[vienna]

Many years ago, I read an article in a guitar magazine about Keith Richards in which another famed guitarist commented on how you could give Keith any guitar, even a cheap Japanese guitar, and how, in just a few minutes, Keith could master the guitar's idiosyncrasies and make it have the "Keith Richards Sound"; Kieth is even quoted as saying "give me five minutes and I'll make 'em all sound the same"...

To me, it is a prime measure of a great guitarist, or any musician, for that matter, who can achieve his art more from his own skill than from the tools he uses; let's face it guitarists like The Edge, Andy Summers, Vai, etc., would be hard pressed to be as impressive without their tricked out rigs, but others, like Richards, Chuck Berry, a whole slew of Blues greats and not a few guitarist in other genres could make a budget-priced guitar sound like a top-line model with relative ease; its not really in the axe, its in the fingers and the feel and the ear...

I came across this clip of SRV sitting in and jamming with Bernard Allison, the son of the late, great Luther Allison; SRV knew Luther and jammed with him and, in this clip, SRV is playing a borrowed Fender Squier Stratocaster through one of Bernard's amps, a far cry for SRV's usual carefully set up rig; even with a cheap borrowed guitar and a bare bones rig, SRV is quick to find and establish the "SRV Sound"; the talent is in the player, not in what it is being played on...





Re: Squier Strats...

When Fender first introduced the Squier Strat line, it was Fender's effort to put a dent into the Strat copy market, which was sucking away sales form the official Strat sales; the first ones were introduced in the late 80s and were made in Japan, and were very much looked down upon by guitar snobs and purists; there was a music store here in Hollywood which catered primarily to the pro and studio musicians and I would go in there every once in a while and see what was new; I walked in one day and saw a Fender Squier Strat on one of the racks, sort of hidden away apart from the pricier USA Strats and I noticed it has a really low price tag, even for a Squier; I picked it up and found it to be an excellent guitar, impressively built and very substantial and solid; the body was heavy ash and the fretwork and other workmanship was also excellent; I bought it immediately, on the spot, and, whien I took it to one of the sales people to ring it up, he sort of sneered and got snarky about anyone wanting to buy a Squer; I let him finish the sale and I asked him if he had actually tried to play the guitar he had just sold me; he said he hadn't, so I asked him to give it a try before I left the store; he plugged it in, fired it up and was blown away by what a good guitar that Squier actually was; I sensed a bit of regret in his manner as he realized I was walking out of the store with a vastly under-priced guitar...

I had that Squier for many years and other players who tried it out were equally impressed, with some offering to trade "better", more expensive guitars for my Squier, but I never let go of it; it was eventually severely damaged in an accident and I still miss that old, cheap guitar; over the intervening decades, the Squier line of guitars has gained a bit more respect among pro players and can often be seen in the hands of chart topping, influential players...








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