February Update

 I've been trying to blog roughly once a week since I rediscovered it, but I've been quite busy over the past month and things have slid a little. Nevertheless I've done things.

Aborted sale

After the success of the pedal sales I thought about moving a few more things on. The first thing that went up for sale was my Epiphone archtop (see blog entry). It's not been used much at all int he last couple of years so I thought the time was right to move it on an realise the cash tied up in it.

I got it down from the loft, cleaned it up and put new strings on it, also reattaching the pickguard. Once I was happy it was presentable again, I listed it on Reverb - local pickup only. I t got quite a lot of views and I was even negotiating with one potential buyer over price.

It sat in my music room for a few days reacclimatising and knowing that someone would eventually come to look at it, I adjusted the set up to make it play well and... oh dear. Turns out that I actually really enjoy playing this guitar! After thinking about it for another day, I delisted it. I'll give it another chance. Soon I will have finished Rob Swifts excellent One Man Jam course on Truefire, and as I'll be dismantling my Strat, I will do his One Man Jam acoustic course as an excuse to give it another thorough bit of use before deciding once and for all whether to keep it.

Nord Drum 3P is gone

I made a rather snap decision to sell the rather excellent Nord Drum 3P. It's a great piece of kit, feels great to play, sounds fantastic and is totally inappropriate for the music I'm making at the moment. I've tried very hard to integrate it into my set up but it's time to face the fact that I'll just never learn how to play something like that properly, and I don't really have the talent, experience or expertise to make the most of it. I listed it on Reverb about a week ago, and I've just said goodbye to it at the post office.

YN Strat Journey

I ordered a new bridge/trem and tuners for the Strat. In the end, I opted for a Wilkinson Bridge with a steel block, it was somewhat less expensive than the Callaham units I was looking at. Some research showed that all but the most enthusiastic trem users were happy with this unit, and as I'm not a big fan of using the Strat trem anyway I was happy enough with it.

I ordered Gotoh tuners for the Strat, but when I tried to fit them it seems that their screw holes wouldn't conveniently avoid the existing holes or be able to use them either. But the Schallers that are on the single humber Strat were much better - so I ended up using them instead. Shame that I ordered them really but I couldn't have known, I've decided I may as well keep them for any future project.

The Strat wasn't out of action for long. Despite some forum posters enthusiastically claiming it would really change the sound, I didn't notice any difference. It does feel and look nicer, and that what I'm going for here.

Paints have now arrived from Rothko and Frost, as well as decals. I'm aiming for a tribute to John Lennon and George Harrison's Sonic Blue 61 Strats used in the Beatles mid period, and I'll be getting pickups to match. I also got some new decals made as I will sand the existing ones off the neck. The temptation is to get Fender decals but I wouldn't have felt right doing it. I'm quite proud of my YN Strat so I've had them done with 'Squier' on them, but in the appropriate pre CBS style.

I'll be dismantling the Strat in the next week or so and will begin the stripping process before gertting ready for painting. I've watched an extremely good video series from Stewmac where they show exactly how to get fantastic results with aerosols, so I've decided to really take my time - it might take all year to get this guitar done!