Negrita is a Squier Telecaster Special guitar I bought for around $129 from a Daddy's Junky Music store. Before this, I never considered myself a Fender guy much less a Telecaster guy, although my very first "real" guitar was a real Fender Telecaster. I ended up trading it in for an Epiphone Les Paul (stupid, I know) because I felt the Tele sound was too thin for my liking and I like the "fuller, thicker" sound of Les Paul style guitars.

Anyway, it had been years since I had even touched a Telecaster when I went into the guitar store that day. I was looking for a "beater" guitar that I could use for rehearsal and as backup for gigs. As such, I wasn't looking to spend alot of money. So when I saw the Tele, I felt that the price was right. I also noticed the humbucker which was a plus. So I decided to give it a chance. Like I said, I'm used to Telecasters having a very thin sound but this one had a thick tone that sounded like sweet warm maple syrup with butter mixed in. I bought it on the spot.

The Tele very quickly became my favorite guitar to play. Even so, I thought the sound could be improved. I wanted just a hair more gain but not so much that I would lose it's original tone. So I did some research and came to the conclusion that upgrading the pickups would get me where I needed to be. I ended up using a Modern Vintage Lil Puncher pickup from GuitarFetish and one of the old humbuckers from Naomi's original body. Cosmetically, I also added custom knobs topped with stones that matched the guitar's body.

The sound of this guitar after this change makes the warmth even warmer, the butter even creamier, and the syrup much sweeter! I love it!

This is my Negrita before:



This is my Negrita after:



Not that big of a change but this is basically all it needed to make it what I consider complete.

My next project is a guitar that I'm building from scratch that I'm calling the SexyCaster. It's inspired by King Sexy, the band I play for. Below is a mockup I designed:



That's just the basic layout of the parts. I'm also hand-designing decals for the headstock and the body.

I'm just waiting on a couple of parts to start building it. I'm having the neck professionally installed but after that I'm on my way toward creating the sexiest guitar on the planet!