Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

A limited edition (here we go again...or maybe here we HO again.) of SRV's uglee "Lenny" pawn-shop stray..er, sorry, STRAT, which Lenore paid $350.00 for, is going on sale on December 12, in an edition of 185 instruments (one per Guitar center???). Love the stationery-store reflective lettering...

I'm guessing $20K; the prices on these seem to creep up with each new "illustrious tribute" (Fender marketing's words).


http://www.fender.com/lenny

20K plus for an abused Fender. Absurd. The prostitutes are in Disneyland. Stevie Ray paid about a nickel each for the 'mailbox' lettering on the body. The buyers of these 'replicas' will be paying about $500 for each letter.

Byron Barr, a guitar tech, found the '64 in a south Dallas pawnshop (not Austin), and never got re-paid the total $300 or so he paid for it. Lenora didn't come up with all the cash. SRV wound up paying Barr off eventually, as Barr said, " ...with a bicycle and a really cool jacket."

Fender press release has candy-coated this story, saying that Lenore got seven friends to each pony up $50.00 so she could purchase Lenny.

Lenny replicas list for $17K, I'm told. At $50.00 a friend, she'd need 340 friends today...

I saw that ad and I said; why?! It's not even that cool.

I'd rather have my own custom built guitar than a replica of somebody else's, especially when it's uglier than a mud fence. Hmm, what else could I say about it? Oh, how about this one"

"I'd like to have me two of them; one to sh_ _ on, and another to cover it up with".

If I get another Strat, it's either going to be one of the 2007 commemorative `57s in white blonde "Mary Kaye" models, or wait longer and have a custom shop built like the one Hank Marvin is playing these days: a Fiesta Red `57 with a bird's eye maple neck, and maybe gold hardware, though I'm not all that crazy about gold hardware. It looks cool on HM's, but as Paul W has commented, and I have noticed firsthand with my `62 RI Mary Kaye, the gold hardware doesn't stand up too well, even if coated with clear nail polish.

Here's a look at the HM CS strat: http://www.fender.co.uk/artists/index.p ... ank_marvin

Why not build one yourse;l? It ain't rocket science. It's a screw-together geetar. And you get to learn some skills by doing.

Chances are, if you do your homework and take your time, you'll get better than a CS Strat anyway.

jingle_jangle wrote:Why not build one yourse;l? It ain't rocket science. It's a screw-together geetar. And you get to learn some skills by doing.

Chances are, if you do your homework and take your time, you'll get better than a CS Strat anyway.

Thanks for the encouragement! This is true. I have looked into it a bit, and I've already had the Telecaster that I posted a pic of custom built for me.

I want the body with th`57 contours, and I want the 21 fret authentic "v" shaped neck, with the birds eye maple, and I love a spaghetti style logo. So far I've come up with the following results:

If I built it myself I could get a Fender licensed neck, but no logo.

I could get a Fender birds eye maple neck, but the only ones I've seen available have 22 frets, and no "v" shape.

None of the `57 style "v" necks with 21 frets are available in birds eye.

I don't know if any of the licensed bodies have the extreme `57 style contours.

I suppose I could buy a licensed body and have it shaped, but I don't know how to deal with the rest of the issues.

Having a big old SRV sticker on your guitar...kind of like a picture Speed Racer on your feetsie jamjams.

Yeah, if your jamjams cost a hunka hunka burnin' mondo moola.

I still wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares about being the guy at the Fender factory dremeling, faking ciggie burns and adding little puke encrustations on previously nice guitars. Maybe I could work my way up to the stick-on letter position and the dreams would be better.

I cynically thought originally that this was a marketing test from Fender when they were trying to get rid of seconds.

Intentionally scratching a brand new guitar to make it look old (especially at the factory) always seemed somehow strange to me (would you beat up a brand new car to make it look as if it survived many accidents, or tear hair off the head of a new doll which is supposed to be a present for your daughter's birthday, scratch its face, turn its clothes into rags just to later pretend it was a "relic" from your Granny's attic, etc, etc?), but to each their own... perhaps there's market for them, and that's why they are being made?

You are completely correct, but that doesn't mean that I'm happy about it. The "artist" in me wants to exoculate myself when I think about defacing a "perfectly good guitar". It also makes me think of the song by John Hiatt.

Why not build one yourse;l? It ain't rocket science.

Paul, if I were to get another Strat, I'd rather have you, Dale, or Dawn @ Naked Body Guitars build one for me.

http://nakedbodyguitars.com/

jingle_jangle wrote:Why not build one yourse;l? It ain't rocket science. It's a screw-together geetar. And you get to learn some skills by doing.

Chances are, if you do your homework and take your time, you'll get better than a CS Strat anyway.

And you can get all the parts you need here. http://www.warmoth.com/

JimK

Thanks for the links, guys. LOL.

Does Dawn (is that a guy's name or what?) do Ricks?

... is that a guy's name or what? ...

Dawn is definitely not a guy. Also, as far as I know, she has refinished any Ricks.

wmthor wrote:

... is that a guy's name or what? ...

Dawn is definitely not a guy. Also, as far as I know, she has refinished any Ricks.

You mean "hasn't refinished any Ricks?"

Well, in any case, I hate to sound like a cynic, but a guitar's a guitar, and a good finish is a good finish. If I wanted my Ric refinished, I'd discuss the project thoroughly with the technician, including inspection of current projects, and being satisfied of the quality, I'd turn over my prized possession regardless of the fact that she may or may not have ever touched a Rickenbacker before.

JimK