Train to Birmingham-Practice

[MDEW]

I finally had a few minutes,

late at night so I had go with something soft. Let me know what you think.

[ronws]

That was really nice. It sounds like your pitch is way better.

[Gneetapp]

Holy Shitzhe! Awesome MDEW! Really good timbre and emotion man! This song is ready to be recorded. Just record guitars first, so you don't get distracted by either playing or singing. I had the impression the guitar might need a slight tuning or new strings. But it could be just my hearing. Keep'em coming man!

[MDEW]

     Thanx Gneetapp and Ronws, The guitar used "woody" was given to me when I sold an old amplifier to a collecter. It is a 1970s Fender Strat. Someone got the bright Idea to try and make a Stevie Ray Vaughan Copy out of it. It is a righthanded guitar but Stevie's is Left handed so they bought a Left handed bridge/tremelo and Cut the original pocket to fit it in there........ Stevie Rays' hardware is "Gold plated" so this guy bought Cheap imitation Gold plated hardware. Then preceded to cut, gouge, scatch, sand and a mulitude of different types of destruction to "Copy" Stevie Rays guitar, which pretty much looks that way becuse Stevie played the Hell out of it. I am not sure how the collector got a hold of it but I told him that I had been finding old guitars to practice "Fixing" them. He went to the back of his trailer and brought out this guitar which was in several pieces, the hardware in a plastic bag, the neck seperated from the body. He said it had been under his bed for more than 20 years.

    I was going to repaint the guitar, but after sanding off the original paint and putting on a coat of sealer, with all of the former distruction, Burn Marks, gouges, discoloration from years of exposed wood and such, The guitar just had too much character to cover up again. I am still using the same cheap hardware and the tuners are so loose that even if you get it in tune to start playing, by the middle of the song you are out again. I put the "Good" guitars away because I am working from my home now and ran out of room to keep them whithin reach. The plan is still to buy new tuners for it but the money has not manifested as yet.

[gno]

Nice tone and pitch.  Very relaxing to listen to.  I like the story about the guitar.  Sounds like it has a lot of character.  You should post a picture of it.  I had a 70's strat once - a 73.  The frets were really low that year.  Are the frets low on that one?  

[MDEW]

Thanks gno,

 I do not have pictures of the results but I did take pictures before I started working on it.

I figured there were too many Fake Stevie Ray guitars out there........so I took the sander to it. I could not go deep enough to get all burn marks and scratches out so I put a coat of sealer on and looked cool that way so I left it. I will take pictures tomorrow sometime and upload them. I put a set of Gold Gibson control knobs on to match the gold hardware.

If you click on the picture it will open on a new page that you can enlarge  to see what kind of damage was done

[gno]

Wow he really did a number on it.   It looks like it was originally a sunburst color with a mahogany neck which was the same as mine.  Does it sound good?  Is the neck straight?

[MDEW]

    The neck is straight enough and the frets are in good condition. Once I really do the fretwork it will be fine,  Whoever mutilated this sanded the neck down so it is pretty thin. The oid pickckups are weak. In the recording I am using the neck pickup. If I use any of my other guitars with the same setting on the recorder, I get a really deep bass sound. With this one there is barely any low end.

   I don't know much about wood so I do not know if it is ,Alder, Ash or pine, But the body is one piece of solid wood. When I put the sealer on getting ready to paint, the body had a deep antique yellow tint to it and the Burnmarks on sides, front and Back just sort of popped out at you. There are a lot of cracks that run from the butt of the guitar to the neck. The sealer made them more prominent also. .......... It looks like the guitar is going to split apart, but they are just surface cracks. The body is solid.

   But it feels good in my hands and looks cool. A really nice practice guitar. Plus I do not have to worry about putting marks on it or scratching the finish.