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The Guitar Thread


Tom
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Yep :up:

 

Anyway I'll post a bit of a review. I got it this morning, it came direct from Fender via Guitar Guitar. I found it a little weird as I normally buy guitars in shops & I'd only played one Cabronita before in a different colour. So I had to unwrap it from it's packing and everything so that was bizarrely exciting for a grown man. I've only really ordered a one guitar in but it was my Les Paul & I'd ordered 9 or 10 in before committing to buy one - as you do when you spend that kind of money. It was in a pretty smart gig bag once you got it out the box.

 

So yes I was a little excited - photos really don't do the colour/finish justice - I thought I was getting a matte finish but it really shines quite nicely. It's a really classy bit of kit and it's light as a feather - I had a telecaster a few years ago which I adored but at times I found it a little heavy and bulky at times. This guitar - with the same body and a bit of weight off is very comfortable.

 

I feel like it could have done with a tone control - despite the versatile pickups but the guitar is good enough as it is to get past that issue. There's a lot of sounds on offer and it really picks up on more percussive playing well. The tone is massive & reserved at the same time - probably a consequence of the hollow body. It seems to give each string/note a remarkable clarity - even through a drive pedal. It's probably most at home with a country/blues style but it handles any kind of expressive playing beautifully. The clean sounds are a lot better than the drive sounds so far but I've only been using it with one amp at the moment so it's got a tour of the house to do first to find out it's true arsenal of sounds.

 

Every review I read stated how the guitar wasn't much use for metal/shredding so I put that to the test pretty quickly and I was over the moon with the sound. Here's a Vine of the guitar - the noise in the background is a sweep picked arpeggio in Dm (the saddest key) and i was going for an Opeth kind of sound (whatever happened to Steve? @catmag) - just to contradict the reviews I'd read. > https://vine.co/v/MiXKwdHEwUK

 

So for heavier stuff it seemed fine to me. The dynamic range of the guitar is crazy - again possibly owing to the hollow body - so when recording harmonies it sounds like two or three different guitars. With the Gretsch style pick ups there's none of the 60 cycle hum that you'll get on a regular telecaster either - which of course means that it doesn't sound like an orthodox telecaster but I suppose that's kind of the point - to an extent anyway. Overall it still sounds like a telecaster - just an extra fucking cool one.

 

Construction wise it was flawless - which for the price you would expect - but not necessarily from a Mexican Fender. The neck is glossed and it feels like it plays itself - which is very, very fucking rare on a Fender - even my American strat has always been a bit of hard work.

 

Regards the price - it seems to look & feel like a guitar that would cost you twice as much - which again is incredibly rare for Fender - as it's normally the other way round. For instance a £1000 American strat new from the shop only plays like a £500-600 guitar to me.

 

So anyway - I'm really happy with it and if you're after a guitar a bit different it's well worth a punt. :up:

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Nice write up Tom. And nice Vine. Not a sound I would expect to come out of a Tele ;) don't know if I have seen any proggers on Teles but based on this, think it would be a nice option. I think the hollow body gives a nice haunt to the tone there in your Vine. Most Fenders and Ibanez I've heard are quite expressive. Finish looks class as well.

 

Curious about the setup. Did it come nicely set up or do you typically do that type of thing yourself? Checking for high or loose frets, dealing with a ridiculously high action, etc?

 

In any case, nice addition to the family! :thumbup:

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Nice write up Tom. And nice Vine. Not a sound I would expect to come out of a Tele ;) don't know if I have seen any proggers on Teles but based on this, think it would be a nice option. I think the hollow body gives a nice haunt to the tone there in your Vine. Most Fenders and Ibanez I've heard are quite expressive. Finish looks class as well.

 

Curious about the setup. Did it come nicely set up or do you typically do that type of thing yourself? Checking for high or loose frets, dealing with a ridiculously high action, etc?

 

In any case, nice addition to the family! :thumbup:

 

I'm not really a progger or anything but that's just what I was playing at the time. I'm just as likely to be playing anything but every review I read said it wasn't good for that style so I though I'd have a go! It definitely sounds lush in clean though! I'm not sure about the price really as after playing one I never really thought twice about it - though I would have liked to have got £20-30 off it's not so much an option when you're ordering the guitar pretty much direct from Fender.

 

I didn't really check for loose frets and that kind of thing but it would have jumped out and it seems to be pretty perfect all round really. It played nice out of the box - it pretty much plays itself - it's fairly effortless for a guitar - which is also aided by the fact it's a very light guitar. I'm finding the tones to be very enjoyable - I've never owned a guitar where the fact it's hollowbody makes such a difference. I once had one with two F holes too. :D

 

To be honest as well I'm not particularly adept at setting guitars up but I feel it's something I'm going to learn soon. I can do most things but when it comes to truss rods and knackered frets I get to the ''take it to a man'' stage.

 

Looks and sounds class.

 

Merci :up:

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Nice write up Tom. And nice Vine. Not a sound I would expect to come out of a Tele ;) don't know if I have seen any proggers on Teles but based on this, think it would be a nice option. I think the hollow body gives a nice haunt to the tone there in your Vine. Most Fenders and Ibanez I've heard are quite expressive. Finish looks class as well.

 

Curious about the setup. Did it come nicely set up or do you typically do that type of thing yourself? Checking for high or loose frets, dealing with a ridiculously high action, etc?

 

In any case, nice addition to the family! :thumbup:

 

Echo this, did not expect to hear that when clicked on your video! Very interesting. Do you think you'll still go for a regular Tele at some point in the future with this?

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I'm in the same boat on setups. I have a great local shop that did a great setup on my mando. Makes me worry less about ordering something in as I can run it over to them if something is amiss.

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I'm after somewhere local at the moment. I'm comfortable playing my guitars but there's the odd one where the set up isn't particularly grand. I go for a Joe Strummer approach where I hit the guitar harder and harder till it sounds good ;)

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Ah cool I'll have a look. :up:

 

Sometimes it's worth the distance I suppose. There used to be an Irish bloke in Durham who was class at setups but I've no idea where he got to. I should really learn myself :up:

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Funny stuff. I grew up on Atari so the Sonic stuff doesn't trigger any memories for me. That sounds like a fun project, putting together the old 8-bit tunes from our misspent youth.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice Tom. Like the neo-classical stuff.

 

We have a local shop that has a big selection of PRS here actually. They don't look half bad. Not particularly fond of the headstock though. They have a lot of nice Fenders as well.

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Yeah they're awesome guitars - really small - but ridiculously cool looking. I always fancied a Jaguar as a kid or a Jazzmaster till i tried them and I disliked them intensely.

 

 

Fender are kicking out some nice stuff now but the price isn't great!

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