New Classical Acoustic Guitar Tuners

          I received a set of replacement tuners for my Juan Estruch classical acoustic guitar, to replace the old and partly broken set of original tuners.  Stay 'tuned' for upcoming projects!

Rogue Rocketeer Review

          When I saw the Rocketeer by Rogue on sale as the "Stupid Deal of the Day" at Musician's Friend, I knew I just had to have it.  Seriously, a full size electric guitar for $60.  It couldn't be that bad, right?

Adventures of a Strat part 3

A picture is supposedly worth a thousand words so I shouldn't have to say very much. 

Unfortunately I couldn't get a better pickguard and pickup, so I used what it had before, the stock pickups wired in series. 

Surprisingly though,  the combined output of all three checks in at 11k ohm, while just one of my Schecter Omen's humbuckers has near 15k ohms.

It's not all bad though.  The reason I couldn't get replacement parts is actually because I found a much better deal.  Musician's Friend is having a "July Shredfest", so I bagged a Rogue Rocketeer electric guitar  at just $60.  

The total for that with some picks, strings and cables was still no morethan I would have spent upgrading the pickguard, pickups, nut, saddles, string trees and what have you on this guitar.

Perhaps soon you will see a new series - the adventures of an even cheaper guitar, highlighting my efforts to make a professionalish guitar for under 100 bucks :)

Update on Strat build

Progress!

     My project Squier Strat has now progressed from a pile of pieces back into an almost complete guitar again.  Sounds sweet no?  Here are a few other modifications I made to it:

• The obvious one - put a block of wood in the neck pickup cavity.  Why?  Hopefully it'll help increase sustain.  Maybe it will help shield something.  Maybe it will keep bugs from living in the empty hole where there isn't a pickup.  Who knows!  There are no rules to guitar building!

• Also added a solid steel tube I found.  Why?  It fit perfectly.  Also see above.

• Blocked tremolo.  A really common mod and hopefully a very useful one.  I only used two of the rear springs, mostly to keep it all grounded, and also because the wood was so tightly fit that there was no way springs were necessary.  This should dramatically help the two biggest problems I found this guitar to have - sustain and tuning.

• Some other little stuff too.  Mostly making everything fit perfectly flush, a little sanding here and there, a touch of glue in some of the screw holes.  Also overtightened the input jack by removing one of the nuts and cranking it tight, since it kept coming unscrewed.

     The only thing left is getting a good pickguard and pickup, maybe a little bit of wiring, and intonation setup and it'll be all set to go!

How to paint a Squier Strat

     I decided to give my Squier Strat a new paintjob, since it was mostly collecting dust anyway and I wanted to see how I could make it look.  It's not 100% finished at the moment, but lookin' good anyway.

     Since it turned out so well, I decided to make a tutorial of sorts for those of you interested in doing something like it.

   Writeup and lots of pretty pictures after the break.

Rogue RM-100A Mandolin Review

          For anyone even mildly interested in learning the craft of the mandolin, the RM-100A by Rogue is a great introductory instrument for an outstanding price.

Schecter Omen 6 Review

          Schecter Guitar Research makes this beauty available for just $300.  Too good to be true?  It doesn't seem that way.


More after the break.

Fender Squier Bullet Strat Review

     
          The Squier Bullet Stratocaster is a beginner's electric guitar modeled on the Fender Strat.  It costs on average about $130 and is a decent first guitar.

More after the break.