Strat of Theseus

My first guitar was a Squier Affinity Stratocaster, purchased around 2002 for $200. A classic starter guitar. It had been tucked in a closet for the last decade or so, but when my interest in guitar was reignited, I realized it was a perfect platform to tinker around with.

While I was imagining what would eventually become my P-90 offset guitar, I used the Squier to practice various techniques, and to become comfortable modding and understanding the construction guitars. I replaced the pickups and pickguard, replaced the nut, replaced the saddles, decked the tremelo, stripped and painted the body (3 separate times), replaced the pickups again, and eventually replaced the neck.

During this process, I also realized, dang I really like Strats. When my P-90 offset was complete, I had a great hardtail Strat body that was freed up. I decided to take what I had learned and build my ultimate Strat.

The biggest step for me here was doing a nitrocellulose finish for the first time. I used rattle cans from Oxford and I am quite happy with how it turned out. My hope is it will naturally relic over time with use.

This guitar is a Strat of Theseus. After slowly upgrading parts of my Squire over time, the only original parts that remain are (drumroll)… the volume and tone knobs.

Neck: Warmoth. Modern Construction. Roasted Maple. 43mm nut width with GraphTech Tusq nut. 10”-16” compound radius. Narrow & Tall stainless steel frets. No finish.

I love roasted maple necks. They are stabile enough to not require a finish, so they are silky smooth. And they smell like pancakes.

Tuners: Fender Classic Tuning Machine Heads.

String Tree: Guyker roller retainers.

Body: Warmoth. Solid Alder. Universal route. Hardtail bridge route. I routed the neck pocket slightly deeper and made the heel contoured. Oxford nitro paint in Olympic White.

Bridge: Fender American Standard Flat Mount.

Pickguard: Musiclily, Mint Green.

Pickups: Tonerider City Limits. Parchment covers.

Electronics: Obsidian Wire Universal Blender.

Neck Plate: Contoured heel.

Copper tape for lining cavity: Kirecoo.

Weight: 6 lbs 12 oz.

Offset P-90 Build

Earlier this year I built my first “partscaster,” a Strat with P-90s using parts from Warmoth. Of course, I still had the itch to do more, so I decided to try my hand at creating my own guitar body from scratch.

The underlying premise for this build is I wanted to try making a “Jazzcaster” style guitar with P-90s, but with a modified, smaller body. I always thought the Jazzmaster body, especially in the “Jazzcaster” configuration, looked a bit bottom heavy, so I wanted to balance it out a bit.

Here is the outline of the body I made, overlaid on a Jazzmaster. The top half is identical, I just reduced the bottom half quite a bit.

And here it is laid over a Telecaster, for size comparison:

Making the body was a lot of fun, it was my first time doing a woodworking project like this, as well as doing a high gloss, polished finish.

Some more photos:

Here are all the details for this build:

Neck: Warmoth. Modern Construction. Maple shaft wood, Rosewood fretboard. 43mm nut width with GraphTech Tusq nut. 10”-16” compound radius. Narrow & Tall stainless steel frets. Clear satin nitro finish.

Tuners: Fender locking tuners.

String Tree: Guyker roller retainers.

Body: Swamp ash, made from a body blank from StewMac. I had my friend plane it down to 1.5” thick, because I like thinner bodies on guitars.

Body Paint: Duplicolor Teal Metallic (BCC0386) with SprayMax 2k Clear Coat.

Bridge: Hardtail Top Load Bridge with Musiclily saddles. I went with a top load bridge because I don’t have a drill press and thus wouldn’t be able to reliably drill the through-body holes in a straight line.

Pickguard: Warmoth. Parchment.

Pickups: Lollar P-90 soapbar, neck and f-spaced bridge. Cream covers, sanded down to give them a matte finish.

Potentiometers: 500k split shaft, short, from Lollar.

3-Way Switch: Oak Grigsby.

Capacitor: Orange Drop .022.

Wiring: Art of Tone cloth pushback.

Control Plate: Modified volume position plate from Philadelphia Luthier.

Neck Plate: Contoured heel.

Electrosocket jack plate, jack, dome-top knobs, strap buttons, and screws: Warmoth.

Copper tape for lining cavity: Kirecoo.

P-90 Stratocaster Build

I decided late last year I wanted to get back into playing guitar, after about a decade away from the practice. In revitalizing my old guitar, an entry level Squire Affinity Stratocaster, I fell deep into the rabbit hole of guitar building and modding. I decided to build a proper guitar, to my taste (known as a “Partscaster”).

I just finished it, and am super happy with how it turned out. It’s a bit of a Frankenstein, almost like a hybrid between a Stratocaster, Telecaster, and Les Paul. I generally privileged ergonomics and playability above all else, though the pickups are pretty killer.

Here are the details, hopefully useful to those endeavoring on their own projects.

Neck: Warmoth. Modern Construction. Maple shaft wood, Rosewood fretboard. 43mm nut width with GraphTech Tusq nut. 10”-16” compound radius. Narrow & Tall stainless steel frets. Clear satin nitro finish.

Tuners: Fender locking tuners.

String Tree: Guyker roller retainers.

Body: Warmoth. Solid Alder. Universal route. Hardtail bridge route. Sanded and finished with Rubio Monocoat, bourbon.

I think of myself more of a Tele guy than a Strat guy, but Strat bodies are just so much more comfortable than a Tele body. I do have plans for a Tele build in the future though, adding both a belly and forearm contour.

Bridge: Fender American Standard Flat Mount.

I value tuning stability over having the tremolo system, so I went with a hardtail body and bridge. No regrets, this thing is rock solid.

Pickguard: Warmoth. .09” black matte. Routed for P-90s, two knobs, and a selector switch.

Pickups: Lollar P-90 soapbar, neck and f-spaced bridge. Black covers.

I don’t love middle pickups, as they are right in the main strumming area, so I went with a two pickup configuration as opposed to the traditional 3 pickups in a Strat. This also allowed me to only have two knobs instead of 3, which cleared more space where my hand sometimes rests.

Potentiometers: 500k split shaft, short, from Lollar.

3-Way Switch: Oak Grigsby.

Capacitor: Orange Drop .022.

Wiring: Art of Tone cloth pushback.

Neck plate, jack plate, jack, dome-top knobs, and screws: Warmoth.

Copper tape for lining cavity: Kirecoo.

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Here are a couple videos and documents that helped me along the way:

How to solder.

How a 3-way switch works.

Wiring diagram (this is for a Telecaster but the wiring is the same).

Wiring a Telecaster walkthrough.

Long walkthrough of building a Partscaster.

How to properly set up a guitar.

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It’s been a really fun project, and I suspect it won’t be long before I have the itch to make another.

Public Market

My brother is getting married later this year, and I threw a little bachelor party with some friends in Seattle. Seattle is where my wife’s parents live, so I’ve been many times, but haven’t had many occasions to explore the city proper on my own.

I knew I wanted to try to capture in neon signs in Pike’s Place Market, and I was afforded the opportunity when I snuck out early one morning while everyone else slept. There are two such signs in that area, but the Public Market sign was isolated enough to get the shot I wanted.

This is one of the things that I love about photography, an excuse to pull me out of bed and explore areas in the early morning that I might have otherwise slept past.

Taut

One of the many benefits of having a kid is an excuse to explore places and events you wouldn’t have otherwise. Case in point, my wife and I brought our son to the Austin Kite Festival the other week, something we had never been to. It’s kind of remarkable how low key it is; it’s an event that says “hey what if we all just flew kites in this field on a certain day?” and that’s pretty much it.

I came to the event, camera in hand, with a vision of capturing a picture with many kites in the sky, but as I reviewed what I had I found the individual kite shots to be much more compelling. Even though I took this photo from the ground, looking up, the kite happened to angle at just the right moment to appear almost as if I’m just as high up, shooting from the side.

And not to nerd out about gear, but I love that my camera sensor was able to clearly capture the thin string, and even the little o-ring, suspended taut in midair.

Rocks on the Shore

My family traveled to Seattle this Christmas to visit my wife’s side of the family. Traveling with a toddler can be tricky business, but we arrived unscathed, and I managed to sneak out during his nap one day to take some photographs along the shore of Mukilteo.

It was a cool 45 degrades and overcast during the two or so hours I shot. The even lighting was appreciated as I didn’t need to retake light readings for each long exposure I took. It was calm and peaceful on the shore; the only people I saw were scuba divers capturing some crabs (cool!).

As I’ve spoken about before, I love when the horizontal lines of a landscape photograph almost create a Rothko-like abstract image, in this case being broken up by the smattering of rocks breaching into the water. I love the ghostly, ephemeral quality a long exposure creates around the base of the rocks, almost like they are peaking out above clouds.

Wildflower

The Wildflower Center in Austin holds a special place in my heart. It was where my wife and I got married, even before we lived in Austin (we wanted a good central location for friends and family). We eventually moved back to Austin, incidentally only a few minutes away from the Wildflower Center, and have enjoyed taking our son there to explore the grounds.

This lone windmill sits tucked behind an open field in the main “family area.” My son has always been drawn to it, typically pointing to it once it comes into view. I had brought my camera to the Wildflower center that day to take pictures of my son, but this windmill, which I had seen countless times before, caught my attention against the clear sky.

Stacks

I pass these stacks of concrete slabs on the highway every time I drive home. There is a lot of construction work being done in the area, and I was struck by how uniform and neatly stacked these were, alternating direction each row like a massive Jenga tower.

It was a scorching hot Texas summer day when I took this photo, but I elected for a long exposure anyway, sensor heat be damned. I wanted to smooth out the sparse clouds, to create a nice contact between the buttery smoothness of the sky and gritty detail of the slabs. I love compositions like this, almost like trying to create a Rothko painting with photography.

Syncopated Light Posts

I pass this stretch of highway every time I need to go somewhere; it’s the only road running north out of my neighborhood. I’ve been wanting to photograph these light poles for a while now. While driving, they appear coming out of a bend in the highway, and the parallaxing as I approach made me think there could be an interesting composition there.

I had originally planned to shoot on a clear, cloudless day (my friend Pat calls them “paint bucket skies,” because you could recreate them in Photoshop with one click of the paint bucket tool). However, on this day in particular the overcast sky was appealing, and created those lovely Rothko bands as a background.

Right Lane Ends

When my then fiancée, now wife visited Austin for the first time, her first impressions were the flatness of the land and the convolutedness of the highway overpasses. Indeed, since moving to Austin we have dubbed one nearby highway exchange the Bermuda Triangle.

The concrete highway overpass is an undeniable and ever-present aspect of many Texas cities. One is left with two choices: consider it an eyesore, a symbol of man’s unquenchable thirst for growth and expansion. Or, appreciate the simple beauty, a minimal, graceful line cutting through the big Texas sky.

This particular image was my second attempt at capturing this particular overpass. A strange kind of optical illusion occurs; the overpass is actually rising up, but from down below is appears to be sloping down.

4 Birds, 2 Wires

During the annual summer trip to my parents Minnesota lakehouse, I had plans to capture some long exposure images around the lake. But I generally always had my camera with me, for capturing candid shots of my toddler son.

This photo came about during a lovely stroll with my family. The sky was overcast, and the temperature mild, creating a nice respite from the brutal Texas summer we were escaping from.

A general rule of photography is that balance is created with odd numbers, but this image is all about evens: 4 wires (2 thick, 2 thin), 2 birds. Perhaps the image feels balanced because the 4 wires create 5 negative spaces. I love that both birds elected to sit on the thinner wires. The overcast sky did have some sky texture, but I found the simplicity of the image was better served by blowing it out.

Lake Pier

My parents have a lake house in Minnesota, and it has become a summer tradition to travel up there with the family for an extended stay. I love so much that this is going to become a part of my son’s life; he’s not even 2 yet but I can tell he loves being there. 

Their house is situated on a small lake, so it’s usually quite peaceful, only a handful of boaters out at any given time. It was an overcast day, and I used a 10 minute exposure to capture this image at the end of the pier. The long exposure served to highlight the tranquility, smoothing out the lake surface to glass. 

Moon Through Bridge

I’ve been wanting to experiment with some long exposure shots of the moon, and this is one of my first successful attempts. The strange, glowing streak in the sky can create interesting compositions with the surrounding elements. 

This photograph was an hour and 4 minute exposure, shot from the pedestrian walkway on the Pennybacker bridge. It was a warm summer night, but the strong breeze on the bridge kept things tolerable as I waited for the exposure. 

What I love about these types of long exposure photographs is the hint of unpredictability. One can do a surprising amount of planning, including using augmented reality apps to understand the exact path the moon and stars will travel, but there is still sense of anticipation and surprise when the exposure is complete and you get to view the final photograph.

Westminster Adjacent

I had the privilege of traveling to London recently with my wife for a friend’s wedding. We had a lovely time, and I saw it as an opportunity to take some photographs of a new surrounding. 

Because our trip was fairly short, we didn’t do too much touristy stuff, but this photograph was taken during a stroll in Westminster. A very crowded area with many people with cameras and smartphones out, snapping pictures of the historic landmarks. There was a ton of renovation going on, and I was struck by this building, which was right next to Westminster Abbey. It was completely wrapped, head to toe, like a birthday present, with perfect right angles at the corners. I personally found it to be the most interesting sight that day. 

15 Bats

I have lived in Austin for the majority of my life, yet would you believe I had never been to see the Congress Avenue bats leaving their nest? I rectified that last week, heading to the bridge at sundown. It was quite the scene—the bridge itself was lined two or three deep, and many folks waiting to observe below, either on the shoreline or in the water itself in boats and kayaks. 

I had a vision for a potential photo, but having never been, I wasn’t quiet sure what to expect, or the best vantage point. I elected to stand on the bridge itself, which in hindsight was less than ideal, but I did manage to snap this shot of a cluster of bats against a cloudless sky. 

My favorite thing about this type of a photograph is the mix of planning and spontaneity. I knew what I wanted to capture—bats against the sky—but the pattern and shape of the bats the moment I press the shutter is completely out of my control. 

Pennybacker Study 1

Along with the Texas Capitol building, the Pennybacker bridge is one of the iconic landmarks of Austin. The bridge is a simple through-arch design, reducing this type of bridge to its bare elements. My aunt and uncle live near that area, so I get the privilege of crossing the bridge anytime I visit. 

This photograph was taken on a 100 degree day in the dead of summer. The sky is completely clear, not unusual for this time of year. The bridge is extraordinarily simple and geometric: two arches, connected by parallel beams, with vertical cables supporting the bridge deck. I wanted to portray the bridge for what is it, simple geometry, while removing all other elements from the scene.