My advice... don't play one. You will quickly "need one!"
I haven't checked one out for precisely that reason. But damn it's HARD not to!
I was unaware of the differences in the amps though, I didn't know there were import and USA builds, so a huge thanks for that heads up. Although, it certainly makes sense given the 3 lines of guitars we have to choose/drool on. I doubt I would ever go with the 100 though, it's just plain overkill for me, and I might (OK very likely) would never use that much power. But it's like gasoline I suppose, the only time you have too much is if you're on fire.
On another note (OK groan at the pun) I have been so remiss with keeping all my guitars active lately. My poor Custom 24 sat on the rack for about 6 months while I did acoustic stuff all summer with my travels. When I did take an amp and an electric as well as an acoustic with me in the trailer I always took my HB...it just seemed more prudent. At home I always seemed to play either the HB or more often the 594. And of course with the new NF3 I've been really busy getting to know that more intimately. So my Custom got (gasp) neglected...
Long story short, last night I went downstairs and went straight over and picked up the Custom. Plugged it in and just played and noodled on it. Didn't check it for tune really, just played and listened to what was coming out while the strings warmed as I exercised my fingers. Pulled up a backing track to jam with and thought, gee, this thing is really close in pitch. In finally checking, it was maybe a 1/4 tone low on the 3 lower wound strings, and a tiny bit sharp on the G and B, high E was almost bang on! So much for SE trem machines reputation for being unstable.
Needless to say, my session went far longer than I had intended, and it was well into the witching hour when I finally put the guitar down. Gawd I had a blast! It was like reuniting with an old friend after a long absence. The guitar felt great, was lively, and fairly begged me to go crazy and work it as hard as I wanted to. The only thing I really noticed as a negative was the drop in output on the coil split. which is totally normal on these guitars, I just never really paid a lot of attention to it before. I think the NF3's voice is pretty much responsible for that, and the McCarty doesn't do that as noticeably either.
Lesson learned (remembered?) though. Play 'em all...all the time. Was easy when all I had was the Custom and the HB. Discipline Daryl, discipline!
