Your letters to the Guitarist editor. Drop us a line at guitarist@futurenet.com
STAR LETTER
STRAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
I bought my Strat in February of 1978, so little surprise that the frets started to go wonky some time (over a decade) ago. During lockdown I decided it was time so I got quotes from professionals for a refret and lacquering. Being tight and poor I had no option but to go for the YouTube videos, cheap tools off the net and ‘jump in’ option. I definitely made a few minor mistakes, but the neck is now lovely again. I also learnt about intonation, filing the nut, oiling the fretboard and lots more. Overall, this was one of the scariest but most rewarding things I’ve ever done. I fixed my guitar… me! The moral? Don’t be scared, go slow… what’s the worst that could go wrong?
Landan England, via email
Congratulations, Landan (excellent name by the way). You took the bull by the horns and learned several things of lasting value and sorted your guitar out in the process at little cost (see pic above). With even late-70s Strats climbing in price these days, we’d have been tempted to use a little of your repair budget to buy a really cheap, beaten-up electric to practise on first. But fortune favours the brave, as they say, and we applaud the workmanlike, effective job you did.
If you fancy following Landan’s good example and tackling maintenance jobs yourself, the good news is that there are plenty of short courses in guitar making and repair springing up around the country, such as those run by Crimson Guitars down in Dorset and our very own Alex Bishop (see Confessions of a Luthier, page 40) in Bristol. But if the budget is tight, Landan’s experience shows that you can learn how to do this stuff yourself – with a little help from the better YouTube tutorials, standard reference books and other sources, such as our very own Mod Squad. To help you dial in that intonation just right, we’ve awarded you this month’s Star Letter prize of a fabulous Korg tuner.