Disaster Averted

[Rain]

I’m not sure how the physics behind this work. I heard a noise in the studio. The wall hanger that held my beloved black Strat Marian had broken.

One would have expected the guitar to fall downward, hit the ground and then fall flat on its face. But there she was, 2 ft from the wall, on her back, perfectly lined up with the broken hanger. As if she'd done a 180 degrees and then just let go. A little out of tune but undamaged. I could have almost sworn she was smiling - except she has no face so I'm not sure how that would work either.

At any rate, praise Leo Fender for building quasi indestructible instruments. My Gibson SG used to hang there. Now that would have been a completely different story, with a potentially tragic ending. I proceeded to remove her from her hanger immediately.

That Fender has seen more action than any instrument I own. Even if she was my most precious possession at the time, I’ve done all the stupid things - dropped her, stepped on her, dragged her around on the stage, played her in the rain, spilled beer and wine on the faceplate countless times - I even smashed her against a tombstone I kept in my studio (which was all but a smoke free environment at the time).

I think I didn’t feel comfortable being front and center on the stage - roughing up the guitar was a way of compensating. It gave me a place to hide from my own inadequacy - behind the destructive BS.

Anyway, the abuse shows, with all the scratches and dents - the tremolo arm is also bent a little closer to the guitar from one of those times I dropped her flat on her face. But besides the pots and the switch that needed to be cleaned up a few years ago, she never really needed much maintenance and never required actual repairs. I sanded the back of the neck a little recently to make it a little smoother, and sanded off a few rough spots - bigger dents. I also adjusted the rod for the first time since I bought it in 1996. One of the knobs is cracked a little.

Surprisingly enough, although there are a few chipped spots, the fretboard doesn’t really look like your typical aged maple fretboard. Even though she was my main guitar for 15 years and I played her all the time. Kind of strange…

My Les Paul Studio has become my main guitar, but I can't imagine letting go of Marian. I have another Strat and it's as solid as you would expect, but this one really feels like a tank.

Edited yesterday at 04:28 AM by Rain

[T Boog]

Lesson...  No more Temu wall hangers 😁

Nah, I'm a Strat man myself Rain. I love lightweight Strats with a humbucker in the bridge, a soft V neck, 22 frets(like ur dear Marian), a contoured heal and I block the bridge for added sustain and a fatter tone. 

The body contours of a Strat combined with the long scale length make it SUPER comfortable. It fits around ny body like a long legged woman.

Most of my fave players growing up played Les Pauls(Frampton, Page, Slash, Frehley, Zakk Wylde, etc) but I never liked the short scale length or how out of balance they are. I have a lightweight Les Paul copy with great pickups that I sometimes use for recording but I'm a Strat man thru & thru. 👍

[Amberwolf]

I sympathize.....

 

I don't really "play" guitar normally, but the only one I ever really felt anything for was the Takamine Jasmine acoustic I lost in my housefire over a decade ago (but the dogs were a much much harder loss).   The only thing left was the charred end holding the tuning pegs; even the strings were gone except for the nubs in the pegs.     😭

(I also lost my original Ensoniq ASR88 and the DAW itself, though the ASR wasn't destroyed it was damaged and dind't work anymore...the computer was a total loss but I managed to save some data.  EDIT I forgot I also lost my Yamaha G10/G10C midi guitar...the box was damaged but not destroyed but the guitar and it's case were a blob). 

 

Nowadays the Ibanez 6-string electric bass (whcih I don't seem to have any pics of)  I got used several years after that is what I use most often, and I love it's sound, but other than it I only have a beater yamaha acoustic I was given right after the fire, and a heavily-modified-by-me first-act fender-clone-thing I found at goodwill and have rebuilt more than once

 

so they don't get used much just because they're not very...interesting, soundwise, and neither one will hold a tune for an hour....  The Ibanez stays tuned hanging there for months at a time, and is always ready for me to play around with, even when I drop it or bang it around trying to get it off the wall to play, or to hang it back up, or when it slides off my lap while I'm playing, etc.  😊  

 

The man reason other than the sound that makes me use the Ibanez is that it has widely spaced strings so I can fit my fingers on them without touching the other strings accidentally, whcih is very important as I don't have great control over my body and have to play things one string at a time, recording each bit and then stacking all the clips for the sound I'm after.  But...I do like it's sound, with or without any effects on it (though I usually at least use a reverb, often a delay). 

Edited 10 hours ago by Amberwolf
forgot pictures

[Rain]

You might be onto something there.  Those hangers were a gift from my ex.  She used to order tons of stuff from questionable places, including China - that was pre-Temu. Happens when you are a shopaholic on a budget... 🤣

My first guitar was a cheap Les Paul copy - unplayable, really. 

Then I remember going to my friend's place when I was 12, roughly 40 years ago, and seeing his father’s 1957 black Fender Stratocaster - maple fretboard, white pick guard. This was the first professional quality instrument that I saw and laid my hands on. We lived in a small town - no store carried that kind of instrument in a  300 miles radius. To me, seeing a real Strat was as unthinkable as traveling to Mars. So it was one of those moments - I was in complete awe, as if I’d been let into the inner sanctum. It was the same as touching Eddie Van Halen’s guitar - I’d entered the sacred realm, the Holy of Holies. I was on Mars.

That guitar became my holy grail. There were tons of cool, rare, and even priceless guitars in that house, including one of a 353 limited run Gibson Flying V that belonged to my friend’s older brother and which occupies a very unique place in my memories but that's a different story (rumor had it that KK Downing of Judas Priest and Rudolph Schenker of Scorpions each owned one).

But the black Strat was it for me. I got my first Guitar Player Magazine shortly afterwards - the centerfold was Clapton's Blackie. Then I saw Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii on VHS. That sealed the deal.

Even though it was the era of Super Strats, the fact that Dave Murray of Iron Maiden and Matthias Jabs of Scorpions played Fender Strats gave that model its respectability. A sunburst Les Paul copy sucked but a black Strat was timeless. 

I would own one eventually. It took time. Once my cheap Les Paul copy broke down, I made my way through a cheap Sears Strat knockoff, and then a Korean Fender Squier Strat (a huge improvement), but eventually, and through the most unlikely series of magical events, I got the real thing, US made.

It is very strange to think that I must be roughly the same age as my friend's father  was back then. And that my own black Fender Stratocaster is now older than his 1957 was when I put my dirty paws on it in 1985.

It wasn't until 2011 in NY when I went to Sam Ash to buy a HSS Strat but ended up buying a Les Paul that things changed. And I do agree on the ergonomics, BTW. That LP Studio is just a one in a million thing I guess. 
 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 05:58 AM by Rain

[T Boog]

Speaking of lightweight Strats... This is an aftermarket strat body made out of white pine that I still have. It's feather light but very resonant. The rear pickup is a Lace sensor hot gold that screams. Anyway, this is one of the many partscasters I put together over the years

 

[Notes_Norton]

I'm happy your guitar survived undamaged.

I had a friend who put his SG against his amp to go to the kitchen for a snack during practice. When he got back, it fell, and the headstock broke and was folded against the neck.

[T Boog]

6 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

I'm happy your guitar survived undamaged.

I had a friend who put his SG against his amp to go to the kitchen for a snack during practice. When he got back, it fell, and the headstock broke and was folded against the neck.

Yeah, the tilted headstocks are a recipe for disaster. Gibson should have designed EVERY guitar with a volute (extra wood where the headstock meets the neck) to help prevent some of thise broken off headstocks. Talk about an Achilles heal 

[michaelhanson]

 

The closest disaster that I’ve avoided was with my Rick bass a few years back.  I set it carefully in its stand to take a break between sets.  During the break, one of the board mixing engineers decided he was going to mess around with cables on stage and started pulling them around the stage.  It flipped my Rick face forward out of the stand and skidded across the strange face down.  I gasped and was literally afraid to pick it up.  

When I finally got the nerve, I was surprised to find zero damage on the face of the bass.  However, there was a small dent on the backside of the neck.  How, I still have no idea.  I filled it a little with some super glue and smoothed everything out.  You can still slightly feel it sometimes while sliding up and down the neck.

As far as guitars go, I own both a Les Paul Traditional and an Eric Johnson Strat.  I started playing Les Pauls in the early 80’s.  I’ve owned at least 6 different Les Pauls over the years, all seeing live play.  I’ve yet to break a headstock after 45 years.  
 

 

 

Edited 12 hours ago by michaelhanson

[mettelus]

20 hours ago, T Boog said:

This is an aftermarket strat body made out of white pine

Boy, I admit "white pine" stuck out to me initially, but then I thought, "Alder is one of the softer hardwoods, so is white pine really that far of a stretch??" I have played with enough unseasoned white pine over the years, that I tend to think of that rather than the times when I have pulled seasoned white pine out and realized how hard it had become. Thanks for posting that video (very nice)! If you hadn't posted that I might have blown off "white pine" without even thinking about it  

@Rain I am glad things averted disaster! When I saw the SG comment that just made me cringe!

[T Boog]

4 hours ago, mettelus said:

Boy, I admit "white pine" stuck out to me initially, but then I thought, "Alder is one of the softer hardwoods, so is white pine really that far of a stretch??" I have played with enough unseasoned white pine over the years, that I tend to think of that rather than the times when I have pulled seasoned white pine out and realized how hard it had become.

Cheers Mettelus. Yeah, I had been playing basswood guitars for a couple decades before I tried pine. I'm sure u know basswood is pretty soft too. I figured pine would be fine with a relic job since dings only add to the character.

 I've been thru the tonewood debates back in the day but IMO, if you have a good touch, good pickups(they don't have to be expensive) and a good amp, you can get a great tone. And if I am sacrificing a little bit of tone, it's worth it for me to have a light & balanced guitar. Even when I'm sitting down, I want it to be light & balanced.

Btw, my best friend has a 14 lb Les Paul Standard! It sounds awesome but he has to practically beg me to play it  😄

[T Boog]

4 hours ago, mettelus said:

white pine" stuck out to me initially,

Btw Mettelus, Fender Custom Shop did a small run of pine Strats a few years back. It was reclaimed pine from an old barn.

[T Boog]

7 hours ago, michaelhanson said:

The closest disaster that I’ve avoided was with my Rick bass a few years back.

Cheers Mike. Man, that's a beautiful bass. Glad it didn't get too damaged, I know those basses are far from cheap.

[Amberwolf]

4 minutes ago, T Boog said:

Btw Mettelus, Fender Custom Shop did a small run of pine Strats a few years back. It was reclaimed pine from an old barn.

If it was unpainted, did they preserve the aged patina in the final finish?  That would be beautiful....there were various old structures (some of which used to be houses, some sheds, some barns, some wellhouses, etc) in the farm country I lived in as a kid in north texas, and I always loved the way that old old wood looked and felt. 

[T Boog]

 

17 minutes ago, Amberwolf said:

did they preserve the aged patina in the final finish?  That would be beautiful.

Cheers Wolf. Here's a pic...