Had my eye on one of these and the local guitar shop had this discounted at their annual "garage sale" on Saturday.
This sale was crazy by the way as people were literally lined up 2 hours before the event to be the first into the store. I showed up around 10 minutes after the store opened (my wife had a lash appointment) and there was a line outside the back door of people already waiting to purchase things (check out Thunderroad Guitars on Instagram and they have some videos). I talked to kid in line that was happier than probably anyone I have ever seen buying a guitar. It was a $375 Hamer Les Paul Junior. Told me he didn't have Gibson money, but this was his Les Paul Junior money.
These custom shop guitars are expensive, as in too expensive for a hack like me to consider purchasing under normal circumstances. They are handmade in the Fender custom shop and this particular one retails for nearly $5500. The guitar is a 60's style Stratocaster, heavy relic sunburst, with the sonic blue over the top (basically two finishes with the top layer faded to make it look used). Sort of a thing fairly exclusive to custom shop guitars.
Bottom line is that the guitar was discounted over $1600 and my wife split the cost with me as a birthday present to me (coming on a big one in a couple of weeks). So it was still a little hit to the budget, but I have a card with them and they offer 24 months interest free. It "should" be the last guitar I will buy for a while (at least in 2023). Still have my eye on a Gibson Les Paul or SG, but that will have to wait.
I believe this was on my list of things to accomplish in 2023. I actually now have purchased a new Deluxe Reverb Fender amp as well as this new Stratocaster. I might not be the greatest guitar player in the world, but I can now at least say I sport real professional equipment. Like an average looking guy wearing a $5000 suit. The clothes (or in this case the Guitar) can make the man!
Yeah... my Frampton game is not very long I guess. I always liked his stuff and had his comes alive album at one time. But I never knew he could play guitar like he does.
I saw him do an acoustic thing once on television (watched for about a half hour or so as I was into the whole unplugged thing at the time) and maybe it was a bad day, but he did not sound all that good either vocally or on guitar. Obviously stretching for notes and his guitar playing was choppy and not very rhythmic. Seemed to struggle to keep time. Perhaps he just needs a rhythm section to keep him in line!
Saw Frampton 'open' for the Steve Miller Band @ Tanglewood in 2018.
Frampton was nothing short of absolutely amazing. Steve Miller reminded me why I never bought a ticket to one of his concerts. He's a helluva guitar player, but his songs still fucking SUCK.
Frampton got stuck with his early shirtless teen-idol album covers his publicists wanted him to do but he always took pride in his guitar playing and even released an all-instrumental album that won a Grammy award.
Another interesting fact is that he went to the same school as David Bowie, though they were a few years apart and were lifelong friends. I read he may be the only person who always called him Dave...
What is funny about that video is that Clapton is 76 and Frampton is 71 at that time. Frampton looks much, much older! Also... I always thought Frampton was sort of a hack on guitar, but he sounds much better than I remember on that video (not better than Clapton, but better than I remember with his three pickup Gibson Les Paul).
sweet !
I remember Frampton had a dream come true with Clapton, not sure of all the guitars but another great one:
ERIC CLAPTON & PETER FRAMPTON - "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (HD) - YouTube