39. Squier Tele Custom w/P90s
THIS guitar caught my eye on eBay after my pal Dave Werewolf bought one of these for himself in 2010 and I sort of fell in love with it. It was a relatively brief infatuation, however.
Made in the same Indonesian factory as my favourite Squier 51s, these Teles are fantastic guitars for the money – with a twist. They have the pickguard and control layout of a 70s Tele Custom (like Cundo’s ’72) but in place of a Tele pickup and a Wide Range humbucker, they have a rather nice pair of “Duncan Design” P90 soapbars. They play well and those soapbars sound really good. The one mod I did was to disconnect one of the volume pots! I gigged this guitar a decent amount, but fickle sod that I am, yes, it ended up back in the pile – and thence back on eBay.
My other memory of this guitar relates to one of Owen’s rare visits home for Los Angeles. I came back one day to find the Tele sitting in my room on a stand, a bit of paper tucked in the strings with the message: “I set this up. It now plays good innit!”
It did, too. Boy, I miss having that guy around!
40. Purple Squier Strat bought in Seattle
FOR the sake of convenience, I’ve lumped this one in with the Squier Tele Custom , though my acquaintance with it was extremely brief. It was bought for one specific purpose and then sold on.
I got it on my first visit to Seattle, Washington State, USA, in 2009, not all that long before I got the Tele Custom above it. I was in the US to catch up with my pals Blues Boss and Mark Riley (more Blindman’s Blues Forum buddies). It was purple, it played OK and it was $80 – back in the days when a pound still got you about $1.50.
The idea was to find an inexpensive guitar I could play in my motel room and more importantly, when Blues Boss paraded me around a succession of blues jams and gigs in the Pacific North-West (the first one barely an hour after I stepped off the plane at SEATAC International Airport!) Visit Dennis in Seattle and you’re pretty much guaranteed not a second will go to waste!
Not much else to say about this guitar, except that it came back on the plane to the UK with me. I sold it within a month – and turned a half-reasonable profit on the deal! 
43 Guitars…and Counting! 