Guitar nerds I need answers

hey nerds, my friend ended up with this very odd thing in his possession - a fender strat with a built-in drum machine. anyone know anything about it? or is it a pretty professional-looking diy job?

http://i.imgur.com/Hk0DLws.jpg

Looks like a re-housing of this little box:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCm8ClvO2TE

that is very odd. i'd go with pro-looking diy job. only thing i could find like it is the japanese guyatone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKG13uYfjt0

as discussed on another thread, a particular chord in a particular song I want to learn requires I fret the top two strings at the 14th fret with my little finger & I just can't do it - no matter how I place my finger and how hard i press I can't get a remotely clean sound. now other fingerings are available, HOWEVER I had a go with two other different guitars at the weekend and i had much more success. it was suggested I take my guitar to a luthier to lower the action or otherwise tinker with the set up. is this likely to be a worthwhile strategy?

Not unless the action on your guitar is unreasonably high. And you don't need to go to a luthier to adjust that.

I've never thought it's painfully high but if it's making it too hard to fret certain chords then that's not ideal.

Generally the best way round this is to buy a prohibitively expensive guitar. Or, more likely, not.

IMO finger calisthenics

Go get a setup. Shouldn't cost much, and if it doesn't need it the setup guy will tell you, unless they're a jerk.

what chord is this?

how important is it to play it so high in the neck?

can't you play it in a different octave?

i like my action relatively low anyway so i'd go check that out first

jjjusten OTM

Are you playing acoustic? Without a cutaway?

electro-acoustic, with.

I would like to get a setup but in all honesty it's prob pretty low on my list of time consuming things to do on the rare occasions I get some me time. I measured my action and it seems average, also I have had slightly more success with that chord recently, no idea what's changed. So I'll just soldier on for now.

how important is it to play it so high in the neck?

I could play it in a different key I guess but y'know it wouldn't feel right.

I play a regular acoustic without a cutaway, so I have no sympathy ;)