u/gordonthecole

Cove Beach, June 2026

Got this recently. I never had a holoflake finish before and didn’t realize how it practically lights up like a starry night when in a direct light.

Picked this up this week. In regular lighting, it is kind of a dark forest green/black.
But with a light shining on it…..

Wonderful guitar, besides the sparkle show.

This is my ‘25 American Pro Classic, and I love it. The neck is perfect, and I think these stick pickups sound awesome. I’m not a traditionalist at all, so I prefer the strangle switch there over a rhythm circuit and also the pickup selector switch over the normal slider switches. Wanted a strap to complement the chrome,so that’s a Red Monkey double eyelet.

Just a couple of mods - mustang bridge and tort pickguard.

My ‘78 and Texas Tea & Arctic Pearl ‘23 Ultras. I’ve had the ‘78 since 1983. Lots of miles on that.
Got the ‘23 Ultra Tea and did a few mods…black pickguard and Fralin wiring harness and pickups (split blade and split steel poled)…for a bit of a thicker, p90-ish sound, while still Tele-flavored. I love the compound radius neck on the ultra and the balance ,and body carve. Happened upon a ridiculously good deal on the Arctic Pearl later…couldn’t pass it up …mint condition. So I grabbed that…it is stock.

This is the 4th Strat-style guitar I’ve own over the 40 year period and easily the best and my favorite in how it plays and sound…especially how the bridge pickup is really nice. I previously had an 85 MIJ Squier, then a 2013 MIM, then a 2016 American Standard.

This little guy has become a favorite since it joined my team. Great for recording, and it’s my go-to travel guitar.
Sounds sweet, plays great. I love what they did with the Original series.

Picked this up in mint condition in ‘96, and it remains my #1. Best playing guitar I’ve ever played.
Has the Tim Shaw PAF humbuckers. It has the custom shop logo on the back of the headstock…I think that was just due to the extra nice top. I recently changed out the original Grover kidney bean tuners (one was failing) with Grover keystone style tuners…direct replacement, so no alterations were needed. I like the look of these better actually.