You can normally find those exact same kits on e-bay for about 1/2 the cost and at reputable online retailers for about 2/3 the cost. I’m not quite sure what the deal with this is, but it’s definitely a buyer beware/be aware situation.

Some long-time readers may be asking whether I have given up my plans to build a guitar. No, I haven’t, but I also haven’t been making a whole lot of progress on it either. I’ll be sure to fill everyone in when that project gets moving along again.

I have to say the change was tremendous. As it turns out there was just one of those cheap Chinese tubes in there and apparently was the source of 98% of the hum. The leftover hum feels like perfectly sensible background noise when using tubes. While I’m hugely impressed by the improvement that arose from this simple change, I’m not quite finished yet. According to this review of a bunch of tubes, I could actually do a lot better than the JJ. With each tube having its own character, I’ll probably have to try at least one or two more to see which one seems to fit my personal preferences.

The next step is a new speaker which I’ve been investigating for a bit. I’m still tapping a few source for information so I won’t know which I’m getting for a while still. I’ll be sure to post once I have more details on that adventure

This guy built his guitar with a minimum of specialized tools, relying on creativity, advice and lots of jigs to get the job done. My favourite part is where he build his own radius board using a router and a jig. That was pretty impressive. It’s really cool because it shows what a person can accomplish with very little in terms of specialized tools. Ingenuity and creativity really counts for a lot.

The thing to take away from all of this is that he made great use of the online community as well as his own ingenuity. Throughout the thread, you’ll see all kinds of advice from some of the more experienced builders as well as a lot of discussion about god ways to go about things. As with most fun things to do there are dozens of ways to do it right and reading about all of them can help you find what’s going to work for you. So ask questions. When you find the right community, like TDPRI, people are more than willing to offer suggestions and advice.

I’ve caught the guitar mod/build bug again. I love looking at what others have created. It’s really inspiring. It’s got me thinking about a Saga guitar again as a starter. Of course, my natural instinct is to go buy a hunk of lumber, a whole pile of tools and try to build one. The problem with that is that it would probably be far too difficult to get right and while I would learn a lot, I’ve got a better chance at following through on a Saga kit.

If you’re into Telecasters though, go check out the TDPRI forums. It’s not just about building, they cover everything you’ve ever wanted and not wanted to know about telecasters.

Musicstop has long had the worst prices in Canada on musical equipment of all sorts. A while ago they were bought by Long and McQuade, Canada’s biggest music equipment retailer. With the purchasing ability of such a big company, I hoped that the prices would come down a great deal. I stopped in over the summer and while some of the prices had gotten better, the biggest change I saw was in the cosmetics of the store.

This weekend though, I was floored to see that not only had prices become competitive. They had become really competitive. So competitive in fact, that their regular tag pricing is matching Musician’s Friend’s pricing. That’s pretty astounding given that while our dollar is at par, we usually run 10% more expensive anyways. That goes without saying that Musician’s Friend does massive volume being the Internet’s biggest music gear merchant.

Overall, I’m beaming as a result since I can’t buy some stuff through Musician’s Friend, like Fender gear and half-stacks. Now… Just need to find some money to blow on music gear.

He also points out a lot of areas where he went wrong. He shows pictures of the problem and then what he did to fix it. That’s golden for anyone undertaking a project like this. As helpful as it is to watch someone do something perfectly, you learn a lot more by watching someone make mistakes and fix them. The last bit of awesomeness is that the guy who wrote all of this is just a guy. He’s not a professional luthier, though he had built guitars before. He only spent more than $99 on one of his tools, and it wasn’t much over. That helps bring a project like this into the realm of the rest of us.

All in all it’s an amazing thread and anyone who’s ever thought about building a guitar should go have a read.