I picked up a few new CDs recently, among them "Year Zero" by Nine Inch Nails, "Wait", and "Fast Man Raider Man" by Frank Black.
32. Upgrade my Squier '51: I bought a Squier '51 a few months back for about $100 because I wanted a cheap project guitar that wouldn't cause me to panic if I managed to screw it up. Well, over the past few months I have grown very fond of my '51, even in its stock condition. For a cheap guitar it plays well, sounds good, and looks pretty good too. Here's a picture of the stock '51:
The '51 is a mishmash of parts from other Fender/Squier guitars. It has a Stratocaster body, a Telecaster neck (perhaps the best part of the entire guitar), and a pick guard and control plate similar to the '51 Fender Precision basses. It has a single coil neck pickup, and a humbucker bridge pickup that can be split for a single coil sound.
My plans for my '51 are as follows:
- Replace the stock bridge: Many of the reviews and build plans that I have read call for the stock bridge to be replaced by a slightly smaller bridge for better tone and less buzz.
- Replace the single coil pickup: I plan to replace the stock single coil with a lipstick tube style pickup, similar to those found on old Telecasters.
- Replace the humbucker: I am going to replace the very respectable stock humbucker with a Seymour-Duncan SH-5 Custom humbucker for a fatter, heavier sound when the bridge pickup is selected.
- Replace the pick guard: The stock pick guard is a single ply piece of white plastic. I plan on replacing it with a White-black-white pickup of the same design, for that vintage Fender look.
- Replace the control plate and rewire the pickups: There is a control plate available that allows for a tone setting, an option not on the stock '51. I would have to remove some material from the control cavity and rewire the pickups for tone and a switch.
- Replace the nut: The stock nut is made of plastic, and while it works okay now, it will eventually start to buzz. I plan to replace it with a Graphtech teflon impregnated nut.
- Change the humbucker pickup ring: The stock ring is black plastic, which looks okay, but I want to offset the pickup some by replacing the black ring with a chrome ring to match the other hardware.
So what have I accomplished so far? I ordered the new bridge on 4/28/2007 and installed it on 5/3/2007. I haven't restrung the guitar yet, since I still need to remove the nut and pickups.
I will post pictures when I complete the upgrades.
42. Read 50 books that I have not read before: I finished Choke. I liked it very much, and place it with Fight Club at the top of the list of Chuck Palahniuk novels I have read.
I started reading An Abundance of Katherines by John Green at the behest of my Librarian fiancee. She works with the young adult collection, and she wanted my take on the novel. So far it is okay. There are some stylistic and character issues that make me a little crazy, but I'm only a quarter of the way through the book.
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