Lefty Trini build

[fender3x]

It is amazing what putting a guitar together can teach you about getting it to play right. Years ago I bought a cheap Chinese bass (an SX) as a platform for experimenting. When I got my first kit, and used the SX as a test bed for the setup I wanted to do on the kit guitar, figuring that I could not hurt the SX too badly. Not only did I not hurt it, I got the SX playing so well that I have been upgrading it ever since. It now plays and sounds great...and I have further mods in mind ;-) I got advice about every part of the setup here. It's a good formula. Work slowly, get advice, try what you've read about...if it works voila! If not come back for more advice.

I think you also have to credit the folks who developed these guitars. The bridges and truss rods on Fenders and Gibsons are mostly very easy to adjust with very few tools. I often think this was a big part of Leo Fender's genius.

You picked one of the higher degree of difficulty guitars and got a great player that looks awesome. What could be better ;-)

[LexLuthier]

I forgot to thank McCreed! I'm sure I'm forgetting others, too.

But yeah - I learned so much from this and it took the fear out of setting up my other guitars myself. I was always scared off from messing with truss rods especially (not sure why, somebody once told me they are easy to strip) and now I feel like I could marginally tackle nearly and setup or basic repair. This was a lot of fun. might want to strip and refinish my mexican strat and replace the pots for fun next.

[fender3x]

That's sort of how I started. I had a bass that was worth too much to mod, but not as good as I wanted it to play. I found a good quality "player" bass that I modded a little, then a cheap bass that I modded a lot. Then a kit to fill a niche. All of which prompted thoughts of "well, what do I really want, and how close can I get to it?" and "I wonder what niches I still have to fill...?" The trick is scratching the itch while not risking divorce ;-)

[LexLuthier]

That's sort of how I started. I had a bass that was worth too much to mod, but not as good as I wanted it to play. I found a good quality "player" bass that I modded a little, then a cheap bass that I modded a lot. Then a kit to fill a niche. All of which prompted thoughts of "well, what do I really want, and how close can I get to it?" and "I wonder what niches I still have to fill...?" The trick is scratching the itch while not risking divorce ;-)

Haha - yep. I would love to build three more guitars - a Les Paul Junior with a single P-90, a telecaster, and a Tom Morello copycat. Gonna have to balance that with keeping the wife happy lol. She was a saint through this. I have office paws and don't have a lot of handyman knowhow so this took me longer than it should have. Gotta love paternity leave!

[Drashkum]

Well done. Looks, awesome. So much to learn fro your build diary

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[LexLuthier]

Thanks! It was a lot of fun, and I asked perhaps too many questions, but I am excited to see how yours turns out! I've been following your thread with great interest!