Gunny47
New member
*ton of yapping - skip to bottom for pics*
Hey guys, haven't posted in a long time. I was on vacation in Massachusetts for a little more than a week and then I spent the last few days unpacking, getting ready for school, seeing some friends, family stuff, celebrating my birthday etc etc. I've been working for a couple years now and this summer I started up my usual summer job at a day camp (where I've been going to my whole life) with kids. I got a nice raise since last year and got the wages for a regular counselor (even though I was considered a junior counselor becuase I was 15 at the time) which was very nice. I made some nice money. Plus my birthday rolled around giving me some more cash and then I had money from working during school my sophmore year.
Anyway, I've been looking around for some new gear besides the couple pedals I bought this summer (Keeley modded TS-9 and Fulltone Clyde Deluxe). I thought I settled on a vintage amp, but then I had a couple of gigs with my old band and realized that my tweed amp is a very very very versitile and great sounding amp. Perfect cleans, awesome distortion with either a pedal or cranked depending on the venue, sweet tones in between, very transparent/touch sensitive the typical tube amp rave thing. I did not want to abandon the Tweed Twin-amp by buying a vintage Super Reverb or silverface Pro Reverb or whatever and still need to put a ton of work into it. Tweed is my thang...
So what else was there to get?....hmm good question....GUITARS! I always wanted an ES-335, I always wanted an SG, but then I realized I wanted something that would give me some classic tones that were totally different from my goldtop (SGs felt like toys to me anyway). Different pickups perhaps? You bet! Where else to go to but with a STRAT?!?
I decided I wanted a strat no questions asked. Vintage styled one in particular, leaning towards going for the custom shop stuff. I've been looking at strats for a year and a half now with no avail. Found some that were totally great, but were just missing something and I felt were not worth buying. I wanted a be-all, end-all strat - just like my goldtop is with Les Pauls. I took a trip down to NYC yesterday, checked out Manny's Music and Rudy's first. None of them really spoke to me. The majority of them were 60s styled with the thin necks that I have realized I do not really care for. Played them all though despite that but still didn't find much magic.
Then I took a ride down to 14th street for the dreaded Guitar Center. I knew they have a TON of custom shop strats. There was a wall of them, plus a few relics in the "platinum room." I looked up there...
- Sidestory first: In late October of 2005, I walked into Guitar Center in Larchmont, looked at the wall of Les Pauls and one really really struck me. It was gold amongst all the sunburst and brown shades on the wall. I knew right then, before I even played it, that it was the one. I happened to play all the Les Pauls in the store and that WAS the one. Sounded the best, played the best, perfect weight, perfect everything. I wound up putting it on hold and buying it that January.
One of them hit me. It was a strange color I never seen in person before. Sort of a greenish, but blue in different light. Not too nasty looking, not boring looking, stood out but was not obnoxious. It had figuring on the maple fretboard and neck, what a beautiful guitar. I started talking to a salesperson, he was not the stereotypical guitar center employee that we all know and love, but he was pretty cool. Knew his stuff on the gear and gave us a good deal in the end.
I started playing the strats through a Tweed Twin-Amp in the platinum room. Narrowing them down, going through various relics, 60s models and an EJ sig, all of them with some sort of unique features to them (matching headstocks, different color pickguards, certain relic patterns, custom colors, figured necks). They were nice (for the prices they better be nice), but as with before they did not speak to me. Then I went along to the 50s ones, which have been my favorite since I first picked up a strat. First one was a relic'ed white blonde ash with gold hardware '56. The neck was more of a '57, thinner, more pronounced V shape. Best one so far, but the pickups sounded a little weak. Then I played another 56. A Fiesta Red Closet Classic. This one had the boat neck profile, mmmmmm my favorite! This one was cool too, but was still lacking something. (continued...)
Hey guys, haven't posted in a long time. I was on vacation in Massachusetts for a little more than a week and then I spent the last few days unpacking, getting ready for school, seeing some friends, family stuff, celebrating my birthday etc etc. I've been working for a couple years now and this summer I started up my usual summer job at a day camp (where I've been going to my whole life) with kids. I got a nice raise since last year and got the wages for a regular counselor (even though I was considered a junior counselor becuase I was 15 at the time) which was very nice. I made some nice money. Plus my birthday rolled around giving me some more cash and then I had money from working during school my sophmore year.
Anyway, I've been looking around for some new gear besides the couple pedals I bought this summer (Keeley modded TS-9 and Fulltone Clyde Deluxe). I thought I settled on a vintage amp, but then I had a couple of gigs with my old band and realized that my tweed amp is a very very very versitile and great sounding amp. Perfect cleans, awesome distortion with either a pedal or cranked depending on the venue, sweet tones in between, very transparent/touch sensitive the typical tube amp rave thing. I did not want to abandon the Tweed Twin-amp by buying a vintage Super Reverb or silverface Pro Reverb or whatever and still need to put a ton of work into it. Tweed is my thang...
So what else was there to get?....hmm good question....GUITARS! I always wanted an ES-335, I always wanted an SG, but then I realized I wanted something that would give me some classic tones that were totally different from my goldtop (SGs felt like toys to me anyway). Different pickups perhaps? You bet! Where else to go to but with a STRAT?!?
I decided I wanted a strat no questions asked. Vintage styled one in particular, leaning towards going for the custom shop stuff. I've been looking at strats for a year and a half now with no avail. Found some that were totally great, but were just missing something and I felt were not worth buying. I wanted a be-all, end-all strat - just like my goldtop is with Les Pauls. I took a trip down to NYC yesterday, checked out Manny's Music and Rudy's first. None of them really spoke to me. The majority of them were 60s styled with the thin necks that I have realized I do not really care for. Played them all though despite that but still didn't find much magic.
Then I took a ride down to 14th street for the dreaded Guitar Center. I knew they have a TON of custom shop strats. There was a wall of them, plus a few relics in the "platinum room." I looked up there...
- Sidestory first: In late October of 2005, I walked into Guitar Center in Larchmont, looked at the wall of Les Pauls and one really really struck me. It was gold amongst all the sunburst and brown shades on the wall. I knew right then, before I even played it, that it was the one. I happened to play all the Les Pauls in the store and that WAS the one. Sounded the best, played the best, perfect weight, perfect everything. I wound up putting it on hold and buying it that January.
One of them hit me. It was a strange color I never seen in person before. Sort of a greenish, but blue in different light. Not too nasty looking, not boring looking, stood out but was not obnoxious. It had figuring on the maple fretboard and neck, what a beautiful guitar. I started talking to a salesperson, he was not the stereotypical guitar center employee that we all know and love, but he was pretty cool. Knew his stuff on the gear and gave us a good deal in the end.
I started playing the strats through a Tweed Twin-Amp in the platinum room. Narrowing them down, going through various relics, 60s models and an EJ sig, all of them with some sort of unique features to them (matching headstocks, different color pickguards, certain relic patterns, custom colors, figured necks). They were nice (for the prices they better be nice), but as with before they did not speak to me. Then I went along to the 50s ones, which have been my favorite since I first picked up a strat. First one was a relic'ed white blonde ash with gold hardware '56. The neck was more of a '57, thinner, more pronounced V shape. Best one so far, but the pickups sounded a little weak. Then I played another 56. A Fiesta Red Closet Classic. This one had the boat neck profile, mmmmmm my favorite! This one was cool too, but was still lacking something. (continued...)
