"Lenny""... Just for Kicks

Well... the next tribute guitar from the Custom Shop is coming down the pike... the SRV "Lenny" Tribute Stratocaster...and it is commissioned by Guitar Center. It will cost roughly 17K, and be in limited numbers, along the lines of "Blackie", the EVH "Frankenstrat", and the Jeff Beck Esquire. A lot of people on-line are commenting on the prices these are going for. The list for the Jeff Beck Esquire was 15K, and came on the heels of the SRV #1, that sold for even less, but ended up being worth much more. As nice as the Jeff Beck Esquires are, (and most play amazingly well, especially with the Ybarra pickup in the bridge)... the current going "street price" for them is around $8K. Clapton's Blackies were rasied to around 20K, but the excuse for this was that a large chunk of this change was going to his Crossroads™ Center in Antiqua. I think the reason why Eddie's Frankenstrats™ were also around 22K can only be guessed at. Now, the "Lenny" guitars are a little lower in price, but still way above most people's budgets. These are for my mind certainly the guitars that will be playing well in 2055... not so much because of the price, but because the best of everything we have available is going into them... best wood, best luthiers... best pickups...and most electric guitars do improve with age... after about 50 years (beyond this, we are definitely on new ground, since the first electric guitars were around 1949... I know, we can argue that... but let's say first "production electric guitar 6-strings"). So why am I telling everyone about this? Well... if you love guitars, and were going to buy a houseboat with 17K...maybe consider this instead... just for kicks. If you have less money... get the Jeff Beck second-hand-new. If you have even less at-hand, get a Linhof, or a Nash... or find a Greenwich Village Custom Guitar (if you can)... now go play....