🎸 The Tough Trade

Goodbye Gibby! Yes, I'm serious this time.

Yesterday, a Carouseller offered to trade my Gibson Les Paul Studio 50's Tribute for his Fender Classic Series 60's Stratocaster. Seeing the price of his guitar, and the fact that it is a Vintage Sunburst Stratocaster with Rosewood fretboard, I couldn't find any reason to reject that offer. But before I go any further, let's just reminisce and bid goodbye to my faithful Gibby!

Leaving my mark on Gibby in case I ever get famous one day!

After signing on the truss rod cover and backplates of my Gibby, I was ready to trade it off. So just now, during the evening, I went over to this dude's house for the trade. I tested out the Fender right in front of him. It feels good in the hands; the neck is a lot thinner compared to the fat Gibson neck. I was instantly sold.

Looks familiar?

Not even wanting to give him the case, I took both the Fender Stratocaster and the Les Paul case home. Upon reaching home, further inspections revealed that the frets were uneven. There were some buzzing here and there. I have expected this to come up so I will probably find a good luthier to fix that once I get back from my holiday trips.

For a guitar crafted in 2005, it is in pristine condition. The frets are still shiny (albeit uneven) and the finish is still stunning. It is fitted with gold hardware, which I presume dates back to the earlier models. The pickups are CMDaugherty '65 hand-wound pickups. I have never heard of that name but they do sound pretty good. Sweet clean sound and a powerful dirty tone.

Unfortunately, the backplate wasn't fitted on and the screws are as good as lost. The previous user kept the backplate so all I need to do now is to find some screws. I do not like my guitar parts to be filled with dust. The back of the neck is pretty glossy so I will have to sand that down a little.

Overall, this guitar feels great and I can't wait to test it further and even record some covers with it! But for now, I have a busy week up ahead so the guitar setup and new strings will have to be pushed to next week. :(

Edwin Ang
5th June 2017

***Update: This Fender guitar is no longer with me. It has been sold on 3rd September 2017.