General / Off-Topic Guitars

[Caramel Clown]

I stopped playing Elite some months ago. Realizing what 2,500+ hours of training does to your muscle memory, I decided to try to learn to play the guitar. I've been practicing for 4 months now, and even though I'm getting older, there is some sort of progress.

I was immediately fascinated by the guitar as a "thingy", and I have bought quite a few cheap guitars since then. I started with a Guild/Dearmond M-75T, because it was so cool looking, that you get inspired to pick it up and strum some chords.

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Recently I stumbled upon an old Vision (MIJ) Strat from the Matsumoku factory. I had tried a few Strats and had walked away, but with this one it was love at first sight. It weighed 2.9 kg (6.4 lbs), and it was really comfy. On top of that it was dirt cheap.

The neck was kind of crap, and the frets were horrible, but a very good friend of mine gave me an old Vester neck that had more potential. He's an old luthier, and he's teaching me a lot about guitars. How to adjust and service them, the history of the guitar, and recently how to "build" them.

This is very much work in progress, sort of a "rolling project", but this is "my guitar" now:

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The other day I found an old mint green pickguard at the shop where I buy strings etc. I bought it (cheap) before realizing that it was for HSS, so I'll mount a humbucker when I find one.

I have been working on fitting and shimming the neck to get the action better and also recutting the nut. Next I will paint the neck with nitro and I consider doing a matching headstock in the same olympic white as the body. I'll also get a new tremolo and some better tuners. The pots are tiny but they work perfectly, and it's nothing but a variable resistor, so they stay along with the caps. Currently the neck pickup goes straight to the output jack.

Stay tuned

You dove into this head first right away, that's the spirit. I love your phrase about things just inspiring you to pick them up and play anything. That's the most important thing I look for, and is the best thing about this hobby IMO. Just randomly wanting to play, just anything. Pick an instrument up and see where that takes you. Keep rocking. This looks like a beginning of a fantastic journey. I'm glad you're liking it.

 

[The Lawful]

If there is one good site for guitar teaching (for free, mostly), it's https://www.justinguitar.com. The guitar player behind Katie Melua and others and a great chap overall. Mark Knopfler and Brian May think the same obviously. Since 15+ years and no, this not an ad.

O7,


NB. Just stay clear of the app and simply use the website.