From Jim Dunlop, I found these recessed locking tuners around 2018. They are a full self installation, but if you have a few guitars being able to switch straps at the click of a button is seriously great. They're also rock solid, I've never once had these even come close to feeling like they'll pop out as I'm playing. No more rubber circles on your strap heads, just sweet slick metal! There is a variety of colors, making is easy to match your hardware to your guitar. I have a few sets of black and nickel, but they also have gold and brass!

From Fender, these locking tuners for stratocasters are hard to live without. If you've looked around my site, you may have seen my first guitar I got when I was 10 - just a standard starter Squier Affinity Strat. Over a decade later, I started modding it, installing these locking tuners, as well as adding the recessed strap lock and a killswitch. Over the years I've collected a couple of other Stratocasters that I haven't modified and there is always just a little bit of tuning required. Of course, this comes down to each guitar being different, but time and time again I come back to old faithful with the locking tuners, they are perfectly in tune. It makes jumping right in with a fresh idea just that much easier!

You can see the one that I got here at Iron Age Accessories, but I originally ordered here on Amazon. It looks like they've stopped selling, but there are plenty of other options too for 16mm Kill Switches (which is what I have, I would recommend) as well as 10mm Kill Switches which are great for smaller guitars, or pickguards & guitar bodies that are pre-routed for this size. Overall, you can't go wrong! I really like momentary switches as they allow you to create a tremolo effect - there are version that switch it off until you switch it back on, but that can be accomplished with the volume knob & switch.

I had recently been gifted another Squier Affinity Stratocaster and I took the opportunity to start making significant changes. If I recall, these pickups were the first modification I made to my first guitar! 

This is such a time saver that having one is not even a question. If you have a single guitar, you can probably get away with not having one (though seriously, it cuts the time by at least 2/3rds), but with as many as I've acquired over the years I think I would go insane and have a severe case of carpel tunnel from winding. When your strings are dead, all you need is a simple snip and restring and about 25-40 seconds of winding. The alternative is unwinding the entirety of a string, pulling it out, rewinding the entirety of a new one. Far too much!

I have more guitars than limbs and I've had a single bottle for 4 years now, I don't think I'm even close to half-way. This is a great cleaner for guitar bodies, I give a couple sprays on the body and a single spray on a microfiber cloth, and initial wipe down and then I buff it.

A lot of the guitars that I've acquired, like my first one, are quite a few years old, some of them older than I am. The frets themselves are in good condition wear wise, but there was definitely grime and maybe some rust for a couple of them. What's crazy is I only used this polish with a microfiber cloth and each fret looked brand new -- it takes some work, maybe about 5 to 10 minutes per fret. But boy does it work well! Unlike the ONE Cleaner that lasts forever, I bought this in 2022 and I'm a little over 2/3rds of the way through the bottle... but that is well over 320 frets in total, so honestly that's not too bad! 

Ernie Ball 10-46 Regular Slinky Strings

I primarily use 2 sets of strings, I like the slightly thicker gauge strings for guitars with smaller fretboards, ones that tend to bend less, and for the acoustic & semi-acoustic guitars. Don't forget the Les Paul's! 

Ernie Ball 9-42 Regular Slinky Strings

The other set of strings that I use are the thinner gauge strings for guitars with wider fretboards, ones that tend to bend more, and for the Stratocasters!