Danelectro D84
Danelectro's take on the Stratocaster guitar is the D84.
Is this guitar worth getting being it's the same price as the Fender Standard Stratocaster? The answer to that depends on how much the Fender annoys you.
I'll explain.
The first thing to note about the Danelectro is that it has 2 control knobs instead of 3. There are many Fender Strat players that think having 1 master volume and 2 tone controls is just stupid, and that it should be condensed to master volume and master tone. You get that with the '84.
The second thing to note is the 2-point Wilkinson tremolo system, which many believe to be far superior to the 6-screw Strat bridge (which is what you get on the MIM Strat). To get the 2-point with a Fender Strat, you have to buy a USA model which costs double that of the MIM. You get it for the same price as the MIM on the Danelectro.
The third thing to notice is vintage style slotted tuners. You don't get this on the Fender MIM. You do get them on the Squier Vintage Modified Strat, but then you go back to a 3-knob and a 6-screw bridge.
In other words, Danelectro pretty much addresses everything Strat players don't like about Strats with a guitar you can have for less than half the price of a Fender American Professional Stratocaster.
My only nitpick about the guitar is the headstock design. Looks a bit cheap, but then again it has a race car look to it which some people like.
Summed up: If you like Strats but hate the standard wiring and knob layout Fender offers, then you want a Danelectro D84 instead.
The most collectible Squier of all time
There is a particular old Squier guitar model that commands the most money...
...and that guitar is the Squier JV Stratocaster made in Japan from the early 1980s.
The reasons the Squier JV Strat is so desirable is because it's one of the best vintage Stratocaster reissues without it being an actual Fender reissue.
But - and this is a big but - the guitar is only worth something to you as a player if you like vintage Strats.
Some JV Strats have nitro finishes (others have a thin poly finish) which is cool, but many have 3-way pickup selector switches which sucks. Some do have the 5-way but the most desirable of the lot have the 3-way.
All the JV guitars as far as I'm aware were marketed as '52 Vintage for Telecasters, '57 Vintage for Stratocasters and also '62 Vintage for Stratocasters. They were made to play like real-deal vintage Fender guitars.
Did they have Fullterton California Fender pickups? Yes, and that's part of what makes them so desirable. But again, the JVs were specifically built and marketed as vintage Fender spec.
While true the JV from Fender Japan is the most collectible Squier ever, with some available for reasonable prices, I think the money is honestly better spent on a new Fender Standard Stratocaster, as in a Mexico made model. For around the same money as a JV, you get a guitar where you can change around the hardware if you want to and not have to freak out about it. You also get a warranty, which you obviously don't with the JV.
Or if you want to save a buck and get a seriously good maple-board Strat, see the Squier Deluxe Stratocaster. It's one of the few Squier Strats that has a satin urethane coated neck just like the Mexico and American Fender models do. It also has the two-point bridge with full-block brushed saddles. That guitar has some seriously good woods and hardware in it.
And of course there is the Squier Vintage Modified Stratocaster. There's a gloss urethane coating on that neck, but the price is nice, it has the vintage slotted tuners and the Duncan Designed pickups actually sound really good.
Real vintage Squier JV might be nice to have, but it's not really all that good of a player's guitar. And there's no guarantee it will get more valuable over time at any appreciable rate (meaning it might take 20 years before the value you buy it for now doubles... do you really want to wait that long?)
Is a pau ferro fretboard any good?
You may start seeing more of these.
Take the Fender Duo-Sonic HS with pau ferro fingerboard. Is it one of several guitars Fender just released with that specific wood species for the fretboard material.
Personally, I don't like pau ferro unless it's matched up with a body color that complements it.
The Duo-Sonic in Surf Green works with pau ferro. That's a guitar where the brown works nicely with the body color.
An example of where it does not work is when the body is black. What that does is make the brown of the fretboard stick out like a sore thumb and just look stupid.
Another example of where pau ferro doesn't work is on bright finish colors like Olympic White. Doesn't work there either.
As you have probably guessed, pau ferro works best with "middle hue" finishes. Sunburst? Yes. Candy Apple Red? Yes. Ghost Silver? Also a yes.
It's when you go extreme-dark or extreme-light that pau ferro looks real ugly real quick.
Is pau ferro ever used for a guitar body?
Yes. Some guitar makers produce acoustic guitars where the body (back and sides, specifically) is made from pau ferro. And in that instance, you really understand why it's called "leopard tree" as you see some very pronounced grain lines.
What makes pau ferro desirable as a fingerboard wood?
Other than the visual look of it, nothing. I presume Fender is using it because it's rosewood-like.
From a corporate point of view, it should be easier for Fender to transport these guitars. You'll notice that the instruments linked above are made in Mexico. Because of CITES regulations, it is probably altogether more convenient for Fender to have any guitar built in their Ensenada factory to have no rosewood, making for easier shipping from MX into the US.
Now to be clear, it's not that I don't like pau ferro wood. It's just that it doesn't work with every body color out there. I really don't care if MIM Fender electrics use rosewood or pau ferro fretboards because it doesn't affect the tonal character of the guitar at all.
However, I do care how it looks. If Fender sticks to middle hue body colors, then sure, pau ferro works just fine. But they really need to ditch putting a pau ferro fretboard against a Black or Olympic White body because that just doesn't work.
Lightweight electric guitars
If solid-body electric guitars are too heavy for you, these are some alternatives you should consider.
Before showing the alternatives, the regular weight of a new Fender Stratocaster is usually about 8 pounds, and the weight of a Squier Stratocaster is slightly less at about 7 pounds, 14 ounces, give or take an ounce. Even for models where both the Fender and the Squier use the same wood species for the body, the Squier has a slim profile Strat body which is what takes off a few ounces.
However, when it comes to truly lightweight electrics that aren't acoustic-electric, certain semi-hollow body guitars are noticeably lighter.
You could spend a ton of cash for a semi-hollow, but here are 3 semi-hollow lightweights that are priced nice that won't break the bank.
The Gretsch weighs in at about 6lbs 10oz. Gorgeous guitar. 5-ply arched maple body and loaded with Broad'Tron pickups. The center block is spruce. And that V-shape tailpiece always catches my eye.
The Epiphone weighs in at 7lbs 6oz. This is a guitar I've mentioned a few times before as it's one of the best that Epiphone makes. It has advanced electronics with two coil-tapped humbuckers, but the best part is that this is a semi-hollow that is almost the same size as a Les Paul. This is not the larger ES-335 body style of the Epiphone Dot. Many players appreciate the smaller ES-339 size. If you want a lightweight Les Paul without major modifications or ridiculous amounts of weight reduction, you want the ES-339.
Squier Vintage Modified '72 Tele Thinline
This Squier is the same weight as the Gretsch at 6lbs 10oz. This is a very cool Telecaster from Squier that sounds as good as it looks. Truly, it does. Yes, the strings do install through the body, so you can truly feel all that wonderful semi-hollow vibration when playing this axe. This Tele projects acoustically just as well as the two other guitars above and that's no joke.
Compared to the other two guitars above, this is the simplest of the lot. One 3-way switch, 2 knobs and nothing else, which is how a Telecaster should be.
Which has the best sound?
If you want twang and snap, you get the Squier. If you want something good for blues, jazz and rock, get the Epiphone. If you want something that's good for '50s and '60s tones, get the Gretsch.
Out of the three, the one that covers the most range of sounds is the Epiphone mainly because of its coil-tapped humbuckers. But I'd personally get the Squier instead.
The compact hatchback is the best Florida car
After driving the same vehicle for over 10 years, I'm now finally driving something else that's much better suited for Tampa Bay Florida.
Be gone, truck
Up until very recently I was driving a pickup truck. I won't say what brand it was other than it was a GM vehicle made in the mid-2000s. There was nothing major on the truck that was broken mechanically, but it had over 130K miles and GMs really don't last much beyond that point.
Could I have made my GM truck go all the way to 175K or even 200K miles and beyond? Sure. But the time was right to part ways and get something else, so I did.
What I ended up getting was an early-2010s 5-door compact hatchback from a Japanese brand. It's used and has 70K miles on it, which for Florida is low miles. I've not even owned it a week and like it much better than the pickup. I'll talk more about it in a moment.
The pickup I had was a 4x4 and was bought back when I lived up north specifically to deal with northern winters. Had I known I would be moving to Florida less than a year after purchasing the truck, I never would have bought it, because driving a 4x4 pickup in Tampa Bay Florida is just plain dumb when you don't drive on dirt (and I don't).
By the time I got rid of the truck, I really hated it. Sure, it ran fine, but I was at the point where I wanted to distance myself from trucks as much as I could.
Things I hated about the truck
I hated the fact that on average it could only achieve 17 MPG. It was possible to eke out 21, but only if I drove very slowly and barely touched the gas pedal whenever I took off from a stop.
I hated that the the truck always felt "floaty" when driving, even when it was brand new. New tires didn't help and neither did new shocks. The truck just felt weird by design, almost as if you weren't connected to the road. And there was nothing that could be done about that.
I hated all the useless cargo space. Uncovered unsecured cargo storage in a steel bed to a guitar player such as myself is absolutely worthless. Anything put back there is open to the elements. Unless bungee cords are used, the cargo will slide all over, hit the bed walls hard and bounce harshly even when small bumps are taken at slow speeds. Said another way, you can't put guitars or amps in a pickup without them getting seriously damaged or destroyed.
I hated the hip point. This refers to seat ergonomics. Trucks have higher hip points, which on long trips makes the back ache. No matter how much cushion or support the seat has, if the hip point is high, pain happens after a while. My truck was no different. They weren't the worst seats, ergonomically speaking, but they definitely weren't the best either.
Things that make a small hatchback the best Florida car
My first car back in my teens was a 1984 Honda Civic 1500 S, which was a 2-door with rear glass that opened. Technically not a hatchback, but close enough. Great car. The 5-door (4 doors and rear hatch for the 5th door) I have now is the closest thing to what my first car was, looks-wise and size-wise.
I had forgotten how much I loved small hatchback cars. And for Florida use, it's pretty much perfect.
All the cargo space in the compact is usable. The gas mileage is fantastic, as I went from an average 17 MPG in the truck to an average of 24 with the compact and a highway MPG of 32, which I can get up to 35 easily just by driving with a light foot. The power curve of the compact is better, the handling is better, it launches better, stops better, rides better, the seats are better and heck, even the steering wheel feels better in the hand...
...yeah, pretty much everything is better.
The compact hatchback is also by far the best car to zip around the city with. Whether I'm in Tampa or Brandon or St. Petersburg or Clearwater or wherever I am in Tampa Bay, the compact handles it well.
My driver confidence is also much higher. It's not that I'm afraid to drive (far from it), but as said above, the truck always felt floaty, and that doesn't exactly inspire bring about driving confidence. The compact feels much more planted to the road, and that absolutely does give me more confidence when driving.
Small car stigma?
The car I drive now is 38 inches shorter than the truck I had.
Do I feel embarrassed to drive a small car?
Not in the slightest.
I've owned pickup trucks, SUVs, sport coupes, compact sedans, midsize sedans and compact hatchbacks. My favorite is the compact hatchback. The car feels right and just makes the most sense for Florida living.
I'm also 42 years old and have enough wisdom to know that nobody truly gives a crap about what you drive.
In addition to all the positives I've said about driving a compact hatchback, there is one more. Now I have a car that's totally correct for transporting guitar gear. And that's a big deal to me.
Does that mean I'll finally be able start a band? Maybe. There are a few things I have to do before I start seeking out other people to form a band with. But if I do get one together, of course I will write about it here.