Hello Baby, Goodbye Friend

"I'll never write another song
(well not) till someone new comes along"

Wishbone Ash - Goodbye Baby, Hello Friend 

Back in 2007, I bought a vintage electric guitar.  It was a late 1964 Fender Telecaster.  While it was all original (as far as one can ever tell with Fenders) someone had decided to remove the original blonde finish to leave it with a bare wood finish.  This was, apparently, quite a common thing to do in the early '70s.  The side effect of such vandalism is however that it was only worth a fraction of what the guitar would otherwise be worth - which meant that I could actually afford it.  Had I come across it a year later the recession would have put paid to that, so the timing was good :-)

The guitar has been well used over the years, it is what the dealers call "a players guitar" as opposed to a collector's guitar. The former gets used, the latter sits in a bank vault somewhere, unloved but highly prized.

When I bought my old friend, I could not imagine ever selling her, but after 7 years I am afraid that is what I have just done.  How fickle is this particular guitarist!  The reasons for selling were simple: (1) it was too valuable to gig with, you always needed to keep a very close eye on it in case it walked off with a new owner, and (2) at 50 years old she is a little temperamental, her mechanical parts all work, but they are showing signs of wear, as are the electrics.  Not always a good combination when playing in front of an audience.

Having loved my Telecaster I could not just sell her unless I had a replacement.  A few weeks ago I finally came across a guitar that would be able to step into my old friend's shoes; the black Telecaster in the picture.  She is not an original 1959 guitar but a modern re-creation artificially aged to look the part.  As a result she will be much more reliable, while sounding and looking just as good to me.

Back in the late 1950s Fender were playing with different paint finishes on their guitars.  When a finish did not come out well, they would simply spray a different colour over the unsatisfactory finish.  In this case the new guitar has a gold sparkle coat that is showing through the plain black where it is wearing away.  I rather like the look.

So the picture shows the two guitars together for the last time.  I can't afford to keep both and Cathy regularly reminds me that I have a couple of other electric guitars that I need to get around to selling.  Truth be told, she is right, the sooner I do so, the sooner I can get around to looking at adding a couple of useful lenses ....