Ever since I started working on my own guitars, it’s been hard for me to buy a guitar off the shelf – not necessarily because I’m that great of a guitar technician, but mostly because…
Guitars
A Squier HM Bass
A couple of months back, I tried playing a fretless bass, and really wanted one of my own. After hunting around on Reverb for a bit, I found this gem. In the late 80’s, Fender…
Playing a Fender Custom Shop Strat
Earlier this month, I was back home on vacation and got to play some of my dad’s guitars. I recorded this on a (if I remember correctly) 59′ replica Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster. In the…
Yellow
This was my first “real” guitar. We all have that friend who borrows something and then breaks it or doesn’t return it. Well, I was that friend, but to my dad, because this guitar looks…
Five (+1) Guitars, One Solo
I recorded all the guitars with volume and tone pots set to 10, and switched to position #2 (middle+bridge; except the St. Vincent which was neck+middle+bridge, because it has its own switching).I used Reaper with…
Hello Kitty
A few weeks ago, I found this at my local Guitar Center for $50. I also saw a small, pink Vox amp that was sold on the same day; it looked like a small child had…
A Pointy Bass
Earlier today, I bought this Jackson JS2 bass guitar. My first stringed instrument was actually a Yamaha bass that I played for a few months before switching to guitar, and sticking with that for the…
Ghostwalk
I recently got a new set of guitar pickups from The Creamery, which is a one-man hand-wound operation in the UK. They’re slightly higher output than typical Startocaster pickups, and comparable to the output from…
A Player’s Player’s Stratocaster
Most guitarists are pretty habitual – we might have different guitars, but they tend to be the same “kind” of guitar. I’m a Stratocaster “person” – while I might “want” all sort of guitars, the…
A Fender Firebird
Of all the mythical creatures I don’t believe in, the phoenix is my favorite. Throughout my life, I’ve learned and grown the most following abject failure (usually after I’d said to myself “I got this,…