Two more guitars arrive with packing differences

[JohnRippert]

A wide gulf in the spectrum of packing between the two guitars that arrived today. Both arrived intact, thank goodness. I found a 2021 Player Stratocaster in Surf Pearl a few days ago on the Guitar Center website. It matches up perfectly with the 2021 Telecaster in the same color that I bought off Ebay a little while back and is in better condition than that Tele, no rust bubbles on the hardware here. This color has become my favorite out of Fender. Was not sure how I would like the 'mint' colored pick guard but it is quite subtle. Shipping on this one was $27 and it came in a stout box with one piece of industrial strength bubble wrap 2ft x 35ft (I stretched it out from the front door to the back door and saved it for my own packing needs) around the guitar. Plus lots of packing paper to make sure it was not going to move. Well done Guitar Center. Looks like this one only needs a good cleaning and setup as there is almost no wear at all on the frets.

The other is a '70s Stratocaster made in Korea. I have a soft spot for these 'lawsuit era' clones and I have a Japanese Kingston Telecaster from the same time period that I am using for the free Youtube guitar lessons I am taking. They used a mountain of bubble wrap and some of the sticky saran wrap style stuff on this guitar as well, but just slapped a shipping tag on the whole wad and mailed it. This master packing job cost me $57 added to a $71 guitar. Luckily for Joe Schmo pawn shop, it arrived with no additional damage besides what I knew it already had when I purchased it. Going to look for some cream colored knobs and pickup covers to keep everything matching and likely replace the wiring and pots. We will see what the pickups sound like and decide on them later

 

[JET4]

I like that Surf Pearl color, looks good.

 

[JohnRippert]

I gave the Fender a good cleaning, tightened down the tremelo springs since I do not use it, tuned it up including intonation, adjusted the truss rod, and set the action height. There was one fret end on the high E that needed to be tapped down with a piece of hardwood dowel and a nylon hammer. All the other frets were perfect. This one just took over the job of being played during my Youtube guitar lessons. The only thing I will do to it is change out the rinky tink string tree that Fender uses.

 

[Rustywrench]

I really like the look of that one! Now, does it glow in the dark when you turn off the lights?
It just has that look to me.

 

[JohnRippert]

I really like the look of that one! Now, does it glow in the dark when you turn off the lights?
It just has that look to me.

No glow, thankfully. Here is its sibling, the Tele.

 

[Telecaster]

Those are gorgeous! The Stratocopy, not so much.

 

[JohnRippert]

Those are gorgeous! The Stratocopy, not so much.

Well, the Fender was $550 and the Drifter Stratocopy was $71. But yeah, it shows.

 

[Telecaster]

I was at Guitar Center recently and a Tele grabbed me and pulled me to it, like a moth to a flame. Deep maroon color, perfect paint job. $1200 price tag, though. That would buy a lot of ammo.

 

[JohnRippert]

I was at Guitar Center recently and a Tele grabbed me and pulled me to it, like a moth to a flame. Deep maroon color, perfect paint job. $1200 price tag, though. That would buy a lot of ammo.

I have not been shooting as much lately. Spending most of my time with house chores, yard chores, and guitars. Seems I am shifting one fairly expensive habit for another kinda expensive habit. I saw a Fender Jaguar in that same surf pearl color on Ebay. It is located in Australia though. Between the cost of the guitar and shipping it was about $1600. As much as I would like to add that to the other two I can't make myself spend that much..........yet.

 

[Rustywrench]

That Tele Looks great too! How about a Family picture of your collection sometime?