1st Time Strat buyer's feedback

plazma · 2011-06-07T19:21:57+00:00

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.

plazma

VellaJ wrote That's pretty awesome. One question though; 5 pup configs from 2 pups? How is that working? Single-coil sounds from the 'buckers?

Here's the pup selection options, from the Blacktop web page:
Pickup Switching:
Position 1. Full Bridge Pickup,
Position 2. Two Inside Single Coils,
Position 3. Both Full Humbucking Pickups,
Position 4. Outer Neck Single Coil, Position
5. Full Neck Pickup

This is very versatile and gives you lotsa tone options. You can go from Clapton creamy-smooth to Beck bite-twang with ease and speed.

Riaan-Combrink

Nice review of a cool guitar. Enjoy!

Cannon

sorry!!! did someone write PRS on a Fender thread???
Come now!!!
8)

« Previous Page