What's the word on this one, anybody got one?
What's the word on this one, anybody got one?
Don't have one but played a Surf Green Strat and a CAR Mustang from the Pawn Shop series. The Strat felt heavy. I looked in the f-hole and it is minimal at best. Fender just cut out enough to make a hole under the f.
Both guitars played well and had tight neck pockets and the great fit and finish you expect from upper end Fender Japan. The pups on the Strat didn't do it for me. The neck wide range sounds nothing like the wide range in my old '74 Tele Deluxe. It was missing the sparkle. The bridge was just too hot for my taste. If I were to buy the Strat I'd upgrade both pups and add a stacked knob to the volume side to get a tone knob in the mix. The blender knob is a cool idea but I I'd miss the tone knob.
The Mustang is what I'd score if I were gonna' buy one of the three. The scale length made it too easy to bend and the stock pups are pretty decent. The switching allows the Mustang to cover a lot of territory. I don't have a shorter scale guitar right now and it was hard to leave the store without it.
The Surf Green Strat looks cool with the binding and F-hole, but it wasn't as impressive to me. I could pretty much modify a Strat I already have and cover that trick. Probably better.
I could not be less interested in this line-extension ploy if the guitars were made of recycled milk jugs with pig iron frets.
I'm sure that Fender will sell just as many as they expect to, as they seem to be really good at reading the good-sized market of guys who buy guitars because they're bored and have a few hundred discretionary buckazoids burning a hole in their pocket.
That's because the innards of the new "WRH" pickups are not remotely the same as the WRH. I personally know someone who manufactures true mechanically and electrically correct WRH pickups and they are a joy to hear, and play...but they're way, way expensive 'cause they're probably completely handmade...
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
It's the one that caught my interest too.
FWIR, it has more unique(quirky), potentially useful features than the others. Even though the p'ups are a decorative knod to the WR's (which don't really exist in the Fender line), they are at physically smaller than other HBs they utilize.
So who knows, maybe they sound different?
Jim may be onto something though.
Anyone of them would look great in a photo amongst a bunch of other guitars.
"Well, I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused..."
Elvis Costello
They do look great. The fit and finish are easily equal to an American Series guitar. The Strat models are just a bit gimmicky. I was seriously considering the Mustang in lake placid blue, but it was sold out so that saved me from myself.
I just picked up a new 72 Pawn Shop (Surf Green) at Sam Ash for $599. and I think at that price it's a good buy/guitar. It has some issues that I will have to get straightened out, the fret ends are sharp and the strings are binding at the man made bone nut but it feels/plays and sounds very nice IMHO. I have never owned a Fender guitar with Wide Range Humbuckers so I have nothing to compare them to but I really like the tone of this neck pickup.
If it Ain't Played Loud, It Ain't Rock 'n' Roll
they remind me of the porsche 924.
P e a c e KYC
Strat or Tele out of a 5E3 .