Fell out of love...

[mangotango]

...with my Strat. 1991 USA Strat Plus, Blueburst, rosewood. It used to be my main guitar with my covers band. It looks sweet, sounds nice - though I always found those Lace Sensors to be versatile if not necessarily too Stratty. Anyway, it did all the things I needed and I even used to play a few jazzy tunes on the neck p/u with the tone backed off. Was more stopgap than totally convincing on that front, but whatever...

And I felt at home with that guitar for 15 years. It had a very emotoinal attachment in that the day I saw it and decided to buy it, I was on the way home from the funeral of a good friend (and great drummer). Stopped off at the local guitar shop run by another mate, more to swap stories and stuff than to buy a guitar - and there it was. So I invested, and never regreatted it.

Until recently. When the covers band reformed, I brought out the Strat again, having played only archtops/semi's for a couple of years. Plug in, turn it up, play...........nothing. Just wood in my hands, no feeling or resonance for me at all.

Kept on for a couple of rehearsals, but eventually broke out my cheap old Ibanez semi - and started to feel happier about things. Except for the Strat, about which I wasn't happy. So I tried again last week......and again nothing. When you're wishing for a low-busget 335 copy instead of a "proper" Strat, something's wrong.

And there it was. I had fallen out of love. Completely and all of a sudden.

And whereas I had promised myself that I'd never again sell a guitar that I liked, my keyboards player, on hearing that i wasn't happy, may me an offer that I couldn't refuse for it - so at least I know that it's going to a good home.

Anyone else ever had that? Where one day a guitar is just the thing you need, and then all of a sudden...it's just a thing.

Really quite surprised and it's never happened like that before to me. Quite strange.

Anyone with a similar tale to tell? Or am I the weirdo around here?

[Tom Karol]

You're not alone. I had a '66 L4-C with a floating DeArmond Rhythm Chief 1100. When my son was small we called it, "Dadddy's Favorite," - the one I'd grab (after him) if the house was on fire. Bought it in '72, sold it about 25 years later. I don't really miss it, but I'd like to have it back again so I could sell it for a lot more money than I did 15 years ago! Now, give me a T-Type and a 335 clone and I'm all set.

[pingu]

Me too I used to be joined at the hip to a '63
335 with a PAF in the neck
whats not to like right ??
Strangly haven't played it for years now
I play a cheap Korean Ibanez AF120 cost me £300
go figure !

[cosmic gumbo]

I played guitars with humbuckers for 20 years before I got my strat. I love how the strat plays and feels, and all those different strat sounds are so cool and exclusive to it. However, the one sound it does not do is the humbucker sound, and that always leaves me lacking. I've wondered if a fender with humbuckers and coil splitters is a happy compromise. It's more fun just to have lots of different guitars with different sounds....

[jazzbow]

Ah yes, a 1988 Candy Apple Red Tele with maple neck, I remember you well.
Those lovely days of wine and roses until that brazen hussy of a Cort Royal Blue Hollow jazz guitar came between us, then our relationship became days of whine and poses.......
But now that Tele muse is calling and I'm lusting after a Tele Custom, oh the heddy delights of twanng!

[SamBooka]

I try ... but I just dont get on with strats any more..

[mr. beaumont]

It happens.

I, of all people, rarely play my tele anymore.

Actually, now that I'm not gigging for a bit (not that I was gigging a lot to begin with, but I digress) I'm not even plugging in much...playing mostly acoustic (or my hofner unplugged while my wife sleeps!)

[mangotango]

Yeh, thought I couldn't be entirely alone on this. Thanks guys.

However, there's also an oldish ('67) Gibson Melody Maker that I've been "doing up". When I bought it, the previous owner had installed a P-90, new tuners, weird bridge, and a brass nut; and raised the action. I bought it for what it was - the perfect guitar for slide. Kept it in open G and gigged with it for years.

Then, more recently, I decided to restore it a little. Still keeping the P90, but bought a replacement bridge/vibrola as per the original, and fully intending to put old-style tuners on it to get it back nearer the original. Great little rock'n'roll guitar, right?

Hmmm. Enthusiasm level for that project also hovering around nil as well. Will finish that off when I find the time and then stick it on eBay.

And then look around for a nice old non-cut archtop to stick heavy strings on to play in the big bands.

Weird how these things go, huh?

[SamBooka]

the pendulum.. it swings.