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1. Tune up and adjust your guitar. If you bought it online most guitars come tuned down several steps and may or may not need a truss rod adjustment, setting of the action, intonation, etc. you can refer to the documentation that came with your guitar or use download the necessary info from our RESOURCES page. 2. Toss, burn or shred the strap that came with the guitar and NEVER use it for gigging. It WILL snap and your guitar will hit the ground unless you have very fast reflexes. Head down to your local music store and invest in Dunlop Strap Locks and a high quality strap. You can ignore the drilling instructions included with the strap locks and just unscrew the existing strap buttons and screw the new ones on. 3. Ditto for the gig bag, it is probably good for keeping dust off your axe but not much else. Since you probably didn't pay much for your axe it makes little sense to invest in an expensive case. There is a very cost effective polyfoam case that fits these guitars perfectly. It is made by Road Runner and is supposed to provide all the protection of a hard shell case at a fraction of the price. It is also super cool because it has two compartments inside and two zippered pouches outside. Probably the coolest new case since the Coffin cases came out a few years back. 4. Since the FR guitars have a unique headstock with a hole in them you may experience less sustain than you are used to with a traditional strat headstock. If you are playing a SpeedLoader equipped model you may also have a balance issue since there are no tuning keys. This makes the headstock quite a bit lighter than a one without a hole and with tuners. You can address both issues and hit two birds with one stone by picking up a FatFinger made by Groove Tubes. This is a brass unit that attaches to the headstock and adds mass to increase sustain. It also obviously adds weight so mission accomplished. They sell a bass model (3.8 ounces) and a guitar model (3.2 ounces). We're in the process of testing them to find out what the perfect placement and combination for the best balance and tone. Stay tuned... Time for some math: new guitar: $150-$300 new strap: $15-$30 straplocks: $15 case: $60 FatFinger: $25-$35 (depending on model) total investment: $275-$440 experience: PRICELESS |
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