Longtermers

A few months’ gigging, recording and everything that goes with it – welcome to Guitarist’s longterm test reports

Time and time again, we get to play truly great, inspirational guitars that all too soon have to be returned. Yup, we are kids in the sweet shop. One of those guitars that has oodles of ‘wow’ factor is John Page’s Classic AJ. Aside from the personal pleasure of meeting up with John Page again after many years, the AJ was just one of those guitars that clicked: its weight, feel and, most importantly to this writer, its sound.

In email correspondence after our review had been published, John especially noted a comment I’d made. “I really liked the honesty of you bringing up the fact that the design may ‘upset some traditionalists’. That is something I’ve never shied away from and, in fact, am very happy to do! I think when you design, if you try to make everyone happy, you come up with ‘beige’… I hate beige!”

It’s a small insight into the thoughts of a contemporary guitar designer. What exactly do you create: something that’s steeped in heritage or something that tweaks those classic recipes? My ‘upset some traditionalists’ comment proved more accurate than I thought when a guitar-playing and addictive tone-tweaker popped in to show me his latest Frankencaster: a Tele with a retrofitted neck humbucker. I’d struggled a while back to match the bridge and neck pickups on the guitar and since then he’d found a control plate that allows individual volumes and a master tone to help.

But it sounded odd and, as I’d fitted both the pickups some weeks before and it had sounded okay, if not pretty good, I was a little bemused. Then I noticed he’d changed the bridge for a top-loading Tele-style. Why? “Oh, I read about that on a forum… it seemed like a good idea,” he said. With a guitar that now sounded like it was made of pressed fibreboard with rubber bands for strings, I politely suggested that it might be some of the problem and that before we could do anything he might consider changing it back.

Now, with its Tele-style bridge pickup and the neck-placed P-90, the AJ (sort of) goes for a similar vibe to my friend’s Teledisaster. We plugged in the AJ and after a few strums my friend was ecstatic: “That’s exactly the sound I want! Especially the neck and neck/ bridge combination. I suppose it’s one of those custom shop creations that costs a couple of grand or more,” he sniffed. When I explained the deal, and the fact that if he factored in the cost of the original guitar he’d bought and the new parts, not to mention the time he (and I) had spent modding it, he could have just gone out a bought an AJ, he went a little quiet.

“There are only two things wrong with this guitar,” he mused, cradling the AJ. “It doesn’t say Fender on the headstock and it isn’t a Telecaster.” There we go: it’s not ‘might’ upset the traditionalists; I should have written ‘will definitely’ upset the traditionalists!

“Can I buy a Tele-plate with that switched pickup angle? I’ll have to route out a different slot for the pickup, though, won’t I? I could make a different scratchplate and put a P-90 in the neck position…” More time, more money and yet he’s heard – and can afford – a guitar that sounds and plays the way he wants, designed by one of the most experienced guys in the game with more Fender DNA than many actual employees of the current company. Go figure.

Me? I’m getting to know this AJ more by the day, while my old Tele is getting jealous. I don’t plan to change a thing… until Jason Lollar gets in touch asking if I’d like to try his new P-90sized ‘Staple’ single coil, which, of course, would fit perfectly into the AJ’s neck position. Best I warm up the soldering iron…

“We plugged in the AJ and my friend was ecstatic: ‘That’s exactly the sound I want! But there are two things wrong with it,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t say Fender on the headstock and it isn’t a Telecaster…’”