New guitar is on the way ...

Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015 -- The family all went to bed early last night, and so I had plenty of time to enjoy some guitar playing. I decided to play "Blue," which I hadn't done much lately ... haven't played any guitar the last couple of days.

Old Blue

I'm always pleasantly surprised when I pick up Blue and feel how well she plays. Of course, I'm not a professional, and I'm not an expert guitar player, so please consider my reviews are based only  limited skill level. Scott Grove I am not.

But I do love playing, and I'll admit that in the last few months my steady practice has built my confidence, and I actually feel like I'm playing better.

Blue has a couple of dead notes down past the 12th fret, I'm sure its a fret height issue. The truth is that the action on Blue is lower and easier to play than any guitar I've ever owned; I've decided I'll address the dead notes when my playing skill makes those notes more important.'

Part of my reasoning is that I want to build my luthering skills ... and I want to experiment on a guitar other than Blue. I want Blue to be the benefit of my education on guitars, not a victim, lol! And I sure as hell won't experiment on my new Jazzmaster.

Want to hear something silly? I have yet to play my Jazzmaster through an amp. I have her in the case, and haven't really played her to any degree. Why, you ask? My home office/junk room is packed full of "stuff" and I have two guitars I keep in there -- Blue and my Peavey Raptor fat strat. Playing any guitar in there is tight quarters, and it is hard to play without banging the b

ody or the headstock against something. I don't mind some damage to the Peavey, though I'm very, very careful with Blue. I absolutely don't want any damage to my Jazzmaster, and I'm not going to chance playing her in those cramped quarters.

This is not the guitar I bought, but it looks just
just like this one!

NEW GUITAR?  I have to break the news to my wife that I have another guitar coming. I never really told her I bought Blue back before Christmas, so I'm already kinda hiding one guitar already.

The newcomer is a Chinese Strat copy sold under the Spectrum label. The headstock is nearly identical to the Peavey, which is no surprise; they were probably produced by the same Chinese company.

The guitar either is blonde or has had the finish stripped from it and is natural wood. It had a very cheap Buy It Now price because other than the neck mounted to the body, the rest of the guitar is in pieces. The seller says all the parts are there .... the pickguard has the appropriate electronics, the tremelo and springs all seem to be there. In the photo, the pickguard is not attached to the body, its just laying in place. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to get, but the guy promises "its all there."

It will arrive early next week, and I'll see if I've bought a pig in a poke or just exactly what.

I'm not sure exactly what I'll do with the new guitar ... first assemble it and see if it is all there, then consider refinishing the body. I'm partial to surf green, lol.

I have debated buying a strat or strat copy given the fact I own the HSS Peavey. The only difference between the Peavey and the new guitar is that the new one has a traditional single coil pup in the bridge position instead of a humbucker. For the 50s and 60s surf and rock I enjoy playing, I don't switch in the humbucker that often, and I have wanted to buy an SSS strat for a time now -- I just didn't want to pay retail price.

NEW PICKUPS FOR BLUE?  I've been watching YouTube videos, and there's some good stuff out there about upgrading Chinese Les Paul copies. The truth is that all but the top-end guitars are built overseas anyway, and they aren't all  crap -- but the quality can vary widely.

One YouTube guy replaced the stock Chinese pickups with some good quality aftermarket pups, and he demonstrated the difference the new pups could make.  It was an upgrade of about $50 or $60. I think the ultimate lesson here is that if the guitar you get from China has a decent neck and can be intonated, it is probably worth an upgrade.

The YouTube guy says his upgraded LP copy plays nearly as well as the real thing, and it did indeed sound great. One of the things he mentions is that the stock pups sound ok at low levels, but tend to get muddy at high volumes. I think I'll keep an upgrade in the back of my mind, and if my skills take me to the point my skills warrant upgraded pups, I'll spring for them.

SURF GREEN PAINT.  I've not had a lot of luck finding a source for Surf Green paint for refinishing a guitar. An eBay seller sells rattle cans of the paint -- not exactly my first choice for quality finishing. I'm thinking that it might work if I do a basecoat/clearcoat -- spray one or more coats of paint to provide even holdout and color, then coat the body in a lacquer or polyurethane clear coat. That's a plan, we'll see if it pans out. For those interested in refinishing a guitar, there's a LOT of excellent videos on YouTube about ways to do so.