     Fretboard material

Red         Color

1.5mm   Action at 12th Fret

Right Handed Player

X    Deep Cleaning

X    Electronics Cleaned / Tested

X    Tuners Serviced

X     Fretboard Cleaned / Hydrated

X     Neck Adjusted

X     Intonation Set

X     Setup Complete

X     Body Polished / Buffed

This guitar received a complete teardown and rebuild with upgraded electronics, pickups, shielding, wiring, tuners, and setup components.

Pickups

• Alnico 5 single-coil pickup set installed

• Neck pickup: 5.35 kΩ

• Middle pickup: 5.68 kΩ

• Bridge pickup: 6.65 kΩ

Electronics

• CTS A250K potentiometers

• CRL-style heavy-duty 5-way selector switch

• Switchcraft output jack

• Gilmour switch

• Treble bleed circuit

• 0.047 µF capacitor on the neck/middle tone control

• 0.022 µF capacitor on the bridge tone control

• Pushback cloth wiring

• Silver solder connections

Shielding

• Copper foil shielding added to the pickguard

• Copper foil shielding added to the body cavity

Hardware

• Kluson Plus Series 18:1 tuners

• Roller string tree

• Black strap buttons

• Ernie Ball Regular Slinky 10–46 strings

Fret Work

• Original frets retained

• Frets crowned and polished

• Sealed maple fretboard preserved

• No refret performed

Rebuild Note

The original 60 mm two-post tremolo bridge was cleaned, inspected, and reused because the body routing did not match current replacement bridge options without additional modification. The original output jack plate was also polished and reused to preserve fit and appearance.

All upgrades were installed, tested, and adjusted as part of the final rebuild process.

This red Dixon Strat-style guitar arrived at Back From The Dead Guitars from North Central Wisconsin in June 2026. Its exact factory history is difficult to confirm, but its branding, construction style, maple neck, and import hardware format place it firmly in the world of 1980s-style Strat-inspired import guitars.

The following story is fictional and simply reflects the thoughts this guitar inspired during its restoration.

In its imagined past life, this red Dixon may have started its journey in the late 1980s in the hands of a college student attending the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Between classes, forestry lectures, late-night study sessions, and the pull of weekend freedom, this guitar became the instrument that came out when the books closed and the amps turned on.

Maybe it spent its early years in dorm rooms, rented houses, garage practices, and small Central Wisconsin bars, earning its playing wear under neon signs and Friday-night noise. It is easy to imagine it as the kind of guitar that was never famous, never flashy, and never pampered — just played hard enough to matter.

As years passed, adult life likely did what it often does. Work, family, moves, and responsibility slowly pushed the guitar from stage to stand, then from stand to closet. Eventually, it found its way into donation and auction circulation, separated from the player who once knew every mark on it.

Whatever its true path, the evidence shows a guitar that was played, aged, and eventually set aside. At Back From The Dead Guitars, it was given a second life as a Resurrection Tier rebuild: repaired, upgraded, set up, and returned to dependable playing condition.

The result is a clean-playing red Dixon with vintage import character, modernized reliability, and enough mystery left in its past to make the next chapter worth writing.

This guitar arrived at the shop in June 2026 after a short delivery route from North Central Wisconsin. After unpacking it on a hot summer afternoon, it was placed on the intake bench for its initial assessment.

The first thing that stood out was the finish. Even under a layer of dust, the deep red color immediately caught attention. It had more of a muscle-car red appearance than the typical red seen on many Strat-style guitars.

Initial electronics testing was completed with a multimeter, and readings were present in all five pickup selector positions. The original ceramic pickups measured approximately:

• Neck: 5.9 kΩ

• Middle: 5.6 kΩ

• Bridge: 5.9 kΩ

The pots and selector switch were functional, but they clearly showed their age. While the guitar appeared to have been played, it did not present as an instrument that had been heavily used as someone’s main guitar for decades.

The frets were in very good condition for the age of the instrument, with only a few noticeable string divots present up to approximately the fifth fret. The original nut was plastic and showed visible wear in the string slots, but no open-string fret buzz was present during intake testing.

While attempting to bring the guitar up to pitch, the high E tuner button broke off, leaving the string unable to be brought fully into tune. The remaining strings were still usable for basic fret testing, and no fret buzz was found during the initial inspection. The tremolo bridge was sitting high on its posts when the guitar arrived. Because no tremolo arm was included, vibrato function and tuning stability under tremolo use could not be tested at intake.

Once disassembled, inspection began with the tuners. They were clearly past their expected service life and were not considered worth restoring for a rebuild intended to be reliable. The neck and sealed maple fretboard cleaned up with little effort. Some chipped paint was noted on the headstock.

The original electronics consisted of mini A500K potentiometers, a single capacitor shared between the tone controls, and a vintage-style import five-way selector switch. The pickups were ceramic, and the original wiring showed signs of age-related hardening. While the pickups and wiring could potentially have been reused, the better path for this rebuild was to retire the original electronics and upgrade the system.

The tremolo bridge required additional evaluation because it used an uncommon 60 mm two-post spacing. A search for a direct-fit replacement did not locate a modern bridge that would fit the existing body route without additional modification. Some bridges offered adjustable post-spacing ranges, but their full-size tremolo blocks would not fit the routed block cavity. For that reason, the original 60 mm two-post bridge was retained for cleaning, inspection, and reuse.

After all remaining parts were removed, the body was inspected more closely. The guitar body was constructed from multiple wood sections, which was a common cost-saving construction method for many import guitars from this general period.

Overall Assessment

Overall, this Dixon arrived as a cared-for instrument showing more age-related deterioration than heavy abuse. The body, neck, and frets were strong restoration candidates, while the tuners, electronics, wiring, nut, and several setup components had reached the point where replacement or thoughtful upgrading made the most sense.

The guitar’s uncommon 60 mm two-post tremolo layout, sealed maple fretboard, deep red finish, and harder-to-find Dixon branding made it a strong candidate for a careful Resurrection Tier rebuild rather than a simple cleanup and resale.

The guitar has a few scratches and small chips in the paint on the body and headstock indicative of use over the years. A small discoloration near the back of the headstock could be the result of a cigarette burn and there are some small indentations between the nut and the first fret. There is also some minor cracking in the paint near the neck to body joint. Pictures have been included for review on the noted condition on the paint. 

The Tremolo block is somewhere between the typical small block import type and a full sized short block.