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The Challenge: With a budget of just £500, our intrepid Hero (of Switzerland) has to find a good used Fender Stratocaster or S-type guitar with modern pickup voicings and high build quality to use onstage and in the studio.

I went to Denmark Street on Thursday and had a couple of hours wandering about drooling and gurning to myself. Along the way I managed to play 2 guitars off my Stratocaster shortlist with suprising results.

First off Music Ground had an 1989 Fender Eric Clapton Strat in stock for £895, this is the mark 1 version with Lace Sensor pickups and TBX tone/boost controls. Although American made, the only difference I can see between this guitar and the current Fender J Craft (domestic model)ST54-100LS (unofficial) Clapton guitar is that the modern Japanese one has a 3 piece alder body as opposed to the American’s 2 piece alder body. Neck, frets, hardware, pickups, materials and colours all seem identical.

The supposed 1 piece maple hard ‘V’ neck was not as extreme as I’d heard. Comfy in the hand and very playable. My only niggle is I would prefer Jumbo frets as I’ve got used to them on my Kotzen Tele and I think they make the guitar more expressive to play. The Claptons vintage style small frets will soon wear down with the kinda punishment I give a guitar. So a refret may become a priority.

The scratchplate was 1 ply and nasty, and I’d replace that for a modern 3 ply in black. But the Fender Gold Lace Sensors are superb. The pickup tones were modern, clear and sparkly…..crystalline even. A hard on blues guy might prefer a set of Kinman AV100n’s or Fender’s own Texas Specials, but for the style of music I play, they really fit. Back in the late 80’s Lace Sensors were the archetypal competitor to things like EMG’s and although some may find them too much… almost brimming with fidellity. I really liked both the tone and the harmonic response, running through the test amp, a Hi-Watt 50 combo, every note felt warm fat and fluid.

Niggles? Well aside from that scratchplate and perhaps the small 50’s style frets…..its perfect. Definetly at the top of my list. However…not this one at £895. I can buy a new Japanese Clapton for around £500. I love Denmark Street, but I accept they have to price guitars a certain way. But blowing a grand on this when I can have a new one made by a bloke called Yuko as opposed to a bloke called Hank is meaningless.

I have, however, crossed off the Levinson Blade RH-4. It looks great….but….

World Guitars in Denmark Street kindly let me try theirs. Resplendent in Strawberry Red, it was a lovely colour. As I’ve been watching a used Blade RH-4 on Ebay which eventually went for just £410.00 used, I really saw the Levinson Blade as a very strong contender.

Essentially an upspecked high performance stratocaster. With 2 single coils & 1 Humbucker, VSC active electronics, Locking Sperzel machine heads and a fulcrum type trem. This would be a hell of a lot of guitar for the money.

Back in the late 1980’s Designer Gary Levinsons original marketing schtick was that as a Swiss industrial designer, he’d designed watches and cars and furniture and other machinery and so sorted out the few niggles in Leo Fenders original design, and so what remained was the ultimate S-type guitar, one that oozed pure performance. The adverts would read

“Blade, Original Concepts by Gary Levinson, Switzerland”.

Accompanyed with a picture of Gary in his trendy architects glasses holding his Swiss designed guitar. So people thought of Swiss Watches, even though all his original guitars were made under contract by the same people who make J-Craft Ibanez’s and Japanese Fenders. But as guitar makers are now brand management companies, he charged pretty high prices for them.

As expected I found this Japanese built example I tried to be of faultless construction and very tidy in fit and finish. There were 2….well 3 very very big issues…

1: The weight - The 2 piece Sen Ash body looked grainy and great under its strawberry finish but weighed about 9lbs, thats fine on a Les Paul, but on a Strat? Maybe if your sitting in the pit orchestra in the London Palladium, counting bars and waiting for your takeaway to arrive before the interval….. you can get away with it, but on a strap onstage for 90 mins? I think not!

2: The Neck - Characterless it perhaps the best description. A slim, but wide ‘D’ profile, it felt less “stratocaster” like than one could imagine a strat type guitar to be. If I closed my eyes I felt like I was playing a mid 80’s Japanese Charvel/Jackson clone like a Washburn Mercury or Aria Pro II. Y’know a cheap 80’s pointy headstock widdly widdly guitar. Fast maybe…..but not nice. It was well put together, but the weighty Sen Ash body just reminded me of a very bad 70’s Strat.

3 :The Electronics - They seemed confusing at first, versatile yes, but I’d sooner have 5 useable tones than 24 crap ones. A 5 way pickup selector with 1 volume, 1 tone and a 3 way mini toggle with a choice of cut/boost or standard. Some of the glassy clean tones were nice, but as soon as I changed to an overdriven sound the guitar lost it big time.

All the rumours I’d heard about the pickups being crap were spot on. They lacked bite and for high gain work failed to overdrive the test amp, the shops Orange AD30 combo. They really sounded too bright and again characterless. Normally with a humbucker in the bridge I would expect a big Fat strident sound….nothing of the sort here. I’d seen quite a few used Blades retrofitted with EMG’s, but even if I changed the pickups, the neck felt horrible and it was way too heavy. It looks beautiful….but like a pretty dress and good makeup on an ugly girl, the truth came to the surface after a very short time together.

With a new price tag of £1225.00 I was dissapointed. What surprised me was that Blade do a cheaper Korean made range of guitars. The korean made S-type on display next to the RH-4 looked as though it had the same electronics and pickups for just £500 new, so why on earth you’d pay any extra for the RH-4 is beyond me. The new style headstock is ugly too. Like a kitchenknife gone wrong.

Looks like Fullerton are ahead of Switzerland on this one. To be continued…

I often see people on web forums asking advice on buying a Gibson Les Paul. There are many opinions on this, but having gone through the experience several years ago and managing to find a guitar that was both well made, well finished and well priced. I’m as qualified as anyone to offer my two penneth worth.

1. There are many myths surrounding modern Gibsons however it is worth noting that their quality control is and always has been a bit patchy. So its probably worth avoiding buying a ’sight unseen’ guitar over the internet.  A quick survey of my friends and family highlighted how different LP’s can be. My brothers Standard is nicely finished, but has a really light fingerboard and one of the machineheads is not quite seated at the right angle, the singer in my bands LP Studio has really sharp fret ends, a mates Les Paul Standard has a build up of paint by the serial number. Another friends LP Custom has a glue splot under the tailpeice and is heavier than any guitar I’ve tried.
2. Do your own research - Opinions are like arseholes, everyones got one. Go onto Gibson’s own website and look at the models and see what interests you, buy some magazines as the dealer adverts with give you a good idea on both prices and the range available.
3. Choice is everything - Don’t go to a dealer with only 2 guitars to choose from, you need a dealer with a good amount of stock, some dealers like Peter Cooks or Coda’s don’t rely on finance deals to sell guitars, therefore they tend to pile them high and rely on a fast turnover. These places tend to be keener on price as they don’t want a pricey guitar hanging on a wall for months on end.
4. Try everything - Even if the guitar is not in a colour or the exact model of Les Paul you want, remember modern Standards have a choice of 50’s rounded or 60’s slim taper necks, try both and see what you get on with
5. Awww its heavy - As mahogany is the predominant material of an LP, they are usually heavy, but as wood has its own inconsistancies this can vary from 8.8 - 10lbs in weight. Don’t be a pussy this is part of the guitars charm, you can always buy a broad strap to distribute the weight.
6. Go on a ‘weekday’ - Guitar shops are usually busy on a Saturday. If you show up on a Tuesday morning wanting to try a £1200 guitar, you will probably get a better standard of service and less pressure to buy.
7. Make sure you get to play it through a ‘proper’ amp - I’m amazed that dealers are so thick as to make you try a grand plus guitar through a £100 amp. However this is common place (my brother has made 3 attempts to buy a PRS McCarty in recent years, everytime he gets to play through a Line 6 Spider or other such cheap amp, he feels underwhelmed by the guitars tone and always walks away this even happened at Music Live in 2005 on the PRS distributors own stand whewre he was forced to play a 2 grand guitar through a cheap Crate amp), don’t stand for it. You wouldn’t test drive an Aston Martin with 2 star petrol in the tank would you?
8. Fit and Finish - look for build ups of paint around the headstock, neck body join. Also binding check for dings and finish on the binding, especially where the neck meets the body. Hold the guiter up to the light and look for any scratches in the finish.
9. Does it play well? - Try the guitar un-amped, listen to the notes ring out, do they sound clean. Play Harmonics all over the neck, Play avariety of stuff on it, both clean and dirty use all the pickups, check the switch, volume & tone controls for any crackles.
10. Rosewood Fingerboards - Apart from Customs and some limited editions, the fingerboard will be Indian Rosewood. This should be the same colour as fruitcake, a rich dark reddish brown. If it’s the colour of pine its been harvested young and is too dried out, walk away. Look at the fret ends, are they sharp? Are they sat in the binding properly?
11. Don’t let the dealer sell you the guitar he wants - Avoid the assistants agenda, I’ve seen an assistant in a well known West End Guitar shop try and tell someone that the wiring in a Les Paul Classic had inferior quality cable to the Les Paul Standard. This is bullshit, there is no magical superior wiring on Gibsons production line guitars. However the dealers agenda was to push the customer into paying another £300 for a similar guitar. Don’t be conned.
12. Try more than one dealer, also look at Loot/Admag adverts. Ebay can be useful, but I would always try the guitar before you commit to a purchase. Beware of people  trying to sell you an ex artist guitar, if it’s real they will have a letter of provenance and some history. Beware of fakes, rebadged Epiphones or Tokai’s etc.
13. Take your time and try lots of guitars - I spent a week and looked at about 20 guitars in total. In the end I wanted a Wine Red LP Classic. After not being able to find a Standard with a decent finish and dark rosewood board. I had a choice of 2 ‘Classic’s’, one in Copper and a common Honeyburst model. In the end the honeyburst won. I think the shop assistant was annoyed that I’d spent a working day choosing an instrument, including going for lunch halfway through. But remember its your money, not theirs. Take your time and if in doubt, walk away.