Well I took the plunge. After watching "Runnin Down a Dream" last night (a documentary on my favorite band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) I decided I wanted a Fender Strat. Their kind of bluesy rock is what I love and Tom seemed to have one sort of Fender or another in his hands throughout the film. The other one he used a lot was a Rickenbacker but I decided to ignore that since I liked the look of the Strat better...
So I slept on it and this morning decided I wanted the guitar...like today. So I called up my brother-in-law (he plays a little guitar) and asked him to go to Guitar Center with me to pick one out. He then called HIS brother-in-law (who has been playing for 25 years and is in a local blues band) and we all went over to Guitar Center. I played a couple of Squier Strats and a few Mexican Strats. I decided on the Mexican Strat because the Squiers just felt cheaper to me...dunno why. So I start looking at the selection of Mexican Strats they have on the wall, fully intending to stay inside my budget and then...I saw it. It was on the top row on the wall and I just thought "now THAT is a beautiful guitar". It just LOOKED like a classic guitar to me. It had a satin finish over the sunburst and this FAT headstock that was unlike any other Strat on the wall. I loved that headstock. Then I saw the American flag sticker on the pick guard and I thought "Well, there goes that...I'm sure that guitar is $1500". So I asked the Guitar Center guy to pull down one of the Mexican Strats and I just asked him (I almost didn't even ask, I was so sure it was going to be too expensive) how much the American Strat was. He said "Well, it was $1000, but we have it on sale for $799." SOLD, I thought. He pulled it down and it was all over. I barely even played it, I gave it to Chris (the blues band guy) and he proceeds to just wail on the thing. He hands it back to me and says "You won't outgrow that one...that is a great guitar." I told the guy to package it up. Chris again comes to my rescue and tells the guy that the neck is a little tweaked and we wants him to put new Fender Bullets on it. Done. I buy a tweed hardcase for it (I don't know why, the guitar was just asking for a vintage looking case) and then we start talking about amps. The Guitar Center guy shows me a nice Vox amp with a bunch of features for $250. Chris thought it was a pretty solid amp and it had all the features he thought I would want for a while. We plugged in the guitar and it sounded just awesome. We took the thing home and Chris played it for 15 or 20 minutes, I was amazed at how good it sounded. Then I played my few chords I know and it even sounded good then! Anyhow, I thought you guys were nuts when you talked about a guitar that "felt right" but now I know. This is it boys, my new baby...I think I'm in love:
Check out the fat headstock with the Fender Stratocaster lettering scrolled across it...just dead sexy!
This is my little Vox amp...
