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i’ve been having a terrible day, but every time i see the Strat sitting on the sofa i get happy.

i’m going to look on the site for Xcentric Guitars, the folks who made the “orange Autumn Pearl” tremolo tip, and see if they have any knobs that appeal. the pickguard has a really nice pattern around the knobs that you can’t see because the knobs obscure it, but my ability to downsize is limited because the Tonestyler has a D shaft which requires a pretty solid knob to make the detents. it’s also questionable whether i’d like smaller knobs, which would have to be smaller than Strat diameter to show the design. i generally prefer larger knobs (that’s what she said) whether on pedals or guitars. smaller MXR knobs exist, so that could also be an option. tinkering with this kind of shit is basically a disease.

got paid early so i ordered the M-77T pickguard and we’ll see how that goes. not ordering anything big (or even semi-big) until another pay cycle because i have too much to pay for at the moment. time to finish off the M-77T, have a go at the Jetstar, and test the baritone Jazzmaster concept so i can decide what to do. and put the replacement cap in the Esquire.

just did another round of painting on the Jetstar. did the neck break this time which i assume will need a second coat. hoping the other areas can be, erm, finished. tune in 2 weeks from now for the next part of that story. going to put the pickups in the M-77T next, but won’t have time to wire them up.

got the replacement pickups in. surprisingly the ring mounting screws were long enough to work with one and three foam spacers respectively, and it looks like the pickup height is good.

i'm not really feeling up to working on stuff right now because other stuff is going wrong, but the next step is a second coat on the Jetstar and connecting the M-77T pickups. i may have to do extensions on the leads going to the switch because the old leads were overstretched and are now a bit wonky. but those two groups of tasks along with the M-77T pickguard will bring the M-77T home and hopefully advance the Jetstar to its end stages. i just don't have the heart to fuck with anything at the moment. the capacitor for the Esquire switch arrives today, but i don't want to deal with anything right now.

in parts news, i ordered a Gotoh “modern” bridge for the Telecaster project. i can’t use modern Fender bridges because they’re all 3-hole mounts while the Squier is 4-bolt. if i don’t like the brass block saddles i can change them for the steel Fender block saddles.

when i’m waiting for something to come into stock i keep a Chrome tab open for it so it’s easy peasy to check, and to my surprise and delight Decoboom restocked the back plate that matches the pickguard on the green Strat. of course i grabbed it. once it’s installed the Strat should be well and truly done and can be dropped from the Projects List. i can’t think of anything more i’d do other than changing knobs and switch tip.

i’m too busy with work and getting ready to go to DC for a concert tonight to do anything much, but my next order of business is to do the cap swap on the Esquire and connect everything up on the M-77T which is also perilously close to dropping off the list. i might do one more coat on the Jetstar bits if i feel lively enough for color matching. if i like the Esquire with the cap mod it’ll get an official spot in the queue, but it’s still quite possible i’ll sell it in the end.