Fender Road Worn Strat Rant

deckme(N)tal · Post by **deckme(N)tal** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:40 pm

fck all this live 8 frenziness...i will be rockin an Ableton 1 beta version...anything more vintage than this??

acroberts · Post by **acroberts** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:51 pm

Just bought a book on David Gilmour's main Black Strat that he's toured and recorded with, hacked into (mods for a floating bridge and an XLR jack that were filled back in) and basically beat the crap out of for 20 of the past 30 years.

For the other 10 years, it hung unprotected at the Miami Hard Rock Cafe and was pawed by customers for some extra wear and tear.

Kinda funny that this 'vintage' axe of Gilmour's doesn't look half as worn as this overpriced stuff that Fender is peddling. Guess he didn't play it enough. Heh.

fatrabbit · Post by **fatrabbit** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 1:59 pm

A lot of jeans have those fake creases, worn patches and what not - looks ridiculous.

You can get those "vintage" Fender guitars that are pre-beat up - but what is the point? They're not your scratches and marks.

LeifonMars · Post by **LeifonMars** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 3:02 pm

Maybe Abes should consider releasing a road worn version of Live 8.Then again, maybe not.

telekom · Post by **telekom** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 4:15 pm

littlepig wrote:You could buy an old Ibanez Blazer or a Starfield then you'd get a well used guitar for about 1/4 of the price

Yes - I've got an Ibanez Roadstar which I've had since I was 16 [edit: I'm 40 now so 24 years, sob]. It looks a little worn, ie it has that slightly grubby and handled "glow" about it, if you know what I mean. But it's in good nick and I like it that way, no major dings or broken bits, it all still works and looks good. And as littlepig said it costs a shitload less than a Fender, sounds brilliant and has great build quality.

Ironically, I got it as a trade in on a really old Burns-Baldwin Baby Bison, which I had picked up for about £30, and was able to get about £100 for against the cost of the Ibanez. It was pretty worn and beaten-up, one of the pickups had died and it needed some work on the bridge to tackle some intonation problems. Later, I found out that the company COLLECTED Burns guitars and derivatives, and so the c**t in the shop saw this green 16 year old and thought "YES! Rip-off time!". I saw it in pride of place on their wall a couple of years later in a different branch.

I have done a great job of "wearing-in" and "distressing" my hand-made Spanish acoustic which I got from a maker in Cusco, Peru. I backed it into the corner of my kitchen worktop and put a one inch hole in the side. Now that's the kind of wear you just can't get from Fender...

OvertoneZero · Post by **OvertoneZero** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 4:48 pm

Thanks for the tips on those Ibanez guitars, looked at Ebay, pretty cool.

bosonHavoc · Post by **bosonHavoc** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:30 pm

hey do those faker strats come with pawn ticket receipts too? lol

h_double · Post by **h_double** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 6:20 pm

I am planning on marketing a line of vintage boutique road-worn guitars. They come with bent tuners, a chipped nut, shorts in the wiring, and input jack that's half unscrewed. Very authentic sound.