Guitar Nerds Anonymous

looks wicked!

Are all of tools and the workshop yours?

Yeah, I’ve got it all set up in a nook at the back of my garage. I’ve gradually added bits over the last year as I tried new things with each build, I reckon it’s pretty optimised now. Folks seem to have been moving power tools on over the last year, so it’s been a relatively cheap time to do it. I got the bandsaw from an old fella over in Lancashire, it was a bastard to move, but worth it.

That's awesome man. Would love the space to build a workshop. I was never particularly handy on the tools but the idea of learning the skills to do the kit justice is appealing.

Picks. What do you use?

Recent happenings have had me start to question so many of my guitar habits. Picks for example. All through my gigging years i used nothing but orange 0.6mm tortex picks. Bit thin for most people but I liked the give in them for the punky bashing that was most of my band's output. For the last 10 years or so of mainly acoustic playing I've been on 0.73mm tortex yellows but I just bought a load of purple 1.14 ones which i'm finding I really like.

I sometimes play with a thumb pick too although the short-lived metal finger-picks experiment is largely over.

Interested to see what others are using and why.

Dunlop pink .71 here for acoustic, mostly because I got loads of them at once.

I also have some Van Gogh painting ones that were a gift I sometimes, same .71 thickness.

I once tried a thicker pick, but didn't really like the 'rigidness' of it.

I really like this, particularly the back of the neck in your videos - that was a nice looking piece of rosewood. I think I say this about all your builds, but you've got a great eye for the proportions - it's a really well balanced shape and layout.

Love to see the wiring if you've got any pictures - did you do anything special with it given it's on show?

Dunlop Jazz III. V consistent control, great for pinched harmonics and getting shreddy, never had an issue with the trashier garage rock end of things either

Would love the space to build a workshop

If you've got access to a garden at all, it can (just) be done on a very small scale. I've managed to get all of my stuff in a 5x5 foot garden shed... I don't think you could go any smaller, as you run out of room to actually lay a guitar down on the bench ...

It makes lots of things very difficult (my jointing plane is about a third of the length of the shed...) but at least encourages you to be efficient!

Thanks, the rosewood is really lovely although I found it more difficult to work with than maple. It’s even lovelier with a good rub of the Montypresso relic wax that @Nahguavkire recommended a while back.

The wiring is... ok, although you can’t see it as clearly as I intended (despite making three pickguards from different sheets of acrylic), so that’s alright.

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Funnily enough I’ve just started trying orange tortex last week, got a few yellow ones too. I really like the orange, I think (if they’re good enough for Joey Santiago…) . Up until now I’ve always used the nylon Dunlops and preferred them to thinner celluloid type picks. .73 mostly, though I did prefer .88 for a while for power chord kind of stuff.

But the tortex seems to combine strumming and single string feel better than the nylon, where if it felt good for strumming it felt too light for lead stuff, and vice versa.

Wary of going down the path of just fucking about with stuff for no good reason though.

I've more or less given up using them these days. I wanted to get a better using my fingers and the nipper kept emptying my stash and hiding them around the house.

Used to like the 1.14 tortex or even the 1.5 delrins for more noodly action.

Pickboy carbon nylon 1mm for me. Very stiff/direct feeling and nicely grippy.

I used to use yellow tortex but had one too many flip out of my fingers and off the stage so tried an assortment box from somewhere and realised I much prefer a hard pick.

Have generally used whatever I could find lying around due to an aversion to holding onto picks. Recently though I've realised Dunlop Nylon 0.88 is the one for me

That looks pretty nice - I'd be really happy if mine turned out that well.

I've used purple Tortex foreeeeveeeer... Then a couple of years ago I was at a garage sale and found a pack of blue and a pack of green... Now I reach for the green if I have the choice...

Turned out the garage sale was at the home of The Veronicas' (pictured) father and stepmother, I also scored some sweet signed stuff for a client, he was fucking thrilled...

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Treated the old Tele to a new pickguard today. The original one is white, I’ve had a black one on for ages but despite being a legit Fender one it wasn’t a great fit. New one (also Fender but different model) is much better.

Straw poll of lufguss guitarists, when it comes to blonde Telecasters, are you team whiteguard or team blackguard?

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Definitely black, since pickup, fret dots and selector. Looks great!

Ta, yeah this is what it looks like with the original guard on… more period correct for a mid-50s style Tele but I do feel that if the blonde is even slightly butterscotch-y the black guard is nicer…

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Blackguard looks great!

Question for the staytrem posse on here: My staytrem collet keeps coming loose, took it in to my guy the first time and he said the collet was somehow touching the body making the trem jerky and that's probably why it came loose... He fixed it but it's done it again, should I be using threadlock?

I tried threadlock, still feels really fucking weird when you use the trem... Almost like a dull click, like it's hitting something when you press the trem down... Wanna throw it across the room!! Ugh...

Always bet on black. Looks wicked.

Black. Defo.

Anyone need a bass case? I've got a hiscox hard case that I don't need.

Against the grain, but I actually like the white.

In other news, I don't really play electric, but missed having a 'quiet' guitar for practicing scales, exercises etc in front of the TV so picked up one of those epiphone cheap as chips Les Paul SL's. Had to completely reset the bridge, but it feels pretty nice to play around on. No idea what it sounds like plugged in mind...