Sold a motorcycle, bought a guitar

We finally got the ad up on craigslist for my 2001 Suzuki SV650S, exactly the same time as someone was looking for just the bike. I posted the ad early Friday for what I thought was a fair price. I did get two immediate answers but then it was flagged and deleted by the craigslist mods. I did post a query to the craigslist forums as to why it was deleted and had several answers; I didn’t post to Boulder, I posted to Denver which is a no-no, I posted that it had been raced which was a no-no, the price was too high, the pictures show racing. So I was going to post it for about $500 less based on the value in Kelly Blue Book. The funny thing is that Rita put the bike up around the same time without telling me (which might have also caused it to be pulled), asked for $300 more than I’d asked and of course $800 more than I was going to ask the second time and had someone come by at 5:30 to look at it, give it a try, and then buy it!

The guy had recently gotten back on a bike after 20 years. His son had purchased (with his own money) a 93 which made it home but was just giving them loads of problems. So dad bought this one for him. They’ll work on the other one and sell it to try and get some funds back.

I need her to make more ads for me. Mine just get spammers and low ballers.

Anyway, after getting the cash and waving to the guys riding the bike off I already knew what I wanted to get. I got on line and searched about for a Fender Stratocaster and the prices. Most were $300 to about $800 for MIM (Made in Mexico) models with a few others for more. With that I headed over to Todd’s Guitars Etc. over on Main Street. Rita says I support local merchants too much šŸ™‚

Todd wasn’t in so I worked with his assistant. I told him that I did want to get a Stratocaster (Strat) and didn’t know what the different models were. I didn’t mind getting a used one if an appropriate one was available but didn’t want to get a special model or edition for the extra bucks as I didn’t want to spent a lot of money. I also wanted to get a Line-6 JM4 Looper. Zack uses one for our lessons and I really like its capabilities for teaching.

Anyway, he set up a Fender Standard Stratocaster (he said it was made in Mexico which is not bad as my telecaster is also made in Mexico), then a Fender American Special, finally a Fender American Standard HSS. The Telecaster (which I currently have) has two pickups (the electronics that translates the string strum to digital), one at the bridge and one at the neck. It has a switch that in the forward position activates the neck pickup. The rear position activates the bridge pickup and the center position activates both. The two pickups have different sounds. The neck provides a softer tone while the rear one provides a twangier one.

Fender Standard Telecaster (the one I currently own but in Placid Blue)

Fender Standard Stratocaster

Fender American Special

Fender American Standard HSS (H=Humbucker double pickup, S=Single pickup)

As you can see, the Strat has three pickups. A neck and a bridge like the Tele but there’s one in the center as well. The switch has 5 positions. Position 1 activates the neck pickup. Position 2 activates the neck and center pickups. Position 3 activates just the center pickup. Position 4 activates the center and bridge pickups. And Position 5 activates the bridge pickup. My Telecaster and the first two Stratocasters have a single coil pickup in all positions (check the pictures; you can see the single row of points under the strings at the neck and center or bridge on the Tele). The American Standard has a humbucker dual coil pickup in the bridge position.

So as he wandered around helping others, I played the three guitars. Honestly the Mexican and American Special both sounded pretty much the same and similarly to my Telecaster but the American Standard sounded a lot different, better in some ways than my Telecaster. The price was a little higher than I wanted to go especially since I was looking at a Line-6 FM4 Looper as well so I asked if there was some play in the price. He went to check and dropped $100 from the total.

While I was waiting, Zack became available (he was teaching on Saturday) so I chatted with him. We talked guitars and looked over the ones I was examining then when I mentioned I was interested in the Line-6 as well in part because he uses it in our sessions, he had me come in and went over some of the things we hadn’t touched on yet. I was already sold but it’s nice that Zack took some extra time to show me the machine.

Anyway, pics of my new guitar!

Fender American Standard Stratocaster with a Humbucker pickup:

Line-6 JM4 Looping Machine:

All the pictures

Pretty sweet I must say.

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