OK It's not a Warmoth, but Dang!....

[Maka491]

A friend of mine owns one of the UK's biggest Music stores so while visiting with him, I picked up this strat to fool around with when BOOM! It suddenly hit me that this was one of the most if not THE most insipiring strats I had held and played. I plugged it in and path to heaven was complete. I have all sorts of strats including Custom Shop, Deluxes etc, and this one just felt even better. Needless to say, it came home with me.

I would never have thought that a 2012 American Standard could be so good but I think its one of those rare moments when the right guitar falls into the right hands. A bit like SRVs Number One I suppose or Claptons Blackie.

I'm in love.

Has anyone else experienced this? You know play a guitar and within minutes you just 'know' its the one for you?

 

[Tonar8352]

I own three guitars that I had that experience with.

I also failed to buy one that I later regretted immeasurably; I could have had this incredible custom built Koa acoustic for $2500.00 but I had the money set aside for a Taylor 12 string so I walked away and regretted it ever since. With in a few years that builder had a 5 year waiting list and the guitars were fetching 10 to 15K. The last one I had that experience with was a littler Martin in Bozeman Montana that they wanted 14K for and I was not going to lay that much money down for it. I also played a 1954 Les Paul that I had taken the guys phone number and was seriously considering buying but I got the Golden Handshake the following Monday so I thought it was wise not to spend a bundle of cash on a guitar after leaving a company I had been with for 32 years 

I no longer walk into music stores or guitar shows and play guitars, I just look and admire them because I loose sleep if I can't buy the magic one.

 

[Maka491]

I know what you're saying.

I passed up a chance to buy an amp (I collect vintage amps) and to this day I regret it. I have played literally hundreds of strats and own 6 of them as well as Teles and Les Pauls. My collection ranges from basic to 5k guitars, but no way did I see this one coming and the way it just kicked me in the butt.

Some will look at it and say, it's just an American Standard, but I am a firm believer that no two instruments are the same even if they come off a production line. I think this one has a near perfect balance of weight, neck, dark rosewood fingerboard, intonation and setup.  I play 11s or 12s with a lot of attack. Think SRV-style blues, so my guitars struggle to stay in tune, but this one just takes it again and again an again without as much as a flinch. The pups are Custom Shop fat 50s and in the particular instrument simply sound very good (to my ears at least). But its the playability and balance that astounded me.

I might experiment with some Lindy Fralins or some Blackface Lollars against the Fat 50s and see what I get but as it stands, Im not getting enough of it.  :guitaristgif:

By the way, who is the builder you were talking about? It's not Wayne Henderson by any chance?

 

[Tonar8352]

I can't remember his name only that he was they guy who ran the Santa Cruz Guitar company's shop in the early days and decided to go out on his own. The guitar I played was one he had built right after he left Santa Cruz and it was probably the best sounding acoustic guitar I have ever played. I so regret not buying that guitar!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amps! Oh my gosh I have missed some great deals on them too. I missed a Brownie Deluxe in some little music store in Soldotna Alaska because I did not have the $800.00 at the time to buy it. I passed on a early silver face Vibrolux Reverb in Show Low Arizona for $500.00 because it did not sound exceptionally good. I should have dropped the cash and had my amp tech make it sound good. I passed on a 1954 Tweed Pro in a little music store in Puyallup Washington for $1200.00 because the tweed had been painted and they guy would not drop the price any. Bad mistake! I also passed on a Vox Cambridge because the guy would not drop the $600.00 price tag just $50.00. That was a great little sounding amp that I should have bought.

The moral of the story is stay away from little music stores while you are out traveling on vacation with your wife, or buy it if you can!!!

 

[Maka491]

You know its a fact and a shame that a lot of players under-estimate the importance of a superb amp. An amp is simply half of your tone and if you skimp on it or dont take care to buy/build/maintain the right amp, you will always struggle with your tone.

I am a big fan of vintage Fenders and JMP or JCM800 Marshalls.

One amazing deal that came up 2 years ago, was from a guy who was selling a complete Matched Full Stack with both straight and angled cab, early Marshall JCM800 (1981 - first year they were built). He was not an internet guy and was not interested in listing it online like eBay etc... so here I was one day looking in the paper for something irrelevant, when I found the ad. He was looking for £700 (about $1150). As if this was not already an unbelievably low price, I called him and it turned out no one else had spotted the ad, so cut a long story short, he accepted £550. Thats $885 Dollars for a full stack of vintage British Marshallness!

When I opened the pack panel, I found it to be completely original including the Mullard valves. the guy had bought it in early '82 and disbanded a couple of months after, and stored ever since, so it was in near pristine condition. Talk about a find!

It now goes into the list of items that I will hopefully have the pleasure of passing onto my sons as part of their inheritance, along with a Blackface '66 deluxe and a few more vintage goodies

 

[AprioriMark]

Congrats on the Strat and the Marshall!  JCM 800 is my all-time favorite rock amp.  I played a 2x12 combo for a lot of years.  I love it when you pick up a guitar and it just owns YOU.  I had that experience with my J45, and I will never part with it.

Tonar, you have to be careful in Puyallup.  A friend once scored a tweed Princeton ('60?) with original everything for 250 bucks.  I got my '66 Super at a shop here for 400.  It's a bit like tube amp heaven around these parts.

-Mark

 

[mkibanez]

A friend of mine owns one of the UK's biggest Music stores so while visiting with him, I picked up this strat to fool around with when BOOM! It suddenly hit me that this was one of the most if not THE most insipiring strats I had held and played. I plugged it in and path to heaven was complete. I have all sorts of strats including Custom Shop, Deluxes etc, and this one just felt even better. Needless to say, it came home with me.

I would never have thought that a 2012 American Standard could be so good but I think its one of those rare moments when the right guitar falls into the right hands. A bit like SRVs Number One I suppose or Claptons Blackie.

I'm in love.

Has anyone else experienced this? You know play a guitar and within minutes you just 'know' its the one for you?

Funny, I went to a store 3 month ago and tried it!!! Wow, same guitare, same color, the exact one! I changed the bridge for a Duncan JB humbucker and man!!!!! Wowwwwww! This rock the hell out of my Mesa! This guitar is bred and butter to play, love it!