62 AVRI Strat vs 60's Classic Players?

[roadrider502]

I'm looking at a 62 AVRI and a 60's player strat. The 60's sounds perfect to my ears. Everything I'm looking for in the tone department (cs69's) and hardware. The only drawback is it's MIM (maybe that's not a drawback?). The 62 avri is also real nice! How do these guitars compare tone wise? How is the playability of the necks? What other options are there? Maple necks and SCN pups are not an option.

Options:

1. 60's player
2. 62 AVRI
3. Am. Std. with CS69's

What do you guys think?

[MrDJoers]

The only person who can answer those question to your liking would be you. Go to Guitar Center and play all 3. That's probably not the answer you wanted, but in the end it's what you like the best, no matter what anyone here says.

[waygorked]

I have a 60s classic player. Mine was a new sight unseen ebay purchase, and the QC from the factory was pretty lame. The trem cavity had a bunch of splinters that were sticking out from the corner that had been finished over, which was pretty ridiculous. For a while it only made "plink" noises, and was really disappointing. I tossed all the pot metal bits and put on a Calaham trem block and saddles, which seemed to help a bit with the sustain, but not enough to make me want to keep it. As a last gasp, I installed some stainless neck screws and neck inserts to seriously tighten up the neck joint. Suddenly the guitar came to life, and now it totally sings. I was really surprised that the mod made that degree of difference, as the neck pocket fit always seemed tight enough. I have to mark that up to some other quality control thing. Now the guitar sounds brilliant. The CS69s are a perfect representation of all that is good and bad about a strat. The bridge has a serious icepick top end, but the neck is fat and buttery. My only real beef with them is the lack of reverse polarity in the middle pickup, as all possible positions have 60 cycle hum. As for the neck, it is a bit fat, but not overly so, and certainly much smaller than my '59 roundback warmoth partscaster neck. Think PRS singlecut, and you're in the ballpark. It is very, very playable, assuming you are into C-shaped necks.

All told, for the $600 I paid, mods included, it's pretty tough to beat.

[roadrider502]

Fender QC issues don't surprise me. You get what you pay for, although PRS SE's seem to be flawless in fit and finish. I had one and wish I still did.

[Phaze]

Originally Posted by MrDJoers

The only person who can answer those question to your liking would be you. Go to Guitar Center and play *as many as you can of* all 3. That's probably not the answer you wanted, but in the end it's what you like the best, no matter what anyone here says.

Play a representative sample of each the 3. Then decide.

[boris bubbanov]

Use your spare eye to keep a look out for a CS '60 Time Machine. I got a new old stock one that'd really been in store a while and they abruptly slashed the price to $ 1,179.00 (without a case) and instead of playing on it one more time, I bought it and brung it home.

Another idea. If you have Best Buys in your region, see if they began carrying guitars last year. I've seen several '60s Classics (not Classic Players) new for $ 529 minus any coupons they can find you, plus tax. BB is gonna stop carrying certain models it seems, and these are the ones with slashed prices.

[roadrider502]

Your right! I'm in no hurry this time, so I'll wait for the right opportunity. Unfortunately BB's in this area don't carry guitars.

[vlada729]

Originally Posted by roadrider502

I'm looking at a 62 AVRI and a 60's player strat. The 60's sounds perfect to my ears. Everything I'm looking for in the tone department (cs69's) and hardware. The only drawback is it's MIM (maybe that's not a drawback?). The 62 avri is also real nice! How do these guitars compare tone wise? How is the playability of the necks? What other options are there? Maple necks and SCN pups are not an option.

Options:

1. 60's player
2. 62 AVRI
3. Am. Std. with CS69's

What do you guys think?

Nobody can give you a right advice, but I'll try with a few suggestions... Still have about 15 guitars, and had at least 50 fenders... From my Fender experience (which wasn't great, but I learned along the way), no two guitars are the same, and are inconsistent in production. So try a lot of them. You might eventually find one that completely suits you. Once, a year and a half ago, after a series of strats that I didn't get to really like, I set off to find a good one, was in a shop in Bangkok, and I've tried 83 strats. I bought a John Mayer signature (the white one). Still my main thing. I like everything about it. But, I tried a lot of them after that, and I've never found one that came even close. And that's the only strat that I haven't modified so far (just a little wiring thing, but that doesn't count).
These that you mentioned, I have/had them all. So...in this order
1. '60's classic player - great -the new ones with 12in radius, and 6105 frets, great...and costs less then the next one
2. new am standard - great all 'round player (I've just changed the pickups, although the stock ones are really good, I still have it)
3. av reissue 62 - too many issues for my taste. Bridge p-up always thin... don't like the radius and vintage frets...and most expensive of these

But one that i'd suggest is road worn 60. Combination of 1 and 3. Vintage radius, 6105 frets, go for white one, lovely finish and feel... but try as many as you can and choose carefully. This is a best buy right now! In my opinion, at least...
Good luck!

[svasqu01]

I've had a chance to play both, but went in a completely different direction, so not trying to throw you off. I went with an '06 60th Anniversary Classic Player '50s Shoreline Gold. I like the soft 'V' neck and this one had a gorgeous flame maple neck and locking vintage button tuners. The newer ones don't have the aged plastic parts anymore or nice amber vintage gloss finish, although it is a gloss finish. This thing really stays in tune nicely, thanks to the locking tuners. They really put some care into this one. Nice, tight neck/pocket fit, beautiful fretwork, top notch finish(the '06s were shot in Corona, not Mexico). The only thing I didn't like was the wiring. In position two, both neck and bridge are on instead of neck and middle, which I changed immediately. I'm not really much of a Strat player, more of a Tele and Les Paul player, but I like that Strat 'quack' for certain things, but I didn't want to drop a lot of dough or have to settle for the Standard MIM and have to change a bunch of parts out to get it to sound worth a damn. This was a very surprising compromise. Has a nice vintage look, sounds good and plays very nicely, was able to get a nice low action without it buzzing or fretting out on the upper frets. All in all, a good choice. Play all of them thoroughly, as mentioned, and as I have also found, no two are alike, one will play real nicely, and another of the same model will play terribly, even if setup similarly. Take your time, especially if an instrument you plan on keeping over the years. All the best.

[underdog]

i have the 60's classic player in sonic blue and the no reverse wound middle pup is kinda a draw back, i wonder why there is no sheilding paint at all in the body at all? they could of reduced a little hum that way, next string change ill remedy that with some copper tape sheilding that ive done to all my strats. love the fretboard profile and frets over my cij's.

[Axis29]

I cannot compare the two specific guitars you describe.... not in any detail.

Lance has a CP 60's which is a very nice guitar (if you like 12" radius, I don't on a Fender). However it sounds lovely with those CS69's in it. Very 60's sounding, nice creamy neck pickup and the bridge pickup doesn't sound thin at all. They are very rich pickups as well. The Sonic Blue and Rosewood combination is very classy. The fit and finish of his guitar is top notch. He loves the thing! I love hearing it.


I have a CP50's which is a very, very different beast all together! But I really like 9.5" radius better than 12, and I love the V neck.

For a 60's style guitar I have a Roadworn and love it. I was looking around for a Jimmy Vaughan, or a Thinkskin, or an AVRI when Fender came out with the Roadworns and the specs truly covered what I wanted in my other Strat. I've never had the opportunity to play an AVRI, a Thinskin or a JV. Maybe I'da been swayed? The one complaint I have about my RW is the height of the frets... I wish they were more vintage sized. In fact, I've been contemplating shaving them down some...

The AVRI and the CP60's are very different animals. One is Poly and a 12" radius neck... the other Nitro with a 7.25" (and a lot more expensive!). If money were no object, I'd go for Nitro and 7.25 every time... but that's me.