Beginings... The electric guitar is really the beginning of my foray into the world of professional audio and lighting. Somewhere around 17 years ago I had an Ibanez electric guitar on layaway at a local music store. Looking back it was probably one of the ugliest things I've ever owned. It had a nice blue metallic flake finish. Think: bass boat. I might have been manipulated into buying it because I had seen Joe Satriani in concert the night before. Joe played Ibanez guitars, so why not right? Google is a wonderful invention. I was able to find a picture of an old advertisement with such a beast featured in it. It's tacky, right?

One day while making a payment I asked if they happened to be hiring, and the rest is history. I worked there for many years, eventually becoming a part of their audio install team.

My current employer, SE Systems is a full line pro audio, lighting, recording and video dealer. Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) we don't sell musical instruments. I've also been more involved with sound reinforcement and light over the last few year rather than actually playing guitar so my gear purchases have been more in that spectrum.

Until now...

About a year ago I decided I wanted a new or used guitar. I already had a Fender Hot Rodded American B-Bender Telecaster. What I really wanted was a Strat, but I really like the feel of a maple Telecaster neck. I decided to see if I could build a Strat with a Tele neck from parts.

I mentioned this desire to a friend of mine and he said, "I have a Tele body I'll sell you for $20.00.) It wasn't what I was looking for, but for $20 I figured I'd buy it. As it turns out, it was a Fender '52 reissue body in a butterscotch blonde finish. I also bought an off-brand "Strat" style guitar to take apart and Frankenstein into something else. I spent some time scrounging on eBay for parts for the Strat project. Meanwhile Telecaster kept calling my name. So I ended up selling all of the Strat parts. I was able to break-even.

Over the past month or so I've been roaming local guitar shops, various web sites, eBay, Craigslist and pawn shops. I've collected enough parts to build a modified '52 Esquire. My goal is to give it a relic type finish. We shall see what happens.

~Andy