It's done!

The strat wiring kit arrived this morning, so I spent this afternoon wiring up the guitar and finishing it off! It works! Photos and maybe even a sound clip or two to follow!

Strat innards on their way again

After emailing StewMac over their error, they have apologised and (hopefully) sent the correct parts this time. They even said that I could keep the pliers (fret pullers), which is nice. I don't imagine it would have been economic to have a game of trans-Atlantic pliers tennis, the pliers having originated in Germany, been imported to the USA, sent to me in the UK, only to have me return them to the USA again! I also don't imagine that I'll be doing any fret pulling any time soon.

Mess up at StewMac

I got my stuff delivered from StewMac today. Unfortunately good news doesn't always come in small packages, as the suspiciously small package that perched precariously on my letterbox contained no Strat wiring kit; It did however contain a pair of pliers that I didn't order. Handsome as the tool is, it will not bring a Strat to life, and I fear that it will soon be winging its way back over the pond. I have of course emailed StewMac, and await their reply. I was hoping to get this project finished before Gav's birthday, in 6 days time. It ain't happening for this birthday!

Plastic knob update

A woman from Allparts keeps phoning me when I'm out, leaving messages about the knob, as it's now become available; Unfortunately the credit card I used when I originally ordered it has since expired. In any case, I ordered a set of white Fender knobs a while ago, which were cheaper, and will look better.

I sat down to fix the electronics last weekend and found that the lot, possibly excluding the pickups, is in a sorry state. The pots have a furry tarnish, and I seriously doubted their usability before they spent a winter in my shed. The whole lot was so seriously manky that I went to Stewmac and ordered a new set of innards. Plus some Guitar Grease (graphite nut lube), and a bone nut for my own Strat, which I guess will no longer be vegetarian after the operation; Guitar magazines tell me however, that a bone nut will sound like a £1000 guitar. Hopefully I can avoid contracting anthrax whilst shaping the nut, which I imagine is winging it's way across the Atlantic, or whatever it's called nowadays, as I type this. Even more hopefully, it will arrive quite a bit less than a year after I ordered it, unlike the case of the pink plastic knob (One of Sherlock Holme's less publicised cases?).