I recall the first time I saw one of these guitars. I was on vacation down in Savannah, thinking about a shrimp sandwich and frolicking on the beach near by Tybie Island when I passed a music store that just taunted me to come in and discover her inner secrets. "What's a few minutes" I thought and besides, all those scantily- clad beauties will still be on the beach when I get there. Now, as a guitarist, what can possibly supersede a few thousands women in bikinis? (Right, just keeping it real over here). As I walked into Shipley's Music Store and Head Shop (well, it is the South you know), I scanned the room looking for "the deal". You boys know what I'm talkin' 'bout; This was long before that modern day phenomenon called Ebay, so it was still possible to find such a thing. Epiphones, Les Pauls and Mexican Strats obstructed my view as I delved deep into the mire of guitardom. As Nirvana's "Smell's Like Teen Spirit" endlessly burned out the last few neutrons in my brain, I spotted what I initially thought was the motherlode of all motherlodes- a real 50's Fender Stratocaster. My heart raced as I hastily made it to the end of the rack and with sweaty palms, I snatched that guitar up. "Wow, what a find! This is going to make my year", I thought. However (that's a word your Uncle uses and usually proceeds something contradictory), I noticed on the back on this 50's Strat headstock was a branded- in Fender decal. "What's this?" I thought and that's when I was approached by a sales staff member with all the tact of a proctologist with a depth perception problem. "May I help you?", he chirped? "Yes you may", I answered. "Who branded this guitar?", I asked. "Why sir, that is a new Fender Relic. Fooled you, didn't it?" and that's when he went into detail about the virtues of this new product from Fender. I thought I'd seen it all, but making old guitars from scratch was new to me. As I was deep in thought, I made it to the front of the store and got on with my day. After all, tanned Georgia beauties awaited. Elks, 1995 was an historic year for guitars as we know it and this is when it started. This is when Keith Richards said to Fender, "Yeah mate, I'll play one of those" and pointing to his guitar, said "Make it look like that."  As you know, Gibson quickly followed suit and now, we guitarist coined a new phrase: "Buy your new guitars old and your old guitars new." I believe that these guitars will be the future of vintage guitars. They are unique, the first  their kind and built by Master luthiers. Getcha a few now and thank me later...