I wish I'd got a strat sooner. I think I just overlooked them because they're so ubiquitous, but they're everywhere for a reason. And now I'm here. Anyway, found this one locally for a good price with all the plastic and tags still on it. The owner turned out to be a really cool sound engineer with a house full of guitars and weird old synths. We ended up chatting for a few hours about stuff he's worked on, including Mezzanine by Massive Attack! I really, really love the neck on this guitar. The general feel and finish all around is so much better than the MIM Tele it replaces (I need contouring in my life), which has sharp frets and a rough neck stripe. This is immaculate, resonant and smooth, and sounds amazing through my THR10. The hype around these things is justified! Got it home and it had somehow developed a crackling jack since trying it out, which was annoying. Took it out, had a prod, then put it back and it seems to work fine now... Action is too high but setting guitars up is something I really want to learn now, so I'll give it a go when I get some tools in, using the fender site. Nothing that exciting, but it is for me! Thanks for looking! PS - is the trem arm supposed to be gold? I kinda like it but am not sure if it's been given the arm from another classic vibe! Am tempted to order an aged white and chrome one though.
Happy NGD!! CV's are awesome. Setups are easy after you've done it once or twice, search around the forum and you'll find plenty of help.
Thanks a lot! I've not done the best job on restringing this - the vintage tuners threw me off - but I have hoped I can make it a little easier to play. Not that it's bad right now
Congrats on the guitar and welcome to ST. The CV's are the absolute 'best value' in guitars right now. I'm pretty sure the trem arm should be chrome plated.
Welcome to the forum. Looks like a great choice for a first Strat, a great choice period for that matter. Got to love a resonant, great necked, smooth playing, good looking Sunburst 50's Strat. Is there anything more classic than that?
Oh, I think chrome as well. You can call Fender direct and buy the proper one. These days, some screw in, some push in.
Thanks everyone! I'm thinking of getting the first setup done by a pro (my guitar teacher, actually) just to give me a basis to work from later. He's doing my other guitar now. The more I look the less confident I feel about doing this setup!
About a minute in he shows you how to use those tuners (even on a back to front guitar). Welcome to the forum.
Nice, congratulations. It's always struck me how the bodies on the CVs often have nicer-looking/better-matched wood than many higher-priced Fender offerings.
I'm really impressed. I can't see the join without really looking, and the grain has a nice curve that follows the body. Just finished an educational first ever set-up, and I think it went well! Action lowered a little, and pickups made a tiny bit higher which made a huge difference. Even floated the bridge where it had been decked before. Learned a lot! I followed the Fender guide but skipped the intonation section for now, I couldn't quite wrap my head around it. Got my other guitar back and set up some wall hangers. Here they are!
I got one of these when they first came out. It was set up perfectly from the factory, and even had a handwritten string height QA card. However, never felt it was 100%, from the yellow neck that seems like it was dipped in a vat of plastic lacquer, to the uninspiring paint job covering most of the wood in black, and the aged plastic knobs that look more like the way a white computer from the 80s ages.