After Covid19 lock down - CS Strat tryout

dindude

Silly question but do you know what would constitute a serious improvement in your mind or are you waiting to be “wowed”. It does sound like you are talking yourself out of it.
It’s still a Strat so if you don’t appreciate the Nitro finish (not tonally but aesthetically), the more refined neck shape, the darker rosewood board, the rolled edges and fret job, likely the weight, before you even get to the sound, then you’ll probably not “get it”. 

Basically if you’re a Strat is two bits of wood you can bolt together in your back room guy, then stick where you are.
I tend to work backwards - a team built CS is what a Strat should be, everything else backwards is a compromise of some sort - finish/hardware/pickups/fret job/finger board edges/heavier than the moon etc. Albeit there’s some great stuff out there that is a lot cheaper.

Voxman

dindude said:

Silly question but do you know what would constitute a serious improvement in your mind or are you waiting to be “wowed”. It does sound like you are talking yourself out of it.

Wrong way round - I'm not talking myself out of it - I'm simply not talking myself into it and going gooey eyed just because its a CS Strat.  I've been playing guitar for over 48 years and own 13 guitars, 11 of which are electrics.  If I'm not 'wowed' then it's not worth spending the money. Aesthetics are nice and all well & good, but fundamentally it has to feel and sound a bit special and I'm experienced enough to know it when I feel and play it.  I should mention that I'm also going to try out some LP R8's too (R9's are way too overpriced for not a lot more than a 'nicer' top & a slightly different neck) and I'll take my 1990 LP Custom too to make a comparison and make a day of it!   

These are just guitars at the end of the day, and each of us has a budget and wants something different. Some folk will just 'want' a CS Strat or an R8 , others will be looking for something specific.  Personally, I want it to fit like a glove, stay in tune very, very well, play like a dream with a great action and fret work and a great neck, have a tone to die for and look a bit special. In short, I want a guitar that I'll never want to put down!  If I'm spending £3-4k on a guitar I don't think that's a lot to ask for!  

i_b_tulloch

Voxman said:

I'm fully prepared to try out a lot - at that price I want to make the right decision. But I'll rule out heavy relics regardless of how they play or sound as I simply hate the look. I'm not averse to some very light tasteful vintage type 'aging' though. And I'd also love to get an 'early 60's' one in my favourite finish - metallic lake placid blue (where you get that lovely yellowing affect to make it like teal) with a nice rosewood board.   But hey, I'm open minded and feel/tone will be the main biggie.

I agree that once you go CS it’s hard to go back. I too didn’t like relics at first until I played a few in the shops and I personally found some of them had huge mojo that maybe a NOS wouldn’t have. Equally, there were some relics that felt more fake, and didn’t have that mojo. I have had quite a number of CS guitars over a relatively short period and every one of them was pretty much outstanding when compared to the production line guitars I played.

On the relic front, I have found I don’t like a shiny new guitar, but prefer not to have heavy relic either. Journeyman is the perfect place for me, broken in, but not beat up.

Ultimately, for me, as most of my CS guitars were fairly vintage spec, I decided to spec a CS up exactly the way I want it - full modern spec with vintage looks. There is a gamble that I won’t like it, but odds are I will.

The new CS prices are pretty ridiculous now though, especially when it’s a customer order.

If you get the right one, I think you will really like the quality of Fender CS.

RandallFlagg

I do love a Relic CS Strat, especially anything slightly different...

RaymondLin

There is a hole in your guitar. 

Voxman

Sorry, but I hate heavy relics and would never spend this amount of money on a guitar that's been made to look beaten up. Each to their own but I don't get it and never will. As I said, a gentle aged look eg akin to a Gibson R8 can look very nice though. If I bought an R8 I'd certainly go for the vintage aged look and not the shiny gloss version, and ditto on a CS Strat.

RandallFlagg

Voxman said:

Sorry, but I hate heavy relics and would never spend this amount of money on a guitar that's been made to look beaten up. Each to their own but I don't get it and never will. As I said, a gentle aged look eg akin to a Gibson R8 can look very nice though. If I bought an R8 I'd certainly go for the vintage aged look and not the shiny gloss version, and ditto on a CS Strat.

What, like this?

Fez

Voxman said:

Fez said:

I agree with @melod ; the ideal is to play a guitar through an amp you either have or at least know your way around. 

That's OK, I've owned a load of amps, and played through even more.  But I'm going to play the same guitar through a few different amps inc a Fender and a Marshall as I've found that sometimes a guitar that sounds great through a clean Fender doesn't necessarily sound so good through a Marshall and vice-a-versa - weird, but sometimes true...anyone else found that?

I do find that some guitars seem to sound better through some amps than others. It may be the valves in the amp though. A Marshall with el34s I think suits a strat better than the el84 based Marshall's. With you on heavy relics too, not my cup of tea.