PART 2 is here: ua-cam.com/video/olh9gNRk7fs/v-deo.html So, finally I decided to go and look for a pre-cbs strat! It was a difficult shooting day - and I apologise for the slightly poor video production... my mind was really on the guitars and I didn't keep a tight handle on the camera... hope it is still fun to follow along! cheers
Hope you found the one you love! lol its like getting married, in a way? isnt it? or choosing your wife? its nuts i just made a tele purchase today myself....i think you found one you werent initially going for, thats my guess...
soundwise: 1st 58 MB Custom Shop, 2nd 58, 3rd second 63, 4th first 63, 5th 59. Buy one that feels & sounds great to your ear with Your Amp & Your Pedals. If You can't get original, get Custom Shop it will last you longer.
Loving the story, can't wait for part 2! Having bought guitars on impulse and regretted it, I developed a rule whereby I would never buy a guitar on the day I tried it, even if I was really taken by it. I would walk away and try and forget about it. If I still felt the same way about the guitar the next day, I'd go back and reassess. This saved me from quite a few impulse buys. However, the one time I broke the rule and bought on the same day, I regretted it and ended up taking the guitar back! It so easy to be "in a buying mood" and not really thinking straight
I think it was great that you were able to know they weren’t the one and walk away. You’ve obtained such great guitars recently that it may make this vintage journey a little longer as it will need to be the perfect guitar. Great content and we get to hear Ainsley. 👍
Love the videos with special guest appearances from Aynsley! Enjoying watching your adventures procuring all this gear! Living vicariously at the moment 😂
I might be jumping the gun with pt.2 yet to come. If you are looking for a pre cbs without issues boy do you have to play a lot of them to find a good one. I live in the UK and used to travel a lot and played 70+ pre CBS strats between the US and UK over a 5 years period before finding “the one”. The reality was most of them weren’t all that good. Even though I thought I wanted a 61 or ‘62 rosewood it’s a good idea to maintain an open mind because ‘the one’ turned out to be an all original reasonably worn “57 …just when I’d given up that it was all a myth. At the time I owned a decent pre cbs ‘63 refin and this ‘57 blew it away. I played other 57’s which were all decent (57 was an exceptional year) but this was magical and 5 years later remains so. Having walked into shops who had 7-8 pre cbs guitars convinced today’s the day I left disappointed. Truth is finding a really vintage guitar is as difficult as finding a really good modern guitar. It takes time and patience but IF you do find the one, it will prove the myth.
Love the inbetween positions of the 58, the neck of the 63 #2 sounded glorious. For me it had to be a Partscaster of all of the Strats you played there ^^
@@JamesOnGuitarYeah that would be overkill^^ You will find the perfect vintage Strat for you, sooner than you think maybe not this time at ATB but sometime soon..
I'm pretty sure I got one in my hands in 1988 at a friend's girlfriend home. It was her father's guitar, a 64 is I recall well. The string gauge was heavy with (tubular) strings for 4,5 and sixth string... like bass strings. The only time I saw that. Probably the strings were as much old as the guitar.
Great video again! Vintage guitars are tricky, you really need to spend time with them so you can get use to the feeling and see the differences... I would personally take 59! thank you for these videos 👏🏻👍🏻
Don't worry James ! The right one will come along .. You will know within 5 seconds. Leave it for a few months and see what comes along !! Say Hello to Aynsley !!
Another great instalment of your Strat journey! I'd love to think I'd be the same and just know if something wasn't right... but it must be so hard to leave empty handed... Although I'm guessing you might not have! :-) ...I'm off to part 2!!!
I’m not sure on what you decided on, that has to be a tough decision. Every guitar that I own I’ve spent a lot of time before the purchase playing and making sure I have that “connection” if you will, before buying it and bringing it home. I know your putting a lot of thought on this one.
No reason to hurry. It might take you a year or more to find one that works on all fronts... I know it's hard to do once you feel "ready" - - but seems to make a lot more sense to make it be the absolute right one.
I’ll never understand the mindset of buying a vintage strat in 2022. You could buy 5-10 custom shop strats for the price of one vintage strat. I know what I’d choose. A strat is a strat at the end of the day. Change the pickups if you don’t like the sound. Buy the one that feels good. But I’ll never be able to rationalize spending 30k on a guitar when amazing builders like fender CS and Suhr exist today
Yeah i mean we obviously start from different directions. I buy the CS because it represents the original pieces, something i now want to try. No doubt in many cases the modern guitar is more playable. But there are other charms than just convenience, ease etc. I am very fortunate to have modern guitars that I love and would most likely play more and play live if i needed to. The vintage guitars are pretty much a different hobby that fulfil a different desire.
I just wonder sometimes whether you have to be in the right frame of mind to go on safari. I was nonplussed with my Lester 58 reissue which I travelled to buy. The amps which I tried it through were big and in a private house we couldn’t get them cooking. The neck was bigger than I wanted also. So I bought it at risk. Got it home, plugged it in and man, it’s got mojo for days and sounds killer. I recently bought a mint 1998 PRS custom 22. Loved it when I tried it, got it home and I’m struggling to love it. Not sure what the moral of this story is other than it’s not always easy to tell what will work for you.
might want to go for a cheaper refinished 62-64 strat... that's been refinished but is mostly original, with the BRW board. can save like 10k right there and get a nicer strat
I tried Aynsley’s red ‘70 Strat at the Birmingham Guitar Show because he announced to the audience it’s for sale. That was pretty sweet and was damn near vibrating in my hands, never mind resonating. Have you tried it? At ££,£££ it was too rich for my blood. Very cool though.
He offered it to me first, but the colour and poly finish weren't for me. I told him he should announce it there, and then later put it on Instagram - he was keen to sell as he wanted something else. So, I never got to try it unfortunately through an amp but did see it. All those big headstock custom colours are really cool!
Disappointing to discover that the magical £20k Strat we long for can actually be a bit of a flat experience. You so want it to be everything to you but it's wire and wood, and it either works in a way that reaches you or it just doesn't. I'm sitting here surrounded by guitars I never play. Instead I reach for an unremarkable CBS that despite it's obvious shortcomings is the one I want to play.
Well as in the screw was unable to catch in the hole so the hole would need some work to allow it to take a screw and then who knows if that would hold. Not sure i wanted to put £25k into something that could be hiding issues, on top of which the original pick guard was quite damaged and may not hold up for much long 🤷🏽
Honestly if those guitars did not get you first time around then leave them, you need to go right over them for rewinds repairs, fake parts etc……keep looking
It is one of those situations where I would give that advice to someone else... but I just got home with the one I chose in the end, and finally had a chance to turn my vibrolux up to the sweetspot, and it is glorious. I went with my gut - could have gotten it wrong of course! The shop I got it from opens up the guitar and takes picture of everything. The blue guitar in episode 2, for example, had a rewired pickup.. do appreciate solid advice though! Are you Mark Foley who makes pickups btw?
I don’t get the lust for old technology, worn down, used guitars embedded with old cigarette smoke, sweat and grime from another man. It is the equivalent of a teenager lusting after granny porn.
PART 2 is here: ua-cam.com/video/olh9gNRk7fs/v-deo.html
So, finally I decided to go and look for a pre-cbs strat! It was a difficult shooting day - and I apologise for the slightly poor video production... my mind was really on the guitars and I didn't keep a tight handle on the camera... hope it is still fun to follow along! cheers
Oh come on...... part 2 ...... really!!! Nice video James, did you get the Blue one at the begging? That looked sweet!
Hope you found the one you love! lol its like getting married, in a way? isnt it? or choosing your wife? its nuts i just made a tele purchase today myself....i think you found one you werent initially going for, thats my guess...
soundwise: 1st 58 MB Custom Shop, 2nd 58, 3rd second 63, 4th first 63, 5th 59. Buy one that feels & sounds great to your ear with Your Amp & Your Pedals. If You can't get original, get Custom Shop it will last you longer.
Loving the story, can't wait for part 2! Having bought guitars on impulse and regretted it, I developed a rule whereby I would never buy a guitar on the day I tried it, even if I was really taken by it. I would walk away and try and forget about it. If I still felt the same way about the guitar the next day, I'd go back and reassess. This saved me from quite a few impulse buys. However, the one time I broke the rule and bought on the same day, I regretted it and ended up taking the guitar back! It so easy to be "in a buying mood" and not really thinking straight
I bought a 62 . You gotta love it instantly. It’s too much money to make a mistake .
That 1st 63 sounded amazing
Crikey, this is one heck of a journey. Thanks for taking us along for the ride! Looking forward to part 2
Cheers man, you're welcome!
absolute cliffhanger! looking forward to part 2, this channel is fast becoming a favourite of mine, great work :)
Thanks! I am still living the cliffhanger! Hopefully some conclusion later this week... :)
I think it was great that you were able to know they weren’t the one and walk away. You’ve obtained such great guitars recently that it may make this vintage journey a little longer as it will need to be the perfect guitar. Great content and we get to hear Ainsley. 👍
Whilst that is largely true. I wouldn’t count on me remaining sensible throughout this story 😂
Love the videos with special guest appearances from Aynsley! Enjoying watching your adventures procuring all this gear! Living vicariously at the moment 😂
Haha I'll tell him you said so... he'll start charging me for the privilege ;)
Ohhhhhhh the Suspense............... Great stuff as usual!
I might be jumping the gun with pt.2 yet to come. If you are looking for a pre cbs without issues boy do you have to play a lot of them to find a good one. I live in the UK and used to travel a lot and played 70+ pre CBS strats between the US and UK over a 5 years period before finding “the one”. The reality was most of them weren’t all that good. Even though I thought I wanted a 61 or ‘62 rosewood it’s a good idea to maintain an open mind because ‘the one’ turned out to be an all original reasonably worn “57 …just when I’d given up that it was all a myth. At the time I owned a decent pre cbs ‘63 refin and this ‘57 blew it away. I played other 57’s which were all decent (57 was an exceptional year) but this was magical and 5 years later remains so. Having walked into shops who had 7-8 pre cbs guitars convinced today’s the day I left disappointed. Truth is finding a really vintage guitar is as difficult as finding a really good modern guitar. It takes time and patience but IF you do find the one, it will prove the myth.
This is fun to watch , thanks James
Cheers man!
Love the inbetween positions of the 58, the neck of the 63 #2 sounded glorious. For me it had to be a Partscaster of all of the Strats you played there ^^
Totally get you on that! Most likely, that'd be double my budget though :)
@@JamesOnGuitarYeah that would be overkill^^ You will find the perfect vintage Strat for you, sooner than you think maybe not this time at ATB but sometime soon..
I'm pretty sure I got one in my hands in 1988 at a friend's girlfriend home. It was her father's guitar, a 64 is I recall well. The string gauge was heavy with (tubular) strings for 4,5 and sixth string... like bass strings. The only time I saw that. Probably the strings were as much old as the guitar.
Great video again! Vintage guitars are tricky, you really need to spend time with them so you can get use to the feeling and see the differences... I would personally take 59! thank you for these videos 👏🏻👍🏻
Cheers man, yeah, it was tough on the spot there.... this story is not over!
Don't worry James ! The right one will come along .. You will know within 5 seconds. Leave it for a few months and see what comes along !! Say Hello to Aynsley !!
Another great instalment of your Strat journey! I'd love to think I'd be the same and just know if something wasn't right... but it must be so hard to leave empty handed... Although I'm guessing you might not have! :-) ...I'm off to part 2!!!
😉
I’m not sure on what you decided on, that has to be a tough decision. Every guitar that I own I’ve spent a lot of time before the purchase playing and making sure I have that “connection” if you will, before buying it and bringing it home. I know your putting a lot of thought on this one.
No reason to hurry. It might take you a year or more to find one that works on all fronts... I know it's hard to do once you feel "ready" - - but seems to make a lot more sense to make it be the absolute right one.
I’ll never understand the mindset of buying a vintage strat in 2022. You could buy 5-10 custom shop strats for the price of one vintage strat. I know what I’d choose. A strat is a strat at the end of the day. Change the pickups if you don’t like the sound. Buy the one that feels good. But I’ll never be able to rationalize spending 30k on a guitar when amazing builders like fender CS and Suhr exist today
Yeah i mean we obviously start from different directions. I buy the CS because it represents the original pieces, something i now want to try. No doubt in many cases the modern guitar is more playable. But there are other charms than just convenience, ease etc. I am very fortunate to have modern guitars that I love and would most likely play more and play live if i needed to. The vintage guitars are pretty much a different hobby that fulfil a different desire.
I just wonder sometimes whether you have to be in the right frame of mind to go on safari. I was nonplussed with my Lester 58 reissue which I travelled to buy. The amps which I tried it through were big and in a private house we couldn’t get them cooking. The neck was bigger than I wanted also. So I bought it at risk. Got it home, plugged it in and man, it’s got mojo for days and sounds killer. I recently bought a mint 1998 PRS custom 22. Loved it when I tried it, got it home and I’m struggling to love it. Not sure what the moral of this story is other than it’s not always easy to tell what will work for you.
That pretty much sounds like what is happening this week…
I’m kinda surprised sound log the second 63 for me. However I think you just know when it’s right.
When you have a loose screw, put a piece of a toothpick in the hole and then put the screw back in.
Is that a double neck gibson in the background on the left??? Shouldve gotten that!
Hang on to your hat man
Ohhhhh man!
Have some faith Stephen 😂
i'd go for the rosewood ones every time... not like you can get BRW boards easily anymore. and they hold up way better than maple
“… not humongous …” JamesOnGuitar: 2022. PS. That’s what he/she/they said.
Great vid as always. Thanks for taking us along.
Did I say that? I meant, 'very humungous' haha
might want to go for a cheaper refinished 62-64 strat... that's been refinished but is mostly original, with the BRW board. can save like 10k right there and get a nicer strat
Watch episode 2 😃 you are right… question is, is that right for me?
@@JamesOnGuitar ooooh i didn't realize there was an episode 2 yet...
I tried Aynsley’s red ‘70 Strat at the Birmingham Guitar Show because he announced to the audience it’s for sale. That was pretty sweet and was damn near vibrating in my hands, never mind resonating. Have you tried it? At ££,£££ it was too rich for my blood. Very cool though.
P.s. I think the ‘58 and the MB ‘58 have my vote from part 1. Looking forward to the conclusion… 🙂
He offered it to me first, but the colour and poly finish weren't for me. I told him he should announce it there, and then later put it on Instagram - he was keen to sell as he wanted something else. So, I never got to try it unfortunately through an amp but did see it. All those big headstock custom colours are really cool!
Subscribed! 👍👍👍
you tease James and no hint in the background either mmm I know you bought one off Ainsley?
Disappointing to discover that the magical £20k Strat we long for can actually be a bit of a flat experience. You so want it to be everything to you but it's wire and wood, and it either works in a way that reaches you or it just doesn't. I'm sitting here surrounded by guitars I never play. Instead I reach for an unremarkable CBS that despite it's obvious shortcomings is the one I want to play.
Dude. When you go test drive a car do you take Mario Andretti with you?
Why, yes… i do 😉
i bet 69 strat from cbs were maybe bigger c shapes atm
If you could get them to put that 63 neck on the 58 body!! I mean they'll still get they're $$ back
🤣🤣 great idea!
cool video!!
Putting a screw in a pickguard is "some work"? Yeah, okay. Guitars sound great. Just confirms that my '84 Squier is just fine.
Well as in the screw was unable to catch in the hole so the hole would need some work to allow it to take a screw and then who knows if that would hold. Not sure i wanted to put £25k into something that could be hiding issues, on top of which the original pick guard was quite damaged and may not hold up for much long 🤷🏽
Build your own
How much are these guitars?
The pre-cbs burst ones were around £23-27k
Sounds like you need a Nash S-63. 😂
Buy a 60s gibson sg and forget the fenders, you wont be sorry!
Thought you'd go with a 63 strat. Matthew ; 6:33 God speed
Honestly if those guitars did not get you first time around then leave them, you need to go right over them for rewinds repairs, fake parts etc……keep looking
It is one of those situations where I would give that advice to someone else... but I just got home with the one I chose in the end, and finally had a chance to turn my vibrolux up to the sweetspot, and it is glorious. I went with my gut - could have gotten it wrong of course! The shop I got it from opens up the guitar and takes picture of everything. The blue guitar in episode 2, for example, had a rewired pickup.. do appreciate solid advice though! Are you Mark Foley who makes pickups btw?
@@JamesOnGuitar Yes that’s right
I don’t get the lust for old technology, worn down, used guitars embedded with old cigarette smoke, sweat and grime from another man. It is the equivalent of a teenager lusting after granny porn.
@ 11.00 That burst is laying in the back ground must be a FAKE no reputable dealer would lay it like that..whats the bet its a FATBOY replica??t
That is an amazing spot! Yeah, it is a fake but they are open about it! Impressive detecting! 👌🏽
i would get the cheaper 63, get a new pick guard and some new pups, save the old stuff in a box...
Tbh for the sake of £2k it doesn’t seem worth spending basically 25 to not have real original pups!