• Great guitar - horrible finish

  
  As reviewed by Ben on 11/10/2010

  I bought the Gold one new this year. I loved it from the start. The neck in particular is a cut above any other Mexican and even some of the USA Strats. Necks are a personal thing but it's a standout feature of this guitar. I'm fond of the hardware as well including pickups. My biggest gripe is the poly paint. I brought mine in for a setup and the paint on perimeter of the neck plate started to crack. What was worse was that the adjacent paint started to flake off the guitar somewhat like a hard boiled egg which went nearly to the front of the guitar. It's as if it had no adherence at all to the wood. It's possible the tech tightened the plate too tightly but still, the paint in the neighborhood shouldn't have fallen off. I've read reviews complaining about the thick poly paint killing sound and this paint was indeed extremely thick. It was more like a plastic coating. Even if you like a relic'd guitar, you probably don't want the paint chipping away. The shop that did the setup felt bad about the paint chipping and repainted it with nitro paint but said that stripping the guitar was almost too easy. The paint just fell off with little effort. Although they were polite, Fender support did nothing to help. It didn't leave me with much confidence they would stand behind their product. I still like the guitar and of course the if anything, I'm much happier with the nitro finish but I'm disappointed in Fender's lack of taking any responsibility and the terrible paint. Perhaps I just got a lemon. I hope so for Fender's sake.

  6 of 6 people found this review helpful.
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• Fender '50s Strat.

  
  As reviewed by Burgerman55 on 7/17/2007

  This guitar is incredible to start off. Before i owned this I owned a Gibson SG faded which, don't get me wrong is a great guitar but not the best for the music I play which is mostly the blues. Now of course I knew that a Fender Strat was perfect for blues and beyond, but I needed to find a good guitar at a limited price range. This guitar is it. The second I tried this guitar in the store I was amazed. It's tone was incredible, the neck was so smooth and very easy to play on, and the overall look of the guitar was incredible, I had to get it. I've been nothing but pleased with this guitar and I've owned it for about a half a year. This sounds like the more expensive American strats but 200+ bucks cheaper! There's only 2 things that you might want to consider changing out the pickups, just to get more tone and sound out of the guitar. Also you might want to buy a new pickguard because the one that comes stock is a one-ply and warps. Other than those minor gripes this guitar is great. I HIGHLY recomend it.

  5 of 5 people found this review helpful.
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• My Favorite

  
  As reviewed by on 1/9/2007

  After much deliberation, I finally bought one of these babies. I was looking around doing all my research for a 50s style strat considering that all of my favorite names at one time or another played them - Harrison, Gilmour, Clapton, Hendrix... and so on - so I've seen just about every 50s reissue strat out there and have been to a bunch of different Guitar Centers and Sam Ashes, looking for the right one. This was my favorite. The gloss maple neck just makes it the smoothest fretboard I've ever played and the soft-V shape is so comfortable, plus the 9.5" radius is great, although I like the 12" for the even better bend, but the only maple neck strat with a 12" radius is the Eric Johnson artist model, which is great, but doesn't have as many options as this does and is plenty more expensive. As far as pickups, for the classic raw tone of a Strat this is what you want, USA made. I love the vintage lock-in tuners, and the aged plastic knobs are just my style. All USA Fender Custom Shop designed, only assmebled in Mexico... and for the price! This is guitar is everything you could want it to be, just make sure you play around with one to make sure it's your style. The only thing that had me bugging was the color, personally I hate shorline gold, and two-tone sunburst is nice, but not my favorite... but I'm just going to have it refinished. A little touch of my own. This is a guitar I will keep forever.

  2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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