A while ago I got a new Mexican Fender Jazz Bass. Recently I saw a 1976 American Fender Precision Bass. I think vintage is better now.

It was a pretty normal day and I was out with some friends and we stopped by the local Guitar Center to take a look. I was in the Basses section checking out some neat guitars not really wanting to buy anything. But there was some guitar on the wall that really caught our eye. At first glance it was just some road worn fender bass, but a closer look showed us that this was a made-in-America Precision Bass with a BADASS bridge.

The thing about this guitar is that it was $749. I paid about $850 for my new 70s Fender Jazz Bass from the Haight-Ashbury Music Store in San Francisco. It’s a beautiful guitar and looks perfect, and the people at Haight-Ashbury are great and the store is pretty cool. However, a used vintage guitar is something special. Someone used it for a long time and it’s a guitar that went through a lot. You take it in hand, start to play and it already has an almost familiar feel to it. Every scuff, scratch, and nick looks like it has a story behind it.

I can definitely say that the only guitars I get from now on will be either vintage used or a DIY custom. But mostly I just saw a cool guitar recently and I wanted to gush about it.