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I landed a cool guitar today but what was is cooler is the story how I acquired it.

My dad passed away two weeks ago and as you would expect it has been tough. I started back to work this week and just trying to get back to some kind of normal. Today, I just needed to get out of the house and guitar stores are alway a safe place I can zone out and take my mind off things. I went to the local Guitar Center with my youngest daughter and just wanted to see if this guitar was still there. I have been trying to find some old things I could sell to buy it before someone else snagged it. It was still there and I grabbed off the wall to play it for 5 minutes. I finally found a cable to play and tune the guitar. My daughter came up to me and asked me how much the guitar was. Then she asked me if I wanted to buy it. She had called my wife and my other daughter and they all put their money together so I could buy it. I near lost it right there in the store. It wasn't the guitar as much as her wanting to do something to make me feel better. It required effort and sacrifice on her part and it absolutely blew me away. I think I will remember this day as long as I live.

The guitar is in pretty good shape overall. It was dropped at some point and dingy the finish on one spot. I tightened up the rear strap button and the pickup selector. I will probably upgrade the pickup selector down the road. I am not sure what strings are on it but I will probably upgrade to .11s like all my other guitars. Both pickups sound really good and there is a coil split/tap on the bridge pickup that is activated by pushing the Bridge tone knob in. I think the tuners are stock and appear to be some kind of Fender Locking tuner. The neck has a Satin poly gloss feel and the color of the rosewood is lighter with a black speckle to it .The dot inlays have a blueish glow that kinda matches the paint color.

Here are some pics:

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Lovely guitar, lovely story.

I was at a flea market earlier today that one of those corny "life is full of choices" signs with like 7 different guitars on it, one of them was this exact blue Toronado GT with the stripe....I remembered the thread you made about it and thought it was an oddly specific guitar to be on one of those signs.

Congrats, and sorry for your loss.

Sorry for your loss. Lovely story though.

Sorry to hear about your your father, and how lovely of your daughter. Sounds like you and your wife have taught her well.

Sorry for your loss, such a touching story behind the guitar - it’s one for life now!

So sorry, man. Honour your dad by playing the heck out of it!

Sorry for your loss, man. You have a wonderful family and that's a really nice gift, congrats!

Man that story hit right in the gut. You have a wonderful kid there, you raised a good one.

Sincerely sorry about your Dad, I lost mine about 5 years back and its been rough ever since. Give that guitar some play time and try to take your mind off of it, it's honestly a really nice looking one. I really dig that shade of blue.

Humbucker question: What gauge strings do you run on your humbucker guitars? I normally run .11s on everything from Mustangs to Jazzmasters. How does a thicker string affect the tone of a humbucker? I am not sure what is currently on the guitar though it's probably .10s. It fells a little loose compared to my 24" Scale guitars with .11s.

I find that string gauge makes very little difference to tone since I shifted from 11-52 to 9-46 after some issues with tendinitis. Just play what you feel comfortable using IMO.

Tony Iommi uses some teeny tiny strings because he’s got no fingertips and his tone does not suffer.

I use 11-49 on my Jag and I put them on a tele and I never play that tele. I’ve been thinking about getting a strat and putting 9s on it but strats are boring. Maybe I should get one of them thom yorke tele customs with a big headstock.

Can anyone tell me about these tuners?

Are these locking tuners? I have never used these before.

They look like Fender's locking tuners. No idea how they work though, sorry.

Sorry for your loss, but congrats on the new guitar and well done on clearly doing a great job raising young'uns!

been out for a bit, so i'm late to the party here, but i also want to offer my condolences on your recent loss. so very sorry.

as for the guitar, that is a beauty, and the toronado platform is my favorite of the "new breeds" from fender. the GT and american special models in particular were supremely built i thought.

as for those tuners, they look like what i had stock on my 2000 american deluxe fat strat. my understanding is they are rebranded schaller locking machines, and i like those a lot. i'd used the sperzel kind before that but always felt the locking wheel was a little thin and dug into your fingers when turning. the schallers are fatter, and if you're going to be using something other than a slotted tuner, they're a great idea.

taylornutt wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:15 am Can anyone tell me about these tuners?

Are these locking tuners? I have never used these before.

I got confronted with similar ones now that I recently bought a '88 Strat Plus Deluxe.
Basically, when changing strings, loosen that wheely at the back - it clamps the string above in place.
Insert sting, turn wheely, turn the tuner to tune guitar. Just keeps the string from slipping/sliding. Good idea/though but not REEEEEALLY necessary. Oh well.
Ok it does make sting changing faster.

Good luck.

Sorry for your loss, but you have been blessed having your girls around you.

Pacafeliz wrote: ↑Sun Nov 20, 2022 7:46 am

taylornutt wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:15 am Can anyone tell me about these tuners?

Are these locking tuners? I have never used these before.

I got confronted with similar ones now that I recently bought a '88 Strat Plus Deluxe.
Basically, when changing strings, loosen that wheely at the back - it clamps the string above in place.
Insert sting, turn wheely, turn the tuner to tune guitar. Just keeps the string from slipping/sliding. Good idea/though but not REEEEEALLY necessary. Oh well.
Ok it does make sting changing faster.

Good luck.

Sorry for your loss, but you have been blessed having your girls around you.

That helps

I am actually liking the tuners though the one on the B string was not locking down the string.

I took the tuner off, oiled it, opened and closed it a bunch and reinstalled it. It is working better now.

Toronado update:

I tore the guitar apart, cleaned the body, polished the fretboard/frets and strung it up with .11s.



I opened up the nut so the .11s would fit properly, but I was having awful buzzing on the 1st fret and frets 8 -10ish on the low E string.

I took it to a guitar tech at the new Guitar Shop to find out what could be causing the buzzing. All I will say is I will never let that shop work on one of my guitars again. They tried to sell me some $250 fret leveling job and I could immediately tell they didn't even look at it. (They said it had bad fret wear and it has almost none)

After retrieving the guitar, I put it back on the bench , loosened the truss rod and removed the strings. I kept trying to adjust the height and realized the post for the bridge on the low E side was twisting the threaded barrel the post sits in and it actually came out. There is a finish crack (probably deeper) from the tailpiece post to the threaded barrel. I glued the barrel back in, let it dry and then screwed the posts back in.





I put the bridge back on, restrung the guitar, and reset the bridge height. The low E buzz disappeared from all the frets and is playing like it should.

It's definitely a heavier Fender guitar with that Mahogany body. I need to buy a better strap for it. It takes some getting used to but it's got its own thing going on. I don't name my guitars, but my daughter dubbed it "Rodney" after my dad's name. My dad loved Classic Hot Rods and this guitar fits that bill perfectly. I just played it through some EHX effects and my 1979 Vibro Champ and it sounds fantastic.