I have no idea how this happened to me too, but I even made it to 60 in no time. It feels weird just writing about it here. A remarkable age, in the sense that years are not few and in some ways you can feel it; in other ways I don’t really feel it. Could it be that I continue to strum happily? I think so, for that reason too. And perhaps because I still nourish dreams, the salt of life. Since I was very young, I have always dreamed of having a Fender Stratocaster. As is the case for many, my guitar idol used one and that’s how I got to know the famous electric guitar model born in California in the 1950s. The first Stratocaster I ever had was a rather cheap imitation, a gift from my parents when I turned 15. It is still the most beautiful gift I have ever received. You never forget your first guitar, and although it was in bad shape, made of low-quality materials, except for the excellent Di Marzio pick-ups, I have fond memories of it and I curse the day I gave it away.

Several years later, while working in a musical instrument shop, I had the opportunity to buy a real Fender Stratocaster. The shop was at that time the Italian importer of the new Paul Reed Smith brand. Everyone was excited about the very high quality of their guitars, handmade in the United States with tonewood from selected forests. They urged me to try one and compare it to a Stratocaster. I was devastated: the PRS won hands down. It was a whole different physical feeling of being in contact with the instrument.
I kept that Paul Reed Smith for many, many years, proudly, but by then I was playing very little. Rarely in the course of a year would I take it out of its case and have some fun, sometimes playing behind the records, sometimes to myself.

Some years ago it happened that I lost the job I had fought so hard for. I had recently passed the age of fifty and was greatly concerned about the chances of someone my age finding a new job in our country. However, it was an opportunity to resume playing in a band that had been inviting me to join their rehearsals for a few months. Getting my PRS ready to play in a band again made me completely overwhelmed. The old passion came back violently, irresistibly. I almost didn’t expect it. Getting back to playing seriously, more or less, ensured that I could maintain my psychological balance during such a delicate period of transition. While playing I met the person who then gave me a new job. And that is already a very positive outcome. But for the occasion I decided to take a chance and try to buy my first real Fender Stratocaster. The only option, however, would have been to sell the PRS. Its value had become quite high over the years. I was able to sell it quickly for an amount that meant I could buy a Stratocaster, an amplifier and some pedals.

I found a Mexican- made model, a replica of the 1956 Stratocaster as it was produced in 2006 for the 60th anniversary of that type of Stratocaster. I found it used at a luthier’s for 550 €. The guitar was in excellent condition and over the years I made several improvements including the tuning machines and the bridge saddles. It is a very good guitar, no doubt about it. Some time ago I took it in for a setup by someone I had recently been introduced to. Not long ago he had been trying his hand at building guitars, which according to several local musicians and professionals were of a very high quality. The first time I took my Stratocaster to him for setting up, he lent me one of his so I wouldn’t be left without an instrument for rehearsals. I was amazed at the mere touch of this guitar, the high quality was apparent. Perhaps it was the feeling, now long gone, that I had experienced when comparing my old PRS with a Stratocaster. Fender, while producing excellent instruments, cannot put the care of a luthier who works his heart out on every single instrument. Maybe that was the case in Leo Fender’s old workshop in the early years. The guitars of that era have an incomparable value and certainly convey that kind of feeling. Fender is now a big company, it has to mass-produce by necessity. It can’t be the same thing. In the end one can work on an off-the -shelf, mass-produced instrument to make it achieve the desired performance and quality. But a luthier’s guitar, so-called ‘professional’ guitar, is another world. I didn’t know that, and I discovered it by chance. I couldn’t pull myself away from that guitar, it was as if it was calling me to be played. I felt the contact with the wood, with something alive, vibrating, a completely new sensation. My poor original Fender Stratocaster gave me the impression of contact with a plastic toy; with all affection, it’s a beautiful guitar, but the other one was definitely superior. Of course, you pay for quality and such a guitar was unapproachable for me anyway.

But then came my 60th birthday and my wife thought the ideal gift for such an important milestone should have been that electric guitar. I am not a guitar collector, I have only ever had one electric and one acoustic: the bare minimum I need to play. Although I rarely perform live, a backup guitar is always appropriate, in case a string breaks or something. I was thinking of a guitar that was a bit different from my current Stratocaster, but that was inexpensive to just function as a backup guitar.

It was always my wife’s idea to find a way to buy that famous guitar that had attracted me so much. So the idea was to get friends and relatives to take up a collection for my 60th birthday. My parents and my sister also joined in. And in the end I came up with a sum that, although far from what was needed, could still be a big help. For long weeks I was strongly undecided. To spend so much on a guitar, at my technical level and in our economic situation, seemed crazy. But my wife insisted that we have to go crazy every now and then, and that sixty years is an important figure, which deserves a special gift. I argued that with the money I had accumulated I could still buy another guitar of the same type, certainly not of that quality, but still adequate for my needs.

My wife insisted that we should now and then stop settling and look for quality rather than savings, since, as they say, the more you spend the less you spend. The other problem was that a luthier’s guitar, self-made, costs a lot because of the materials and workmanship, but it doesn’t have a big resale price. You could hope to sell it for a 10th or maybe 20th of the original price. That’s why many people recommend a brand-name guitar, a Fender, so in case you change your mind or if you need to, you can resell it at a price comparable if not higher than the original purchase price. I could not make up my mind.

So I borrowed the guitar again for a test; a few weeks earlier I had tried another one, also handmade by my friend – also spectacular.
Then a short holiday happened, which we hadn’t dared to do for ages, and we went to London for a few days. I went into a guitar shop on the famous Denmark Street, near Covent Garden, and tried a Made in Japan Strat and a Fender Custom Shop. Even the latter was not up to the quality of the guitars built by my friend. Even so, having it in the house and comparing it directly with my own, in the first few days it almost didn’t seem to justify the difference in price, I couldn’t see what my cheap Fender Stratocaster could really lack compared to the expensive luthier’s Stratocaster.

Yet I couldn’t take my eyes off her, and especially my hands.
I started to play it even more and more and gradually got in touch with it in a deeper and deeper way.
I had always heard about the special bond that is created between a musician (OK, in my case it would be better to say strummer) and their instrument. When one finds this bond, it is difficult to part with it. And so it happened to me. In the end I decided, my wife was happy that I had finally ‘understood’. Instead of being just content, I aimed for quality. My friend made me an offer to pay in instalments, which allowed me to take home a special instrument, the instrument of life, without too much pain.

When I was a boy, I dreamt of the Fender Stratocaster. My parents could not afford to buy me one, but they made every effort to get me a perfectly identical copy, which I fell madly in love with at first sight. As an adult and father, at a difficult time in my life, I bought my first real Fender Stratocaster. When I went to pick it up, I wanted both my son and my parents with me, in memory of that beautiful gift they gave me when I was a boy. I am now in my sixties, a rather advanced turning point in life. My parents, as well as my sister, my wife and my son, contributed along with some friends to the purchase of my last Stratocaster. Yes, because you don’t buy an instrument of this quality in order to sell or give it away one day, but to play it forever. You never forget your first guitar, but the last one is also a big emotion…