We went North this weekend and ended up in Madison WI via Dave's Guitar Shop in La Crosse. This took us about 2h out of our way but boy was it Worth it ! 1500 axes of all sizes and shapes PRS, Gibson, Fender etc etc !

Well I had an inkling that a new LP would be a good idea and as my wifes brother had been salivating over my studio LP for a while. I let him have it very cheap (600 bucks with Sperzils, strap locks, graph-techs the lot...what a nice man I am). I had also been thinking about getting rid of the 72 Thinline Tele as it played like a dog and didn't really sound very nice. It was OK but a long way form either the LP or the PRS.

SO the Tele went as well. OK that is a grand in the war chest ! Lets go !!

SO I played a bunch of LPs a second hand supreme (very high action...not very nice), a couple of standards, also very clunky and finally a couple of 60s re-issue classics. The classics played very well and on that strength I parted with another 475 on top of the war chest fund and got me a honey burst. The pickups (496R/500T) are a little hotter than I am used to and have a different frequency response to the 490R/498T combo of the Studio, which I prefer. So I think I'm going to get me some 490R/498Ts and swap 'em out. I have also ordered a set of graph-techs and sperzles as well as a white (in stead of the orange) toggle switch it came with which looks like it has smoked too much !!

Just for clarity the reason I bought this Axe is the way it feels and plays. It is faster than my Ex-studio and just feels nicer. I will post some MP3 type stuff once I have my act together.

Overall impressions....yummm !