Sorry, chaps, too busy a-twangin' :lol:
Yep, it's a Road Worn. I tried the 50s tele when they first arrived - stunning player but I already had several teles, and price-wise it was too rich as far as I was concerned. I've only seen one other RW 60s strat in the flesh before, it was in a window display, and it looked "unpretty" enough for me to "not ask to try it" - I knew that if I tried one, and it was as good as that tele felt, then we'd possibly be looking at a purchase whether I was happy about the price or not...
When I saw one yesterday, I felt strong enough to try it and walk away if I thought it was too much.
If asked to debate it, I'm still in the "undecided" camp over relicking and all - I've no particularly strong feelings against it, but it's "probably not my personal cup of tea..."
So why on earth have I got a relicked guitar??! It's cos it really doesn't seem to matter with this particular guitar. I had to get over the relicking in order to buy it, obviously, and I did...
I've had it less than 24 hours, in fact I probably first plugged it in in the shop about this time yesterday, and in that time it's turned into "my guitar". I've done my usual "convert to master tone", "put extra springs in and drop the bridge flat" (and yeah Philly, I heard the tonal change this time :D), "string-it/set-it-up with 11s", and I've also started bri-waxing the bare neck. But even without these little personalisations, she's already mine - she'd decided in the shop, but I only really got it this morning... And so it don't matter how the "knocks" got there, I'm playing her now - and she looks extremely "rocknroll" in the mirror! :D
What does it do that Edith don't?
- Looks. It looks like my old JV used to before I stripped it. Tall, thin, with a tailcoat, sometimes a top hat (this was before Slash appeared - the thief!!), and a rosewood/sunburst strat, is what ole Angus looked like for 100-odd gigs in the 80s... This guitar is also what I wanted my JV to look like at the time but it wouldn't no matter what I did in gigs (bashed :lol:). I deliberately avoided the sunburst when I got Edith (she's Fender Japan, remember, and she had two friends in sunburst in the shop), because "that's the colour I had before... and i stripped it..." but I've realised since then, that for nostalgia purposes, I did kinda need a sunburst again :roll:
- Sound. Edith is slightly warmer and thicker accoustically - I picked her from among many that day for that very reason. I think it might be one of the reasons I don't find Irish Tours quite as bright and trebly as others do, I get a nice chewy tone out of her (I think the same thing might have happened with my new SG and Riff Raffs).
Anyway, amongst other sounds, you'll have read me citing "Steve Gaines's Lynyrd Skynyrd sound" as something I'd like to get my hands on - got it now in spades :D
It's hard to describe, but this one is a "lighter" possibly more "woody" sounding strat accoustically. They both resonate enough, but they're different. Luckily it turns out they complement each other - Edith doesn't make the new one sound thin and scratchy, and the new one doesn't make Edith sound muddy (either might happen to someone else using them, but they are both fab to my ears...)
Something has really surprised me. Strangely, this is the first guitar I've got (singles, humbuckers) that actually makes any sense through the Marshall Plexi models on my VOX Tonelab (not tried the POD XT, but I was never that fond of the plexi on there neither) - everything else tends to get played through JTM45 types, or AC30, possibly Fenders, and possibly late 70s/early 80s M/V Marshall... but this little girl makes the plexi model sound good.
Obvously, it's really early days on this one, but I'm extremely happy with it so far (even if the nut does need some attention/replacing :lol:)
