Just over a week ago, I was looking through the For Sale section in the current issue of Guitar & Bass magazine, when I saw this guitar advertised for £330 at a location in Essex. Anyway, I 'phoned up out of interest and thought that I'd go and have a look if it wasn't too far away. Amazingly, it was actually in Colchester, just 9 miles away from me.
The guitar was just 6 weeks old and was in perfect nick complete with all the bits and the original receipt from a Colchester music shop, so difficult to resist! I'd had the 'OK' from my wife to go ahead and buy it, providing a couple of my other guitars were put up for sale (see the Marketplace section of this site), so I made an offer of £300 and it was accepted.
I've got a couple of other Mexican Strats (the all gold 'Homer Haynes' 50th Anniversary & the white Hendrix LSR one) and it's surprising how different they all are in terms of weight, 'feel' & sound. This new one's definitely a good 'un and is also the lightest. Strangely, it's a good 2mm or so thinner than the other two, so that's probably got a lot to do with it. The previous owner had the bridge pickup wired to the middle pickup's tone control and I think that's one of the best mods that you can do to a Strat and I'm tempted to have my other two done as well. I was also a bit surprised that the colour wasn't as vibrant as I'd expected. It's certainly more subtle than my Burns Shadows Custom and more similar to the red of the Oasis special run Stratocasters.
Although it's a purely cosmetic thing, I do have a fondness for gold hardware and I spent a couple of days sourcing all the parts I'd need to change everything on this new guitar. Although it isn't strictly HBM/'56 NOS correct, I decided not to change the 'aged' plastic parts. I've always thought that all white 'guard/covers/knobs/tips etc., looked a bit bland, although I'm sure that some wouldn't agree with me! If you want a Fender one (which I did) they're not that easy to get hold of in the UK and you have to get the USA Vintage spec one for the Mex Classic series. Anyway, it all came together in the end and I'm thrilled to bits with it!
I'd wholeheartedly recommend a 50's Classic to anyone as I think that they're really great value, great sounding and certainly look the business!
Stephen.