Fender announces limited run of Rosewood-necked American Professional Strats

Not for me.

 

This one on sale in Italy:

https://www.centrochitarre.com/chit...fingerboard-sunset-orange-metallic-30452.html

 

Im calling B.S. on it. If they really wanted a special fret board they would go with Ebony. Like what Rose wood is something special.

 

Huh? It's a solid rosewood neck, not just a rosewood fingerboard. Or are you meaning they should have done a rosewood neck with an ebony fingerboard.

 

I did love this color and bought one from GC but sent it back as it had scratches and a ding. They have no more new ones, pretty bummed really wanted one. Ocean Turqouis, solid rosewood neck.

 

Is it even possible to call BS on a guitar? WTF!

 

I mean, I would take the neck if they offered it as a solo purchase. But they always seem to put these beautiful necks on the WEIRDEST colors.

 

They should offer a matching headstock. Looks too odd as is.

 

I've only played one of these, but the neck felt dead. Might have been the carve, but I think it was the whole vibe of it. Looks wrong, feels wrong. And I wanted to like it.

 

I've a couple guitars with solid rosewood necks.
I really like them however my experience has been they provide an entirely different tone/character than a maple construction neck would have.
Most certainly I'd advise playing one first through an amplifier your familiar with as these necks do change things up a little bit.

 

The opposite. Solid RW necks are very bright in my experience.

I built a Tele with one, and it was too bright, really off the charts. Didn't matter what pickups I used. Swapped the neck onto a bunch of different bodies, no difference.

Rosewood will also add 1/4 lb to the guitar weight. It's hard and dense.

 

Thanks for the info! Thats why assumptions are typically wrong!

 

I love the look, but usually the weight feels weird. I’ve built several Tele style guitars with one piece rosewood necks. They feel great but make the guitar a little neck heavy. The other guitar is a Schecter Genesis which I designed for Schecter in 1983 while my shop was in Dallas Texas. As you can see I adapted my telesque headstock design to create the Schecter design, by tilting it and adding the hole. Right after Schecter released my design Guild copied it and it became the guitar Joe Perry played in the Run DMC “Walk This Way” video.

 

If you like jumbo frets, you might wanna check-out the American Performer Strats...I love mine and so does everyone else who plays it. The satin finish on the neck is just right and the new Yosemite pick-ups are the best I've had on a Strat (and this is my 3rd American made).

 

I bought the GC exclusive rosewood neck strat two years ago but didn't like the tone. Don't know if it was the pickups or neck wood. Fortunately the selector switch was glitchy so I exchanged it for the surf green rosewood neck Tele which sounds incredible. Don't know if the neck has a bearing on the sound but it looks gorgeous.

 

I just received a used GC special run Rosewood neck Strat, I’m taking it back today. I love the neck but the narrow tall frets don’t cut it for me. It also arrived packaged very poorly apparently resulting in some poly finish compression cracks. It came without a case, I knew that, and one part of the lower body was in direct contact with the single layer shipping box....No padded protection at all.

As for tone, not as thrilled with that as I thought I would be.

The case is mine.

 

I've got the Daphne Blue version. It is not one I play very often. I like a fatter neck, but it is a great guitar.

 

Rosewood IS the closest tonal wood to Mahogany, so draw the obvious conclusions what their thoughts are and what it will sound like. BUT Rosewood is NOT a pleasure working with as Mahogany is, which is a dream, ask any high-end furniture craftsman. Rosewood chips, splits and cracks all too easily, just look at how easily damaged rosewood "slab" fret boards get.

If I were still at Fender, I'd be against this. If the reason is tone, there are 20 to 30 different species of Maple, many southern variety that are less hard and tonally lower without losing resonance and strength. Match that with a nice thick slab Rosewood cap board and I believe you accomplish the same results. Rosewood has become horrendously expensive now and to me as a Luthier and former Prod Mgr would kill it.

Besides, just make a bolt-on Mahogany neck, I have made quite a few ...... but then Fender might be accused of just trying to "be Gibson" instead of staying true to "Fender form".

Here's a 1993 all Mahogany set-neck Telecaster we built at the Custom Shop. Sounded like an early Les Paul with P-90's, neat!

 

I've got three, and they look great, feel right, and sound great to me. And the first one I played I was predisposed not to like, then I bought it. So you know, like everything else, it's personal.

 

Gotta say, beautiful combination of colors, neck, body, pickguard and knob pickup color.