So, I have no GAS, but... (strat NGD content)

[Andrew W]

I have to say I think that looks lovely and if it plays as described it looks like a belter has been acquired.  I'm very mixed on the whole relic thing but I think, as has already been mentioned here, if the right guitar came along, and it felt like my guitar when I played it, I'd probably forget my grumpy mumblings about fakery and all that stuff.  Glad you're enjoying it and when the time comes Apaches would be worth the extra I think.

[dave_mc]

sweet :)

[FernandoDuarte]

its the tuners fernando.

Thanks!
I prefer the look of these vintage tuners in Fenders (even with the CBS headstock - the only way they get acceptable to me :lol:)

[AndyR]

Just been doing some maintenance/improvements on it:

Moved the backplate. I've had this problem before, "they" positioned the plate for when the bridge is floating, when you flatten it, the string holes didn't line up, you'd have to take the plate off to restring!! (Gits!)

I managed to do that without leaving the old holes showing (but it wouldn't have matter anyhow :lol:) and also so that it will be ok if I float the bridge again.

The look of the headstock had been bothering me - then I realised what it was. The string tree is in the "wrong" place, and it has a spacer to raise it - just didn't look right to me :lol:. So I moved it. Filled the hole with matchstick, used Winsor Newton inks, finger dirt, and the Briwax in use for the back of the neck, and now it just has another little ding, albeit a suspiciously round one in a strange place :lol:

Did another Briwax session on the back of the neck, but this time I bothered to get the 0000 wire wool out (and protect the pickups, big pain in the @rse, which is why I hadn't use the wool before).

- this last improvement, ooo, oooo, OOOO!! :D :D

Before, she was nice and rustic to play... now she's nice and rustic, AND slick as a b@stard :D

Back to the Rory impersonations now...

[FernandoDuarte]

Awesome!

[roland_rat]

Nice going Andy. Hope it ends up being a keeper. It sounds much loved already, so guess thats a good sign.

Enjoy :D

[noodleplugerine]

I see you smoke silvers - care to give a review?

[AndyR]

I see you smoke silvers - care to give a review?

I smoked blues for years and years in preference to the heavier greens. One day my shop didn't have any, but did have the "new" silvers, so I tried those. They're even lighter and therefore could cause issues to some people for rolling, but I have no trouble. I much prefer them taste-wise, if I have to use blues, and especially greens, I can taste unreasonable amounts of burning paper now.

I seem to prefer vintage/vintage-hot in my pickups, but contemporary in my rolling papers :lol:

Nice going Andy. Hope it ends up being a keeper. It sounds much loved already, so guess thats a good sign.

Enjoy :D

Oh yeah :D (in as much as I never seem to shift anything on), this one's definitely a keeper. She goes like a train, and looks SO good in the mirror :lol:

I do have to replace the nut though. The material is "ok" but it's been cut like/by a donkey. I was getting damping and vague sitar effects on the high E and B - managed to fix that enough (the slope back to the headstock wasn't enough). I can't really blame the builder though, I had just moved the string tree!! :lol:

The D slot, though, is cut (visibly) too wide, and the string vibrates behind the nut - this caused nasty noises when hit hard, hardly noticable through an amp, but annoying at neighbour-friendly volumes.

After the success on the B and E slots, I decided it was "double-or-nothing" time (should have quit while I was ahead) - the nut is actually cut higher than necessary (bluddy good for slide though :D), so I had some room "downwards", I felt, to "focus" the slot... er... nope... it now makes nasty noises, all the time, very noticable through the amp!! :lol:

It has an old fashioned fix at the moment - piece of rubber band behind the nut, tying the D and A strings together (complementary rubber band from that free supply we all have in the UK, courtesy of the Post Office :lol:). Works perfectly, "sweet as a nut" etc... - looks a bit naff though... It's a true "Rory Gallagher" fix though... in keeping with the rest of the guitar :D

Anyhoo... I'm now about to order a bunch or tusq pre-cuts (I have some other strat/tele nuts that could benefit from these). My previous form on fitting pre-cuts is two (huge) successes to one (epic) fail, so I'm ordering "spares" this time :lol:

As an illustration of what this guitar is already worth to me - if I can't get it right, it's going straight down Jonathan's for full a fret dress etc as well as "sort this b@stard nut out for me pleeze..." All my other guitars could benefit from the fret-dress thing, but they're extremely livable with, so not worth the expense as far as I'm concerned... this one, still livable with, is slightly different :D