My Five Strats

Well, something happened that kind of surprised me.  I ended up with another Stratocaster.  Here's the full story here:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2014/02/awesome-guitar-weekend.html

And because of that, I am now up to five Stratocasters.  Which is funny because I always thought I was more of a Les Paul type of guy.  But I am into modding, and Fender's are easy and awesome to mod.  I will say this.  I've gotten some pretty darn good deals on all of them.

Here's the pictures.

From left to right:

1.  The sonic blue Partscaster.  It's made of a lot of parts from my overseas distributor, and a Squier neck.  It just so happens to be the best playing one that I've ever encountered.  I consider myself really lucky to have come across this.  Even though this is considered my "cheapest" guitar, it's probably the nicest playing. 

2.  The newest one I've picked up, a 1999 MIM Strat.  I usually don't like sunburst Strats, but this one has some mojo going on.  I have some pickups on order for it.  I just re-fretted it, and it plays nicely.  Oh, I didn't re-fret just for the heck of it.  I fret-dressed it first, and there wasn't enough frets left to be playable.  So I yanked them out, and re-fretted it.

3.  This is the one I like to call Smokey.  It started out life as a 1993 Olympic White MIM Strat, but whoever owned it smoked like a chimney, and gave it a tobacco patina.  When I got it I knew I was going to have to do something with the frets as they were chewed up.  So I re-fretted it as well.  I also have a new tremolo on order as the old one is rusted up and can't be adjusted. 

4.  I bought this one at a pawn shop after much haggling.  I bought it in 2009, and it's a 2008 MIM Strat.  I didn't know it at the time, but there's a reason why a new Strat would be hanging in a pawn shop.  It's due to it's the screwed up warping of it's neck.  But I took care of it with a fret-dress, and adjusting the strings up higher. 

5.  My oldest, and most costly.  I spent 9 months getting the money and parts together for this one.  I thought up every awesome thing I could put on a guitar, and made it a reality.  I still love the custom paint job on it. 

So as I close this out, I think to myself, "Man, I've got to slow down."  I'm going to end up with another five Strats.  I'm running out of room.

My Four Strats

I have way too many guitars.  I know there are a lot of hungry kids in China who don't have any guitars, and I have too many.  In fact, I have four Stratocasters.  However, they are quite different.  Many people wonder why I have so many guitars, so I'm writing this blog to explain why.

Here's the rundown.

Up first is my Squire Strat, made in China, and it cost me a whole $79.  Here's the funny thing.  It's probably my best playing Strat.

The fun part about this guitar is that, I didn't mind messing around with the electronics and such since it is a Squire.  I put in a push/pull overdrive pot so I can get an overdrive without a pedal.  It will engage at the touch of my finger. 

I also switched out the pickups to some pretty cool pickups.  I like trying some of the new guys on the block, so I put in a blade pickup in the neck, and a Belcat bladed humbucker in bridge.  I added my favorite Dimarzio Blue Velvet in the middle.  It's a very versatile guitar.

Next up is my 1993 Fender Mexican Strat named Smokey.  I call him that since whoever owned him before me smoked like a chimney.  It put this strange smokey patina on the body.  You know how cigarette smoke will put a tarnished yellow color on things?  Well this has that tarnish all over the body, but it's really heavy in the curves of the cutaway.

I traded out the original pickguard for a black one.  This has a Fender Alnico 3 neck pickup, a Dimarzio Blue Velvet middle pickup, and an old Dimario PAF pickup in the neck.  It has a really neat vibe to it.  I got this guitar in a trade from a good friend.  It needed some cleaning up when I got it, but once I got it up and running, my friend questioned whether he should have traded it to begin with.

Next up is my 2006 Fender Mexican Strat. 

I got this at a pawn shop in 2007.  Since this was a 2006 Strat, that should have tipped me off.  Unfortunately, the neck on this one is kinda wacky, and I have to set the action up a little higher to make all notes playable.  I would have sold or traded it, but it's hard to sell or trade a Strat that doesn't play so well.

However, I went ahead and replaced the pickguard to a tortoiseshell colored one.  I changed the pickups to all Dimarzio pickups.  True Velvet neck/ FS-1 middle RW/RP/ Heavy Blues 2 bridge.  It's not as versatile as some Strats, but it sounds great in all positions.

Next up is the Strat I put together years ago.  In fact, it was back in 2000 when I started putting this guitar together.  It took me 9 months to get the parts.  Actually, I slowly got them as I got the money to do so.  I also got some good deals that way.

I guess you can see from the awesome paint job that this is no ordinary guitar.  In fact, back in 2000 it run me $1080 to put it all together.  That includes $300 for the wicked paint job.  But it has everything on it I could want. 

However, I ran into one problem that I did not expect.  The guitar is made of all maple.  That makes it insanely bright sounding.  Then, on top of that it has a Floyd Rose tremolo, and that makes it even brighter.  I have had trouble finding the right pickup combination to put in this guitar.  I actually like a bright sounding pickup, but everything I put in this guitar was just too bright. 

I have just changed the pickups in it.  Right now it has an Artec bladed pickup in the neck/ a custom wound Texas Special in the middle/ a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates in the bridge.  The Artec is the first neck pickup that I really like in this guitar.  It is bold, not overly bright, and actually has the bass come through.  Along with the strong single coil and Pearly Gates, that makes this guitar an extremely versatile guitar. 

Generally, only the bridge pickup was worth playing.  Despite me putting all this money into this guitar, I never really played it.  So now with a change in pickups, I think I will be playing it more. 

So that's my story of the Strats I own at this moment.  They are like children.  I love them all, and don't really have a favorite.  They are all a little different, but fun to play.  I also suspect that more will find their way to me.  I know I shouldn't.  There are children in China with no gutiars after all.