plazma
So here's the story about my first ever Strat, which I bought home yesterday.
I called up a (big) shop in Cape Town and asked what the best price was I could pay on a MiM Strat.
I knew these guitars have a price tag of R8,995 on them, but asking is free, right? After a bit of haggling,
we agreed on R6,500. The salesman also said he would organize a gig bag, but I guess he had second thoughts, because it never materialized.
So here's my first tip: don't just pay the price on the tag. The shop is more desperate to sell you the guitar, than you are to get your hands on it.
You can save a huge amount of money if you haggle and argue a bit.
The shop had two Mexican Strats. I took them both into the sound room and played a few notes. My hands were cold, and the critical eye of the salesman,
who is about half my age and seems to know his guitars, kind of put me off. I just could not play the guitars. The pick I borrowed in the shop felt like a lead coin. Eventually the salesman was called out, and I was able to strum some chords, and play a few riffs.
The first guitar hurt my fingers because it had rusty strings. The guitar just left me feeling cold. The salesman came back.
I then tried the second guitar, and voila - magic. This axe spoke to me. It said something pornographic. Use your imagination.
Tip 2: Find a guitar you really like. Don't buy one you're not sure of.
So ended up going home with a "sonic blue" Fender Stratocaster, made in Mexico, with Alnico pickups. And being the noob that I am, I had to go Google "Alnico".
So here is a quick review of the guitar.
First, build quality.
There are two really tacky things on this guitar: the pickup selector, a plastic thingy that looks like it's going to fall off soon, and the whammy bar, which sticks up at a crazy angle. I don't care if the selector plastic falls off, I can glue it back. But I'm going to have to ask a tech to bend the whammy bar to an angle that I can live with. I've noticed that Jeff Beck's white Strat's whammy bar is parallel to the body of the guitar, and that is how I want mine.
The rest of the guitar is excellent. The neck and the frets are smooth. The finish is very, very good. The pickups are encased and look cool.
The colour of my guitar is a very pale baby-blue, it looks totally cool. If I knew how to put a photo into this post, I could show you. The guitar has a good heft - it isn't too heavy, nor does it feel too light, which we would subconsciously associate with "cheap". The action is low and fast, and there is no buzz on the strings - anywhere.
The tuning pegs are solid and have a very smooth glide.
The bridge is something new to me and I can't comment on any of its probable pros or cons.
Second, the sound:
Ah yes. When I plugged this guitar into my 15watt Marshall practice amp, and cranked up the volume to full, I immediately recognised that twangy, growly Fender sound. This guitar has the clearest, brightest sound I have heard on Strat. It still gives me goosebumps! While Googling the pickups, I read a few reviews of this guitar, and everyone raved about the sound. This relatively cheap Strat delivers that classic Strat sound - one reviewer even said it sounded better than his USA Strat.
The pickups are near-silent, as far as I can tell, and I'll only be using the guitar in a recording environment. Did I tell you how good this guitar sounds? Oh yes, up there. It sounds just totally amazing. Anyway, the pickup selector lets you choose 5 different pup configurations, and each pup has its own tone control.
My previous guitar had a Floyd-Rose, and I was worried that this new guitar would have to be tuned every two minutes. But to my surprise, it stays in tune for about an hour before it needs a tuner again. Hopefully the strings will settle in and it will stay in tune... for two hours, haha.
My guitar history only stretches back 2 years, and I'm looking forward to building a nice relationship with this Strat. My two previous guitars were a Squire Strat and a Cort X5, which was a good guitar.
Anyway, the moral of the story is: Buy what you really want, but don't pay the price the shop wants. Pay less. With the money I saved I can buy a good hard case for my guitar, and good strings.
My next step is to get used to the fret spacing on this guitar. I also need to find a friendly teacher in Cape Town who can show me how to do vibrato on a bend - I just can't get that right. Yet.
Peace.
slyd
Just BTW
Maybe the whammy sticks up at a strange angle is because the spring tension in the trem is very light, and is overpowering the string tension. Just a thought.
Please post pics . . .we wanna see this axe dude! ?
IceCreamMan
excellent review plazma ...
and u right , always haggle ..money in the bank is worth more to the store than stock on a peg. unless there is a queue to buy the piece of equipment you have the upper hand ....i have realised some crazy deals just because i was prepared to walk away ......
the modern day MiM fender is no longer a poor cousin to the equivalent american...u get good an bad both sides of the border....
strats just are the mutts nutts aint they
enjoy it
plazma
Here we go...
singemonkey
http://www.guitarforum.co.za/how-to/how-to-post-pictures-t4055/
Looking forward to seeing them. Nice review. Sounds like you got the right for you. Awesome man. Enjoy it ?
edit: dig the way gravity works in your house ? Looks like a monster-strat (in a good way). A whatchamacallit strat. With the humbuckers and the witchhat knobs. Total rock machine. Very cool.
plazma
Lol, the photo is not exactly properly oriented. (hey I just switched the height and width in the url and it worked.)
Yes, we have sideways gravity in my house. I earn money outside, and my missus makes it disappear into the black hole she keeps in the kitchen, lol.
Kalcium
Super squashed on the forum but if you right click and say view image it sorts itself out ? Cool guitar, I believe thats part of the new pawn shop series right? With the humbuckers
VellaJ
That's pretty awesome. One question though; 5 pup configs from 2 pups? How is that working? Single-coil sounds from the 'buckers?
Norman86
pawnshop series would have a tele head!
Also, all the pawnshops are hardtails if i remember correctly!
Thats a blacktop series strat right there!
Looks good though, congrats ?
AlanRatcliffe
One point - if you set the bridge up with a bit of a "float" (with the back of the bridge lifted a little, so you can pull back on the bar to raise the pitch too), the angle of the bar will come down lower. If you want to do this then don't bend the bar until you see where it is sitting after the bridge is set up.
DonovanB
nice Strat...
Also Stratocaster Trem handles are super cheap and easy to come across. That's if your problem is the actual handle
IMO the pickup selector on strats are silly. Although I don't have as little faith in them as you seem to.
Also what lead do you use? That may be contributing to the noise. It might not actually be the pups...
Happy jamming. and welcome to the strat clan...
dee
plazma wrote:
The salesman also said he would organize a gig bag, but I guess he had second thoughts, because it never materialized.
Hang on. The Blacktop series is supposed to come with a gig bag straight from Fender. I'll go back if I'm you and ask what's going on.
//Edited for correction.
Malkav
dee wrote:
plazma wrote:
The salesman also said he would organize a gig bag, but I guess he had second thoughts, because it never materialized.
Hang on. The Fender Pawn Shop Series is uspposed to come with a Deluxe Gig Bag straight from Fender. I'll go back if I'm you and ask what's going on.
That guitar is a Fender Blacktop stratocaster
EDIT: Nope just double checked, not a model that comes with a gig bag. My bad
dee
Chad Adam Browne wrote:
dee wrote:
plazma wrote:
The salesman also said he would organize a gig bag, but I guess he had second thoughts, because it never materialized.
Hang on. The Fender Pawn Shop Series is uspposed to come with a Deluxe Gig Bag straight from Fender. I'll go back if I'm you and ask what's going on.
That guitar is a Fender Blacktop stratocaster and it's also supposed to come with a gig bag.
Apologies! I mistook the two. But yes, it has to come with a gig bag regardless.
Jack-Flash-Jr
Beautiful strat and thanks for the review. Most important for any buyer:
I then tried the second guitar, and voila - magic. This axe spoke to me. It said something pornographic. Use your imagination.
Tip 2: Find a guitar you really like. Don't buy one you're not sure of.
Norman86
Norman86 wrote:
pawnshop series would have a tele head!
Also, all the pawnshops are hardtails if i remember correctly!
Thats a blacktop series strat right there!
Looks good though, congrats ?
does no one read? the other give away of the blacktop series are the amp tone and volume knobs.
according to fender.com... no gig bag...
Cannon
Yup those new blacktop series strats are awesome.....Bjorn Faree from 12th Avenue bought the exact same guitar about a month or so ago. Same colour too. I played it a couple of times and it has such a nice vintage tone.
8)
slyd
That's one pretty lady ?
Shotto for the pic and the review. Enjoy her to the mostest ?
dee
Norman86 wrote:
Norman86 wrote:
pawnshop series would have a tele head!
Also, all the pawnshops are hardtails if i remember correctly!
Thats a blacktop series strat right there!
Looks good though, congrats ?
does no one read? the other give away of the blacktop series are the amp tone and volume knobs.
according to fender.com... no gig bag...
Very strange. you'd think a brand like Fender would include one on all their models....
Norman86
Nah, thats how you get people to buy a fender gig bag and have to pay them more ?
PRS does it nicely though, they include it! And its damn good quality! for a gig bag!
Back to the topic at hand...
That sonic blue is beautiful...
And i couldnt see the headstock properly last night, was surfing on my phone, so it looked like a 70's headstock... i was rather put off...
But delighted when i saw it was definitely a 60's headstock!
