"Blondie" the B-Stock Partscaster

As my third Partscaster build, this has been one of my favorite transformations from a pile of leftover junk into a surprisingly nice playing guitar all around and a pretty unique build from the paint to the wiring.

How to Paint an Eddie Van Halen Frankenstrat Guitar

My latest project guitar has been hugely interesting, trying to recreate a 10 year journey of one of the most famous guitars of all time.  Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstrat is famous for its complex and semi random design, but isn't too terribly difficult to make if you know what to do.

New Project Guitars

          Two and a half guitars I picked up as material for some new projects.  At least one Frankenstrat in the works at the moment, and a blank slate for another project afterwards.  Lots of pics of the works below!

D'Addario Strings Customer Service Review

          Here's a little shout-out to the customer service at D'Addario, guitar string and accessory manufacturer.  I purchased and received a new set of strings for my 8-string guitar, and by some quirk in the manufacturing process, only received 6 strings in the 8-string pack.  

          I contacted D'Addario customer support to let them know that there might be some holes in their string Q.C. (I haven't had any other issues over probably a dozen other sets of strings) and they sent me not only the missing strings, but another complete 8-string set as well.  S/O to D'Addario for taking care of your customers right away!

Kashmir Improv

Some on-the-spot improv to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" in DADGAD tuning.  Learned along the way that the laptop's built-in mic is never good enough.

Jazz/Funk Fusion Backing Tracks

A few more excellent jazzy backing tracks I've jammed along to recently, enjoy and be sure to check out the official Free Backing Track page for more!

"Reel Character" Woodybucker

The second hand-wound pickup I've built by hand with the "Reel Great" pickup winder, the"Woodybucker", an asymmetrically wound humbucker with wood bobbins and hex polepieces.  A humbucker is an even bigger pain to wind than a single coil but opens up a lot of opportunities for unique tone as well.

Reel Character Asymmetric Humbucker Preview

What is that exactly?  Good question.  You will find out tomorrow, or maybe the day after.  For now, you will have to suffice with the knowledge that this is the slug coil and is wound to 5.6 K ohms and might find its way into my next project, which won't be revealed until even later.  Rest assured that good things come to those who wait.

Guitar Pickup DC Resistance Measurements

          While only one factor among many, the DC resistance of a guitar pickup is a very useful metric that can tell, roughly, how many winds a pickup has on it and how "hot" it will sound, or how much voltage it will put out to drive your amp.

          A pickup with a low DC resistance will generally sound thinner and twangier, with more pronounced attack and clearer treble.  A hotter wound pickup will sound warmer with more pronounced mids, dampened treble, and drive the amp a little harder as well.  Other factors such as magnet strength and pole piece distance each play their own part, but the resistance, or at least the number of winds, plays one of the largest roles in the overall shape of the sound.  That in mind, I decided to measure a few of my own guitars and share the results for the science-y aspect of it and hope that you find it interesting, if not necessarily extremely useful.

"Reel Character" handwound Stratocaster pickup coil tapping demo

Some attempted jazz-fusion improv as a demo of the tapping tones of my new "Reel Character" Strat bridge pickup.