I usually enjoy a complete guitar build, something to get my teeth into and turn out something nice. It helps to work with the customer first mind you, to make sure I get bits that work together. The trouble with cheaper parts, from various places it can be a bit of a challenge! At first […]
This is a rather nice US Strat, just needs a little tweek here and there. The basic setup wasn’t far off ,although the intonation was all over the place. The owner also didn’t like the tremolo, he doesn’t really use it so I’m going to block it off. You can just clamp the trem’ claw […]
I don’t often get calls emergency calls, but I’m always willing to help gigging musicians if I possibly can. I got a call on Friday from a tech’ needing a little help. Got a guitar with a sticky switch and not enough time to strip it down and change it. As it goes it was a fairly simple […]
What a lovely old Strat. In need of a little TLC but basically sound… The bridge is all a little manky, rather corroded, but I’m sure that can be sorted. It’s just a case of taking it all apart and getting the wire brush in there. That’s better, just needs setting up again. Another thing […]
There comes a point when even the best of guitars need a service and setup. Most people will have their car serviced regularly, why not your guitar? While the strings are off I always give the fretboard a good clean. The heads were a little stiff so a little light oil. and a bit of […]
Here’s another interesting project. Another mixture of old and new. A good friend of mine, Russell, has been colleting some fine old parts and has decided it’s time to put it all together…. Some of these parts are older than I am, a 1958 neck and 1956/58 pickups, tremolo, neck and back plates etc. all in fantastic condition. The […]
Here’s a bit of an oddball. This guy’s just got hold of a great guitar, the only trouble is it’s got no neck! Yeh, it’s a complicated story, but I’ve sorted out a new one which should do nicely… The profile is really nice and it’s got a great finish too. The only trouble is it’s got […]
What a beautiful guitar. There are lots of Strats’ out there so it takes something out of the ordinary to stand out, and this certainly does that. It’s got just one slight flaw, some of the frets are just a little un-even. I’ve seen worse, but to get it playing really nicely they need to […]
Here’s a great way to improve our guitar. Rather than trade it in for an upgrade how about changing the pickups? These should sound good. About the only bits that I’m going to keep are the volume pot and the pickup switch. That’s the new wiring. I’ve added push/push pots on each of the tone […]
WOW What a great guitar! It’s not often I get such lovely guitar on the bench. However It wasn’t quite playing as well as it should, so I gave it a bit of a tweek here and there. This really is something special, when Fender put you name on it for you. out of deference to […]