Hello, Kitty!
The pinkness has arrived. Good thing it was on a Saturday and not a week day where'd I have to drop everything to try it out. When I first plugged it in, I was horrified at how C.-rap it sounded. I thought that I'd lost all hope of getting a cheap guitar that DIDN'T sound totally cheap, but then my hopes were dashed. Alas, I fiddled around with a few things, and then deducted that it was a WIRING issue. So I unscrewed the back panel to where the pickup wiring is housed. Turns out one of the wires was not even soldered on correctly. Gosh!
So, poking it with a plastic Sharpie pen onto the metal pot thingie to avoid completing a circuit through my hand--I really don't have time for yet another self-induced bodily injury let alone electrocution--I made the connection, and wah-la: things improved! Incidentally, I'm ready for this kind of realization to happen in my current papers, too.
Since my soldering iron is in the shop (ha) and I'm not caught up in the latest in fusible alloys, I just taped the darn thing together, so who knows how long it will hold. It will need to be turned over to a professional at some point. For now, I could have sent it back to the merchant, but who has time to wait for a replacement Kitty when you can MacGuyer a few things yourself. And to all the hot single guys: I can cook too!
So, the circuit is complete and there is sound. Nothing really special, but just the twangy basics you'd expect from a single humbucker pickup (the thing above Kitty's left eye). Think that guitar ditty/solo in Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues". Which is quite timeless, really, innit? Sometimes going back to the simple old stuff is best.
The body is a nice Stratocaster design, and nothing beats that pink finish: I just wanna lick it. But I will not be providing photos of that.
Now I have to get to cleaning out the guitar boxes taking up my living room that are competing for love an attention with the piles of books and articles that 'need read'. Then laundry and other Most Interesting Saturday Chores. So, if you can sing, come on over and I'll wail along on The Kitty with you. Here's to new toys that bring happiness and peace of mind.