Do you have a guitar which is totally normal, yet unique? (Finish-wise, or an exceptional piece of lumber used in its construction.)
- Thread starter Blazer
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sloppychops
Friend of Leo's
The neck on my t64 is pretty nice. Haven't seen another with that middle piece of wood looking so good.
Pointmonger
Tele-Afflicted
I've got a 62 Sorrento reissue that has grain on the back that looks like some long haired guy flipping the bird.
beep.click
Poster Extraordinaire
Every guitar I have is "totally normal, yet unique." It's sort of a hobby with me to shop every guitar store I come across, and play everything I can -- including guitars I "should" theoretically hate. That's why I own a cheapo single-pickup Ibanez shredder guitar; sounds and plays incredible, for no obvious reason. At the other end of the spectrum, a repair guy in the mid 80s told me that the reason I like my main Ric is, "It doesn't sound like a Rickenbacker." He's sorta right, it's unlike any other.
Visually, maybe my most unusual item is a recent Squier Cyclone. $400, and it has the most highly figured flame maple neck I've ever seen on anything. I'd love to post a picture, but it's in storage right now...
Visually, maybe my most unusual item is a recent Squier Cyclone. $400, and it has the most highly figured flame maple neck I've ever seen on anything. I'd love to post a picture, but it's in storage right now...
ChicknPickn
Poster Extraordinaire
trapdoor2
Poster Extraordinaire
Body is sassafras. "Sassquire"
1stpitch
Tele-Afflicted
This was my first build. The body is spalted ash.
A couple I scratch built myself.
robt57
Telefied
This neck has interesting story. It spent 12 years in bars thru 90s in Nashville area. I got rid of it after unsuccessfully getting the cigarette stank out of it. Tea Tree oil helped it a lot, but covered more than abated said stank. It was nice figured Warmoth fat @ nut neck.
The Nicotine patina was killer though...
The Nicotine patina was killer though...
robt57
Telefied
May I inquire as to your Avatar pic?
stratisfied
Friend of Leo's
A perfectly normal Ibanez Jazz Box with an off the charts figured top. Note that I replaced the original hideous cream pickup rings with faux ebony (black plastic fine sanded). Sometimes, the smallest things set off a guitar.
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It's a famous picture of American cyclist Andy Hampsten in snowstorm on the Gavia Pass in the 1988 Giro. He'd go on to win the race.
robt57
Telefied
it was too small as avatar pic, thanks for the bigger shot.
robt57
Telefied
Indeed! Pickguard no less so...
Jared Purdy
Poster Extraordinaire
I'm no expert, but I'd have to say my 2011 CS Deluxe Strat fits that description. It's got a standard, two piece ash body, and from there, it just gets different. It's got a 50's neck in birds eye maple, locking tuners, two point trem, three ply aged pick guard (and matching cover on the back), and John Cruz Master design PUs. To top off the weirdness: it's finished in poly (three colour sunburst). Plays like a dream, and sounds incredible. It wasn't;t made for long, and they offered other variants with flame maple caps.Well, as we all know, you can try all telecasters in a store and find that they're all different from each other. Heck, ask a luthier to build you two matching guitars and they'll end up two totally different instruments.
But most of the time, having a normal series made guitar with a feature which makes it stand apart from the pack is down to sheer luck. Or due to circumstances the former owner used it in.
This is my 1982 Squier JV series with a 1988 Fender USA body strat "Mary"
View attachment 1174634
And looking at that body you might go "Yes, that DOES look like one of those finishes Fender did in those days." That understated green with almost a gray tint, was something you'd see in the eighties. So nothing exceptional at all, right?
But then you flip it over...
View attachment 1174636
And it reveals itself to be a very vibrant surf green.
Here's the body with its former owner, showing the contrast even more.
I honestly have no idea which caused that color shift at the front of the body only, but it DOES make my strat a very unique but ordinary guitar.
So unique in fact that I found an old photo taken at the shop where it originally had been for sale, that green gray tint is so distinctive that there's no doubt that it's the same guitar.
View attachment 1174638
ElJay370
Friend of Leo's
A buddy of mine has a Squier Telecaster with a ridiculously flamey maple neck on it that he scored at a swap meet for 80 bucks. It’s a great player too. I’ve offered him three times that, but he (understandably) won’t give it up.
robt57
Telefied
No pic, but I had a MIJ Squire ProLine/Thinline that had a very figured neck. Now that you reminded me...
It did not speak to me VS the profit I made selling it did...
acoustic rob
Tele-Afflicted
My Squier CVC Tele has some nice flame on the back of its neck and a really resonant body. No idea how common or uncommon it is, but for an inexpensive Chinese guitar it punches *way* above its weight class.
