Sorry for the disappearance, folks… it would seem that recovery from the loss of a loved one seldom occurs in a nice, straight arc––the last few months have been a real roller-coaster for me.

Anyway, I logged in this morning to be pleasantly surprised by the latest Signature Series instrument coming from Fender––the Billy Corgan Signature Stratocaster.

Apparently now one of Corgan’s go-to guitars for live performance and recording, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman worked with Fender engineers to create a versatile guitar that would both maintain that classic Strat feel and sound, and still perform well in modern high-gain situations.

I think what’s difficult for people in this modern culture, with such high-gain rock application, is understanding how to play a style that expresses their individual personality and yet still keeps them sort of within the sound that’s current, which is very, very high-gain. And what I’ve worked with Fender to try to do is to create an instrument that will both allow the individualistic expression at a very high level… and at the same time allow your personality to shine through and play high-gain rock, which I think Fender’s been a little behind the curve in addressing.

The guitar will feature a heavy Alder body, Maple neck (modern “C” shape,) Maple fretboard (9.5“ radius,) 22 Jumbo Frets, ’70s style large headstock and logo, a hardtail bridge, and a set of DiMarzio Billy Corgan Signature Pickups.

No word yet on pricing or availability.

As promised, I thought today I’d write down some of my thoughts on the creative process of aging our pickguard.

First things first, we tossed aside our Baja Tele’s single-ply black pickguard and went hunting for a nice retro-style mint green one to replace it. Unfortunately, finding a mint-green guard in a 5-hole configuration wasn’t as easy as I expected, but in the end we purchased a nice one from Callaham Vintage Guitars & Parts online.

The screw holes weren’t a “dead match,” but they were damned close, and certainly good enough for our purposes.

After some rough sanding to generally rough-up our pickguard, the next step was to bust out a nice straight razor (be careful, folks!!!) and whittle down some of the edges and whatnot.

Obviously, you’re going to have to get creative here, and do your best to emulate the wear & tear of a good many years of hard playing… how you do this will really just come down to personal taste.

After banging the pickguard up real good (including many dings and scratches from various tools in our workshop––screwdrivers, pliers, etc,) we sanded everything down a bit more to soften up the razor-sharp edges, and then got to adding some grime to the whole thing.

As we discovered while dirtying-up the body of the guitar, a nice can of brown oil-based wood stain is perfect for adding some nasty layers of crud to your Relic.

Pour some onto a cotton ball or rag and you can just rub it right in. It should seep into the cracks and dings that you created in the last step, making them look age-old and doused in sweaty goodness.

If you find that you’ve used too much you can always remove it with some light sanding or some strategically placed paint thinner––both work well.

In our case we were aiming for a final pickguard that was aged yellow with time and grime, so after getting all the nicks and scratches just the way we wanted, it was time to bust out the nitrocellulose paint.
Once again we turned to our trusty can of Guitar ReRanch Fender Neck Amber, and after a few practice runs managed to get a nice, light coat in just the right shade of yellow.

After painting the whole pickguard and letting it dry for a few hours, we went back in with some sandpaper and sanded a soft-edged “corridor” down the center of our pickguard (see photo at top.) IT came out really nice.

Then it was just a matter of putting a few clear top-coats over the yellow, and we were done. Of course, the top coats were way too glossy for our purposes, so we had to sand the pickguard yet again to take the sheen off.

That’s pretty much it, but don’t be fooled.. this process actually took quite some time. We made numerous mistakes in learning how to apply the wood stain and paint, and often had to use paint thinner to take everything back down to the original mint-green and start all over again.

It was arduous for sure, but also a lot of creative fun. Here’s a nice, fat high-res photo for those who want to see the pickguard close-up. It’s a bit grainy, but probably worth a look.

Exhibit A: (photo, left) Inspiration for our Relic’s neck, courtesy of this gorgeous ‘56 Masterbuilt Super Reilc over at the Music Zoo.

So having put the body of our so-called Tele Relic to rest (save a few minor dings and scratches that still need to be added,) we have moved on to the most dangerous and delicate part of this entire project––aging the neck and fretboard.

Yes, we intentionally put this part off until we had enough experience damaging the other, less sensitive areas of the guitar––in the hopes that we’d build up lots of wisdom about what NOT to do. I’m glad we did, because with experimentation on the body pretty much behind me, I’m definitely feeling more confident about not screwing this part up.

As you can see, we’ve dug up a few photos to help us visualize the final piece, and in that spirit we’ve begun to wear down our Telecaster’s neck bit by bit.

First step was just taking off the general sheen of the poly––I used 600 grit sandpaper for this. Ultimately we will be spraying the entire neck (fingerboard, frets and all) with Guitar ReRanch Fender Neck Amber nitrocellulose finish, and that stuff just isn’t going to stick well to a glossy poly coat.

Roughing it up is pretty much required.

And it’s here, before you start blasting the finish away and spraying the neck with amber, that you need to give some serious consideration to all of the steps in this process.

As I understand it, to get the kind of aged, darkened and grimy looking dings and worn-out spots that you see on Relic necks, you pretty much have to sand and ding the neck down to bare wood in those areas and then apply a suitably colored dark wood stain (oil based.)

Of course, once you start spraying with amber, any unfinished areas are going to go bright orange, so after dinging and staining, but before finishing with amber, the best bet is to give your neck a few coats of clear nitro. Once that dries, and those unfinished areas are protected from overstaining, you can apply the amber.

So, after the basic sanding (which was fairly light, and left the neck still with all of its finish intact,) I decided to try my luck emulating the wear along the back of the neck.

So far so good. It took about an hour of dry sanding with 200 grit sandpaper to get the finish off like I wanted. Next step for this side of the neck will be to stain that freshly bared wood, and perhaps add some extra dings and such.

Much to my surprise, the fingerboard was actually easier to do than I expected, although I did come to the realization that I would need to put the entire guitar back together and then string it up in order to have some really good guides for where my strategically placed “wear and tear” should go.

As you can see, it went quite well. After sanding down the areas I thought looked most natural, I pretty much doused the whole fretboard in a medium-dark wood stain, and let it soak in good.

It’s not perfect yet, but I believe with a little more work, and a nice dark amber stain over the top, the neck is going to look amazing.

I guess we shall see, eh? Wish us luck!

Of course, it was far from an overnight transformation, but as far as we can tell at this point, the body is pretty much ready for prime time. Next week I promise to get into the nitty gritty of how we accomplished a number of the effects you see here, but to tide you all over, here’s a short photo gallery of our Relic Tele as it stands today.

For a truly close-up look you can dig through these high-res versions as well: photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4, photo 5, photo 6.

Of course, we’ve just barely begun to work on the neck, but I hope to get it sanded and stained in nitro amber over the weekend. In any event, we will soon go into greater detail on how we aged the pickguard, dented the body, and otherwise wore the hell out of this sweet Tele.

Until next week…

Well, I haven’t seen any official announcement from Fender yet, but the company has apparently added three new models to its popular mid-range “Classic” line of guitars––the Jazzmaster Special, Jaguar Special, and Jaguar Special HH.

There’s still a bit of confusion as to what we’re seeing here, though.

At least a few of the major online guitar retailers have the instruments listed as “Classic Player’s” guitars, which in keeping with other Classic Player models would suggest they were designed by the Fender Custom Shop and produced in Mexico.

However, Fender’s new product pages have all three guitars listed only as “Special,” with no mention of a Custom Shop heritage whatsoever… I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this one plays out.

Still, if they share the same quality as the other guitars in the Classic line, all three new models will undoubtedly be popular with those looking for a vintage-styled Jazzmaster or Jaguar at about half the price of an American Vintage instrument.

A Few Standout Features  All three guitars have been update with a newly designed Adjusto-Matic bridge with floating Tremolo tailpiece, flatter 9.5“ radius fretboard, and an improved neck pocket with increased back-angle for better sustain and stability.

The Jazzmaster Special and Jaguar Special both feature hotter ”Special Design Hot“ pickups, and the Jaguar Special sports a pair of Enforcer Humbuckers wired with a unique Humbucker/Single Coil Blend switch.

Prices are starting at around $799.00, which includes a Deluxe gig bag.

OK, so here are a few various iterations of our Relic Tele as we play around with different types of faux aging. Since this is truly an experiment, and we have absolutely no experience applying wear & tear to guitars––other than the good old fashioned way––we are taking our time to find out what works and what doesn’t.

The pickguard and hardware are not attached, but have simply been placed on top of the body to give us a better look at what the finished product may look like. Neither the pickguard nor body are anywhere near finished, though the hardware is pretty much ready for prime time.

While the top photo will undoubtedly appeal to many of you (as it does me,) I have to admit that in person this iteration simply doesn’t look real… in the photo it looks great though.

The Baja Tele’s original Blonde poly finish is just way too bright, even after sanding, to look natural as it pokes through under the Oly White nitro. So while I like the general look of the exaggerated arm-wear, it really doesn’t hold up to an in-person inspection.

The contrast between the white and blonde is just way too extreme. On top of that, when we attempted to sand down the white finish a bit, in order to let some wood grain show through to better match our “inspirational” relic over at the Music Zoo, we found that sanding it down evenly across the body is harder than hell. Once again it just doesn’t look real.

Our second version (above,) while not as extreme, looks a helluva’ lot more authentic when you get close-up on it… now, we are far from being finished in our experimenting, but what we will probably end up with is kind of a hybrid between these two photos––something like the body on the bottom photo, but with a pickguard similar to that in the top photo, albeit with a lot less orange.

In this second iteration I’ve added a fair amount of grit and grime to the finish, because straight out of the bottle (and even after sanding,) that Olympic White Nitro is just way too bright and clean… it looks brand new.

However, I managed to very successfully imitate the grimy look of a few decades of sweaty man-handling (photo left,) by rubbing oil-based dark wood stain right into the finish (make sure you don’t get it on any bare wood!)

You have to rub it in with your fingers, gently sand some off, and then repeat until you’ve got just the right amount. If you do it carefully and strategically, it looks dead-on. The photo here is an extreme close-up.

I’ve also begun experimenting with dinging the finish and generally roughing this poor guitar up. It’s a heck of a lot of fun.

So far I’ve pounded on the guitar with screwdrivers (see two pockmarks in this photo,) rubbed dark stain into the gashes and cracks, sanded various areas with heavy grit sandpaper (60 GT,) and even knocked a few small sections into the cement.

Once again, it all takes some experimenting, and usually a soft touch––though every once in a while you really have to pound the crap out of it

Compared to aging the hardware, this part is much, much more difficult, but also a lot more creatively fulfilling. However, if you ever decide to do this yourself, be prepared to take your time.

I’ve sanded and re-finished numerous sections of the body (too many times to count,) due to my own errors & experimentations, and while it’s all fun, when dealing with paint you have to wait a loooooong time in between sessions.

Sometimes I’m just about pulling my hair out waiting for the paint to dry so I can have more fun.

Next up: aging the pickguard, and a  better look at our relic’d hardware.

One of the beauties of building a Relic, I suppose, is that the finish doesn’t need to be absolutely perfect, so we were able to get away with painting this thing in less-than-desirable conditions. There were high winds all week, and the weather was all over the place, but my little cardboard box pretty much did the trick.

Nitrocellulose lacquer finish was purchased from Guitar ReRanch (we went with Olympic White,) and came in easy to apply aerosol cans. It took a few coats to get the hang of just how much to apply, but we managed to get the whole thing painted quite nicely with a single can.

The basic process was A.) lay the guitar on one side, B.) give it a solid but not too thick coat of paint, C.) come back in an hour and lay down a second coat, D.) wait another hour and lay down a third coat, E.) let the whole thing sit for 24 hours before flipping the guitar onto its other side and repeating steps A through D again.

That’s pretty much it… when the front and back were done we just stood the guitar on one side at a time and repeated the process along the edges. Because of the wind and dust that was flying around we made sure to always cover the top of the box while the finish was drying.

In five day’s time we had a really beautifully finished guitar, and then last night I rather hesitantly went to work sanding a lot of that lovely nitro finish back off again––ouch.

Up Next: a look at all of our Telecaster’s Relic’ed hardware after a few hours of heavy tumbling. It came out really sweet!

And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for… here is our first batch of hardware after spending about six hours in a rock tumbler filled with pea gravel.

As you can see, it came out quite nicely. It’s hard to say whether I will attempt the “acid bath” on these as well. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how the rest of the pieces come out. So far I’m mucho happy with the results.

In fact, if you look really closely (here’s a close-up) you may even notice that the strap buttons have developed a small amount of rust––nice touch, eh?! I quickly washed them off when they came out of the tumbler yesterday, and apparently that was all the water it took to start the process rolling.

Amazingly, during the six-hours of my second batch I actually managed to seriously bend the post on my high-E tuner… I could hardly believe it when I saw it. Now that’s a freakin’ Relic.

Checking that my tuners still worked I noticed quite a bit of popping and grinding in the gears when I first started to turn them, but after a few minutes of twisting each of the machine heads the grit seems to have worked its way out.

Hehe, and I love the fact that the bent tuner is the high-E––the exact one you would most expect to get hammered out of shape when you accidentally swing your guitar’s headstock into your drummer’s thick-ass skull

Welcome To EGR Labs  OK, so here’s a little look behind the scenes at EGR Labs (aka, my spare room.) Obviously, the Baja Tele we purchased has been taken apart, with great care given to photographing the wiring (it’s an S1 system) since we don’t want to run into difficulties putting it back together.

All parts were put into separate containers and labeled with blue sticky notes, just to be on the safe side and to keep everything as organized as possible. The tear-down actually took longer than expected, but with a little luck we managed to get all necessary hardware removed from the body without undue difficulty.

Sanding The Body  Much to our surprise, sanding of the poly finish wasn’t nearly as difficult as expected––while Fender’s site doesn’t list it in their official specs, many online retailers claim the Baja Tele has a “thin” poly finish, and it’s likely that this explains the ease of sanding.

Starting with coarse 60 grit paper we managed to take off a good amount of poly in just over an hour of heavy dry sanding (by hand.) Perhaps we could have used an electric sander, but as you can probably guess, the sanding was a great way to get out some of my pent-up aggression!

By that time we had already hit bare wood on many of the corners and edges, and it was at this point that I switched up to 100 grit for about a half-hour, and then on to 200 and 400 grit for detail work. While some resources recommend wet sanding, we stuck with the dry stuff, and were quite happy with our progress.

The plan is for our final instrument to be topped with a thin coat of Olympic White nitrocellulose finish, so there were two main goals to this first sanding––1.) generally prepare the body for nitro by roughing up that shiny coat, and 2.) strategically expose some bare wood to emulate the natural wear and tear of many years of hard playing.

The idea is that we will sand the Tele’s body down yet again once we’ve got a coat or two of white nitro and clear top coat applied. At that point we will further expose these bare areas, and with a little luck I think we can get a few different layers of color coming through––white on top, the Baja’s sanded-down Blonde underneath, and below that the natural Ash.

It’s my assumption that exposing these bare areas now will make it a lot easier to produce the very natural worn-in look we are hoping for.

Tackling The Pickguard  If you were paying attention you may have noticed in the top photo that our mint green pickguard came in as well this week. So, following the many great suggestions over at Relic Deluxe, I began to sand that piece too.

Unlike the heavy-handed sanding of the body, sanding the pickguard requires a much lighter touch, and I can already see my own tendency to over-relic… luckily, it’s just a pickguard and it can be easily replaced if I screw it up.

I will post photos and detailed explanations of what I did to relic the pickguard in another post, but for now, let’s just say I’m having a lot of fun with this part of the process.

Aging The Hardware  After reading through a number of online “relic” resources, we finally accepted Relic Deluxe as our main bible, and so far they haven’t let us down. In keeping with their recommendations we decided to age our guitar’s hardware via the Rock Tumbler approach.

Yep, we managed to purchase a brand new 6-lb capacity rock tumbler on eBay for about $50 US, and late last night I loaded it about 3/4-full with rough gravel (Home Depot) and a few guinea pig pieces of hardware for testing purposes (neck plate, strap buttons, and their respective screws.)

In the photo here you can see all these pieces loaded into one of the tumbler’s heavy rubber cylinders. After taking this photo I popped the top on, sealed it down good, and started the whole thing tumbling.

Relic Deluxe recommends just a few hours, but for giggles I left it running all night. G and I were quite happy with the results… but you’ll have to wait for the next post to see ‘em.

So, our guinea pig guitar in the so-called “Great Tele Relic Experiment of 2008” has finally arrived, and this afternoon I managed to get in some decent BEFORE pictures… in the interest of fully documenting this project I am posting them here for all to see.

I’m happy to say that this guitar plays beautifully, and is in really incredible shape save for the few nasty dings on the back. Even if I hadn’t been attempting this relic project I still wouldn’t have passed this deal up.

Being a Classic Player’s Baja Telecaster, the guitar is outfitted with Fender’s S1 Switching system, which basically allows you to get a number of new pickup combinations out of the instrument (in series, in parallel, and in and out of phase.)

With a 4-way pickup switch that adds up to eight different pickup combinations, and while I always thought of myself as a bit of a Tele purist, the reality is that I just LOVE this setup. in Position one, with the S1 switch up, you get a really gorgeous humbucker tone, albeit with a shimmery Telecaster twang.

Really cool. Not sure yet about the out-of-phase combos, but I suppose time will tell.

The guitar also sports a really mean sheen (poly finish at play,) and I can already tell it’s going to take some serious sanding to get that down to something more manageable.

Unfortunately, the finish is also a bit too yellow for what I’m ultimately after, so this is going to turn into quite a process––first sand the poly down some, then add a somewhat transparent coat of Olympic White nitro (until we get the color we’re aiming for,) then add a clear topcoat, and then finally sand that back down a bit to remove the brand new shine.

Whew! Should be a good workout anyway. Of course, there’s little hope of removing all of the poly, so I won’t even be attempting that, but if I can get some of it off, and get a few nice nitro coats on top, I’ll be more than satisfied.

I’ve also picked up a few other extras that will be needed for the project––a cheap rock tumbler, for aging the hardware, a whole bunch of wet/dry 3M brand sandpaper, and a nice mint green 5-hole Tele pickguard (not easy to find!) that I finally managed to order from Callaham Guitars.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot––the upside of that yellow coat is that while the body of this Telecaster is a bit too lemony for my taste, the neck is already decked out in a nice vintage-style amber tint.

Sure, it still needs to be aged, but I’m relieved that we won’t have to tint it as well… that’s just one less step. And besides, Fender’s got that vintage amber color down far better than I ever will, I’m sure.

So next step: take this bad boy apart, take lots of photos of the inside cavity just in case I can’t figure out how the S1 Switching goes back together, and divide up all of the hardware into separate bowls in order to keep everything organized.

First things first… I guess it’s time to get sanding.

Oh yeah, and please keep in mind: THIS IS NOT A “HOW-TO” KIND OF POST. I’VE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE, AND I MAY WELL DESTROY THIS INSTRUMENT. I AM DOCUMENTING THE PROCESS FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT, BUT I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU ATTEMPT TO MODIFY YOUR GUITAR IN ANY WAY!

In case you haven’t seen it, Gibson’s kicking off May with the introduction of the new Les Paul Push-tone––a uniquely versatile instrument in that you can literally push the pickups out of the back of the guitar, unclip the wires, and swap in a completely different set of pickups, apparently in minutes.

While this isn’t all that new of an idea (Ampeg’s Dan Armstrong Plexi model began offering something similar nearly 40 years ago,) it’s certainly the first time you’ve been able to quickly swap the pickups in an LP… the Push-tone ships with both a pair of BurstBucker Pros, and a pair of single-coil P-94s (basically humbucker-sized P-90s.)

You can use the pickups in matched sets, or literally mix n’ match for your favorites combination of tones.

Other unique features include a AAA maple top with matching maple trapezoid fretboard inlays (really nice touch, here,) a Tone Pro bridge and tailpiece, locking Grover tuners, 24k Gold potentiometers (designed by Gibson, and produced by Bourns,) and a newly designed Neutrik output jack.

The Push Tone will also sport a mahogany body, mahogany neck w/’50s rounded profile (24-3/4“ scale length,)  ebony fretboard with 22 frets, amber top hat knobs, nickel hardware, dual volume and tone knobs, and traditional 3-way pickup switching.

The guitar is listing for a whopping $4,449.00… ouch!

If you’re an old Zemaitis fiend like myself you’ll definitely want to check out Vintage Guitar Magazine’s review of the S22 Metal Top.

For nearly two years straight I’ve been trying to get my hands on one of the new Zemaitis models, but as with many boutique instruments, they are incredibly difficult to track down outside of the larger metropolitan areas.

Priced at $9,000, the S22 is a top-of-the-line heir to the classic “metal top” design that helped put Zemaitis on the map, and while luthier Antanus Zemaitis himself passed away in 2002, Tokyo-based Zemaitis International has apparently done an exemplary job of living up to their namesake in terms of quality and design.

Of course, the feature that stands out most on the S22 is its gorgeous hand-engraved top and hand-machined Duralumin hardware (yep, that’s aircraft aluminum,) including bridge, tailpiece, control cavity covers, jackplate, pickup rings, truss rod cover, and headstock logo.

That’s a helluva’ lot of aluminum, and according to Vintage Guitar the rather weighty mixture of mahogany (neck and body) and Duralumin means the S22 absolutely sings with sustain.

The guitar also sports an ebony fingerboard with 12“ radius, Schaller machine heads, and a pair of DiMarzio DP103 humbuckers––oh yeah, and it ships with a deluxe hard shell case with aluminum handle.

You can check out the full review over at Vintage Guitar Magazine.

I say “taunting” because there’s no way in hell I would personally pay Fender over $3,000 just to pre-age a guitar for me… but that said, this curvaceous beauty just keeps calling me back, and I’m finding it increasingly difficult to say no.

So what’s the next best thing, I ask? You guessed it––in the Grand American Spirit of destruction, experimentation, and good old “I-can-do-better-than-that-guy” chutzpah, I’ve decided to take a stab at creating my own Telecaster “Relic,” one piece of sand paper at a time… ooooh, you just know it’s gonna’ hurt.

And to be honest, while it would be great to walk away with an artistic masterpiece like the one above, my prime motivation for potentially demolishing a perfectly good Telecaster is really quite simple: it just sounds like fun!

Exhibit B And so we come to the “guinea pig” of our experiment… thanks to the magic of eBay, late last night I managed to purchase a slightly dinged Classic Player Baja Telecaster for what amounts to literally a song and a dance.

This is the much raved about MIM ‘52 Tele Reissue, designed by the Fender Custom Shop and packed with modern niceties, like S1 switching, medium jumbo frets, a 9.5“ neck radius, and a pair of Custom Shop ‘69 pickups.

And yes, that’s a poly finish, so I’ve got some heavy wet-sanding ahead of me… I can hardly wait.

The Players  Luckily, through a bit of creative conniving I’ve managed to recruit the brains, beauty, and braun of a top secret partner-in-crime, whom will hereafter be referred to only as ”G.“

Between the two of us we should be able to manage most of the necessary requirements for artistically deconstructing an otherwise perfectly good guitar.

Timeline  Who can really say… 60 days? 90 days? I haven’t a clue.

Resources  Relic Deluxe, Guitar ReRanch, Callaham Guitars, Fender Custom Shop (for inspiration,) and of course Music Zoo.

Why You Should Care  Because this whole ill-fated experiment is likely to turn into one giant train wreck, and who can resist the temptation to watch one of those?!

Ad: Come Shop at the World’s Largest Music Gear Company!

Not a whole lot in the “guitar news” department this morning, though a few worthy links managed to find their way into my browser…

• Limited Edition Volcano – Reverend Guitars has busted out with a new Limited Edition of their low-cost, award winning Volcano––the aptly titled Volcano H90.

They’ve apparently swapped out the neck humbucker for a vintage-voiced P-90 (a GFS Mean 90 to be exact) dressed in a traditional humbucker form factor. Guitars are signed on the back of the headstock by Reverend President Joe Naylor. Strictly limited quantities available, and list price is running $769.

• Eastwood Tuxedo Copper – And while we’re on the subject of P-90s, Eastwood this week announced the addition of a new color option for its dual P-90 Airline Tuxedo model hollowbody.

The guitar, which is a tribute to the ’50s-era Kay Barney Kessel, is now available in Eastwood’s popular new Copper finish (see the high-res photos here.) Street price is still $849.

• EH Micro POG Demo – Last but not least, Dave Weiner has posted a new video demo of the Electro-Harmonix Micro POG over on YouTube, and it gives you a pretty good idea of what this diminutive pedal really has to offer.

I don’t know about you, but I particularly like what EH’s latest polyphonic octave generator can do with arpeggiated chords… super sweet.

Model Fender Limited Edition “Thin Skin” ‘62 Stratocaster Re-Issue

Intro As long-time readers of this blog may remember, in early 2007 I began a “Quest For The Perfect Strat,” with the sole intention of digging up the best combination of playability, affordability, looks, and tone that Fender had to offer in the way of vintage-style Stratocasters.

Having had a life-long love affair with the company’s simple but versatile Tele––and somehow managing to go some 20+ years without ever owning a Strat––I decided early on that I would skip the many worthy clones on the market, and keep my efforts trained on the real deal: the Fender Stratocaster.

Because there’s really no such thing as a “perfect” guitar, and the readers of this blog alone make up a huge cross section of popular guitar-playing styles and techniques, my quest has been not so much to find “the” perfect Strat, but the Strat that best suits my own personal tastes and needs… or to put it perhaps more succinctly: when reading this review keep in mind that as always, your mileage may vary.

After more than a year of searching through big-box guitar stores and pawn shops alike, I’m happy to report that Fender is producing some particularly gorgeous instruments at subjectively reasonable prices right now (if you’re willing to dig around a bit,) and that I found my own little piece of heaven in a 3-tone Sunburst “Limited Dealer Run” Thin Skin ‘62 Stratocaster Re-Issue––one of just 180 produced.

This thing is stunning…

Specs

• Comfort-contoured Alder body
• 1-piece “C” shaped Maple neck with nitro finish (25.5“ scale length)
• Rosewood fretboard with 21 Medium Jumbo 6105 frets (7.25” radius)
• Three American Vintage ‘62 Strat single-coil pickups (w/aged covers)
• Master volume and two tone controls
• 3-way pickup switching (5-way pickup switch included)
• American Vintage Synchronized Tremolo w/“Ash Tray” bridge cover
• Fender/Gotoh vintage-style tuners
• Chrome hardware
• 3-ply Mint Green pickguard
• 3-tone Sunburst “Thin Skin” nitrocellulose finish
• Limited Edition backplate
• Deluxe brown hardshell case (orange plush interior,) strap, and cable

What I Liked Oh the tone… like the production-model American Vintage ‘62 Strat reissue, this “Thin Skin” beauty very commendably captures the sound and feel of a real vintage Stratocaster circa the 1960s––minus the heart-cluching price tag and cosmetic wear & tear of course.

In fact, if you’re already enamored of the ‘62 Strats then keeping an eye out for a thin skin model is pretty much a no-brainer. Many of the classier guitar joints get “Dealer Run” limited editions on a regular basis, and they are often priced competitively with the standard production models that they’re based on.

Two of my favorite retailers are Music Zoo and Music Machine (no affiliation, folks,) but there are any number of others you might want to peruse on a regular basis.

The two big selling points on this particular instrument are, surprise, surprise, the same two things that I had found lacking from Fender’s American Vintage ‘62 Strat reissue (a guitar I really loved nonetheless) ––the “Thin Skin” comes already upgraded with a set of comfy Medium Jumbo 6105 frets (those skinny vintage wires just don’t feel good to my fingers,) and of course the whole thing is decked out in a very thin nitrocellulose finish, causing it to age quickly and beautifully, and sing like nobody’s business.

As I stated in my earlier review, if you’ve ever doubted the tonal effects that a quality nitro finish can have on a guitar, then I dare say you haven’t spent enough quality time with a nitro-finished Strat––let alone a thin skin. There’s a singing richness to the sound that simply can’t be replicated by a poly-coated guitar… at least not to my ears.

And those fatter, taller 6105 fret wires add a bit of extra sustain to an instrument that already seems to wail unendingly. They’re also far more comfortable for those of us who like to bend strings to the moon and back, and feel particularly solid when chunking out big jazz chords and comping up and down the neck.

With these two added features out of the way (oh yes, and a Limited Edition backplate,) the Thin Skin ‘62 Strat stays pretty much true to its Production Run predecessor.

The guitar is loaded with a trio of Fender’s reissue American Vintage ‘62 Strat single-coil pickups, and these things do a very impressive (if noisy) job of re-creating that warm, organic, early ’60s Strat punch. Mid-tones are emphasized, and the traditional Strat “quack” is there in spades. As is to be expected, the bridge pickup is a bit more biting than I personally find useful, but once again: your mileage may vary.

From snarling Hendrix-style chord chaos to gut-aching blues and twang, the Thin Skin ‘62 is both highly versatile and impressively true to that vintage Stratocaster sound––shimmering highs, fat and round lows, and a truly walloping mid-section make for a thick full tone that’s difficult, if not impossible, to adequately explain.

As far as playability is concerned, the Thin Skin ‘62 Strat is everything you could want it to be… provided you like a vintage feeling guitar (like I do!)––the highly curved vintage 7.25“ fretboard radius makes for easy chording and vamping, but if you’re a serious string bender (who isn’t?) you’ll probably need to ride that action fairly high. With that kind of curve in the neck you are bound to fret-out a bit above the 12th fret otherwise.

Of course, this is true-to-form for a vintage Strat, and for folks who like their guitar to fight back a bit it’s no big thing, but if you’re a speed demon who prefers his action low and fast then you’ll probably want to look elsewhere––a vintage-style Strat just isn’t going to float your boat.

Neckwise, the ”Thin Skin“ is armed with what is easily my favorite Fender neck profile: the Vintage ”C“ shape. Now, neck preference is a very personal thing, but time and again I’ve found the vintage ”C“ to be wonderfully contoured for my own playing style, hand size, and finger length… it just feels good in my hands.

Tuners are solid, the six-point vintage tremolo is surprisingly dependable, and even with string trees on the headstock I have found this guitar to have fewer tuning issues than any electric I’ve owned in the last 20 years. For blues it’s a true godsend.

Last but not least, the ”Thin Skin“ ‘62 Stratocaster is about as handsome a guitar as you’re going to find. Beyond its tonal value, the thin Nitrocellulose finish on these beauties is absolutely stunning just on looks alone. Gone is the thick, plastic-like gloss of polyurethane––this bad boy is imbued with a subtle, almost matte-style sheen that wonderfully accentuates the natural wood pattern beneath.

On top of that, a ”mint green“ pickguard matched with aged plastic parts (including switch tip and pickup covers,) makes for a throughly vintage vibe all around. The Deluxe brown Tolex hardshell case brings the package full circle with a funky orange plush interior and old-school Fender good looks.

What I Didn’t Like Surprisingly, my only complaint after many months of constant playing is that the Thin Skin ‘62 Stratocaster, like pretty much all vintage-style Strats, has a propensity to hum and buzz like nobody’s business.

Why a world class guitar behemoth like Fender doesn’t bother to supply better shielding in its instruments is anyone’s guess, but luckily for us, adopting the much less noise-prone wiring of the popular Quieting The Beast modification is fairly straight-forward business… provided you’ve got a few soldering chops and an afternoon you can safely set aside for pulling your guitar apart.

It’s a shame that this fairly basic wiring scheme hasn’t been introduced into any of Fender’s guitars, but I definitely wouldn’t let this one ”true to the time period“ flaw get in the way of purchasing such an otherwise amazing instrument.

Other than a bit of noise I have no reservations about this guitar––it does what it does, exceedingly well, and at a surprisingly decent price point. What’s not to love?

Final Word In the end, the Limited Edition ”Thin Skin“ ‘62 Stratocaster Re-Issue takes an already great thing (the production model American Vintage ‘62 Strat,) and makes it truly shine––all for a price well below that of very comparable Custom Shop models.

Sure, you could pay a few thousand more for a pre-worn-in Relic, but why bother when you can get a ”Thin Skin“ model that should age quickly and gracefully on its own, and for a surprisingly reasonable price of just less than $1500.

If you can find one, grab it––these things are a steal…

Well, believe it or not, next week will mark a full six months since the death of my lovely wife Lori at the age of just 31.

While it’s been a helluva’ roller coaster ride, I’d very much like to thank those of you who’ve stuck with me through this most trying of times.

I suppose it’s safe to say that while I will never be the person I was before cancer entered my life and I was forced to say goodbye to my wife one last time, I’ve come a long, long way in these last few months.

I’m proud to announce that last week I finished up the grueling 14-week Grief Workshop I had been attending, and with this accomplishment has come a whole new appreciation for life, love, and of course guitars.

In fact, for the first time since my wife’s diagnosis over five years ago, these days I actually find myself waking up with a smile on my face––something so simple, and yet so foreign to me through the long fight against both terminal illness and the grief that followed.

The numerous e-mails and comments of support from you all have been a true blessing for me, and I really do appreciate you sticking it out.

I am well aware that for many months now EGR has been inundated with “News” type posts, as that was all I was really able to pull off during my darkest days of mourning.

And while I know that many of you fellow gearheads love to keep up with what’s going on with the latest product announcements, there’s no doubt in my mind that the blog has suffered from its lack of in-depth guitar reviews.

I apologize for that, and will aim to fix the situation as I get back into the swing of things over the next few weeks.

There is one thing for certain though, and I think it’s something you will all be able to understand…

Without my beloved guitar, I never would have made it through.

Thank God for music.

And thank God for guitars.

Thanks again,
-Cary

Well, after all but flat-out denying it for many months, Fender this week has finally revealed on its website the highly anticipated Signature Series Elvis Costello Jazzmaster… and just when I thought it was safe to put away my wallet.

According to Fender, while Costello’s original Jazzmaster has seen numerous modifications over its 30-plus years in existence, this new Signature Model was built to replicate the guitar as it was during the recording of Costello’s seminal 1977 debut LP (and still my favorite of all his records,) My Aim Is True.

Unique features are expected to include a Walnut stained finish in Nitrocellulose Lacquer, early ’70s neck design, and a “loose-set” tremolo tension with the trem arm bent away from the body to allow for more dramatic travel.

The Elvis Costello Jazmmaster will also sport an Alder body, Maple C-shaped neck (25.5“ scale length,) Rosewood fretboard with vintage 7.25” radius and 21 frets, vintage style “floating” tremolo w/tremolo lock button, Fender/Gotoh vintage style machine heads, 4-ply tortoise shell pickguard, chrome hardware, and aged white plastic parts.

Electronics will include a pair of special design American Vintage Jazzmaster single-coils, “lead circuit” Volume & Tone controls, “rhythm circuit” Volume & Tone controls, 3-way pickup switching, and a 2-position slide for selecting Lead & Rhythm tone settings.

The Fender Signature Series Elvis Costello Jazzmaster will ship with a Deluxe brown hardshell case, guitar strap, and cable. In keeping with other recent low-cost Signature models, the guitar is selling for a street price of just over $1500.

As if Eastwood’s remake of the classic National Newport wasn’t already beckoning to me to let go of my hard-earned cash, along comes word that the company has just released a strictly Limited Edition of just 24 Airline Map guitars decked out in Electric Indigo.

Like its predecessors, the guitar will feature a bound maple neck (bolt-on, 25 1/2“ scale length,) rosewood fretboard with block inlays, dual Alnico ”Hot-10“ humbuckers, 3-way pickup switching, dual Volume and a single Tone control, and of course an authentic Bigsby tremolo tailpiece with roller bridge.

The guitar will also sport a unique Electric Indigo LTD finish, and pearloid top-hat knobs, and will ship with an old-school white ”Curly Cord“ instrument cable, deluxe hardshell case, and a signed certificate of authenticity.

Eastwood’s Electric Indigo Airline Map is selling for a street price of $999 in the US ($649 EURO,) and shipping is free to Europe or North America.

If you’re interested, you’ll want to act on this one fast. With just 24 units available these Limited Edition Maps will undoubtedly be gone in a flash.

Nice… over the weekend Gretsch announced the latest addition to its popular low-cost Electromatic line of guitars––the Double Cutaway G5122DC Hollow Body.

While I haven’t a clue what actual sales figures have been like for this line, I can tell you that my posts covering earlier Electromatic releases continue to get more hits per day than just about anything else I’ve written––except, perhaps, for Gibson’s 2007 Guitar of the Week program.

With the G5122DC, Gretsch brings a double cutaway design to their budget Electromatic series for the first time, and I have little doubt they’ll be a hit… heck, I’m already fantasizing about picking one up as a cheap (albeit twangier) alternative to my long lost ES-335.

The guitar features a laminated maple body finished in gloss urethane, laminated maple neck (24.56“ scale length,) rosewood fingerboard with 22 frets and neo-classic inlays, chrome-plated vintage style tuners, Adjusto-Matic bridge with rosewood base, a pair of chrome-covered dual-coil humbuckers, 3-way pickup switching, and Neck Volume, Bridge Volume, Master Volume, and Master Tone controls.

The Electromatic Double Cutaway also sports an authentic Bigsby Licensed B60 vibrato tailpiece, and is currently being produced in both Black & Walnut finishes. List price is just $900.