i am so jaded when it comes to guitars now

So I tried out a brand new Fender Player II Stratocaster limited edition in British Racing Green.

I've said before I do not like Strats in green and that if you're going to go green with a guitar, get a Gretsch. See Gretsch's Cadillac Green and you'll understand why I say that. When Fender does green, it's always awful. However, this is one of those rare greens from Fender that actually works on a Strat. It's dark with a small amount of metallic flake, so they get a pass on this one. You can watch me pluck around on it if you like.

Even though I actually liked the color, that wasn't enough to win me over.

I have a 2025 Squier Affinity Telecaster. Butterscotch blonde with maple neck, maple fingerboard and black guard. It works. It's fine.

I also have a pair of 1989 Squier II Stratocasters, both Torino Red with maple necks, maple fingerboards and white guards. The first one is my first guitar that I still have, bought new in 1990, and I don't play it very often. The second was bought much, much later, and play that specifically so I don't have to play the first one. It works for the most part, but does need new tuners and a new pickup selector switch. It's fine otherwise.

After not getting along with that Fender, I went online instead and ordered a 3-pack of my preferred strings (which is still Ernie Ball Super Slinky) and a new cheap leather guitar strap for my Squiers. I've actually never owned a leather strap and always use Polypro since those are inexpensive and genuinely good, but wanted to try something different.

Any story of how some dude found That Perfect Guitar is bullshit

Typical to whenever I play anything in a guitar store, absolutely no guitar feels correct out of the gate. I've never had that magic moment in the store where an electric guitar just felt and sounded 100% perfect, and doubt I ever will.

You'd think by now after playing all these years that I would have found my "Number One". Nope. I've been in many guitar stores, tried many guitars, owned many guitars. What ultimately what ends up happening is I just buy whatever agrees with me that I think looks nice or nice enough.

One of the few things I've not tried is constructing my own guitar. Recently, I was really close to buying a Leo Jaymz DIY guitar kit. Stupid cheap and stupid easy to put together. There's the choice of Strat, Tele, Explorer, Les Paul solid body, Les Paul semihollow, Rhoads V (like what Jackson makes), JEM (like what Ibanez makes) and Iceman (Ibanez makes that too).

One thing I know for a fact is that electric bass players construct their own basses a lot. Bass players fight with off-the-shelf basses so much that they just say to hell with it and make their own. And yeah, Leo Jaymz has electric bass DIY kits too, even for stuff like a Rickenbacker 4001 shape.

It is totally doable, and honestly fairly easy, to piece together something from a kit and create That Perfect Guitar. At this point in my guitar playing life, I know enough about how electric guitars work to craft such a thing.

Right now I'm good with what I have, but whatever I get next will probably be a DIY kit since I know what's in the guitar store will never completely agree with me.

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