We know these guys in Montana who build guitars for “US Soldiers far afield”. They call themselves “The Secret Strat Project”. Since 2009, they’ve been eating Macaroni and Cheese and building guitars for the boys… and (gasp!) girls… out there flapping from the handlebars in harm’s way.
We KNOW these guys.
They were studio cats when making music was far more important than making money. These guys made their bones when Classic Rock was King. They played for the sport of it. They placed for the scars. They never really learned how to “understand” money.
They’re still proving it to this day, pouring their hearts and souls into Alder and Ash, Tolex and capacitors, so that they can give the products of all that labor away for free.
They don’t play “pointy necked guitars” and they don’t wear make-up or grow their hair long.
They aren’t “Boulevard Pretty Boys” or “Starbucks Babies”. They’re the guys that you walk quickly past in dimly lit parking lots. They moved to “places farflung” about the time that “Hair Bands” and “front men covered in wild make-up” started moving into the limelight. They figured that it was just safer for all those young guys. No “Young Turk” wants to have to admit to getting his butt kicked by an “Old Lion”…
They’re kinda scary if the truth be told. These are “serious guys”. When they “Maple Up”, They can make you cry. For all the bars, scars and wars, they just connect to that Alder and Ash like “Bees to Honey”. What happens when they put the headphones on is almost magic.
But don’t let that fool you… these are also the kind of guys that came back from hard places and then venture out into the night with a knife to return the next day with a deer or an elk thrown over the hood of their truck.
Speaking of knives, they’re the kind of guys that will look you in the eye, laugh in your face and then say stuff like;
“That ain’t a knife… THIS is a knife. And it’s girlfriend is a ’52 Tele…”
Case in point;
Apparently, if you don’t fit the axe they’re building, they just use one to carve you down, until you do. 🙂
They mock up guitars for construction using inspirations from a lot of different places. Apparently one of them is from watching too many “slasher” movies. 🙂
Oh yeah, they’re also Vets covered in scars and bad dreams – trying to insure that kids out there on the rim of the world don’t have bad dreams. You see, they give these kids “Maple Mistresses” to help them get through the long nights, waiting until dawn.
If you have a guitar, an amp, pedals, or other gear burning a hole in your closet and you ‘d like to see it get to a good home, please contact “The Secret Strat Project” Guys by leaving your information here. We’ll see to it that the message gets there ASAP. These guys are doing something great and we’re proud to be a part of it.
Shut Up & Play Your Guitar! 
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