Opps. . . forget to announce that my Hotrod #2 is home . . .

Fair warning . . . this particular blog entry is about guitars. If not for you, then move on . . . but please come back soon.

Yep . . . my only attempt at building a guitar . . . the Grapevine Guitar Works Hotrod#2 Stratocaster that Sean Simon and I built, is back in my office . . .

In a word . . . sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeettttttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

If I may, let me say that again . . . swwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeettttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

To quote Joe Walsh . . . "That'sa so nice!"

Alan Massey, the lead guitar player of our 1st Church String Band, and a master carpenter, worked on it for a few weeks. I like the set up on his Strat and Tele . . . my guitar was in very good hands.

I will be getting a new bridge for it . . . later this summer for it. We used a cheap one that Sean had in a parts box . . . after that, I think it will be finished.

As my friends (Joe in Houston, and Floyd in Waco) have been telling me for years . . . playing an electric guitar is quite different that playing an acoustical guitar.

Truth be known . . . they are so right.

I play very little lead guitar . . . I don't have any skill for it . . . and would rather provide rhythm back up to a more competent player.

So, I designed my Hotrod #2 as a rhythm electric guitar . . . one that I could take to the after school functions I play guitar for during the school year. The Peavey T-60 I traded Alan for is my favorite electric, but it is so heavy . . . and not fun to transport. And being that the T-60 is no longer made . . . I just wanted to have a little bit of insurance.

So . . . Sean came up with the idea of our putting two P-90 soapbar pickups into a Stratocaster body, instead of building the guitar with the traditional 3 single coil pickups a Strat usually has, and using a Mighty Mite strat neck he had in his garage.

Then I came up with running the guitar through a Boss Super Chorus pedal (actually an idea Floyd gave me).

And . . . so far so good . . . my Hotrod is light . . . and has an action I can play. It sounds really good through the chorus pedal, but run it through a compression pedal, and it starts to really crunch. I am excited to start learning some new chords, songs and techniques.

And that, my friends, is what at least one instrument in your collection should motivate you to do . . . learn to play better.

As an acoustic player . . . I would say that I am a solid 6, and maybe even a 7 if I continue to learn new chords.

As an electric player . . . I am really a rank amateur, no more than a 3. But . . . I am ready to take the next step.

God's grace still amazes me . . . ><>