u/direwolf08

My latest Partscaster build. Sonic Blue American Ultra Strat-style body, beautiful satin flamed maple neck with ebony fretboard and abalone dot inlays. EMG DG20 David Gilmour signature loaded pickguard. Wilkinson/Gotoh trem. Guyker locking tuners and strap-locks.

The neck is an eBay “special”, and needed a bit of fretwork and of course nut shaping. The frets were rough around the edges and not smooth to the touch at all. I had my favorite local luthier do a full setup, nut shaping and fret job, and it plays like an absolute dream now. One day I will trust myself to do that kind of precision nut and fret work … but today is not that day.

I really love how the neck feels. I am definitely a satin neck kind of guy. Fretboard is very flat (14” radius, IIRC) and the action is low and comfy. I have 11s on here, and the strings don’t feel as stiff as my other 25.5” scale guitars.

The pickups are really cool and a new experience for me. Naturally, the first things I played were Pink Floyd songs, “Breathe”, “Time” and “Run Like Hell”, and of course this guitar was up to the job. It sounded awesome on the solo in “Time”. The tone knobs on the EMG DG20 electronics work quite a bit differently than a typical strat; it will take some getting used to, but it seems to me like you can dial in fatter, humbucker-like sounds not possible with standard Strat wiring.

I picked my car up from the Richmond service/delivery center yesterday and drove it back to my home in NC. Everything about the process and the car has been awesome. First off, kudos to Johnny and the delivery team in Richmond. Second, the amount of thought and intention put into the design of the vehicle and the entire user experience is ... hard to fully comprehend. I have never owned a luxury car before this, but I have never been more surprised and delighted as a customer than with this purchase process. It is a million little things, starting with the on-boarding process of the car itself. Or the nav suggesting the RAN chargers that happened to be on the way home, even though I had plenty of range to make it but was a little nervous about my first long drive in an EV. The auto windshield wipers surprising my when it started raining on the drive. The garage door opener pairing process. The charging process at the RAN ... just plug in, charge, and go (your receipt is in your email). The app connectivity. While I was looking for a new car, the Rivian was perennially OFF the short list due to lack of CarPlay .... I can confidently say that the Rivian UI is way better than Apple, and I never thought I would utter those words.

As a newcomer who works in product management and marketing, I cannot get over how clear, well-defined, and well-executed everything about the Rivian brand is.