i would like to have a look at the zine as well. it seems like these should be available to SY fans who are also guitar players/enthusiasts without purchasing the sig. guitars. i wanted to comment on this in the original thread, but never got around to it.
I am glad Fender recognized them, its cool that it happened, but I couldn't justify buying one. It seems like non-affluent players into the spirit of SY would be more into searching out and finding their own styles, innovations, etc...
Coincidentally, there was a recent reissue of vintage low-buget Harmony guitars like the ones SY used in the very beginning. check 'em out:
www.harmonyguitars.com
you could get one of their reissue-vintage "H15 Bobkats" (or a cheaper actual-vintage one from eBay) , carve a bunch of X's on it, replace the bridge with a shattered drumstick secured w/ ducktape, attack w/ a file, and have a replica of the "battle scarred harmony" from the sonicyouth.com gearography! BURNING SPEAR!
A few years ago I bought a cheap vintage Harmony "H19 Silhouette" (yet to be reissued) which was the top-of-the-line solid body model by this bottom of the barrel low-buget company from the 60's. Its a little closer to the Jazzmaster than the "Bobkat" model, has tunomatic style bridge and JM-like tremelo. I put nicer tuners on mine, and it looks like these Harmony reissues have them too. The tuners on the old ones were the weak link (and the wooden bridge on some of them like the bobkats). Its really fun and has vintage weirdo cool vibe. Mine has some dings here and there, but I elected not to thrash mine like the youth did theirs. Maybe i would if i could afford more guitars. My exhaustive study of the SY gearography page and T's Harmony definitely influenced my purchase. 60's harmonys are cool but in the 70's they were bought out by some big conglomerate and moved production to asia, supposedly quality went downhill, and style certainly did.
For those who feel that buying/building cheap low-budget and/or strange guitars is more their route (i remember people saying this on the old thread) here is a link to SUBWAY guitars in Berkley, CA, whose store I have not visited yet but is on my list of things to do. This cantakerous dude bought all the old part stock when the original Danelectro shut down, and has been building weird low-budget guitars according to his and his cuistomers whims and eccentricities for approximately a generation:
www.fatdawg.com
also for custom building and parts, there is
www.warmoth.com
they have jazzmaster bodies/neck/pickgurads/etc...
cheers to all