I bought another SX Furrian
From a short distance...
Strictly speaking of the headstock shape for a moment, something I've found quite interesting is while the shape isn't Fender-like, it is similar to other boutique guitar brands that sell for thousands of dollars.
What many boutique guitar brands do is take a classic body shape (because they can legally get away with that), and then "massage" the headstock to have a modernist style shape...
...and this happens to exactly be what the SX Furrian has, except SX isn't a boutique brand. From a short distance away, it is almost too easy to mistake the Furrian for one of those ultra-expensive boutique guitars.
What would it take to change the Furrian into a boutique guitar? Surprisingly, not much.
The body is already alder and the neck is maple. No need to change anything there.
If the Furrian had the nut switched out for a TUSQ, tuners switched out for Grovers, pickups switched out for a Tonerider set, electronics switched out for CTS, and saddles switched out for roller saddles, you're really, really close to a boutique instrument. Granted, all that stuff most certainly costs more than the guitar itself, but at the end of it all you've got a "boutique quality" modernist Telecaster at a fraction of the price.
And if you really wanted to go all-out boutique, you could sand down the body and refinish it with ColorTone nitro, and switch out the frets to stainless steel fret wire. And that's just about as boutique as it gets where a Telecaster type guitar is concerned.
The headstock shape of the SX dictates to do a modernist style Telecaster guitar, but that's not a bad thing. And to do everything I just mentioned can't exactly be done over a weekend. It would take time. However the point is that getting a Furrian to boutique level status is a totally possible thing.
Do I plan on doing all this stuff to my Furrians? No. I just play them. Maybe I'd entertain the idea of a nut swap and some electronics upgrades. I might even entertain the idea of sanding down the neck and refinishing with satin urethane just because I like the feel of it. But other than that, again, I just like guitars I can pick up and play. Furrians are great for that once the frets are leveled.
Published 2020 Jun 16
