Trading Strat for a Tele, for improved saleability in yokel town

Good idea or no?

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Killed_by_Death

Killed_by_Death

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Jan 2, 2015
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#1
I'm considering trading my Strat, with the Lace Sensors, for a Tele with SD Pearly Gates & a '57.

The Tele is a special edition w/o a pickguard, & a burst finish.

My Strat is black with the chrome pickguard.

I see GC wants $700 for a used KR Tele, but only $300 for used MIM Strats, so I think financially I'm trading up, but my ears are open to opinions.

TBH, I'm not happy with the timbre of my Strat, since I got the G&L Comanche, but I'm not so sure the SDs will be a step up.

Tele-Strat.JPG


I almost forgot to add, the Tele is string-through.
 
#2
This joker shows up with a Made in Indonesia Telecaster.
I tried not to snub my nose, but that thing is worth about 3.5x less than a Korean made Telecaster of the same style.

I bumped up the cash difference, which was actually pretty generous considering either he is a fool or he was trying to take me for a fool.
He gets to looking at my Strat saying it's "rough". There's not a mark on the damn thing.

I was actually glad to put it back in the case & leave with it, but I was sore about waking up early on a Saturday & driving 40 miles out of my way to meet this joker.
 
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#3
Fender did a run of set neck Teles with humbuckers a while back. I do believe they were made in Korea. Some had custom inlays or racing stripes on the body. Musicians Friend actually cleared them out cheap bc they weren't selling. Still kicking myself for not picking one up new for $299.

I think they go for around $400 used or so on ebay. Its a step up from a MIM Standard Strat, at the same time its a different animal. Set neck and humbuckers - can't remember if it had a more Gibson-like shorter scale too?

G&L's are awesome. My Comanche weighed a ton, so I traded it for a semi hollow ASAT Classic. But never gelled with that and sold it. I bought an ASAT back in '97 and still have it. I've had a few other ASATs over the years - all were good, including the Tribute. The USA Legacy, I've owned a few. In that case, they blew away the Tribute Legacy I had. Oh, had an S500 at some point too.

I'd recommend a Tribute ASAT Bluesboy if you want to upgrade from your Strat without much price difference in the used market.
 
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#4
Killed_by_Death said:
...Around here, everybody wants a Tele instead of a Strat, because we are in Bluegrass territory.
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While there is a lot of "bluegrass" up that way, I can't recall ever seeing a " bluegrass" band with an electric guitar. I've seen a few with electric basses, but that's about the extent of electric instruments I've seen in "bluegrass".

There is however a very rich country twang rockabilly tele tradition in the VA MD area, so maybe that explains the popularity of the that particular style of guitar.

Oh and BTW, I enclosed bluegrass" in quotes because it is often (incorrectly) used to describe hillbilly string band music. Bill Monroe copyrighted the word and used that copyright to prevent any serious competition to his music by threatening anyone who tried to call their hillbilly string band a bluegrass band. You have to keep in mind this was pre info at your fingertips days when record buyers only had so much info to go on so if they liked bluegrass they would miss a world of great music sitting in the country bin because Bill Monroe would threaten to sue anyone who used his word without his permission, which he refused to give to anyone he thought might cut in to his sales.
 
#7
Killed_by_Death said:
I've lived here more than half my life, so if I were going to assimilate, it's way overdue.
I did move away, halfway around the world, and after spending a 1/3 of my life there, I finally came home.
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I was born here but was pretty much raised in the Army so I never had the benefit of the regional accent until my late teens. I joined the USMC before I turned 18 and the people I met in the Corps couldn't believe it when I told them I was from Alabama. After many years in the Corps I returned with no intention of staying, yet some 46 years later, here I still am. It took me a lot of those years before I realized I was becoming one of the good ole boys, but today I can fake it with the best of them. it's honestly like speaking another language, but it makes life so much simpler when they think you are one of them.
 
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#8
fhm555 said:
the people I met in the Corps couldn't believe it when I told them I was from Alabama.
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People were asking me where I was from when I started working at home again, after being gone for an extended period. They were in disbelief when I told them I'm from here, because I had lost the accent.
It's back now, 5 years on. I was making a stupid joke in the car the other day & I could hear my Dad's voice coming out my mouth. It was weird!


fhm555 said:
After many years in the Corps I returned with no intention of staying,
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I had a plan to move to Australasia about a year before I got out of the service, and got a MAC flight to Oz immediately after being discharged.
Oh wait, I did at least drive my Mustang across the country & put it in storage first.
The plan was to stay there indefinitely, but when the jobs started drying up in Thailand, and I was a little fed up with the "culture", I came home.


fhm555 said:
It took me a lot of those years before I realized I was becoming one of the good ole boys,
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I never was, even when I worked construction, but I am completely disconnected from the people around here, including people I went to high school with.


fhm555 said:
it's honestly like speaking another language, but it makes life so much simpler when they think you are one of them.
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I probably could have faked it pretty easily when I was younger & wearing flannel for the construction jobs.
Now I've got hair longer than some of their wives & all I ever wear is rock band t-shirts, Black Sabbath, Ramones, Motorhead.

You'd have to basically live just like these yokels to fit in. I mean, when a guy picks on you in traffic over your hand positions on the steering wheel, you have to wonder exactly what the heck is wrong with that person, but it's just ingrained in the redneck society I suppose. You're supposed to put out an air of manliness while you're driving your jacked up pickup truck.

It's so bad around here that even the women sometimes look just like men about to go hunting, in camouflage fatigues and with their baseball caps with the rolled up brim. It's just wrong!
Yeah, I know, they have their way of dressing and it's none of my business, just like where I put my hands on my steering wheel is none of their business.

I could go on, but... [/rant]
 
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#11
RED J said:
Interesting how this thread morphed from trading guitars to culture shock.
However I have experienced both, so carry on .
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I think more specifically it's reverse culture shock. The first time I experienced it was going from New Orleans to Mexico City back to New Orleans. Then from the U.S. to Germany and back. Then to Ireland, Holland, etc. After coming back from being in Ireland for months it felt incredibly strange driving on the right side of the road again. Coming back from Holland, you instantly notice all the bikes are gone and the food is so radically different. Here the emphasis is on redneck culture--something I've probably been around more than most people. When it comes to that, sometimes I can fit in and sometimes I can't.
 
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#13
Killed_by_Death said:
I got "picked on" for having long hair & not dressing like everyone else in this area growing up. I thought it was just what children do, because I was a teenager.
Turns out, rednecks are a-holes far into their older years.
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I find watching the Atlanta Pop Festival with Hendrix to be interesting for several reasons. It's 1970. Hendrix is playing at a music festival which is actually 100 miles south of Atlanta. So it really is redneck. Yet the counterculture was so strong for a while on into the 70s I guess, that Jimi Hendrix was welcomed there with open arms. It was another world. There is no modern counterpart to something like that. People are too bitter, critical and unfriendly--whether redneck or not. You just aren't going to have a festival like that anywhere, especially not the Deep South, though. Not one in which you have from 300,000 to 500,000 people in an almost unregulated environment. No way is that happening again. Of course now security concerns alone would make it impossible even if the other factors (which I'm really focusing on) didn't exist.
 
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#14
Rocker949 said:
Here the emphasis is on redneck culture--something I've probably been around more than most people. When it comes to that, sometimes I can fit in and sometimes I can't.
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I hear you. I'm from New York and live in rural Tennessee. I don't know about other places, but as a rule Tennesseans are pretty friendly and will accept if you aren't a jerk.

I come from a pretty woodsy background and don't have a hard time adapting to country people, it's really half of what I am from my Mom's side of the family.
I feel your dilemma and put it humorously from my standpoint: I'm old, white, yankee, male, and living in the south. I encounter people of every description who can find fault with that on a daily basis.
If I hadn't become a virtuoso code switcher a long time ago, I'd be lonely. As it is, I have no problems getting along with anybody and am accepted as a contributing member in the community. The key has been accepting them and their culture on their terms, being respectful and realizing I'm the outsider.
 
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#16
RED J said:
I hear you. I'm from New York and live in rural Tennessee. I don't know about other places, but as a rule Tennesseans are pretty friendly and will accept if you aren't a jerk.

I come from a pretty woodsy background and don't have a hard time adapting to country people, it's really half of what I am from my Mom's side of the family.
I feel your dilemma and put it humorously from my standpoint: I'm old, white, yankee, male, and living in the south. I encounter people of every description who can find fault with that on a daily basis.
If I hadn't become a virtuoso code switcher a long time ago, I'd be lonely. As it is, I have no problems getting along with anybody and am accepted as a contributing member in the community. The key has been accepting them and their culture on their terms, being respectful and realizing I'm the outsider.
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I have a feeling a lot of this has to do with your personality itself. It's that way with my sister, too. She gets along with almost everybody almost all the time. In my case, though, it isn't quite so easy. In my case, I can get misinterpreted really easily.
 
#17
Rocker949 said:
I have a feeling a lot of this has to do with your personality itself.
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Then allow me to turn that around on you, and again emphasize, it's the old "when in Rome" adage.
Since old Snag has jumped in, I think he has a pretty solid record of expecting everyone to bend to his expectations which = outsider by choice.Might you be the same?
No disrespect intended to either of you, just a reality check.
Allow me to add: if you want to make an enemy in the Southern U.S. just keep telling them about how things are done in Netherlands, Thailand, New York, Chicago or where ever else you might be from.

If you are from the Northern U.S that's called the Yankee (know it all superior loud proud rude) attitude and *that* is what gets the bees buzzin'.
Maybe there is an equivalent attitude if you are a European. ;)

Just trying to share my experience, and BTW, I'm really not a get along guy, if there are significant issues. I try not make little issues into big issues.
 
#18
RED J said:
Then allow me to turn that around on you, and again emphasize, it's the old "when in Rome" adage.
Since old Snag has jumped in, I think he has a pretty solid record of expecting everyone to bend to his expectations which = outsider by choice.Might you be the same?
No disrespect intended to either of you, just a reality check.
Allow me to add: if you want to make an enemy in the Southern U.S. just keep telling them about how things are done in Netherlands, Thailand, New York, Chicago or where ever else you might be from.

If you are from the Northern U.S that's called the Yankee (know it all superior loud proud rude) attitude and *that* is what gets the bees buzzin'.
Maybe there is an equivalent attitude if you are a European. ;)

Just trying to share my experience, and BTW, I'm really not a get along guy, if there are significant issues. I try not make little issues into big issues.
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I'm Southern to the core. But I've also always been interested in foreign countries. Maybe this started when my father went on a business trip to El Paso, Texas when I was six. I still remember pretty vividly what it was like crossing the border over into Juarez. When I got older, I got to visit Texas and Mexico some more. By my 30s, though, I started traveling to Europe when I got a trip to Germany with my job. Later, I got to spend much more time in Ireland and Holland. I ended up making some close friends there which I still visit to this day.

But when I say sometimes I fit in with the redneck culture here and sometimes I don't, that's because that's an accurate description of the way it is. Fortunately, when I'm able to be in person with people, things usually have a way of working out. Definitely not always, though. For instance, just because I've had cats as pets before, that doesn't mean I'm incapable of being muy macho if I feel like it. I realize some cats can be a PITA, but this aspect of Southern culture which stresses it's more manly to like dogs than cats is something that I'm not buying. I'm only using this example, of course, I could add others.

I don't get into it any more than I have to, but I believe personality types are a real thing. Unfortunately, I seem to have one that causes people to frequently misunderstand what I'm really trying to say. Definitely some of this has to do with an inability to be articulate enough. The philosopher Kierkegaard addressed the issue when he said---

People understand me so little that they fail even to understand my complaints that they do not understand me.
 
#19
Killed_by_Death said:
That's funny, because I was born here, but I've always felt like an outsider, which is 66% of the reason I moved far away.

Speaking of outsider, it's much worse when you're living in a country where you have to maintain a visa & work permit in order to stick around.
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It could be the prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own people or whatever that is. But I guess that would be getting into a realm that probably can't be discussed here. So I won't try.
 
#20
Rocker949 said:
I don't get into it any more than I have to, but I believe personality types are a real thing. Unfortunately, I seem to have one that causes people to frequently misunderstand what I'm really trying to say. Definitely some of this has to do with an inability to be articulate enough. The philosopher Kierkegaard addressed the issue when he said---

People understand me so little that they fail even to understand my complaints that they do not understand me.
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I hear what you are saying I get it I think. You bring in cats, that to me is a personal issue, not a cultural issue
Two separate issues. I will go out of my way to assimilate in the culture I live in, but when it comes to personal choices, that's strictly *my* business and I don't care if anybody likes it or not.
There definitely are personality types. From what you have said maybe you worry too much of what others think of you and that is the real issue.
 
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