I was a professional guitarist for fifteen years (have been playing/teaching/ selling guitars for a total of 45 years). Now I am trying to create the perfect guitar. I don't know if that is possible. In a music store once, I looked at a guitar that appeared to be perfect during the few minutes I spent handling it. It had 24 frets, I assume, but it seemed like more because I felt like I could look down and see the "complete" fretboard. Now I know that sounds ridiculous: I can always see the complete fret-board on all my guitars, so why did this one look so different?

Maybe it was that the wood was cut away from the guitar body so much that it made it seem like it was twice as accessible. The frets themselves were high, super-jumbo, and looked like a railroad track. It was easy to reach the "B" barre choard above fret 12 (about on fret 19). The only drawback I saw was that this guitar had a set neck that looked like it wouldn't hold up to a lot of heavy playing (if I owned it, I would have had to treat it very carefully). My fingers did not feel crowded. Every note sounded out clearly. I could hear the strings sounding out the appropriate overtones. The pickups, a well-known high quality brand, would have sounded good no matter what. The tuners were also a high-quality brand name.

This particular guitar had a locking, full floating bridge and locking nut. Someone had customized the finish with a beginner's palm tree/bird/island and sun/moon sequence airbrushed over the basic clear-coat. The guitar cost $800 used; there was no way I could afford to buy it, so right then and there I decided to learn how to make other guitars sound as good as that one. If I could do that, I figured I'd always be in a position to have my own great-sounding guitar.

Since I was most impressed with the neck and fretboard arrangement, I set out to learn how to refret guitars first. After studying a number of other guitars, I felt confident that I should be able to make even bolt-on neck guitars into guitars that played really well. That was when I decided to modify twelve guitars, thinking that by the time I had remade twelve guitars I would have a good understanding of and level of competency in refretting bolt-on electric guitars.