• KWS Signature Strat. Great Tone and Playability!

  
  As reviewed by Joe Jones on 9/18/2009

  Great guitar and well worth the money! At first when I found out this guitar was a Mexican made strat, I was hesitant to buy it. However, this guitar plays great and sounds awesome. I am very happy with it. One of the best features for me is the jumbo frets, which truly does make it easier to bend notes. I play mostly blues and rock and bend notes frequently so having jumbo frets is great. Also, the tone is very good as the pickups were custom designed by Kenny?s specs. From the first strum I could tell a big difference in tone just from the pick-ups, so if you are looking for a good KWS or SRV tone, this guitar gets you that much closer just in the pick-ups. Another nice feature is the fact that the neck is fatter (as compared to a standard American or Mexican made Fender strat). This results in me not getting as much hand fatigue when playing. From an interview I saw of Kenny talking about the guitar, part of his goal was to design a quality guitar, with great tone, but still keep it affordable, and in my opinion, he succeeded!

  20 of 20 people found this review helpful.
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• Huge Features and Upgrades for a Small Price

  
  As reviewed by Mike Reynolds on 6/7/2010

  I'd like to show you why this guitar is the best value that I have seen for a bluesy guitarist ever. Don't let the fact that it is from the Mexican factory scare you off, the Mexican factory has been on a huge quality upswing over the past couple of years. Their guitars get better and better. Compared to a normal Mexi-Strat, the upgrades are staggering. Graph-tec saddles, a larger, satin finished neck with a 12 inch radius and jumbo frets. Upgraded tuners. And Signature Kenny Wayne Voiced pickups are all INCLUDED with this guitar. If you play blues, or any rock or country that necessitates bending strings and vibrato, you will appreciate the neck. Yes it is bigger and bulkier, but I have small hands and feel like the size of the neck actually helps me anchor my hand in a way that makes bends easier. My hand and arm do not wear out as easily with this size neck. The jumbo frets and 12 inch radius make bends effortless and accurate. After playing this neck, I personally want to change the neck of every other strat that I have to match this one. The voice of this guitar is so pleasing to a blues guitar player. This guitar has more sustain than any Mexi strat that I have ever played and the pickups are very unique. These pickups have a lot of tonal range which makes having the bridge pickup wired to a tone knob a very nice gift from Fender. It makes this guitar far more versatile. Whatever they have done with these pickups gives them a mid-scooped feel with a ton of presence. Metal heads won't appreciate it, but your tube amp is begging for these pickups. I would say that they have the SRV sound and can produce a soaring lead tone, much like Kenny Wayne's own sound. The only negatives to this guitar that I found were in the set-up. I had to get it reset. Changing the height of the pickups makes a huge difference in these particular pickups and gives you even more variety in your sounds. I personally believe that in a blind sound test and feel test, I could pick this guitar's sound and feel easily, and I know that I would choose it over ANY American Strat that GC had in stock at the time that I bought this.

  17 of 17 people found this review helpful.
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• Kenny Wayne Shepherd Signature Strat

  
  As reviewed by JB on 5/1/2009

  I'm very happy with this guitar. I challenge anyone to find another signature strat thats a better deal. This one that Kenny Wayne Shepherd toured with and helped design is affordable and sounds as good as it looks. I have the 3-tone sunburst,....nice vintage look, it has a nice feel, jumbo frets are easy to bend, and the Graph Tech bridge saddles make it worth even more. Can play everything from Hendrix to Stevie Ray and get great sound that you want and at a price under a grand,....cant beat that.

  35 of 36 people found this review helpful.
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