50's classic MIM Strat
I am a complete strat player, I love everything about them, looks, nostalgia, sound, feel and playability; simplicity at it's finest. This is a great playing strat and it will give you a really good clean tone, which is Fender's hallmark. Again this model feels and plays great, that is a given,but the pick ups (while great for clean tones, which is what a 50's strat excels in) were too bright for my taste in a medium to heavy overdrive situation (overdrive, not distortion, if that is your preference your probably wanting a humbucker equipped guitar anyway). I had a mexican standard strat when I bought this guitar, it had become in need of being refretted badly which cost about $300.00-375.00 to have done properly. So I thought I would spend $200.00 more and just get this guitar, because I absolutely love this 50's neck (even the 7.25" fretboard radius feels awsome to me, but I like my action fairly high so I don't have an issue with fretting out when bending notes, you will if you like your action low or even average). Anyway, all but needing to be refretted and preferring the V neck shape as opposed to the standard C neck, I really liked my standard strat tonally (and it was my first one I got when I started playing 7 years ago, so I was attached to it, I'm sentimental like that, plus I got my kids and my wife's name wood burned into the back of it, it's white so the finish has turned beautifully yellowish from time and heavy smoke exposure; we got history together and I'm bonded to it okay). Anyway, I took the 50's neck and put it on my old strat and with the combination of those pick ups which are substantially hotter with more mids (and my preference of .11 gauge GHS Boomers), this guitar sings, rips and growls the blues and classic rock. Let's don't forget the imaginary mojo and vibe created by a body and pick ups that have been with me since I was using my pick hand to place my fingers into proper chording positions (which is all too real to me and to you too or it will be if you play guitar) 7 years ago! This is an awsome buy if you like the neck contour and prefer or can adjust to raising the action of your strings, and have an extra hundred or 2 to replace the pick ups to something more suitable for overdriven tones (or have an old standard that has the frets played to the bone), cause we all know your not wanting something to just play pretty clean stuff on, that's what an acoustic guitar is for. Just one man's opinion, but the cleans are really good out of this guitar as is and who knows to your ear it's very possible that so could the overdriven tones be. I hope my review has helped you get a better understanding of this particular fine Fender guitar,enjoy playing.
sincerely, Michael777
Reviewed by Michael777 on 11/21/2006 who plays blues/rock.
36 people found this review helpful.
13 people found this review unhelpful.
