PricePaid: 575 EUR (New)
Purchased From: Local shop
Model Year: 2002Features: [8]
Mexican Fender reissue of a 50s Strat. It's got an alder body and mine's in Surf Green. The neck is quite chunky with a soft V shape. The neck is all maple with 21 frets - it also has a slight "aged" tint to it.
It came with a deluxe gig bag although I bought a case at the same time as I don't really like soring my guitars in gig bags.
As you'd expect from a Strat it's got 3 single coil pickups with a five position switch, one volume and 2 tone controls.
Pickup covers and and the volume/tone knobs are aged plastic to give a slightly brown / yellowed finish. The single ply pick guard is not though which does take from the complete aged look. Sounds: [8]
The sound was not bad straight out of the box. Although it sounded very strat like it was a bit thin sounding. Believe it or not I had been given some PUPs from a USA 57 Reissue Strat about 10 years ago and they'd been sitting in a box all that time as I'd never got round to buying a Strat to put them in. Within a few weeks of owning this guitar I'd taken out the originals and replaced them with, the much better, USA vintage reissues. There was an immediate jump in sound quality.
Having these PUPs was one of the main reasons I didn't spring the extra for the American 57 Vintage Reissue.
Action, Fit & Finish: [7]
Definately set up quite well although I did give it some adjustments after playing it for a week. It didn't need much and was more of a case of making it suit me 100% rather than it actually needing anything much.
One disappointment is that there was some indentations near the 21st fret. It looks like tool marks when they were fitting the frets. It's not where it's likely to affect my playing but it's a bit naughty that it got through quality control. I'd ordered it in and although I could have made some fuss and got another, it did play very well so I could have been tempting fate by sending for another and getting something not so playable back.
The surf green paintwork is flawlessly applied and is my favourite colour of the available ones for this model. Reliability & Durability: [8]
I did have a minor issue with the original switch and send for one from an American series. Basically the old one occassionally wouldn't kick in on one of the PUPs and left it dead. It could well of been due to my over enthusiastic soldering when I installed the new PUPs as it really was thin metal. When I got the USA one you could really tell the difference - it was a much more positive feeling switch and I've not had a problem since.
If you are thinking of upgrading the PUPs it's probably worth paying the small amount extra to do the switch while you're at it.
Other than that it's extremely well made and as with most Fender's if you look after it you'll be able to pass it down to your children! Overall Rating: [8]
I'm lucky enough to own a Custom Shop 60 Stratocaster. This is obviously not up to that standard but it still has that vintage vibe and is better suited for taking to places you don't want to be worrying about what happens so much. Even owning 2 Strats I still pick this one up quite regularly as it has such a different feel to the other one.
These are definately good value for what they are and I doubt if they'd dissapoint many people. The PUP change was difinately an improvement but I may well not have bothered if they were already ditting there in my box of bits.
I've played some of the USA 57 Reissues and in many ways this plays better. It's definately worth making some side by side comparisons - you may even save yourself some money.
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Classic Series 50s Stratocaster
