Fender Stratocaster 60’s classic player lacquer.

markj

Quite tempted to get the myself another Strat. I have had a classic player 60’s that I loved but stupidly sold. Have any forum members had any experience with the lacquer version of this model.

LooseMoose

Me! Great guitar with slightly disappointing pickups - nothing wrong per se but did lack a little bit of character that makes a killer Strat sound.

Alterlifeson

I have a 2014 model, love it. As mentioned above the pickups may not be up to par with the Custom Shop ones in your Classic Player, but they do the job for me. Other than that the fit and finish is very good and and nitro is a nice addition.

I don't believe it is a 'proper' nitro finish like you would find on a CS model, many seem to think it is a coat of nitro over a poly base. What every the case, it feels nice and from the dinks in mine, seems to mark and wear as nitro should.

Octafish

LooseMoose said:

Me! Great guitar with slightly disappointing pickups - nothing wrong per se but did lack a little bit of character that makes a killer Strat sound.

Fender advertise them as coming with Custom 69 pickups, I assume these are not the same as Custom Shop 69s, particularly as they've done some limited runs with CS69s in them?

thermionic

I have one. It's slightly lighter than the ordinary Classic 60s Strat I had previously, and a 2-piece (offset) body rather than 3-piece. I preferred the neck on my old one though, it was chunkier. Overall it's a slightly better guitar, but probably nothing to do with the lacquer finish, just variation you'd expect from one "identical" guitar to the next. The tweed case looks nice but is a bit lightweight (does the job fine though).

I can't really comment on the pickups but I don't immediately feel the need to upgrade them because the difference between the stock pickups in my Classic 50s Tele and Custom Shop Nocasters was marginal.

markj

Is the nitro finish  tougher than the vintage reissue range? I had a Avri 64 Tele the paint would easily chip off.

lovestrat74

thermionic said:

I have one. It's slightly lighter than the ordinary Classic 60s Strat I had previously, and a 2-piece (offset) body rather than 3-piece. I preferred the neck on my old one though, it was chunkier. Overall it's a slightly better guitar, but probably nothing to do with the lacquer finish, just variation you'd expect from one "identical" guitar to the next. The tweed case looks nice but is a bit lightweight (does the job fine though).

I can't really comment on the pickups but I don't immediately feel the need to upgrade them because the difference between the stock pickups in my Classic 50s Tele and Custom Shop Nocasters was marginal.

Do you remember the year of the older one? I would be interested in getting one if it had that rounded 60's profile. Can't get on with regular/slim necks

thermionic

2004. I don’t know how to describe the profile, I suppose they’ve always called it “60s style C” or something so I wouldn’t want to claim that all 2004 necks are chunkier than 2015 necks. There was just enough difference there for me to prefer one over the other.

No chips or flaking on my Strat nor my lacquer Jag (home use only). I suspect the poly primer/grainfiller/basecoat on these makes them more durable than the flashcoat AVRIs (if that’s what they are). The Strat has far more fine scratches/swirling than the Jag though (maybe sunburst shows them more than Fiesta Red).

Alterlifeson

markj said:

Is the nitro finish  tougher than the vintage reissue range? I had a Avri 64 Tele the paint would easily chip off.

Yeah much thicker than those. No 'thin skin' here, definitely some sort of poly undercoar I imagine.