Well, my number one Strat is a USA '62 reissue with the fretboard re-cambered to something much flatter (more a Gibson camber actually), skinny tall frets, and the 'shoulders' shaved on the back of the neck to give the cross-section a slightly more 'V' profile. This is a beast built for comfort as well as speed: I made it as user-friendly as I knew how, over the years and through the various guitars that have worked towards this set-up. For more than twenty years I had the damn thing in my hands for more than four hours a day, every day: in such circumstances comfort becomes really important.

You'd be fucking insane to do that sort of work to a vintage instrument.

I have a couple of other American Strats. All have been 'chopped' to some extent or other.

One real problem is carting kit about. A Marshall half-stack, blackface 'twin', and old fashioned pedalboard live in the studio. I keep my Blues Deluxe at home and about 11 or so of my guitars, but even so, these days I do no practise and it's all falling away....There is little or none in the way of work for studio musicians. Live stuff, tours the odd TV or Radio ad....and I'm too old and too married to live out of a suitcase: the upshot of which is that somehow scales lose their charm.

I may still have something to say with the instrument: I'm working that out at the moment.