A Tale of Two Jacksons (and how I couldn’t love them)
I’ve been a Strat person since 1990 or so, when I bought a MIJ flower power Strat from a little music store in Akron that later burned down. I used that guitar for the next 20 years. It has great feel and low action but also (took me a while to realize this) the most passive pickups on earth. Over the years I’ve done stupid stuff like bust the whammy bar off in it and probably let way too many shady “guitar techs” work on it but the wear it shows is largely from me playing it and using it as it was intended, which feels good.
It was only when I started another band in 2010 that I played around with my gear (bought some Hardwire pedals, better cords, tried a louder-than-life Fender Frontman 212 amp) and bought a very used Epiphone Les Paul standard for $200 from a guy out in Brookpark.
When I bought it, it was missing a bridge screw, a few strings and had no case. It felt naked and horrifying to walk around with a guitar and no case, even briefly. After installing new tuners and then ultimately…