Anybody in UK got a broken strat?

[shadebug]

I recently purchased a byte-arts strummer and accidentally got 2. Now, I have 2 guitars and the non-broken one is a 3rd gen (well, it has no indentation on the battery pack, so i assume not 4th and it still works after a week so not 1st or 2nd), so I can entirely use the other one or at least have it as a backup (being that it feels fine to play for me and I like having one clicky guitar and one not), but I'd entertain the idea of sending it to somebody if they need it.

[shadebug]

bump when people are awake and at work

[mattministrator]

Hey shadebug,

I'm not based in the UK but in Germany. If you'd be fine with sending it over here (as it's still so much faster and cheaper than to order from the US), I might be interested. I've got two first-gen strats, and so far they're holding up well. Fingers crossed it stays that way, but as a backup, it'd be nice to have a spare strummer. Two questions: How easy is it to install? (I don't really want to try soldering.) How much would you think appropriate for it, including P&P? They're selling them for $19.50 + $3 for international shippings, right? That would come down to something like 14 Euros. If that sounds fair to you, let me know. Paypal should be the easiest way to pay.

edit: Just found the installation instruction on their website. No soldering required, obviously. Is the rest fairly straightforward for a non-natural-born handyman?

[shadebug]

yeah, it's pretty simple as long as you can strip wire, especially now they've remapped the connectors so you have plenty of wire to work with which means you can mess it up over and again before you run out (the old ones you had to switch the top wire to the bottom and the bottom wire to the top. the one I installed was an old wire and even that had plenty of wire available). The only semi tricky bit for me was using a multimeter on it to see if I'd connected it up right without having to turn on the game (but only because i don't have 3 hands)

really though, I only want to give it to somebody that already has a broken strat, especially since you have 2 1st gens which are pretty much guaranteed to break so you can probably save on shipping and just buy 2 at once for a similar p&p price (there are no customs charges because he sends it as a repair part)

if memory serves, though, it ended up being £25 for me

as i say though, if it's just for having a backup, I need one too (though the 3rd gens appear to be plenty reliable, either way, I'd rather give it to somebody in real need)

[mattministrator]

No problem, that's fine. I'm hoping my guitars will carry on working for quite a while, and you're right, I can just order two replacement strummers from the original site when one fails. I thought you wanted to get rid of a spare one, but your case is obviously more honourable than that. :-) Final question: Is there any place that sells replacement strummers without the clicking? I really enjoy the quiet strumming on the strat, so I wouldn't want to go back to the clicking if possible. Or can you just unable the clicking in he Byteart strummers somehow?

[Steef]

Generous - some fine work, sir.

[shadebug]

Dunno, the bytearts one still clicks and it's part of the switches so there's no way around that without getting really down and dirty with the hardware (which I might be able to do if nobody needs my spare...). That said, the clicking is not nearly as bad as the red octane guitars and you can certainly feel the click.

Right now, I prefer the 3rd and 4th gen strats with the magnetic switches, it's just so lovely and smooth.