New Classic Vibe 60s Strat

Chuffola

Bought one earlier this week. I'd sold most of my guitars over the last few months due to my arthritic thumbs and left myself with an Eastman acoustic. But the need to occasionally indulge my inner SRV was too great. Didn't fancy spending much, since I'll only dabble when the thumbs allow, and was in one of the Belfast stores having a look.

Bought the 60s in Candy Apple Red after a quick play - got it home and wondered if I'd made a bad choice. Didn't realise the body wood was Nato, the trem block was the width of a gnat's todger and the tuners weren't great. In addition, the "walnut" seal at the truss rod is badly seated and it's tricky to get the allen key in.  Hmmm....

However, changed the strings to 10s, tweaked the truss rod, adjusted intonation and set the action and, surprisingly, it sounds exactly like a decent Strat. The laurel board is dark and looks even better after some lemon oil, the action is low and rattle free and the neck pickup sounds exactly like every other Strat I've had (and there have been many over the years).

General fit and finish is good and, apart from the truss rod issue, I'm now very happy with it. But you can see where the cost savings have been made given the price is now £350.

Still, thought it was worth posting a mini-review in case anyone else was wondering what these were like. They aren't the stellar CVs of the made in China years (who would ever have thought that would be a thing?!) but this one sounds great and plays nicely after some home set-up tweaks. 

Years ago, I'd have been straight back to the store but frankly, life is too short, a trip back is too much hassle and I've got a superb looking strat in glorious CAR with a dark board that sounds good. I'll have much fun modding it with perhaps a HB in the bridge, a tortoiseshell guard and some new plastics. 

My advice, though, for anyone else is really take a look at the things you wouldn't normally check before buying!

PonchoGreg

Nice overview!

Yeah by all accounts some of that MIC magic is gone, but they remain very good for the price. I would love to try one, only ever had experience of the MIC teles and these were incredible, skinny neck notwithstanding.

I did buy a classic vibe bass this summer, also from the new line and I've got to say the fit and finish was really very good. Again, definitely not the finest selection of woods (neck has required more truss rod adjustments that I'm used to, and the relief still tends to drift off a bit over time) but the laurel is actually not a big deal in that price bracket I think. Doesn't look worse than the Pau Ferro they are using on near-£1k guitars (cough roadworn cough)...

Gerz6558

I will always have a soft spot for Indonesian Squiers. My first electric was a 99 squier strat. Always preferred the shape of the necks to the Chinese classic vibes I had, but my only experience of these new classic vibes is a Jaguar.

Such good choices for budget guitars these days. Enjoy!