"The guitar is a small orchestra ― every string is a different color, a different voice."
― Andres Segovia.
Another guitar post! Nature readers be like "Oh great ..."
And here it is with the Seymour Duncan JB Humbucker installed!
From SD's website:
From SD's website:
"The JB Model humbucker is our most popular pickup of all time. Blues, country, fusion, punk, hard rock, grunge, thrash; the JB has always sounded just right, even as new genres emerged around it. The low end is full and powerful, the highs are crisp and detailed and there’s an upper-midrange bump that adds crunch and chunk to heavy chords but translates to a singing, vocal-like quality when you play single notes or solos. Meanwhile the hot output pushes your amp just that little bit harder for more sustain and harmonics."
Here's everything that I replaced from the original Ultra HSS model:
And a tour of the completed guitar ...
The tuning machines, front and back.
Again, I love how the headstock logo matches up with the tuners. Fender ought to make a Strat Ultra with all-gold hardware!
The Seymour Duncan JB Humbucker matching up nicely ...
You can see the gold shimmer of Arctic Peal here:
At the beginning of this effort I was hoping to keep it all Fender, but it simply wasn't possible given the vision I had for white/gold Strat. Fortunately, the Stratocaster is a very modular guitar design with a variety of aftermarket options for parts and components. For the moment, this is my favorite Stratocaster to play ― it has a real thick bluesy tone, clean or with a touch of distortion. Full metal-mode is awesome for growly power chords and ethereal guitar solos with reverb and delay.
So, now what? I guess I'll have go actually go outside and go birding, eh? To be honest, apart from the few times I've birded this year, I'm not feeling much motivation to go after species I can still get late February and early March. A slower than usual start, but who cares. Dane County's Top 20 Most Reliable Birders have been busy; the lead position at 37 checklists and 69 species ― whoa! That's a lot of birding in just two weeks. I think I'm around 40 or so species.
To be sure, birding can be great fun, but I'm grateful I've dialed it back over the years. I used to think it was rather amazing (and necessary?) to tally 200 to 300 escapist checklists per year. It's astonishing how much time you can free up for other hobbies and interests once you scale back what I've come to see as excessive birding.
Now it's excessive guitar acquisition!
What would you suppose I have more of ― guitars or birding optics?
Let's see ...
Vortex Razor UHD 8x42
Vortex Razor UHD 10x50
Vortex Fury HD 10x42
Vortex Viper HD 8x42
Eagle Optics Raptor 10x42
Audubon Equinox 8x42
Nikon Superior SE 8x32
Swarovski NL Pure 8x42
Swarovski EL Swarovision 8.5x42
Swarovski EL Swarovision 8x32
Swarovski EL Swarovision 10x50
Swarovski Habicht 8x30
Swarovski CL 8x25
Swarovski 8x20 Pocket
Vortex Razor HD 27-60x85
Vortex Razor HD 22-48x65
Swarovski ATX 25-60x85
I think that's it ... it's close!
All images © 2023 Mike McDowell