TFW you realize you have a 26 gallon air compressor and have been wasting money on computer duster to keep your instruments and gear dust free. This is my smoke free rack, the other one holds the guitars that have been seasoned and lightly cleaned once moving out of very smoky environments. I’ve gotten increasingly anal about dust and it’s kinda funny to have a handful of truly grisled and grody guitars that I just can’t part with.

I figured maybe I was just coping but this Player 1 Strat really does feel better than any modern US made Strat I’ve picked up in recent memory. I’ve been playing for 20 plus years and have played a lot of Strats. I’ve also been going to guitar centers and music stores a lot lately and testing a bunch of stuff off the walls to test my potential cope. It could just be that US Strats are set up poorly before leaving the factory, I’m sure with a bit of work they could feel better than my Player 1, but I don’t know man, this thing just feels so perfect. I’ve had my eye on the AVII Jazzmaster in Sherwood green, found one last night at GC and it felt like garbage. I really don’t think it’s cope to say that at this point, Mexican and US Fender aren’t all that different when it comes to build quality and QC. Are the components nicer? In some cases. The consistency of build quality is pretty fascinating, I have an early 00s Mexi Strat and it’s not nearly as nice as this Player 1. It used to play better but has gotten worse with age. I guess my point is finding a good guitar is a crapshoot and most of the prevailing wisdom is iffy at best. My last five or so guitars were bought on reverb and all of them have exceeded my expectations, which tells me I need to stop while I’m ahead and play before buying going forward. Really, I have all my bases covered and shouldn’t buy anything else unless I get rid of something, I’m running out of space and my stress level of hiding them all before going out of town keeps getting worse as my collection grows. I can almost justify a fireproof safe.

I’ve been forcing myself to trudge downstairs immediately after waking up these past few saturdays to play and it’s been a good way of getting my day started. I work from home still so during the week I pretty much crawl right from bed to the computer and can’t really get a nice long jam in until after 6 at which point I don’t feel like playing for more than an hour or so. I put fresh strings on my Fiesta Stang yesterday and to my amazement, it has been staying in tune way better than with the regular slinky’s. Usually I have to stretch the shot out of them and wait for them to break in for a week or two and that’s on any guitar really, but these power slinky’s feel good, sound good, and are staying in tune way better than usual.