A new strat - for me!

My good friend Simon Raw, of The Raw Guitar Company, having already gifted me the wonderful Telecaster here, surprised me even more last weekend. I'd taken the Tele for some minor adjustments to my local guitar shop Ron's Music. Simon told me he had a strat at home "gathering dust" and he'd rather I looked after it. I presumed that he meant simply as a loan until I got my Telecaster back. But, no. When my wife & I met Simon & his son in our usual rendezvous point, Starbucks, he handed me the guitar and said something like: "this is your guitar now,  I only want to see it when you're playing it at a gig." Once more, I was totally gobsmacked by Simon's generosity - and I still am.

Fender Texas Special pickups - and cherry- topped scratchplate.

The guitar has had several styles in its short life - active EMGs, a standard strat neck, a telecaster neck, and more, But it has now found its true form as a blues baby - the pickups and the woods combine to give a superb Texas Blues sound - even in my fumbling digits. I can't wait to try this out in anger!

Texas Swamp Ash body - bought in Texas - and Wilkinson/Gotoh tremelo bridge

Revese headstock with Grover machines, maple neck & fretboard

Beautiful!

The battery box is a hangover from the days when tis guitar was fitted with Active EMG pickups.