Category Archives: Music

Podcast with Chris is now up on his channel!

Lockdown Jam #01. Original riffs, just using Garageband drums, the Artist LP60 plugged directly into my old Marshall Valvestate amp and a couple of glasses of red wine! Stay safe all!

All right in white.

Don’t hate the player.

Can’t say Ive ever been a fan of the Telecaster headstock design.

MIM.

Minimalist AF.

RRP and QC.

The one guitar that can do it all, the only guitar you need, every collection needs a Telecaster, less is more… it goes on and on but it seems like I’ve been avoiding Telecasters for the longest time. I actually made a Telecaster for my Year 12 High School Industrial Tech major, it played like crap though (sadly I don’t have it anymore otherwise I’d love to try and fix it), and earlier this year I did buy an Artist TC59 Telecaster style guitar, but let’s face it, the TC59 is not a Telecaster.

I spotted a brown sunburst MIM (Made in Mexico) Tele on Facebook Marketplace a couple of months ago, came really close to buying it but honestly wasn’t a big fan of the old school sunburst finish, but then I spotted a MIM Tele in Polar White with a white pickguard and a maple fretboard on an official Fender YouTube video and yeah, clean, minimalist, modern, love at first sight!

Turns out Fender also sell the Polar White Tele in a lefty but sadly the lefty has pau ferro fingerboard instead of a maple fingerboard (which I much prefer), but hey, lefties can’t be choosers.

The RRP on these is $1300 but I spotted one on sale at $950 and have been meaning to drop past that store to at least try it out, but earlier this week a photo of someone buying a lefty at Sunburst Music popped up on my Facebook feed. I commented under the post “you guys stock lefties?!” and the day after I got a message from Douglas, the shop owner, asking what kind of lefty I had in mind. I replied and said I’m keen on a Telecaster, either a MIM Tele in Polar White, or maybe even a much cheaper Squier Affinity. Turns out he had a lefty Tele in Polar White so I organised to drop in on the weekend to check it out, and that I did!

So yesterday morning was pretty hectic. It was pissing down rain and I’d just gone out to Caringbah to pick up the $50 Fender acoustic and then I headed straight for Sunburst Music in Coogee. They’ve expanded the shop and have split it in 2, half electrics, half acoustics. They’ve got so many beautiful guitars in there it’s ridiculous, but as a lefty it’s really hard for me to appreciate right handed guitars so I just honed in on the MIM Tele and telling Douglas the story of Mum taking me here 30 years ago to buy my first guitar, and that he had 2 lefties, a metal style guitar and a Japanese Tokai Strat which he thought was the better guitar, and really tried to sell it to me but I went for the metal thing instead… big regrets!

Douglas confessed that he’s a Telecaster guy and that whilst so many Strat guys have tonnes of Strats in their collection, and Les Paul guys have tonnes of Les Pauls in their collection, you only need one Telecaster if you’re a Telecaster guy! He sat me down, plugged me in and cranked the volume up and let me doodle away. What the fuck do you play in a guitar store? I kinda froze up to be honest, and the guitar kept going out of tune (I suppose no lefties have played it and the strings still need stretching), but the neck felt familiar to me, it’s got a really similar satin smooth finish like the neck on my AM PRO II Strat.

Douglas offered to throw in the same amazing Fender hardcase that I got with the AM PRO II, but hey I’m not gigging, and really don’t need another case, and whilst I was quite hesitant and felt really bad about asking if he would match the other shop’s $950 price I asked and holy shit, he was happy to do it, so I walked out with it!

Player Telecaster
Body: Alder
Neck Material: Maple
Neck Finish: Satin Urethane Finish on Back of Neck with Gloss Urethane Headstock Face
Neck Shape: Modern “C”
Fingerboard: Pau Ferro
Fingerboard Radius: 9.5″
Number of Frets: 22
Frets Size: Medium Jumbo
String Nut: Synthetic Bone
Bridge Pickup: Player Series Alnico 5 Tele Single-Coil
Neck Pickup: Player Series Alnico 5 Tele Single-Coil

Fender’s spaghetti logo!

Grunge.

Made in China.

Ding!

Looks like the 3 strings were cut. Maybe the previous owner was in the process of changing the strings out?

Now this is new to me! I’ve never had an acoustic guitar that can be plugged in!

There was still protective plastic over the tuners, but it looks like the previous owner liked to wear belt buckles.

What’s going on with people throwing out their left-handed acoustic guitars?!

Yesterday morning I spotted this Fender CD-100CE dreadnought cutaway electro acoustic guitar on Facebook Marketplace for $50. I quite literally jumped on it and she’s now mine.

I’ve only just restrung the freebie Epiphone acoustic, and this guitar looks to be pretty similar except it’s pretty beat up. It’s got a Fishman preamp built in though! Tuner, volume, bass, mid and treble controls. I’ve not even checked to see if it works.

According to one online shop I found the RRP on these was $899.00 but there’s a few of them on Reverb at around the $300 price range which seems about right considering the guitar is made in China.

I’ll put in a bit of TLC, restring her and see what comes out. 4 acoustic guitars is 3 too many though so I’ll figure out which guitar I like most and hopefully find good homes for the others.

Oops I bought another guitar.

When I was 16 my Mum took me to this guitar shop in Coogee to buy my first guitar. Fast forward 30 years and not only is the guitar shop is still there, the guy who sold me my first guitar is still there too!

Rock on Douglas!

I walked out with this beautiful lefty Fender Player Telecaster. Time to get my twang on!

Visit: https://www.sunburstmusic.com.au

PS: Uploaded this photo to reddit and it’s getting a lot of upvotes: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/o3uj2l/gear_30_years_ago_i_bought_my_first_guitar_from_a/

Gotta sell one to buy one?!

I’ve had the STHL up on Facebook Marketplace for a while now, no bites, but I got a message from a guy who lives in the area and is just starting out. He’s now the new owner of it, and he also bought my vintage Starforce USA amp for $20.

I’ve still got my old beaten up Samick acoustic up for sale, no bites at all, but I did get a bite on the Martin travel guitar I have up for sale so I’m hoping that sells, and I’m still undecided on whether or not I want to sell the free Epiphone acoustic I picked up a couple of weeks ago (I only just restrung it today).

So that’s all 3 practice amps now sold (the Orange Crush, Roland Cube and Starforce USA) and 6 guitars sold since I got back into playing earlier this year. Does that mean I can now go out and buy some more gear?! I think so!!!

I jam along to this backing track at least once a week and do all sorts of oodles of noodles over it, but in an attempt to get out of my comfort zone and actually learn something new I actually spent an hour today trying to learn the solo note for note.

I found it so hard to do, and failed pretty badly, but as they say, record what you play in order to hear where you have to do better and man. I’m 100% sure with a few more hours I could do a lot better than this!

Feels so good to be supporting Australian Made!

Visit: https://colonialleather.com.au

The best things in life are free?

I spotted this left handed acoustic guitar on Facebook Marketplace for $0 last night. “Free to good home, Bronte” the advertisement read. Bronte Beach is a couple of beaches away from Maroubra Beach and how often is it that you find a free guitar, let alone a free left handed guitar out there! I sent Tiffany (the seller) a message to at least offer a bottle of wine in exchange for the guitar, she said no need for the wine, but if I could grab it first thing in the morning it’s all mine so I got up this early, made a bee line for Bronte Beach and the guitar is now mine!

It’s a 2003-2004 Epiphone DR-200S with a solid sitka spuce top, mahogany back & sides, a mahogany neck with a really nice thin SlimTaper “D” profile neck. The rosewood fretboard and bridge were both super dry and soaked up some oil really nicely. Strings are rusty AF and will need replacing but she’s cleaned up really nice!