Stratocaster

The Strat project (http://honeyisfunny.blogspot.com/2010/10/stratocastish.html) is done.



Luthier extraordinaire Andy Farrell chucked the horrible Fotoflame body in a vat of Nitromors for about a week until it finally peeled off. He then sanded it smooth and shot it with a single coat of black over a grey undercoat. It was then oiled and smoothed out leaving all the original dings and dents that had penetrated the Fotoflame in place. Not quite a relic job, more a refinish without covering up the guitar's history and a bit of a nod to this Strat: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_noe/4462005451/

I did the electrics myself with lots of help from Neil:



and set it up with skinny top/heavy bottom strings (10 on top, 52 on bottom) and took a crash course in trem design in order to get the trem to float and balance right for me.
It got road tested with Felix in November and it sounds sweet, lots of sustain and tons of bass and the neck feels perfect for my weird micro-hands. Might upgrade the pickups eventually but I kind of like it as it is, slightly underpowered compared to my other guitars.
I like it so much I've given it a name: Ron. Why? Duh: http://brella.org/sandpebbles/stooges-1.jpg