The oldest guitar in my collection (I only have seven at the moment, having 'rationalised' last Autumn) is a black US Standard Fender Stratocaster. I bought this brand new at Cooke's in Norwich when I started playing with Serious Risk: it cost less than £200 I recall. I don't tend to use it for Synergy gigs for a couple of reasons: firstly whatever set-up you use it tends to sound like Hank Marvin! Secondly, it's immaculate apart from a couple of dings on the back, made when the Risk's lead guitarist Howie borrowed it when he broke a string mid-gig. I didn't notice until too late that he was wearing a belt made from bullets!
Tim, the incredible lead player with Synergy, asked me how old it was: this is easy to establish by referencing the serial number on the headstock. It turns out that it was made in the USA in 1988 for export to Europe (hence the 'EE' prefix) making it 36 years old! A scan through the online auctions reveals that it's probably worth £1200 or so... Will I play it at gigs in the future? I might well do, just for nostalgia's sake - but I might need to help it out with a distortion pedal!
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