Between the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, for various reasons, I found myself forced to bring only three pedals and a power supply to the rehearsal room. It wasn’t bad at all to travel so light. As I get older, I’m happy to carry less weight. For a while, I had to do this due to circumstances beyond my control, but I rediscovered the pleasure of having a couple of overdrives and a delay, and that’s it; and managing everything with the volume of the guitar. Of course, you also need a good amplifier, and I don’t have one in the rehearsal room. But it got me thinking. Why not simplify everything and keep it light, both in terms of weight and electrical signal, to manage? Continue reading  

The two sisters? Or perhaps cousins? Second cousins? Perhaps it would be better to say foster sisters…

Well, yes, because they are not two Fenders. One is handmade in Italy, the other, the Fender, is made in Mexico. And they are, at least in appearance, emblematic of Fender’s golden years, roughly from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. They are not really vintage, at least the Fender isn’t: it would be impossible for me to buy one, the prices are absurd. But it is a reproduction (from 2006) of how Stratocasters were built 60 years earlier at Fender in California. They have the specifications of the first Stratocasters, and even the color is very typical of that era, very 1950s, even though the painting technique was quite different. The foster cousin, on the other hand, has the typical appearance and most common color of the 1960s Stratocasters; then Fender was sold to CBS and things changed. But this guitar is perhaps closer to the real Fenders of the time, even if it has a completely different history.

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Non so come sia potuto succedere ma anche io sono arrivato in un battibaleno a 60 anni. Fa impressione solo scriverlo qui. Una bella età, nel senso che gli anni non sono pochi e per certi versi si sente; per altri non mi sembra di averli davvero. Sarà che continuo a strimpellare allegramente? Penso di sì, anche per quello. E forse perché ancora alimento i sogni, il sale della vita. Fin da giovanissimo ho sempre sognato di avere una Fender Stratocaster. Come è accaduto per molti, il mio idolo chitarrista ne utilizzava una ed è così che ho conosciuto il celebre modello di chitarra elettrica nato in California negli anni 50. La prima Stratocaster che ho avuto è stata una imitazione piuttosto economica, regalatami a 15 anni dai miei genitori. È tuttora il regalo più bello che io abbia mai ricevuto. La prima chitarra non si scorda mai e, sebbene fosse ridotta male, costruita con materiali di bassa qualità, fatta eccezione per gli ottimi pick-up della Di Marzio, ne ho un ricordo affezionatissimo e maledico il giorno in cui l’ho data via.

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The world is strange, people are crazy, and the extent to which this is true can sometimes be seen in market dynamics. I am by no means an economist, but as a buyer and sometimes seller of electronics, be it hi-fi or guitar electronics, I realise how sometimes it gets to the point of sheer madness. Now, allow the guitar that had once belonged to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton or David Gilmour; the fetishism in this field can almost be understood, just as one can understand the desire of an enthusiast who also has considerable financial means to own an instrument that had once belonged to a music legend. Even if vintage guitars cost as much as a good new car of a certain level (indeed, vintage cars themselves can cost impressive sums of money), it’s fine… those who have so much money they don’t know what to do with it will invest in such purchases. But what I have seen happen within a few years before my eyes with a simple guitar pedal effect is surreal. Guitarists know what I’m talking about, others don’t (but who’s going to read me anyway): meet the Klon Centaur! Continue reading  

I’ve been playing guitar since I was 11 years old and I’ve always dreamed of having a Stratocaster. It was the guitar used by my favorite guitar player at the time and I wanted one too. I couldn’t afford it, so eventually my parents bought me a reproduction, which was the best gift I ever received. Some time later I had the chance to buy a PRS Strat at cost price but then I almost stopped playing. I resumed much later and decided to make the dream come true. I sold the PRS and bought a Fender Stratocaster. Even though it’s a Made in Mexico model, I think I achieved my goal. It is a vintage reproduction of 1956, one of the first models created by Leo Fender, who had the same name as my son and the same birthday as me.
Playing the electric guitar, it is inevitable to get drawn sooner or later to the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, especially if you love the Stratocaster; or better, if you love those guitarists you end up dreaming of a Stratocaster.
For me the dream was triggered with an Italian guitarist, then through the usual David Gilmour and Mark Knopfler I was pushed back in time towards Jimi Hendrix and his guitar heir SRV.

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