Back in '65 I spent a whole years paper route money on a '57 Strat. It slowly turned into the nightmare from hell. Wouldn't stay in tune no matter what was done to it,changed the tuners...the bridge. Eventually the only original parts left on it were the neck,body and neck pick-up. (this was still better than the electric I had been playing a dual pickup Beltone).I traded it in the mid '70s for a fairly new Gibson L6S. The ones I owned and wish I still had were a Dan Armstrong Lucite guitar that I traded for a Travis Bean. I traded the Bean for another strat in '82. I wish I had both those back, the Armstong was heavier than hell but it screamed like an eagle and the Bean played nice but when I traded it I wanted to get back into single coils again.

Which model Bean was it, if you don't mind me asking?

It was a TB 1000 Standard. Had a nice wood grain body two hbing pups and was almost as heavy as the Dan Armstrong. The guy I got it from had it for about a year and couldn't get used to the neckh he said it made his hands feel cold. The neck was pretty smooth with lots of meat and it did feel a little strange at first. It also had a really interesting tone when I played it unplugged. The last I heard (as of 3 years ago) it was still being used on Vancouver Island. When I traded it I was looking for a single coil guitar that was light on the shoulder because had developed arthritis in my left shoulder and playing a whole night with the Bean was getting harder to do.