For No One

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a company name to be found anywhere in the vicinity of the booth at which Geoff and I discovered this bit of sacrilege. So I’m not sure who to credit, but I had to share the utter ridiculousness of it, nonetheless.

Ostensibly, this $500 framed insult is supposed to represent a Stratocaster guitar signed by the Beatles. The problem is, it’s not even a real Fender Strat, but rather a cheap Asian copy made by Fender’s budget brand, Squire. What’s even more insulting is that the first Squire didn’t roll off the assembly line until 1982, nearly two years after one of this guitar’s supposed signatories was gunned down. So the “autographs” aren’t even plausible forgeries. Never mind the fact that the only Stratocasters specifically identified with the Beatles were the matching Sonic Blue models used by George and John during the Help! and Rubber Soul sessions. So the homage is ill-conceived and poorly executed in every way conceivable, right down to the color of the axe itself.

Any way you look at it, this overpriced bauble is slap in the face to Beatles fans, guitar aficionados, and collectors in general alike. Definitely the low-point of my CEDIA experience thus far.