First Performance for the guitar class

So last night I went to my first performance workshop.  It is put on monthly but my guitar instructor for the "Special Forces" group that I belong to.  I think there were about 12 of us at this session and everyone either prepares something or improvises over their preferred key.  I chose to do a cover of a cover of the song "Somewhere over the Rainbow"  A fine gent called Chris Impellitteri recorded it on one of his albums years ago and I always thought it was cool to do a metal version of that song.  Now, Chris I is an insanely good player and I am clearly not anywhere near his level........yet!!  so I did my cover of his cover.  Still Metal, still cool, just much simpler. 

I was nervous as hell but doing everything to try to relax by cracking jokes, mocking my about to be played masterpiece......lol.  anyway, it went great, the group really liked it and I received some valuable feedback on how to improve my playing.......which is the reason we do this workshop in the firstplace.

There is a young guy in our group who is well on his way to being a virtuoso player.  He's 16 years old and been playing for 4 years........WOW.  Sweep arpeggios, changing keys at will, working the modes to perfection, superb player and only getting better.  Our instructor makes it very clear.......if you want to play as well as Rio.....you MUST DO AS HE SAYS......and you will get there.  I have never had as much fun playing guitar as I am now.  I really wish I had Tomasso as an instructor when I started playing guitar at 14 (impossible as I think he is younger than me...lol).  Now, it's possible it may not have helped as my practice schedule was....shall we say.....non existent??  But maybe it was because I never really saw any improvement week after week.  I learned different songs but always had the same flaws in my playing....like my picking hand, I could not pick smooth to save my life.  So for 30 years I've had horrible picking technique and Tomasso was able to fix that in about 4 months.

I'm learning so much and enjoying playing guitar like I never have before.  I think that is the reason I also have a renewed passion in building them again to. 

OK, so when I get home from work I'll be applying primer to the strat project.....maybe some pics?

Strat with an old vintage Kahler Steeler trem

So a number of years ago I brought a kit guitar just to see what the quality was like.  it was a strat clone......Imagine that?  Anyways, everything about it was cheap.  The body, the hardware, the electronics.....everything.  It has been sitting around the shop for years now and I've always wanted to build it using the existing body and neck, but upgrading everything else on it. 

So a few years ago I built a flamed maple pick guard for it.  It might be on this blog further down, if not, I know I have pictures of it on my Facebook site "liveedgeguitars".  And a few months ago I loaded it up with CTS pots and NOS DiMarzio pickups, Q-Parts knobs......Anyways, it looks killer.

So just recently I have been working on the body.  It's made of Basswood which is alright, not really standard strat body material but it was a kit guitar so what do you expect.  Anyway, the tremolo was routed for a standard 6 hole fender diecast metal trem.  I did not want that...AT ALL, so I've upgraded it to a Kahler Steeler trem.  This thing in the day was the best alternative to a Floyd Rose.  I've always loved Kahlers so I found this one on E-bay and picked it up pretty cheap.  Now the routing on the body for the tremolo cavity was horrible to say the least.  If it was done on a CNC machine they must have forgot to clamp the body down.  If it was done with a standard router, the guy must have not used a straight edge to guide the router....or he was drunk.....who knows?

I spent a few hours yesterday making the cavity larger to accommodate the larger trem and straightening out the drunk operators cuts.  I must say it looks great and is one step closer to being finished.

I will say that before I brought the Kahler I did prep the body, only to have to strip it once I received the trem as I did not know the actual dimensions and thought it would just drop in the existing space......Whooops.  I had only sanded it and applied white primer to it so it was not the end of the world to have to strip it after making the changes to the body.  This is a kit guitar so I was never going to be selling it anyway, it was always going to be for me with the proper upgrades.  I'm not upgrading the neck.  I'm happy with the feel and even the small vintage frets.......I would never build a guitar with small vintage frets but again, for a kit guitar what do I expect.

So tomorrow I'm hoping to re-apply the primer and maybe later this week get going on the color coats.  Well, let's get the primer on first huh?

I had forgotten my password for this blog so it has not been updated in a few years.  Finally up and running again.  anyway, I am building guitars again.  I have been building some necks and things like that for customers but I am NO LONGER DOING CUSTOM STUFF.  I have no interest in dealing with silly requests and changes late into the ballgame.  I build what I want to build........If you like it, GREAT!!  If not.......GREAT.....I don't care anymore.  I don't do this as my bread and butter anymore so it WILL remain fun.  I'm back to taking guitar lessons as well.  I've always hated my playing and now it is 10 time better than it ever has been.  Life is good.  for an easy picture history have a search of Liveedge guitars on Facebook.  there you can see all the guitars I've build through the years and any new stuff that will be available.  I will also be updating this blog..........Why not???  OK that is it for now.........THAT IS ALL!!!