Borrowed guitars
While my guitar is at The Menders, I’ll be using various borrowed guitars for the gigs we have lined up. On Friday I used a Japanese Fender Strat (thanks Alex), which had some kind of wiring mod to enable the bridge pickup to become a humbucker by use of the tone control. It was difficult playing a different guitar, particularly because the action was set so low compared to the way I have mine set. But, being a true professnial, I soldiered on bravely. I have to say that the sound of the strat, however, was great and made me realise that I need to get my pickups sorted out – I currently only use the neck pickup on my Koreacaster due to imbalance issues. In fact, Peter, our bass player, commented on how suited the sound was to my amp and my playing. So maybe after the guitar is fixed, I’ll get the pickups sorted.
Fender Aerodyne Strat
When I first realised that my guitar was damaged, half of me went into “I need a new guitar” mode, commonly known as GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). Now, I’ll never get to see or play most of the guitars that I post about here. As I was idly wandering the internet, thinking about what guitar I might get given a budget of, say £500 (anybody can raise £500, can’t they?) I came across these Fender Aerodyne Strats. And boy, do they look good! They’re made in Japan, have all of the classic strat sounds, but have a look which is slightly different – in a very good way – the body is contoured differently, and the finishes are great – with a nice cream edge-binding too. I really really like the look of these, the black one without a scratchplate looks very classy and the natural/amber with the maple showing through is great too. They are available around the internet for between £430 and £500.
Achievable?
So, is this something to strive towards that might just be achievable? I think so. I don’t, of course, have any money. I ‘m going to need some careful planning and try and save some gig money as well as liquidate various guitar bits I’ve got lying around (nothing too exciting really, but the sale of them would help). Unless any of the retailers who have this in stock want to sponsor me?
Update
Here’s a video of Doug Kinnear putting an Aerodyne Strat through a workout
The Aerodyne Stratocaster guitar is truly a next-generation instrument! Combining classic Fender style with new and innovative designs, it features a carved-radius top with cream-colored binding, a maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard and 22 medium jumbo frets, three Fender direct-mounted single-coil pickups and traditional five-way switching. Unique and beautiful!
Fender Aerodyne™ Stratocaster® specifications:
Model Name
Aerodyne™ Stratocaster®
Model Number
025-6505-(506)
Series
Special Edition Series
Colors
(506) Black,
(Polyurethane Finish)
Body
Basswood (Carved Top)
Neck
Maple, “C” Shape,
(Polyurethane Finish)
Fingerboard
Rosewood, 7.25″ Radius (184mm)
No. of Frets
22 Medium Jumbo Frets
Pickups
3 Standard Strat® Single-Coil Pickups
Controls
Master Volume,
Tone 1. (Neck Pickup),
Tone 2. (Middle Pickup)
Pickup Switching
5-Position Blade:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Middle Pickup
Position 3. Middle Pickup
Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup
Position 5. Neck Pickup
Bridge
Vintage Style Synchronized Tremolo
Machine Heads
Fender®/Ping® Vintage Style Tuning Machines
Scale Length
25.5″ (648mm)
Unique Features
Carved Top,
Cream Binding on Top of Body,
Black Plastic Parts,
Dot Position Inlays,
Matching Painted Headstock,
Silver Applique Logo
