I've been out in guitar shops around Manchester every weekend since the last weekend of October. I've been searching, for the one. I've been searching, for a strat with mojo.
I'd been playing a s/h maple boarded USA std against a Jap std rosewood board strat for about two hours, after trying about four other strats (one of which was a s/h 50th anniversary strat, the rest were other USA stds and variations of eg h/s/s). Well, both were close, but no cigar.
I came close to buying the Jap one though, it sounded right, but there was just one thing bugging me. It choked a little when I went into my more bend-happy lead playing style, a problem I first thought was due to a low-ish action but then realised it was down to the more vintage fretboard radius..
Gah..
So I was about to give up, when my dad insisted there must be more USA standards that I hadn't tried. Meh, might as well look, I thought.
There was a Fender case on the sofa (
http://www.soundsgreatmusic.com - ace shop to deal with, they even have a sofa in the guitar room for weary parents who've given up on their sons ever buying anything :D) which we opened up to find a USA Standard, Olympic White Strat, with a rosewood board. Visually perfect for me. I pulled it out of the case and plugged straight in and played a few licks with different pup selections... within seconds I knew I'd found
the strat for me :D I played it unplugged for a bit to check how resonant it was, inspected it for flaws... nope, all was fine. It was literally just out of their warehouse at the back of the shop, and was about to go on a shelf I think. Absolutely brand spanking new. Well, I wasn't leaving it behind!!!
More pics can be found
hereAnd, for all those that know me this may come as a shock.
The trem is set floating.
The trem is staying floating.
As we say in Manchester - "I'm well chuffed, me" \m/
As a side note, I got to try some warpigs as well today! They have an Epi SG with a set in sounds great, so I took the opportunity to have a bash. Jebus crust, it's like playing with a wall of sound! They sound absolutely ace for chuggerific metal styles IMO.
