A Good Diagnosis

If you're anything like me, you have got it..the fever. You think, breathe, eat sleep and especially dream anything guitars.

This Blog will be solely related to guitars and guitar related activities.

So first, I thought I would explain my history to you.

I have been playing guitar for approximately 12 years. I live in St. John's NL and I currently own four beauties, 2 of which are in Ontario, where I moved from.

Currently, I am building a guitar, which I hope to make the focus of this blog once the first one is done and my expertise level is a little higher. I want to build guitars at some point that will look like they were made at a professional level. Hopefully, as I progress, I will also offer tips and tricks that I have picked up along the way for any other amateur luthiers out there who wish to create something from nothing. I will say that Stewmac.com was probably the greatest source of parts and know how that I have come across so far, and projectguitar.com also offered a great deal of expertise that I have utilized in the building and carving of the body (and what little I have of the neck).

Later on in the week, I will post pictures of my workshop and tools I have bought so far. I am still just getting a feel for what I need, and I have purchased a few books to the effect that detail things that are kind of hard to find. Of these, the Cooper's Tool or Spokeshave is the hardest. If I reference something and you would like to know what it is, please email me at brjbilyea@hotmail.com with the words "Guitar Blog" in the title so I know that it is real (I get a LOT of junk) and I will give you a reasonable prompt response.

In the meantime, let's talk guitars.

Less than 8 months ago I purchased a Hagstrom Ultra Swede for about $350 in a pawn shop in St. John's here. I liked the look of the guitar, and it was literally the nicest guitar I had played since I'd left Ontario, so I picked it up. I will post a picture or two later on in the week of it.

If you ever get a chance to play one of these guitars, I HIGHLY recommend it. This guitar is absolutely gorgeous. Now, I know that I might seem a bit biased, but I have found nothing to complain about in terms of this guitar. The pickups are great for everything from metal (though I must say, I like my metal tones with a lot of bass, I very rarely use the bridge pickup for anything other than a bluegrass/country tone, for which it performs beautifully.

When I got the guitar, I did have to adjust the action, but where it's used, it was pretty hard to tell if that was a factory setting or if the guitar had been adjusted. I doubt whoever owned it before had touched the action. My preference is a very low action, and setting it there was pretty easy with the Tune-O-Matic they have installed on the guitar.

The neck pickup gives a nice molasses tone and the bass in it is great for jazz, metal and blues.

But the neck is what makes this guitar. Hagstrom has claimed that they make some pretty fast playing guitars, and if you like to shred, this is a pretty good guitar to do it on. I love the neck on this guitar. It's solid, never warped on me (and I have a bad habit of switching string gauges pretty regularly depending on availability) and always gives me what I want. It's good looking, with Pearl/Abalone inlays and a nice Resinator fretboard, which looks and feels like ebony.

I have no complaints with this guitar whatsoever.

It also doesn`t hurt that I just bought myself a beauty of a Vox Amp to play it through, but I'll save that for tomorrow's post.

Keep living Fret to Fret!

Blake.