

Flexed this on the Zoom chat last night, but my good fortune deserves a wider audience. Seeing Spacemen 3 at an impressionable age, and being a huge Spiritualized fan throughout my drugs hell* (and after) placed a 72 Thinline firmly in my all time Top 3 Must Own Guitars. But a case of “wrong place, wrong time� means I’ve never had the opportunity to grab one. Was the first guitar I was ever outbid on on eBay (in 2001!), I bought a '69 Thinline instead.
This is one of those slightly daft American Classic ones from 2012/13, which were nitro, even though the originals were poly. It’s a factory special run with a 9.5" radius neck (which it taking me far longer to adapt to than I expected) and medium jumbo frets. The pickups are the upgraded widerange humbuckers, but they’re still not grand - I’m going to sell some pedals and spring for some Fender CUNIFE reissues.
I love it though, real wish fulfilment for me. Figured I deserved a bit of a treat; lost a lot of timber in lockdown, taught on site all this term while most colleagues sheltered in bunkers. Never known a guitar like it for where you pick making such a difference. Have a five ply black guard on its way to replace the moto one, for peak 70s, and to make me like the burst. Will take a few days for it to sink in that it’s mine. Got a good deal too; traded my SG Classic and Italia for it; I definitely got the better end of the bargain (cost wise, although both those guitars were beauties), but was upfront with the seller about it. He was keen to just keep the kit moving around though, which I respect. He had the Italia just to flip, but has just messaged me to say how much he loves it (and how much that’s scuppered his plan).
* Wasn’t actually that bad, really enjoyed big chunks of it.