*Sheesh* It's a sad day at a guitar forum when there's only been two new posts under the "Stratocaster" section since 1/17/06. *ahem* That's almost two entire months!! Well, anyways, I aim to put that to an end, and under my close personal supervision, this Strat section is gonna start rockin' again.

As some of you may know, I ordered a set of Custom Shop '69 p'ups for my MIM Classic 60's Strat about two months ago. Since they have yet to arrive (I think Abigail must be on extended leave or something), and also since the arrival of my new G & L Tele, the 60's Strat led a somewhat quiet life. Thinking it needed a little love, and needing my Strat fix for the day, I dug it out of the case. To my delight, I found with fresh strings, polished up, and ready to play!! Zam! To the Cyber Twin, Batman! I dialed up a sweet 60's Tweed setting that I'd concocted some time ago, with a smidge of tape echo on it for that cool Knopfler feel, set the p'up selector to the bridge+middle, and launched into "Tunnel of Love". A wide smile came across my face. The classic, vintage Fender tone has a natrual tendency to do that. It didn't take long before I had dialed in another cool tone, this time a '65 Twin Reverb surf flavor, and bounced gleefully through a little of the Venture's "Walk Don't Run". Hang 10, you hep cats! Since things were really clickin' now, I couldn't help but play "Peggy Sue", which through a vintage-toned Strat always sounds amazing. When did that tune come out - like 1958? Such a classic, and so much fun to play! To complete the set, I sessioned a bit of CCR's "Bad Moon Risin'", and it was pure heaven to behold.

As I sat back and admired her lovely 3TS finish, and curvaceous body, I started trying to convince myself that I really needed those new '69 p'ups in it. But somehow, after a jam session like the one I'd just finished, well . . . I couldn't. The tones you get through vintage Fender pickups are flat-out awesome! Yeah, I know it would be killer to be able to tap into the Hendrix and SRV vibe w/ those CS 69's, but I'm thinking that I might just drop them in my MIJ Strat, and keep my Classic 60's Strat just the way it is, and that fabulous vintage Fender Strat tone at my beckon call.

Has anyone else come face-to-face with this little quandry? Do you think the '69's will have that same trademark "spankiness" as those vintage p'ups do? Maybe I'm just getting too sentimental about this whole thing, too.

Anyways, I'm sure my fellow Fretters have some interesting insights, not to mention an abundance of stories about that legendary Fender Strat tone - the first time you heard it, how it affected your playing, the joy of owning your very first Strat, or how became a part of your own sound. Myself, I've only been a Strat player for the past (3) years, and let me tell you, it has had the equivalent effect of a direct lightning strike to my own style and sound. The vintage Strat tone is the epitome of guitar-playing coolness.