February Birthdays 
This past week, I'd been bidding for a Fender Tom DeLonge Strat, on eBay, until the bidding went past my $450.00 maximum bid (so much for my idea of a good companion for my Fender So Cal Speed Shop Strat). Undaunted by the outbid, I did some looking at Musician's Friend, and ended up ordering an Epiphone Les Paul Jr. 90, for $99.00 (that qualified for free shipping, with their current special). I also put a Seymoud Duncan SH-8 Invader humbucker (the same p'up in the Tom DeLonge Strat) into my Wish List, although I'm not sure if I'll buy it, or not.
Having priced baritone conversion necks for Strat, then for Les Paul, I've decided I'll go with a Strat conversion from Warmouth. For the price of an unfinished Deep 6 conversion neck, I can order a satin gloss finish (same as on my Bullet Special from Warmouth. Warmouth's Les Paul baritone conversion necks are also a bit more expensive than for Strat, so that made up my mind which guitar to convert to a baritone.
I'll be changing a few things on the Epiphone, as I get around to it, and I'll be collecting the necessary hardware for the baritone conversion on the Squier. My big sticking point, right now, is what should I go with for a pickup? Being that the Squier Bullet Special is a single pickup guitar (bridge humbucker), I'll want as much umph from the pickup as possible, for the deeper baritone sound. I already have a TV Jones PowerTron that I'd ordered for the Squier, but I'm thinking that a TV Jones MagnaTron would work better, and I'll put the PowerTron into the Epiphone. Or should I buy the Duncan Invader for the Squier, and put the PowerTron into the Epiphone?
With the recent events of this week, culminating with my Les Paul Jr. 90 purchace, today, I've found a definite direction to be heading, toward my first instrumental guitar recording project. It may be more hot rod instrumental, than surf instrumental, but at least I'm starting to get some better focus on what I wish to achieve. My first CD's worth of recording will feature my Epiphone Les Paul Jr. 90, my baritone Squier Bullet Special, my Fender So Cal Speed Shop Strat and my Fender Standard Precision Bass. The closest to surf guitar I can come, with my first recording effort, will be that I'll be going with all tube amplification, with external reverb tank, along with delay/echo, chorus and (likely) fuzz...the latter depending on exactly how I intend to shape the sound of a hot rod instrumental.
At least when I get some good "surf guitars" into my collection, I'll already have the right gear to put 'em through. That I also intend to do surfabilly, surfadelic and spaghetti wester/spy movie instrumentals, I can kinda justify a non-tradition (for surf) approach to my instrumentation/amplification/effects.
Matt
—Fast Cars & Loud Guitars!
