Hold on a minute...

 The YN Strat has been reassembled, and becuase it's the new year I've resolved to do more learning. After signing up for Truefire last month I've begun doing Rob Swift's One Man Jam course; I figured this would be good since it can be played at my own speed, won't need any accopaniment and would be a gentle way back into guitar study (it's been about 2 years since I last did any).

As I mentioned last time, I want to use the YN Strat to do this course so that I can become familiar with the way it plays and appreciated the changes I make as it's modified. The new nut of two weeks ago seems to have one the trick as I can't really fault the way the guitar plays. In fact I am quite enamoured with just how good this guitar is... so much so, I'm wondering whether I really will do all the upgrades I detailed in my last post. 

Certainly a new bridge will be required, and some newer and better quality tuners will be must haves, even though the existing ones seem to be doing just fine. But the pickups? I've mentioned previously that I've never got on with Strats, but I am really enjoying this one. In the case of the first one, I think I was just too inexperienced to appreciates what I'd got, and the second one was usually being played though either amp simulators or my Tiny Terror, and whatever was wrong there it was quite unsatisfying.

But this one - this bottom of the range cheapo Squier... well I love it. I'd been playing it in the bridge position initially so that I could get an ear for that pickup for when it's changed, but I've moved around more in the last few days.

My current thinking is to implement the tuner and bridge change as planned, but I might abandon my plans to fit a single humbucker. If the other discovery of the week turns out to be successful.

Self Built H Strat revival

Of my various attempts at DIY luthiery, the Jazz Bass copy is the only viable instrument to have been completed. But that's not the only instrument I've set out to build.

Back in 2015, alongside the Jazz Bass I also built a semi hollow strat with P90 pickups. The neck was fairly good, but I wasn't happy with the body. We moved house that year, and for many years afterwards all attempts at luthiery were put aside, and the P90s eventually ended up in my Les Paul.

Then in 2021, I returned from a job in Australia and had to spent 10 days isolating at home because of pandemic regulations. With time on my hands, began to build a single humbucker stratocaster from the templates I had saved from six years prior. I mostly completed this, but made a mess of the neck (not properly radiussed, plus the router tore out a big chunk of the headstock). Life once again got in the way and I never returned to it.

After finding that the YN Strat neck wasn't a write off, and reassembling that guitar, I wondered - could the 2015 neck be put on the 2021 body? There would be some work to do - the channel for the nut is far bigger than it should be, but I could fill that with a rosewood blank and then put another Tusq nut in the space. It would eventually need to be remade, but it will do for now.

This evening I've got around to mating the body to the neck. There's a problem. It seems that the holes I drilled in the body weren't quite as they should be - the 2015 neck just wouldn't screw on properly. I know that the 2015 neck is correct because that neck had been on the YN strat for a period.

The solution appears to be filling the existing holes with dowels and then redrilling in the correct configuration. I may as well see if I can do this, otherwise the body is junk!

Truefire Progress

It's been good to get back to practicing. Although it is also frustrating! Getting out of my comfort zone is always difficult for me, but I've been here before and there are not easy answers, just time and practice. 

In the last week I've gone through the first piece in Rob Swift's One Man Jam course, the first piece is called A Bit Country. Reading tab, applying music theory and basic finger calisthenics are all slowly cominmg back to me, the latter of which is always a challenge, and disheartening when my fingers don't move as quickly or as precisely as I'd like.

I've printed out the score and marked out some theory on there, so I can understand what I'm playing. I'll keep in this piece for another day then start another while continuing to practice this one.