Last week I talked about my two Strats. Well, two of my Strats. The two Strats that I have that I play anyways. I think I have four. Maybe five. The Hwy One, the ADE, the Monterey Strat from 2017, and the Splattercaster. I think that's all of them.

Since I mentioned them last time, I thought I'd talk about the Hwy One and the ADE.

The Highway One is a 2009 according to the serial number. Mrs Snarf bought it for me in really early 2010. I had started working my way through Griff Hamlin's Blues Guitar Unleashed course, and, to motivate myself, I decided that I would buy myself a MIA Strat once I got done with it. Had it already picked out and everything. My wife walked in one day, let me know that she had gotten a pretty good bonus at work, and told me to buy the Strat that I had been looking at. So I ordered it well before I finished the course.

Don't quote me on this, but I think the Hwy One series was built from early 2000s through 2010. In 2010 or 2011, I believe they were replaced by the American Performer series. As I recall, they changed a few things in the series long about 2006. I think they changed the pickups, but the thing I remember most is that they added the Rust Bucket tone control. I don't remember what exactly it does, but I think I remember the ads saying something about cuts the highs without adding more lows.

Mine's a 3 color sunburst with an ebony fretboard. Whatever pickups are in the Hwy One series (I never found out) with the middle being reverse wound, reverse polarity. A 1970s headstock. A modern C-shape neck. That Rust Bucket tone control I mentioned earlier. I've heard over the years that the electronics are all American and I've heard that they were the same electronics as they put into the MIM Strats.  

I've always liked the the finish on it. It's a satin finish, and since it's a sunburst, you can really see the wood grain through it. Also, since it's satin, the more you play it, the more the areas of wear shine.

I've never quite figured out the Rust Bucket part of the tone control. It does what a tone control is supposed to do. However, I've always like that the first tone control runs the tone on the neck pickup, and the second tone control runs the bridge pickup. There is no tone control on the middle pickup that seldom gets used. 

It has what I would consider a modern Strat sound. The pickups seem a little hotter than regular single coils. At least hotter than the usual stock pickup on a Strat. Playing through the positions, it definitely sounds like a Strat.

The other is a 2013 American Design Experience. That's the equivalent of a current Mod Shop guitar. Before the Mod Shop, where you can order whatever pretty much whatever guitar you want online, Fender had the American Design Experience. It was the predecessor of the Mod Shop. And before they had the online American Design Experience, they had the one where I got my guitar. When I got mine, you actually had to go to the factory out in Corona. It's probably the closest thing I'll ever own to a real Fender Custom Shop.

Now, when you got to Corona, there was the little visitor center that had a gift shop and museum-ish area. Then, off to the side, there was this small room over on the side where you could go and spec out a guitar. They had bodies, necks, pickups, bridges, and all the other hardware around the room and on the walls, and you could pick out what you wanted in a guitar. If it was in the room, then it was an option on your guitar. If it wasn't in the room, then it wasn't something you could pick.

Over in one corner was a rack that had probably 20 Strat bodies and 20 Tele bodies and maybe 10 or 15 bass bodies. I had wanted a surf green one, but they didn't have any in the rack, and the guy reminded me that if it wasn't in the room then it wasn't an option. I ended up picking a body color that I hadn't seen before. It wasn't really that special other than the fact that I had (and still haven't) seen that color anywhere. The one I picked is a satin orange color. I went over and played with the rack of necks and ended up with a fairly standard one-piece maple neck.

Then I went over to the hardware and picked a set of vintage tuners and one of the modern bridges. Got to the pickups, and the guy showed me the list on the wall. There were the standard pickups plus the Noiseless and Custom Shop 50s and a couple of other Custom Shop varieties. The ones that I wanted were the CS 69s, and they weren't on the list. So I mentioned that to the guy, and he said that they had pulled them off the list because they were in short supply at the time. But then he let me know that he'd be sure that my guitar got a set of 69s in it. 

From there, everything went into a box with my name on it that went into the corner of the room with some other boxes that had names on them. Two months later, it arrived on my doorstep. By the time all was said and done, it was a nice balance between a Standard and a Deluxe. The total cost of it was also right dead in between the two. And it was also twice as much as the Hwy One.

I believe that my opinion is being objective when I say that they're both super nice guitars. Out of the box (and even today) the fit and finish on both of them are great. They both play great, but, as I mentioned in the previous post, the Hwy One plays a little better. Not sure what it is about it, but it does. They both sound like a Strat, but those CS 69s in the ADE Strat just sound soooo nice. For the money, they're both great guitars.  Bang for the buck, you can't beat the Hwy One. Total cost, the ADE is a super nice guitar as well.
​

I bought that ES-339 back in April (I think), and it's about all I've played since then. I kept a 335 out hanging on the wall for a bit that I would pick up occasionally. About a month ago, I put the 335 up and pulled out a Telecaster, and it's the guitar that I've picked up about once a week when I wasn't playing the 339. I've been reminded how much I like some single coil pickups.

Now the Telecaster has always had a couple of issues. I bought it a little over a year ago. Back in the great gear purge of 2020, I traded a 50s Road Worn Tele because I never played it. Like never. It was one of the original Road Worns. Or at least one of the first couple of years they were making those (I think). It wasn't a color that I really liked (blonde), but the neck on it was the best strat/tele neck that I had ever touched. It was for that reason I bought it. And pretty quickly realized I wasn't a Tele kind of guy. When I traded it, I think it had sat in the closet pretty much untouched for at least the 3 years we had lived in this house.

Then I started seeing that purple Tele from Anderton's over in the UK, and really liked the look of it. Like really liked the purple look of it. Then I saw that GC was selling a Road Worn version of it. It had been out a year or two, and I could already see that they were becoming more scarce. So, when I saw Musicians Friend put them on sale in the summer of 2021, I pulled the trigger and am pretty sure that I got one of the last new ones. When I ordered it, MF had them on sale, but they were listed on both the MF and GC website. I ordered mine, got the ship notification, and the next day the listing on both sites showed them as no longer available. 

So back to the couple of issues. Had I played this one at the local GC (I ordered it from MF, but it came from a GC across the country), I probably would've passed on it. It had hung on the wall long enough that the hanger had burned the neck up by the nut. The neck didn't feel anywhere near as good as the one on the previous Road Worn, and the skunk stripe wasn't sanded real smooth. But the biggest thing is that the fret ends were terrible. I don't think it had a case of fret sprout. I think it was that whoever cut the frets just did a bad job or maybe had a dull set of cutters. But, I figured that everybody needed a Tele, I had traded away one that wasn't bad for one that wasn't as good, but I really like the purple, so I ought to keep it since it doesn't look like I can get another one for the price I paid. So I kept it and figured I'd do something about the frets at some point.

That was the long way around the bush to say that, after playing it a few times this month, I finally pulled out my tools to try and smooth out the fret ends. And, since i had my stuff out and was taking up all the space on the kitchen island, I pulled out a couple of Strats since I haven't one of them out in at least a year.

After I got them out and cleaned them up and changed the strings, I decided that I was going to do something I had never done before. I decided to A/B them for a few minutes. Not that it really matters, but they're both MIA, but one cost twice what the other cost. They're both great guitars! The fit and finish on them both has always been outstanding. Even never having played them back to back like this (I always seemed to have one or the other out, but never both at the same time) I knew that I liked the way one felt and played better than the other. So it was time to check out if I still thought the same thing about them.

One is a Highway One. Mrs Snarf bought it for me at the beginning of 2010. It's the one that I've always preferred the feel of. It just sits in the hands right and the action is pretty much just like I like it. It sounds like a Strat should. It's a bone stock 2009 model. Although I've talked about it for years. I've never changed anything on it but the strings.

The other is a Fender American Design Experience from 2013. It is from before they put that option online. When I got mine you had to go to the factory, and, in that little room off to the side of the gift shop, you would pick out your body, neck, and all the rest of the specs that you wanted that they had available. Unlike what they started doing when they started doing it online, you had your choice of what was in the room at the time. If they didn't have it in the room, you couldn't choose it. The day I spec-ed mine out, there were maybe 20 Strat bodies and maybe 10 necks.

There are several differences in the ADE and the Hwy One, but one of the biggest is that it has Custom Shop '69 pickups in it. Those weren't actually on the list to choose from (although other CS pickups were), but when I asked about them, the builder that was in the room that day noted that's what I wanted and said those were in short supply at the time so they took them off the list, but he'd be sure mine got them. With that, he put all the components from around the room that I had picked out into a box, put my name on it, and set on the side of the room with a couple of other boxes with names on them. About 2 months later, the guitar showed up on my doorstep. The cost of it was somewhere between an American Standard and an American Deluxe, and is probably the closest thing I'll ever had to buying a Fender Custom Shop.

That was another bush to take you around, so back to playing them back to back.

Spent about 30 minutes just playing the same riffs and licks and chords through the same amp set the exact same way. I was actually a little surprised at the results.

I didn't expect that I would so quickly be reminded that I really prefer the feel of the Hwy One. It still just feels right to me. Something about it that I'm not sure I can describe. Theoretically, the two guitars should be really similar feeling since I set them up myself and aim for the same thing on every Strat and Tele I have. I follow the same process, and I try to get them all to feel the same way. Maybe it's the cut of the neck or something. I don't really know. But that Hwy One just feels better than the ADE. If I was just going off sound, I would go with the Hwy One every day.

I think the sound of the two was what really surprised me though. There is no question that the Hwy One sounds like a Strat. It very much does. But I think I made the comment when I first started playing the ADE that I finally understood what they meant when they said a good Strat sounds glassy. Those ADE pickups just sound sooooo good to my ear. The Hwy One has its own unique Strat sound, but the ADE sounds like a Strat should sound. The Hwy One plays better than the ADE, but, when I try to be objective, I think the ADE almost runs circles around the Hwy One when it comes to sound.

So, after working on the Tele last night and getting those fret ends down so they don't cut you, I've almost decided to put the Tele back in the closet and leave out one of the Strats instead. The question now is which one. It'll probably be the ADE since it sounds so nice.

I'll just get this out up front.  I really like gig bags.  Truth is, unless there is a compelling reason to use a case, I'll grab a gig bag every time.  Here are some of the ones that I've got along with a synopsis of each of them.  I'll tell you which ones I use and which ones are only used as the closet keepers.

Fender Stock Gig Bags.  I don't have a pic of one of these bags down below.  It's the one that you used to get with some of the MIM instruments.  I'm not sure they include them anymore.  I'll tell you up front that, I guess you could use these as a real gig bag.  They'll get your guitar to and from where you're playing so long as you're not banging it around.  They offer some protection, but not a whole ton of it.  There's a pocket on the front where you can stick a cable and book or something too.  Clip-on back pack straps.  I have (and use) several of these bags.  They keep some of my Strats and Teles in the closet.  If one of the guitars that I have stored in them decides to get played out, I move it to a better bag before I head out with it.  From a price perspective, I'm pretty sure you could get one of these all day long for under $50.

Parker Stock Gig Bag.  No pic of this one either.  It's a bit more padded than the Fender stock bag.  Outside of that, it's got an extra pocket on the outside that the Fender doesn't have, but feature-wise, they're pretty much the same.  It keeps my Parker (P-44) in the closet, but I have also used it when I've traveled with that guitar.  I trust it more than I would the Fender bags.  Back when Parker was in business, they included this with all of their non-MIA guitars, and, if I remember correctly, you could buy one for around $80.  Since Parker isn't making guitars anymore, I have no idea what they would cost if you went looking for one.
​

I've never been a real big fan of multi effects.  At least not in the past.  It seems that, as time goes by, they're just getting better and better.  And, when I talk about multi effects, I'm not talking about the pedals that have a couple of actual pedals in one housing like the ElectroHarmonix Turnip Greens or TrueTone Route 66.  Those are a different breed of multi effect and don't really count.  I'm talking about the boxes made by Zoom and Digitech and even Boss and Fender that have LOTS of effects in them.

My opinion is probably a little jaded because the old ones are small, in plastic cases that, face it, weren't really made to withstand much abuse, and generally sounded (to my ear) pretty crappy.  Back in the day, I'd look at the Zoom offerings from time to time at the local guitar shops.  I really wanted to like them.  But in my not so humble opinion, they seemed like they would break too easily and weren't very intuitive.

Don't get me wrong, I've always like tech.  I work in and around tech, and have done so for nearly 20 years.  I just think there's a lot to be said about making tech easily understandable and easy to use for everyone...even the lay person.  When I install something on my computer (especially these days), I want it to be plug and play and not have to install a bunch of obscure drivers for it to work correctly, and I want to be able to look at its interface and get a good idea of what I need to do to get it to do what I want it to do.  At least on some of those earlier multi effects that I always looked at, this totally didn't describe them.  You had to dig for most of the settings, and it was an all or nothing thing.  On your preset you either got everything you originally programmed to it or you had to re-program it.  If you had some OD and reverb on it, and you wanted to drop the reverb for a bit, well, you couldn't.  The preset had OD and reverb so you either got both or neither.

I eventually broke down and bought a Digitech RP50.  I really, really tried to like it.  Kept it for a couple of years playing with it and trying to get it to a point that I thought it was usable.  To do that, I created a bunch of presets and then grouped them.  The first would be a completely clean sound against an amp sound.  Then I'd add some drive to it on the next slot.  Then the next slot would add chorus to that.  Then the next would add reverb.  Then the next would be the reverb added but without the chorus.  And so on.  

The sounds coming from it weren't really good.  They weren't really bad.  They were just sort of ok.  I eventually tossed it in the closet where it sat for several years.  I found it, pulled it out, and a buddy offered me $20 for it.  I just gave it to him.  Not like I was using it.  

Then along came the GNX3 and GNX4 and some of the other units that did what I had wanted them to do before.  You could setup a preset, but turn parts of it on or off.  I knew a guy that had one of those (a GNX3 I think).  He never actually let me play around with ("you're gonna ruin my presets, dude!"), but it seemed like they tech was finally getting to where I wanted to try it again.

Fast forward a few years after that even, and I eventually picked up a Fender Mustang Floor.  I had a couple of buddies that were using the Fender Mustangs, and their amp models seemed really good.  That tech had finally come far enough that, even though it still wasn't tube amp good, it's believable enough that most folks aren't going to know the difference.  Especially when run though a PA in an environment where there are LOTS of other instruments playing at the same time.

I also like that it's pretty intuitive.  You can change the settings pretty easily through the on-board interface or you can use the Fender Fuse software.  The on-board interface is easy to understand and use.  You do have to go several levels deep on some of the settings to change them, but the basic settings are right there.  I prefer the Fuse option though because the settings are all right there.

I actually picked it up for when I'm doing the worship band gig.  Nobody but the other guitarist cares if I'm using a tube amp or what my pedals are.  The Mustang Floor not only does a good enough job with the amp models and effects that it doesn't sound bad, and it has enough outputs that I can give the sound person whatever kind of line out they want.  In a situation like that, it's always been my experience that you either don't get an amp or you don't get an amp on stage with you, so you can't hear it anyways.  So the Mustang Floor gives me a sound that I can live with, and makes the sound tech happy too.

The Mustang Floor was discontinued like 3 years ago, and Fender hasn't done anything to replace it.  Because of that, I'm waiting on the day that the Fuse software doesn't work anymore.  At the moment, it doesn't seem like it's supported at all, so, when it breaks, I guess it'll be done.

However, as multi effects and modeling tech get older, they're still getting better.  Nowadays you have the Kemper amps and rack units like the Eleven Rack.  I don't know if you can truly consider those multi effects or if they're more profilers, but their amp models and effects are good enough they have been known to fool even some of the diehard cork sniffers.  

Looking back on multi effects, if they continue to move at the same pace they have the last 15 years, there'll be no reason to ever lug an amp and board anymore within just a few years.

And, yes, I stole the pics below from Sweetwater because I am too lazy to try to take pics of mine, and couldn't find any stock pics from Fender.

I like guitars.  For the first 15 or so years of my guitar playing life, I only had 2 guitars.  Well, 3, but really only played 2 of them.  They were both acoustics.  A steel string and a classical.  I also had a travel guitar for part of that time, but that was kind of a novelty, and it didn't get played very often at all.

Then I bought my first electric.  I had it for a couple of years.  Bought it off eBay from a guy across town.  Never really bonded with it, but usually kept it sitting out on the stand instead of the others just because I thought it looked cool.  Shortly after I bought it, I took myself to the local GC, and I bought myself an amp.  Knew even less about amps than I did electric guitars, and I ended up with an amp that has since been relegated to the workbench in the garage so that I have something that I can test a guitar on when I'm working on it just to be sure that all the electronics are working.

I thought the electric guitar and amp sitting next to each other in the living room looked really cool.  You know how it is.  Bachelor chic.  Single guy decor.  When I joined the ranks of the matrimonially inclined, I was pretty quickly told that they were no longer welcome sitting out in the living room.

I was content with the guitars I had.  They covered everything I needed them to do.  And, in fact, when I played out, I only ever used one specific guitar...the Martin...because it had a pickup in it, and I could plug it in or mic it, and it just was (and still is) a workhorse of a guitar.  That was also back when finances were beyond tight.  There was seldom anything extra, and when there was, it generally went to stuff that I actually needed and not guitars or gear.  I had also not really discovered the world of gear at that point.  

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I had spotted the electric guitar at a little guitar shop in East Texas that I wanted instead of the one that I had.  I wasn't yet seeing the girl that I ended up marrying, but I had driven over to East Texas a couple of times to visit her with some friends.  So I decided one weekend when I was visiting her to take my electric to that little shop and see what kind of deal I could swing for the one that I had seen hanging on their wall.  Because the shop didn't do their due diligence, they thought the guitar I was trading was a much nicer guitar than it was (it was the very bottom end, import Parker that they thought was the bottom end MIA version...a difference on the used market of about $600 at the time).  So when the guy came out and made a production of telling me that they were going to give me a super deal and trade me straight up for the guitar on the wall (which, at what they should've been paying me was going to be about 50% off the price of the one I wanted), I figured I was going to take the money and run. 

I figured that, when I walked in with the guitar, I had told him the model number, and it was right there on the headstock too, so it was his own fault if he didn't know what it was.  Then again, date of manufacture on the one I wanted was about 18 months before, so maybe it had been hanging on their wall for too long, and they just figured they'd get rid of it and try their luck with something else.  Maybe they thought they were the ones getting the steal of a deal. 

I still think the store guy thought he had the nicer Parker, though, because they had a used one sitting over as soon as you walked in the door like a trophy.  It had the usual Parker price tag on it, and he kept talking about how it was going to be nice to have 2 Parkers in the store at once.  Problem was, the one I was trading would only sell for about 30% of the price they had on the other one.  Like I said, take the money, or rather the guitar that I wanted, and run.  Depending on your perspective, I didn't pay anything for the guitar I left with.  It was a straight up trade. 

It was what has come to be known on the market as a Fender Splattercaster.  A MIM Standard Strat with a splatter paint job.

Fast forward a few years.  I had a better paying job.  I was married.  She also had a job.  Finances were a little more free.  I had not only realized that different electrics sounded different (there was a time that I thought they all sounded the same - I was an extreme acoustic snob), but I had discovered all the periphery gear that gets sold around guitars.  So I slowly started acquiring pedals and amps and even more (and nicer) guitars.

Every guitar that I bought, I bought for a purpose.  I had always really liked the look of a 335, so for our first Christmas together, my new wife found a 335-clone on a bargain closeout price, and bought it for me.  Then I got a really good bonus at work so I picked up a Les Paul because, since my primary electric was a Strat, it seemed to be the opposite electric.  That's when things started to free up a bit and GAS started to kick into high gear.

Since then I've managed to get representation of all the major body types of electrics (at least the ones that I like - except an SG, and someday I still need to find the perfect one of those).  I've also got more amps than some studios I've seen, a closet full of pedals, and lots of other associated gear.  In truth, when we moved into our current house, one of the major considerations was the music room and the fact that it really, really needed a walk-in closet so all the guitars would fit.

Out of all the gear I've got, I've gotten it all to play.  Basically anyways.  I've got one guitar that I bought recently for the sole reason that I like the look of it.  One of these days, I'm going to hang it on the wall as an art piece.  But that doesn't meant that it will never be played. 

I've got some nice gear that someday may actually be worth more than I paid for it.  It may not be.  I'm thinking specifically of a couple of anniversary edition guitars that I've got.  They'll never finance my retirement (they're not babied - I play them), but someday I might at least be able to get my money back on them.  There are a couple of pedals I have because they're unique that I bought with the thought in the back of my mind that maybe someday I'd get a return on them because of the fact that they're unique and they (at least as of now) haven't really been mass marketed.  One of them, I could already do that to.  Watching Reverb, mine's in good condition, and it looks like I could get about 50% more from it than I paid.  But I like the pedal, don't really want to part with it at the moment, and it gets played.  So, when I do decide to get rid of it, it's going to look used.  So it may end up being worthless.  But, when the rubber meets the road, I buy gear to play it.  Gear is never an investment. 

I feel like I should repeat that.  Gear is NEVER an investment.

That said, I occasionally pull out the guitar and amp blue books and hit reverb (or where ever) so that I can see how much it would cost to replace my gear if anything happened to it.  It's an insurance thing.  Oddly enough, tonight in doing that audit, it appears that most of my gear has either held steady at used prices I paid or depreciated as expected when bought new.  Except for one guitar.  The one that I didn't pay anything for.  The one that I could never get rid of because I bought it to try and impress a girl that I wasn't yet dating.  The one that, since all of my guitars are named, happens to be named after that girl...who a few weeks later bought a stuffed animal and named it after me because I had told her the new guitar's name.  BTW, she eventually married me.

Looking at what they seem to sell for when they hit the market, since I wasn't out of pocket for the guitar, if I factor in what the guitar I traded would have fairly sold for, that Splattercaster has doubled in value since I bought it.  Of course I'd have to go dig the original pickguard and back plate out of the box in the closet and put them back on, but it just kind of made me laugh.  As far as collectibility, it's just a MIM Standard Strat with an odd paint job.  If you listen to the cork-sniffers, it's a run of the mill MIM so it can only be worthless, good for nothing, and will never amount to anything.  I wonder if they could tell me what guitar they have that has doubled in value.  I bet they can't.

​Funny how that works out sometimes.