Reply...

Got all the answers Pepi... I have only played about as many Fenders
as you have have guitars...! I have owned 4 Blackguard Tele's (one
played poorly actually!), and also a 1958 Blond Strat, that Eric
Clapton's guy said played BETTER than Erics... but yes, sadly, traded
them all... should be a moratorium on that...
There are two generations of custom shop builders... Jay Black, Fred
Stuart and English's generation: who made some amazing sounding
instruments, but they would never pass for real as much as the current
generations work. Jay Black, as you know, is well known for his
talents.. professional guitarists who are famous attest to this.
The current (ie. Galuszka, Cruz etc) generation of Masterbuilders (who were groomed by Jay
Black, their master), can make a guitar that would pretty close to
pass for an original (90%+ for my mind), and they also sound amazing, just like the
previous generation of builders accomplished (Jay Black, English etc).
For my mind, if you have the money, buy a Fender with the serial numbers on the
back of the headstock from the masterbuilder himself... that is one he
considers one of his signable masterpieces.
Those with just his 'sticker' under the finish are teambuilt under
him, and meet some criteria set by. All other Fender's are built by the next
generation of masterbuilders, who in my opinion are learning/ understudy.
Forget the NoCaster, unless it 'rings' to your ear. And yes, the
'U-Shape Necks' seem to be the majority of necks made on NoCaster and '50's
tele/ Esquires now (does anyone else know moreabout this?), unless you
custom order a thin neck with low action like I like, and wait 12
months for delivery. (The Linhofs have great necks, that are slightly
bigger than what I like, but not the U-Shape...Linhof guitars are being
built now by Jay Black, for Kurt LInhof, and are owned by the
Rolling Stones, Joe Walsh and Joe Bonamassa to date.) For Closet Classics,
from what I remember, they can have some cracks in finish, sometimes
(not sure on that one, since I don't buy them, once again, anyone
with info please post it). Forget birds eye
neck, unless you like the eye-candy... go for the feel and originality
of a reliced maple plain neck, at least for my taste. (I know some will
tout Birdseye over plain Maple too).