Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: _tom_ on January 02, 2007, 12:51:38 AM
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I've been after a semi-decent strat for a while now and I have the money to get one of the Standard MIM strats from Thomann -
http://www.thomann.de/gb/fender_mex_std_strat_aw.htm
I'll obviously replace the pickups and stuff later on when I have the funds but how are the essentials - wood and neck?
A mate of mine has one which he says is the same model (bar the colour, his is metallic red) and it feels really nice to play, stays in tune well and sounds fine unplugged to me but I've heard the quality can be hit and miss. I was going to save a bit more and get the Lite Ash strat but I dont really like the birdseye maple neck, prefer the regular maple look as on this model I linked to.
Of course, if theres a better alternative for anything up to £350 in arctic white and with a "small" style headstock (cant stand the big 70s ones) then let me know!
Thanks
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I'm not a fan of buying musical kit off the net, is much better to try before you buy. You tried PMT (what a name! :lol: ) in Northampton? I was in there just before christmas and iirc they had quite a wide range of strats. Unfortunately I didn't get much time to check 'em out as was after something specific and had my girlfriend with me who was gets a little nervous when i'm around expensive guitars! :lol:
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Nope, not tried PMT ( :lol: ) yet but I was planning on having a look on Thursday after school to see if they had anything decent.
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Nope, not tried PMT ( :lol: ) yet but I was planning on having a look on Thursday after school to see if they had anything decent.
Is nice in there, keep an eye out for the mint condition early 90's Ibanez Universe in that interesting swirled finish. Beautiful guitar but I wouldn't wanna pay the three grand they're asking for it. There's a few quite nice fender custom shop bits too! :D
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Is it easy to get parked near-ish PMT, and easy enough to find? I dont know Northampton very well, I've only driven through there once or twice.
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It's right at the bottom of bridge st. There's the St. John's open air car park nearby or another that I forget the name of behind it (round by heine gerrike/argos/the Jolly w**ker). Is on the outskirts of northampton town centre next to a pub called the King Billy. You know the area at all?
Another thing to bear in mind is that there is a huge team of traffic wardens in northampton and they're all on comision, there's nowhere near the town centre that isn't pay and display.
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First of all, it has no humbucker. Secondly it is made in Mexico and personally i would wait and save up for an American Series one.
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It's right at the bottom of bridge st. There's the St. John's open air car park nearby or another that I forget the name of behind it (round by heine gerrike/argos/the Jolly w**ker). Is on the outskirts of northampton town centre next to a pub called the King Billy. You know the area at all?
Another thing to bear in mind is that there is a huge team of traffic wardens in northampton and they're all on comision, there's nowhere near the town centre that isn't pay and display.
Nope I dont know Northampton very well at all, the only time I've driven around it was to get to the Deco and I cant even remember that too well. I guess it'll give me something to do all day as I've only got 2 lessons Thursday morning :P
Joe I'm not sure if I want a humbucker guitar again at the minute, I heard some clips of the BK Uber-Singles and they sound really good, plus I think 3 singles looks better than HSS on this kind of strat.
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newer Mexican Fenders are generally good quality - good necks, the body wood is now alder and is the same wood that is used on US Fenders (although there maybe more pieces) - the hardware was upgraded in 2005 to include a steel block.
The pickups are'nt to hot but that's the first thing to change.
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Someone on HC recommended these Fame guitars, built in europe and apparnetly the quality is really good. The strat (Classic model) looks so nice, comes with schaller hardware and apparently the frets are all hand dressed so no sharp edges etc should be on em -
http://www.fame-instruments.de/
I will try to play some strats in northampton if I can but this Fame looks really nice to me.
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US fenders are wayyyyy overrated. I have a US strat and a Mex and the mex neck is much much nicer to play, but the body was much lighter. If I were you, I would have a look out for a Tokai ASD-50 or AST-50 (i think that has HBs). They're Japanese built and I just have one on hold for me at my local. Mine is a ASD-50 in Fiesta red with a maple board and neck in with a vintage tint, as it is a 50's style. It was lush to play and I dont think i'll need bkps straight away! The pups sound superb i have to say.
Hope it helps
Joe
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Cheers, I've been looking out for Jap fenders on ebay but no luck so far. I found that Fame strat on a german site who ship to the uk, seems like an awesome deal for £270 - http://www.musicstorekoeln.de/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/MusicStore-MusicStoreShop-Site/en_EN/-/EUR/ViewProductDetail-Start;pgid=?ProductRef=GIT0006413-003%40MusicStore-MusicStoreShop&JumpTo=OfferList
Btw - which neck (50s or 60s style) is closer to the fender modern c shape? I dont like baseball bat necks but love my mates MIM fender.
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HMM! This looks good, but I have no idea about these Japanese sellers, and the auction doesnt have any specs on it -
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fernandes-Burny-Custom-Guitar-Vintage-White-MIJ_W0QQitemZ320065234508QQihZ011QQcategoryZ141188QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Any idea? Who are the best people to buy japanese guitars from?
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You should check out some Tokai strats, the Tokai forum absolutley love them!
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US fenders are wayyyyy overrated. I have a US strat and a Mex and the mex neck is much much nicer to play, but the body was much lighter. If I were you, I would have a look out for a Tokai ASD-50 or AST-50 (i think that has HBs). They're Japanese built and I just have one on hold for me at my local. Mine is a ASD-50 in Fiesta red with a maple board and neck in with a vintage tint, as it is a 50's style. It was lush to play and I dont think i'll need bkps straight away! The pups sound superb i have to say.
Hope it helps
Joe
+1 I tried a tokai japanese tele the other day and it was very, very nice. Only thing I didn't like was the nut width (d'oh!), and the radius seemed very vintage. But it was like £359, so a similar price to mexis- and I think it played better than the highway ones, possibly the usa standards too. assuming the tokai japanese strats are of a similar quality, and you don't mind a quite narrow nut width, I'd seriously look into those, at least to try.
only thing is, from what I hear, they're being discontinued, and Fender are licensing them to make their Japanese versions. Of course, that may just have been the salesperson's spiel to justify not throwing as much cash off it, as it was now "collectible"! :lol:
:drink:
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It wasn't the black double bound one in the Guitar Emporium by any chance, Dave?
That's a lovely wee instrument if it was...
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It wasn't the black double bound one in the Guitar Emporium by any chance, Dave?
That's a lovely wee instrument if it was...
yeah, i think so. either black or dark blue. can't really remember, lol. definitely double-bound, though.
:drink:
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Managed to get to PMT today, played some MIM strats. The neck profiles felt really comfortable to me, so now I know I want something with that modern C shape. The only things I didnt like but could easily change was the action (way too low) and string gauge as they just felt too loose. The trem was a bit weird, it felt really easy to use and it was floating a bit so you could pull up - can that be easily adjusted so its flush with the body for dive only? I wouldnt use the pull up.. I only got to play through a Vox Valvetronix but the bridge pickup sounded a bit weak, the others sounded pretty good to me though..
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The trem was a bit weird, it felt really easy to use and it was floating a bit so you could pull up - can that be easily adjusted so its flush with the body for dive only?
Yep, just tighten the springs - or even add an extra spring if you really want the bridge to stay put.
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hmm I was playing my strat copy after I typed out that last post and decided I actually prefer the feel of the neck on it, so I'm now thinking of pimping the copy. Only problem is that open chords dont sound in tune :? I've adjusted the intonation but it doesnt seem to play in tune still :(