Fiesta Red
Well-Known Member
Despite all the “horse-tradin’” and GAS episodes and everything else that comes with the musician hobby/lifestyle/etc., I’ve been fortunate to find (and keep) twospectacular instruments that have been my “#1” guitar.
From 1993 to 2008, it was my (namesake) 1992 Fender US Vintage ‘62 Stratocaster.
It was amazing when I bought it…and with the mechanical, electronic and cosmetic customizations and modifications I’ve done to it, I truly have “My Stratocaster”, and I really can’t see it being supplanted from that lofty perch.
**For specific details of all the customizations and modifications I’ve done, see this:
But c.2008, it was eventually usurped from the #1 position by a lowly hecho-en-Ensenada 1995 Fender Special Tele that I bought used in 2003.
I liked the hard edges of the uncontoured slab body, and the weird-but-comfy neck with the unrolled edges…by the time I engineered or customized out the things I didn’t like about it, it became the guitar I reached for first, whether rehearsing, jamming, recording or performing, whether playing slide or straight or alternate tuning or plain ol’ 440/standard or blues or outlaw country or rock and roll…it’s the one I’d grab if the house is on fire…it relegated the guitar I had proclaimed my #1 for fifteen years to the secondary spot.
**For specific details of all the customizations and modifications I’ve done, see this:
But here’s the real question:
What makes your #1 instrument (guitar, bass, whatever) “Your #1”?
For me, it came down to this:
-Which guitar am I thinking about or comparing other guitars to?
-Which guitar am I wishing I was performing/recording/whatever with instead of the one I currently have in my lap or strapped across my shoulder?
-Which guitar do I grab without thinking, “This one *might* work ok for what I’m doing today…” vs, “This one always does what I need it to do…”
For me, it is my pinstriped Telecaster (“Big Tex”), or secondarily, my Fiesta Red Stratocaster…
Those two guitars always deliver…
I have (and I love) several other guitars, from cheap to high-end and all of them are vastly different in pickups, neck profiles, body wood, construction, etc…I’m partial to Fenders, but I’m not very brand-loyal and definitely not sycophantic in that preference.
But when I’m playing my (amazing) 1980 G&L F-100 or (cheap and funky) Dean VX or (kick-butt) 2007 Fender ‘72-reissue Telecaster Deluxe or whichever other guitar I’m playing at the moment, I’m thinking:
“This might sound better if I were playing Big Tex or Fiesta Red…”
…and more often than not, it’s Big Tex—which is why it is my 1A and Fiesta Red is my 1B.
Yeah, I like the humbuckers in my G&L and Telecaster Deluxe and Dean VX, but the P-90s and single coils of those two main guitars can do dang-near everything I want to do, sonically…and they look cool…and the playability is as good as I could ever ask out of any guitar…and…
You get the point.
From 1993 to 2008, it was my (namesake) 1992 Fender US Vintage ‘62 Stratocaster.
It was amazing when I bought it…and with the mechanical, electronic and cosmetic customizations and modifications I’ve done to it, I truly have “My Stratocaster”, and I really can’t see it being supplanted from that lofty perch.
**For specific details of all the customizations and modifications I’ve done, see this:
My Fiesta Red Stratocaster
The first (and only, to date) Stratocaster that’s ever been a part of my guitarsenal was bought for $750 in summer of 1993, from the fantabulous but lamentedly defunct JAM Music and Sound. The expenditure of this money was the first major argument my wife (we’d been married three months) and I...
www.thetonerooms.com
My Fiesta Red Stratocaster
The first (and only, to date) Stratocaster that’s ever been a part of my guitarsenal was bought for $750 in summer of 1993, from the fantabulous but lamentedly defunct JAM Music and Sound. The expenditure of this money was the first major argument my wife (we’d been married three months) and I...
www.thetonerooms.com
But c.2008, it was eventually usurped from the #1 position by a lowly hecho-en-Ensenada 1995 Fender Special Tele that I bought used in 2003.
I liked the hard edges of the uncontoured slab body, and the weird-but-comfy neck with the unrolled edges…by the time I engineered or customized out the things I didn’t like about it, it became the guitar I reached for first, whether rehearsing, jamming, recording or performing, whether playing slide or straight or alternate tuning or plain ol’ 440/standard or blues or outlaw country or rock and roll…it’s the one I’d grab if the house is on fire…it relegated the guitar I had proclaimed my #1 for fifteen years to the secondary spot.
**For specific details of all the customizations and modifications I’ve done, see this:
But here’s the real question:
What makes your #1 instrument (guitar, bass, whatever) “Your #1”?
For me, it came down to this:
-Which guitar am I thinking about or comparing other guitars to?
-Which guitar am I wishing I was performing/recording/whatever with instead of the one I currently have in my lap or strapped across my shoulder?
-Which guitar do I grab without thinking, “This one *might* work ok for what I’m doing today…” vs, “This one always does what I need it to do…”
For me, it is my pinstriped Telecaster (“Big Tex”), or secondarily, my Fiesta Red Stratocaster…
Those two guitars always deliver…
I have (and I love) several other guitars, from cheap to high-end and all of them are vastly different in pickups, neck profiles, body wood, construction, etc…I’m partial to Fenders, but I’m not very brand-loyal and definitely not sycophantic in that preference.
But when I’m playing my (amazing) 1980 G&L F-100 or (cheap and funky) Dean VX or (kick-butt) 2007 Fender ‘72-reissue Telecaster Deluxe or whichever other guitar I’m playing at the moment, I’m thinking:
“This might sound better if I were playing Big Tex or Fiesta Red…”
…and more often than not, it’s Big Tex—which is why it is my 1A and Fiesta Red is my 1B.
Yeah, I like the humbuckers in my G&L and Telecaster Deluxe and Dean VX, but the P-90s and single coils of those two main guitars can do dang-near everything I want to do, sonically…and they look cool…and the playability is as good as I could ever ask out of any guitar…and…
You get the point.
