Two Guitar Shuffle

An emergency blip today, due to little of note happening. So here are my first and last electric guitars. Well, I say last - perhaps “most recently purchased” would be more accurate. The black Squier Telecaster Custom was my first “proper” guitar and I bought it back in 2005, subsequently upgrading it by fitting Seymour Duncan pickups. But it has not been in my ownership for all of the last sixteen years. Sad to say, I sold it to a friend to fund the purchase of a different guitar. Since then, many guitars have been bought and sold - every time I buy something from R&T a book is started as to how long it will be before I trade it in for something else. I wouldn’t mind, but the most popular - and, it has to be said, accurate - predictions are usually two to three months! But I’d always sort of regretted selling that Telecaster, so when I had the chance to buy it back a few years ago, I jumped at it. Sadly the intervening years (which involved it being in the “care” of a teenager for a while) had not been kind to it, and I had to do some deep cleaning and fit new strings to get it back into a good, playable condition. At the same time, the dings and scrapes it had picked up gave it a nice “played in” feel which all added to its character. I’ve subsequently fitted different tuners - more for appearance sake than any practical reason. I can’t see myself getting rid of it again though. It just feels and sounds “right” whenever I pick it up, even when not plugged into an amp.
The red one, however, is a bit of an impulse purchase which I’m not sure will fulfil its promise. On the face of it, a Fender 75th Anniversary Telecaster Noventa should be a great guitar, with a single P90 pickup, classic Fiesta Red colouring and a silky smooth maple neck. But I’m not feeling the love. The sound I hear in my head does not match that which emanates from the guitar, and it just doesn’t feel quite “right”. But I’ve not really had a chance to play it much, with all the chaos going on in the house, so it’s not fair to give up on it just yet. Maybe a set of Ernie Ball Slinkys and some time spent dialling in the amp will pay dividends. Or perhaps I’ll just lend it to a teenager for a few years…