Regret and reconnection, these two words sum up my history with this guitar. December first, 2017 after selling off some 50 pedals and other assorted gear I finally ordered the 1959 Stratocaster I had been dreaming of. I had worked with the buyer over couple days coming to a price that worked for both of us and was now in my budget.
When it first arrived I felt immediate regret. The tuners felt loose, the neck was super skinny (which I later found out is common on Strats of this year) and some of the controls were pretty sloppy feeling. Had I bought a dud? When people say that vintage guitars have their own personalities, they mean it. This guitar likes heavy gauge strings (11’s minimum at Eb) and prefers to be in standard tuning unless you go even heavier. At that point the tuners are rock solid, the frets play smooth and clean, and the guitar sounds incredible. Learning how to get it into the 2 and 4 pickup positions took a little while but have their own rewards. Did you know on a three way selector there are more than 5 pickup combinations? Apparently the 2 and 4 positions can actually “lean” towards the middle pickup and the neck/bridge. Resulting in different tonal combinations which for example could sound pretty much identical to the neck pickup, but both tone pots would affect the tone, giving very slight variations.
I had owned the guitar for just just over a year, have learning all the intricacies and foibles of the guitar over that time. However a new focus on financial freedom, and an immediate need for money to purchase a rental property would mean a need to sell. After fees I made a very small profit but was content that I essentially borrowed a vintage Strat for a year and got paid to do so.
A year and a half goes buy, replacing my guitars with a ‘61 Reserve SVL, which after replacing the middle pickup with a non-reverse wound one got as close to the tone of the ‘59 as any other guitar I had tried in that time. But then came the messages, first from someone who contacted me to see if they could get the buyer information of the Strat to see if they could buy it. That deal didn’t happen, but I was reminded of the guitar and new the buyer still had it and was willing to sell now though. Later when moving videos from my old YouTube account to the new one, I was reminded how incredible that 1959 Stratocaster sounded.
Some messages later, an agreement was struck to essentially refund the original purchase and return the Strat back to my possession. So now it’s back, and this time I’m not making the mistake of letting it ago again… well at least that’s the plan for now.
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Here it is, the Stratocaster that I often refer to as “the first”, “the original”or if I’m channeling my inner Stevie, my “Number One”