A guitar player's trip to New York

Ravelleman

This is long but does involve new guitar content. I really just want to write down everything I saw and tried while it's fresh in my mind.

So last Friday I jetted off to New York with a friend of mine to enjoy the city, its sites and off course its guitar shops. After doing all the usual stuff (Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty etc) I headed down to 48th street where there are three guitar shops all located within ten seconds of each other. I tried a lot of guitars. I was really surprised by some of the guitars I tried. Some were great. Some were awful. I eventually settled on one, which I took home with me. Read on and all shall be revealed...

First I tried Sam Ash. I'd heard reports about Sam Ash and Guitar Centre on other forums and to be honest I wasn't expecting much. I was right not to. Most of the stock in Sam Ash was dirty, dented or just broken. I tried out a lot of different Strats in there and most had rusty strings, broken switches and pots, and were riddled with dents. I wasn't impressed. None the less, I did try a lot of stuff that I've been thinking about for months. I always like threads like this so I'll go through most of the stuff I tried here. (This just reflects my opinion by the way - ymmv)

American Series Stratocaster(s) I tried out about four different S/S/S Strats in Sam Ash and one S/S/H. I think two had rosewood boards and three had maple boards. I was playing them through a Fender Super Reverb Amp. None of them really did anything for me. I really didn't like the satin finish on the necks. The pickups sounded really plain to my ears. None of them stirred me in any way at all. The best was probably the ash bodied fat strat, which was in the sexiest of all Fender's transparent colours - Sienna Sunburst. The salesman offered me a crap free acoustic if I bought it. I declined.

AV 62 Reissue Strat I was really hoping I'd like this one better than the American Series Strats. It really was. It sounded great through the Super Reverb. The neck was nice and glossy. The pickups sounded a lot better than any of the ASS . It was good but I didn't go for it.

Buddy Guy Signature Strat (American) I tried a non polka-dot Buddy Guy Strat with Lace Sensor pickups. It had a surprisingly nice satin finish on the neck and I quite liked the maple fret board. The V shaped neck was good too. I couldn't afford it but I wouldn't have bought it anyway.

Custom Shop Clapton Signature Strat One of the salesmen asked me to try this Clapton Strat. It was $2000, which was way out of my league but I went for it anyway. It played very nicely. The neck was comfortable and the mid booster was interesting too. Good but so very, very expensive.

American Deluxe Telecaster I didn't really like the looks of the AD Tele but I gave it a go anyway. They're too modern and un-Tele-like for my liking. Funnily enough they sound just the same! I was playing it and asking myself where the twang had gone. It just didn't sound like a Tele should.

Gretsch White Falcon 1 I tried a big and surprisingly heavy WF1 with a wire bar Bigsby. It sounded great. The filtertron pickups were really very nice. The tone switches were kind of confusing but it really was great. It was about $3200 if a remember correctly. I liked it. I wouldn't have paid that much but maybe I'd have considered it if it was black not white. My friend absolutely loved it though.

That's about half of it. More to come, including pictures of my new guitar...

Owen

I did the same in March, 48th street, and went down to 13th street I think too to Guitar Center. Lots of guitars, but very little high end stuff. I wanted to buy an Ibanez Universe while I was there, but no one had it in stock.

Highlight of the holiday? Jamming with the Naked Cowboy on Times Square!

Johnny Storm

Mannys across the road from Sam Ash is where Jimi H used to buy his Strats.

Ravelleman

Next I went to Rudy's guitar store, which was next door. It was a lot smaller and seemed to stock guitars on the more expensive side of things. They had some nice looking G&L and Heritage stock as well as some obscenely expensive Gibsons. I didn't try anything out. It didn't strike me as a particularly friendly place indecisive teenagers. They did have some nice boutique amps and pedals too. That was cool.

Finally I went to Manny's Music, which was across the road. This was where I bought my guitar. I continued the trend and mainly checked out single coil equipped Fender style guitars, though I did enjoy gawking at some Tom Anderson guitars and a few Gretsches as well. I tried:

American Deluxe Telecaster with Bigsby My friend is mad about Bigsbys so he took down this butterscotch Tele with black binding and a Bigsby. It didn't sound very much like a Tele but was better than the other one I tried. The Bigsby was cool. It was sold a day or two later when we came back.

AV '52 Telecaster This was the real shocker. I'd be dreaming about buying one of these for months before playing it but now I really don't feel the same. To me it was really dull and lifeless in sound. The neck was great though. Nice and thick with a heavy gloss finish. It wasn't enough to save it in my estimation though.

Lite Ash Tele You guys are always talking about these babies so I decided to one a go. It was quite nice for the price. The neck just didn't do it for me though. It was too raw and unfinished for my tastes. It did have a nice twangy sound though. It was good but actually more expensive than they go for on Thomann. It was a lot more striking than the '52 Tele.

I was very pleased to find that Manny's had a number of Mexican Signature Fenders in stock while I was there. I'd heard great stuff about them and was really hoping to try a few. They had a Jimmie Vaughan Strat, a Robert Cray Strat, a Buddy Guy Strat and a Muddy Waters Tele. I tried them all.

Buddy Guy Strat This time it was a black one with white polka-dots. The neck was a nice soft v shape but I didn't dig the satin finish so much. It sounded ok but I didn't like it enough to buy.

Jimmie Vaughan Strat This one was in Olympic White. It has a neck similar to the Buddy Guy. The Tex Mex pickups were great. They were very bright and responsive. The bridge pickup wasn't my bag though. It wasn't thick enough for me. I would recommend the Tex Mex pickups to anyone thinking about buying some low cost Strat pickups. You can get the seperately and they really are superb. In the end I found that the bridge was slightly misaligned so I couldn't use the trem. I decided against it when I discovered this. Unfortunate way to ruin an excellent guitar.

Muddy Waters Tele This was a really nice Tele. I loved the colour and the neck was lovely and glossy. It was a really twang machine and a joy to play. The volume pot wasn't very good though and the jack seemed to have taken a hit or something as the cable kept popping out. It was very nice indeed. I didn't go for it in the end as it was a little suspect in the electronics department. I may get one later this year though.

Robert Cray Strat I saw this one from across the room. I instantly recognised the crazy purple colour. It was what alerted me to the other Mex Sig guitars. I tried it out and it had a great sound at the neck and in the middle. The bridge was ok too but I now realise I don't really like Strat bridge pickups. The tone controls control the middle and neck pups, which is great for me as I tend to stay away from the bridge pup. The neck was a great C shape with a lovely glossy finish. It didn't have a trem though, which I wasn't sure about but the hardtail was good in its own way. The colour was interesting. I wasn't sure about it. Purple... again... The mint green pickguard looked great with it though. I left with it in the end. It was the right decision. It sounds great through my Engl. I haven't tried it with my PodXtLive yet but I might record some shoddy clips this week. I'll take some pics now.

Kenny_D

Sounds like a good trip. How much was it and how did you go about bringing it home? Any troubles with customs? I might be heading over there for a weekend too soon enough

Dord

where's this pic you promised?

Patricide

Class idea for a thread my good man a very interesting read.

Ravelleman

The pics are loading on to photobucket as I type this.

I was really worried about customs. I came up with an elaborate web of lies to defend myself but in the end I just walked on through the blue channel at the airport and didn't receive a first glance let alone a second. There was one Garda sitting at a table reading a paper. I don't think he even saw me. Aer Lingus let you take instruments on as hand luggage by the way. In the end it was $625 with New York sales tax added. It was actually quite high but it only translated to E495 which is at least E200 less than on guitarbargains. I'm happy.

Ravelleman

Kenny_D

Cool. Lucky to no get stopped. QuattroSte brought a strat back from the states and got done at the airport for tax

Dord

noice! i'm liking that colour. its not as bad as you made it out to be.

Johnny Storm

Great thread and great info. Thanks, Ravelleman, for taking the time to write it all down. FYI, any time I check out that many guitars they all blur together in my mind afterwards :rolleyes: .

I hope you really enjoy that Robert Cray. Its very highly regarded at the fenderforum.com

I agree with you about the weirdly shabby state of the instruments in Sam Ash.

Just FYI, and as I'm sure you already know its apparently very simple to change strat tone controls to work the bridge too. A lot of people over at the Fenderforum.com also rave about that Jimmy Vaughn strat.

Also just for everyone's info you are only supposed to go through the Blue channel if you are arriving from an EU country. If a customs guy sees you with tags on your suitcase from a non-EU country in the Blue Channel they get suspicious (I speak from experience here).

Quattroste

GStormcrow wrote:

Cool. Lucky to no get stopped. QuattroSte brought a strat back from the states and got done at the airport for tax

:mad: It still hurts.

Nice one Ravelleman. That looks real nice man.

Rustar

I saw your plane flying over, and I waited, but you didn't wave hello! What gives?

I really like that Ravelle, looks like the perfect 50's-retro-futuristic brother of my Iceman.

Ravelleman

Johnny Storm wrote:

Also just for everyone's info you are only supposed to go through the Blue channel if you are arriving from an EU country. If a customs guy sees you with tags on your suitcase from a non-EU country in the Blue Channel they get suspicious (I speak from experience here).

Really? Haha. I must have been extra lucky then. That just adds to my victory.

Ravelleman 1.5 - Customs 0.

Ravelleman

Oh yeah, I also tried a bunch of Fender amps too. I can't really remember enough about them to go through them all individually but I will say one thing: when people say Fender amps have great clean tone, they are speaking the truth! Every Fender amp I tried (Super Reverb, Vibrolux Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, Hot Rod Deluxe) sounded great. I think I preferred them to my ENGL. Gets me thinkin'...

It wasn't me!

Yeah, I plan on acquiring a Fender and running it A/B with my soon to be new (hopefully ) JCM800 for clean tones. It'd make an awesome rig.

david

Ravelleman wrote:

Oh yeah, I also tried a bunch of Fender amps too. I can't really remember enough about them to go through them all individually but I will say one thing: when people say Fender amps have great clean tone, they are speaking the truth! Every Fender amp I tried (Super Reverb, Vibrolux Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, Hot Rod Deluxe) sounded great. I think I preferred them to my ENGL. Gets me thinkin'...

You need to get some JJ's so

fish-head

Nice story man. I would absolutely love to go geetar shopping in the states..

Ya shoulda bought the Falcon though!

smok

GStormcrow wrote:

Cool. Lucky to no get stopped. QuattroSte brought a strat back from the states and got done at the airport for tax

Is there really that much luck involved? how do they know you didnt already own the guitar?
I am planning to get a new guitar (probably the martin D16GT) in guitar Center in about a months time. The difference for me is that I fly home through London. Hopefully thats the difference. The beauty of GuitarCenter is that they have an online shop so I have already eyeballed the guitar i want, and know what it costs
Great story/thread idea Ravelleman

colm_r

smok wrote:

The beauty of GuitarCenter is that they have an online shop so I have already eyeballed the guitar i want, and know what it costs

Keep in mind that individual GuitarCenters do not have all the stock available in the online shop, so you may want to ring them in advance.

feylya

Smok, discussing tips on tax evasion along with dragging up year old posts will get you banned. Please take the time to read the charter