Reporting Live From The Scene

The Beaton One
With a Million Dollar Smile...

Well, after the usual stuttering courier shenanigans, the Futuristic and Rusting Nail Ones finally made it to The Fat Old Man last night, which for some reason amazed me....just hope he likes them. I really miss The Rusting Nail One at the mo' - don't feel I'd started to scratch the surface with those pickups.

The Beaton One is also nearly done - new parts fitted, though a different bridge as my attempts with a measuring stick (ruler?) proved inept. Same with the tuners, but man can I ream a hole in a crisis.

Anyway, hopefully a formal introduction to that later today and then we're in business. It really is a battered old thing, but Ye Olde Fender Custom '69 pickups should make it sing. It has also been wired 'old style' and breaking a habit of a lifetime, I've actually used some Strats knobs - as they seemed to go nicely with the 23K Gold scratchplate and the Tele switch cap.

It ain't just thrown together

*sniff*

Just looks it (boom-boom)

I am really impressed with the Wilkinson Easy Locking tuners though, I can see me using them again if they are as stable as hoped. I've put strings on now and for the first time in ages not sliced a finger in the process. So The Beaton One is unblooded, not that that is a marketing triumph, claiming in all literalness that 'There's a piece of me in every guitar.' It doesn't sound quite right somehow.

You'll have to forgive the rolling-nature of this post, as I am writing and setting the guitar up at the same time, and I've just plugged the wee thing in and it sounds well cool. I forgot to polish the frets though when I oiled the fretboard, so I'll need to do that as sliding around isn't as easy as it could be. These pickups sound great though, everything you'd want in a Strat - cool.

Right, I'll do a bit more on it and get some fotos/do a proper introduction later on...