I have a small number of guitars - I think it's seven - and can't seem to find anything I want/need enough to pull the trigger on. I don't have any Fender guitars at the moment so had a look at a couple of Strats yesterday: a CS '60s style Strat, a "Professional" Strat and a "Player's" Strat. Obviously the CS Strat sounded best but not by much. And it was the worst set-up Strat - quite hard to play. Easily fixed I guess, but still... The Mexican Player's Strat sounded almost as good and was way easier to play but had 9-42 strings which are too light for me. Again, something I would change/fix as soon as I got the guitar home, but still not a very exciting guitar to play. The Professional was perhaps the nicest to play but still meh.
Then I tried the '60s Thinline Tele I have always liked the look of - it's in natural ash with a maple neck. It sounded better - played well too. Still a bit ho-hum though.
I guess I'm spoilt by what I already have. I can't see the point in getting something new if it doesn't excite me or do something fantastic. And I look at all the guitar stores crammed with Fenders right now and there is nothing which speaks to me. Actually it's almost as if Fender is making guitars specifically for me to not like! I like guitars with medium jumbo frets, but Fender are using "tall narrow" frets which in practise often mean vintage style, as they get levelled to the point of not being very high any more. The colours are becoming increasingly ugly and the guitars heavier. And what it wrong with the old style tuners? Fender got tuners right way back when - I love old-school tuners with the safety posts.
Then there's Gibson, where if it's any good it's stratospherically priced! I love a good Gibson but can't afford any more right now. And Fender have stocked the local stores to capacity with cheaper Gretsches which have zero appeal to me. The Gretsches I love with the B3 and B6 Bigsbys (no tension bar) are few and far between. The Japanese Gretsches are awesome guitars but hard to find, and the range seems to be dominated by "Player's" versions with tension bar Bigsbys. Any time you put a tension bar on a Bigsby it loses its feel. Who are these aimed at? When the original is so good why mess with what made them so good?
Seems to me that all the interesting smaller builders are getting crammed out of music stores. Fender is dominating with less and less interesting models. Every store has all the same new Fenders and they're all ugly.
Does anyone like what's available right now?
Then I tried the '60s Thinline Tele I have always liked the look of - it's in natural ash with a maple neck. It sounded better - played well too. Still a bit ho-hum though.
I guess I'm spoilt by what I already have. I can't see the point in getting something new if it doesn't excite me or do something fantastic. And I look at all the guitar stores crammed with Fenders right now and there is nothing which speaks to me. Actually it's almost as if Fender is making guitars specifically for me to not like! I like guitars with medium jumbo frets, but Fender are using "tall narrow" frets which in practise often mean vintage style, as they get levelled to the point of not being very high any more. The colours are becoming increasingly ugly and the guitars heavier. And what it wrong with the old style tuners? Fender got tuners right way back when - I love old-school tuners with the safety posts.
Then there's Gibson, where if it's any good it's stratospherically priced! I love a good Gibson but can't afford any more right now. And Fender have stocked the local stores to capacity with cheaper Gretsches which have zero appeal to me. The Gretsches I love with the B3 and B6 Bigsbys (no tension bar) are few and far between. The Japanese Gretsches are awesome guitars but hard to find, and the range seems to be dominated by "Player's" versions with tension bar Bigsbys. Any time you put a tension bar on a Bigsby it loses its feel. Who are these aimed at? When the original is so good why mess with what made them so good?
Seems to me that all the interesting smaller builders are getting crammed out of music stores. Fender is dominating with less and less interesting models. Every store has all the same new Fenders and they're all ugly.
Does anyone like what's available right now?
but I can't find a dealer where I could even order the one I want, nor do I want to spend the money right now
