Originally Posted by: LordathestringsMeh, for all you know the winning bidder on that 40th Anniversary Strat bid more than $1000. eBay only bumps the winner's bid to the next increment above the second-highest bidder.

And you're right about the MIM. Buying over the web entails a certain risk of the unknown, but even if this turns out to be not quite what you want, you can always trade it in or sell it.

Morning, m'Lord ::bows:: Don't you ever sleep? The seller on the MIM I won had a similar Strat being auctioned, but the finish was some high-gloss finish- something I was afraid would affect the tone, so I didn't even bid on that one. Something about the satin finish on the one I won made me feel, "I want that." I'll report back on how the guitar is when I receive it.

If you want to see what my Strat looks like, take a look here: http://www.stratcollector.com/scnimages/83corrupt/83bb2.gif

Note the jack being flush to the body, and no rear access to the trem springs on the back. It is an oddity I guess, but I absolutely love the tone and feel of this guitar. The finish on my guitar is more a natural wood, and it's heavy as hell. I bought it used for $200 around 1985; got the original case and tags too. For whatever reason, I never really played it until recently, and that's when I decided to tune it Hendrix style with 12's on it. It pulled the bridge up almost 90 degrees, and all I could think was, "oh, sh**!" I had to take the whole face plate off to get to the springs. Good thing the tags explained how the bridge/trem mechanism worked, or I would have been up the proverbial creek, as I'm not good at set-ups.

Hey, here's a question for you: as I was doing the set-up, I plugged in with the amp on, and when I touched the base of the metal part of the cable, I felt a mild shock. Am I running the risk of frying myself? This was before I had the scratch plate fully screwed in, if that makes a difference, but now I'm nervous, especially now that my son is playing. I'd appreciate your input on this. I definitely don't want to put my son at risk of getting toasted. Thanks in advance.