marnold
November 8th, 2006, 12:31 PM
Well, the FedEx woman showed up at my door about three hours ago with my blonde '51. I just wanted to give my initial impressions. Some of this will change once I've completed the setup, which it was in desperate need of. There is way too much relief on the neck, but I'm adjusting that. The intonation was right on on three strings and about 15 cents off on three others. The nut is a bit high on the A and D strings. The other four are spot on. The action is higher than I like, but once I've got the truss rod adjusted, I can address that. BTW, I'm making use of Metal Method's "Setup and Repair" DVD. Very helpful.
The good:
1) I got a black pickguard. Huzzah! I really didn't want the white one with the blonde color.
2) The neck has a satin, almost bare wood feel to it. I like that much better than the heavy gloss finish--especially in the summer.
3) The tonal variety. With the bridge humbucker split, the '51 can do a nice Tele imitation. There's not as much "twang" from the bridge pickup. It's more Strat-like in that regard. Without the coil tapped, you get a nice humbucker sound. Not as full as a Gibson or as high-gain as the Atomic II in my Fender, but nice nonetheless. The difference in the middle position with or without the coil split is subtle. The neck alone has a very Strat neck sound to it without getting all muddy. There's a lot to play with.
The bad:
1) The setup, but I knew that ahead of time. My Fender needed it too. At least now I know enough to do it myself.
2) There's a lot of little things that show you that this is a cheap guitar. The holes don't line up on the pickguard perfectly, so some of the screws are in at a slight angle. You can see a dark spot behind the bridge where the grain of the wood shows through the blonde finish. In an effort to sand the edges of the frets, they sanded a bit of the fretboard too. There's also this odd greenish mark on the 21st fret and at the end of the fretboard. It looks like it could be buffed out.
I haven't played it enough to get an idea of how well it stays in tune, but it seems to be doing pretty well. I guess basically I'd say that it's a heck of a deal for $99. With just a smidge better quality control they could slap the Fender name on it and charge as much as they would for a MIM. I've a feeling that that might be exactly what they have planned.
Further updates as situations warrant.
The good:
1) I got a black pickguard. Huzzah! I really didn't want the white one with the blonde color.
2) The neck has a satin, almost bare wood feel to it. I like that much better than the heavy gloss finish--especially in the summer.
3) The tonal variety. With the bridge humbucker split, the '51 can do a nice Tele imitation. There's not as much "twang" from the bridge pickup. It's more Strat-like in that regard. Without the coil tapped, you get a nice humbucker sound. Not as full as a Gibson or as high-gain as the Atomic II in my Fender, but nice nonetheless. The difference in the middle position with or without the coil split is subtle. The neck alone has a very Strat neck sound to it without getting all muddy. There's a lot to play with.
The bad:
1) The setup, but I knew that ahead of time. My Fender needed it too. At least now I know enough to do it myself.
2) There's a lot of little things that show you that this is a cheap guitar. The holes don't line up on the pickguard perfectly, so some of the screws are in at a slight angle. You can see a dark spot behind the bridge where the grain of the wood shows through the blonde finish. In an effort to sand the edges of the frets, they sanded a bit of the fretboard too. There's also this odd greenish mark on the 21st fret and at the end of the fretboard. It looks like it could be buffed out.
I haven't played it enough to get an idea of how well it stays in tune, but it seems to be doing pretty well. I guess basically I'd say that it's a heck of a deal for $99. With just a smidge better quality control they could slap the Fender name on it and charge as much as they would for a MIM. I've a feeling that that might be exactly what they have planned.
Further updates as situations warrant.