What you came here for first.
So, like I said last time I posted, I was looking at an AVRI '62 and a CS '69 Relic. I decided to just wait for a while. While it used to be a huge part of my life, I haven't played guitar consistently in the last 4 or 5 years, so sinking a buttload of money on one wasn't something I wanted to rush into. On the other hand, I did want to buy a "buy it for life" level guitar, something I could basically keep for a long, long time, that had the specs I wanted from the get go. One of the things that burned me out from playing was that I was getting too much into the gear aspect of things. It's nice to read and learn a lot about all sorts of vintage gear and all the little bits and pieces that work together towards making a guitar sound mean, but not if it means playing less. So I was definitely looking for something that was all set to go from the box.
Luckily, I just wanted a vintage style Strat with great pickups (because we all know pickups are the black hole of tweaking...you take your soldering iron to a guitar and you will never stop ha!). So I found it at the Music Zoo. And here it is, a limited edition Faded Sonic Blue '59. The neck is great, tapers from skinny to almost a full inch at the 12th fret, which is interesting. I like skinny frets and round radius boards. It's light, 7lbs 3oz and it just rings. Wow.
The color is really interesting. It's tricky, because if you compare it to the car color it comes from, 1956-ish Cadillac Sonic Blue, you can tell the guitar isn't as blue (although it does look a little bluer under warm light compared to the pictures). And blue doesn't fade to white. If anything, the nitro clearcoat would yellow and turn it green, like this gorgeous '65 Sonic Blue Jazzmaster.
However, if you look at Ike Turner's Stratocaster, it does look a lot paler. Lennon's, on the other hand, looks closer to real Sonic Blue on some ocassions, although there's a couple of pictures where it looks totally white under strong light. I'm chalking the difference up to light and film stock. It's almost like Faded Sonic Blue is a Kodachromed, strongly lit Sonic Blue. Thanks to collectors though, we do have a good idea of what a real Sonic Blue guitar looks like without heavy color adjustment and under somewhat neutral light. Check it!
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/se...962-sonic-blue-fender-stratocaster--201405A49
Anyways, I'm really stoked about this guitar. It's a keeper.
So, like I said last time I posted, I was looking at an AVRI '62 and a CS '69 Relic. I decided to just wait for a while. While it used to be a huge part of my life, I haven't played guitar consistently in the last 4 or 5 years, so sinking a buttload of money on one wasn't something I wanted to rush into. On the other hand, I did want to buy a "buy it for life" level guitar, something I could basically keep for a long, long time, that had the specs I wanted from the get go. One of the things that burned me out from playing was that I was getting too much into the gear aspect of things. It's nice to read and learn a lot about all sorts of vintage gear and all the little bits and pieces that work together towards making a guitar sound mean, but not if it means playing less. So I was definitely looking for something that was all set to go from the box.
Luckily, I just wanted a vintage style Strat with great pickups (because we all know pickups are the black hole of tweaking...you take your soldering iron to a guitar and you will never stop ha!). So I found it at the Music Zoo. And here it is, a limited edition Faded Sonic Blue '59. The neck is great, tapers from skinny to almost a full inch at the 12th fret, which is interesting. I like skinny frets and round radius boards. It's light, 7lbs 3oz and it just rings. Wow.
The color is really interesting. It's tricky, because if you compare it to the car color it comes from, 1956-ish Cadillac Sonic Blue, you can tell the guitar isn't as blue (although it does look a little bluer under warm light compared to the pictures). And blue doesn't fade to white. If anything, the nitro clearcoat would yellow and turn it green, like this gorgeous '65 Sonic Blue Jazzmaster.
However, if you look at Ike Turner's Stratocaster, it does look a lot paler. Lennon's, on the other hand, looks closer to real Sonic Blue on some ocassions, although there's a couple of pictures where it looks totally white under strong light. I'm chalking the difference up to light and film stock. It's almost like Faded Sonic Blue is a Kodachromed, strongly lit Sonic Blue. Thanks to collectors though, we do have a good idea of what a real Sonic Blue guitar looks like without heavy color adjustment and under somewhat neutral light. Check it!
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/se...962-sonic-blue-fender-stratocaster--201405A49
Anyways, I'm really stoked about this guitar. It's a keeper.
