Hi,
Because I'm a fan of telecasters and (more recently) P90's, it nearly gave a "heart attack" when I saw this guitar. By the time it was released I thought it was overpriced, but now (and after much discussion here on the forum) I got a great deal from my local dealer and couldn't resist. Maybe the reason was that this an already 2011 model...
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As soon I got home I played through my Blues Junior (at bedroom level) and start to look at it with more attention to details... and so here is my "hands on" review.
The obvious...
The body on this particularly MIM version (SOT - Sunset Orange Transparent) is ash. The neck is maple with a rosewood fingerboard and is attached to the body through a 3bolt plate with Micro tilt adjustment.
Vintage style bridge and tuners.
The PU's are DE9000 "Black Dove"
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the less obvious...
The frets are a narrower than my '92 MIA Standard (medium jumbo) so I think they're "vintage style" frets although I think they are not as narrow as some vintage frets squiers I've played and didn't like at all. It plays really well.
I only had to level one fret though.
I never played a vintage style neck and I always thought that for my type of play (blues/rock) this kind of neck wouldn't fit but I was wrong. I didn't felt much difference from my MIA 9,5" to this 7,25" to be honest. The strings never chocked on heavier bends either.
The finish in this guitar is almost flawless.
The binding is excellent.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this body is made of 2 pieces, right? So, why can't I see where they were glued (as my MIA)? Is it to be alder vs Maple? Or is just excellent finish?
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When I purchased this guitar, my dealer open it in front of me so I got it as it came from the factory.
The setup was right for me. I just had to restring it with 10's (it came with 9's). I think this guitar was kept for a long time on a dry place because the fingerboard was looking very dry (clear brown dry..). When I got home and changed the strings I put some fret oil.... man... I had to apply it 3 or 4 times because it was always "sucking" it.
And now, two things that I think were the "flaws" of this guitar:
The fret ends are protruding a tiny bit from the fingerboard. I tend to think that this was because of keeping the fingerboard so dry for a long time, but, if it was not that, this is a flaw that I can handle it for a guitar of this level of price. Besides that I always can ask a luthier to fix it.
The other thing is the nut. It looks and feels like cheap plastic. When I was playing it unplugged I noticed a string "buzz" on the D string. Even after replacing the strings (and applied some "nut sauce") it kept on doing that annoying "buzz" that only stopped when I made some pressure with my nail on the string.
Also, comparing it to my MIA Tele, the strings on the FSR are much deeper. I think this is keeping the strings from vibrate "freely", right?
image removed
I already have a TUSQ nut to make the replacement. What do you think, guys?
image removed
While I was waiting for the fingerboard oil to dry I decide to look "under the hood"
Wow... Honestly, I didn't expect such quality here (I underestimate MIM teles...). PU's with braided shield wires, shielding paint, CTS pots, orange drops (I think...) and shielded pickguard
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One thing that surprised me was to see that all 4 pots were 250k! I was counting at least 500k volume pots.
I just would like to ask you if there is other CTS pots? I ask this because I usually see the cts pots with plain back and not like these ones with the shaft seeing from the backside...
All the components were correctly grounded (checked with multimeter).
Put all the things back together and went to band rehearsal...
The rehearsal is not a live gig but it was enough to have a first "flavour" of this guitar.
The only "flaws" were:
The volume pots: They cut too rapidly the volume on the first quarter of a turn
The PU's (?): It doesn't seem to cut through the mix very well... I need to do further amp tweaking though. But before changing the PU's i will change the volume pots instead, to 500k.
Bottom line:
I great looking guitar with excellent finish and decent PU's. A very bang for the buck guitar!!
The flaws are not really flaws to me because they can be resolved (frets, nut, volume pots and , maybe, PU's).
One more thing! I became a fan of vintage style tuners! So easy to restring!
I have guitars with standadrd fender tuners, locking tuners, etc... and these vintage ones beats them all - simplicity and stability!
I will post further opinions and changes...
Thank you for reading until here!
Because I'm a fan of telecasters and (more recently) P90's, it nearly gave a "heart attack" when I saw this guitar. By the time it was released I thought it was overpriced, but now (and after much discussion here on the forum) I got a great deal from my local dealer and couldn't resist. Maybe the reason was that this an already 2011 model...
image removed
As soon I got home I played through my Blues Junior (at bedroom level) and start to look at it with more attention to details... and so here is my "hands on" review.
The obvious...
The body on this particularly MIM version (SOT - Sunset Orange Transparent) is ash. The neck is maple with a rosewood fingerboard and is attached to the body through a 3bolt plate with Micro tilt adjustment.
Vintage style bridge and tuners.
The PU's are DE9000 "Black Dove"
image removed
the less obvious...
The frets are a narrower than my '92 MIA Standard (medium jumbo) so I think they're "vintage style" frets although I think they are not as narrow as some vintage frets squiers I've played and didn't like at all. It plays really well.
I only had to level one fret though.
I never played a vintage style neck and I always thought that for my type of play (blues/rock) this kind of neck wouldn't fit but I was wrong. I didn't felt much difference from my MIA 9,5" to this 7,25" to be honest. The strings never chocked on heavier bends either.
The finish in this guitar is almost flawless.
The binding is excellent.
image removed
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this body is made of 2 pieces, right? So, why can't I see where they were glued (as my MIA)? Is it to be alder vs Maple? Or is just excellent finish?
image removed
When I purchased this guitar, my dealer open it in front of me so I got it as it came from the factory.
The setup was right for me. I just had to restring it with 10's (it came with 9's). I think this guitar was kept for a long time on a dry place because the fingerboard was looking very dry (clear brown dry..). When I got home and changed the strings I put some fret oil.... man... I had to apply it 3 or 4 times because it was always "sucking" it.
And now, two things that I think were the "flaws" of this guitar:
The fret ends are protruding a tiny bit from the fingerboard. I tend to think that this was because of keeping the fingerboard so dry for a long time, but, if it was not that, this is a flaw that I can handle it for a guitar of this level of price. Besides that I always can ask a luthier to fix it.
The other thing is the nut. It looks and feels like cheap plastic. When I was playing it unplugged I noticed a string "buzz" on the D string. Even after replacing the strings (and applied some "nut sauce") it kept on doing that annoying "buzz" that only stopped when I made some pressure with my nail on the string.
Also, comparing it to my MIA Tele, the strings on the FSR are much deeper. I think this is keeping the strings from vibrate "freely", right?
image removed
I already have a TUSQ nut to make the replacement. What do you think, guys?
image removed
While I was waiting for the fingerboard oil to dry I decide to look "under the hood"
Wow... Honestly, I didn't expect such quality here (I underestimate MIM teles...). PU's with braided shield wires, shielding paint, CTS pots, orange drops (I think...) and shielded pickguard
image removed
image removed
image removed
One thing that surprised me was to see that all 4 pots were 250k! I was counting at least 500k volume pots.
I just would like to ask you if there is other CTS pots? I ask this because I usually see the cts pots with plain back and not like these ones with the shaft seeing from the backside...
All the components were correctly grounded (checked with multimeter).
Put all the things back together and went to band rehearsal...
The rehearsal is not a live gig but it was enough to have a first "flavour" of this guitar.
The only "flaws" were:
The volume pots: They cut too rapidly the volume on the first quarter of a turn
The PU's (?): It doesn't seem to cut through the mix very well... I need to do further amp tweaking though. But before changing the PU's i will change the volume pots instead, to 500k.
Bottom line:
I great looking guitar with excellent finish and decent PU's. A very bang for the buck guitar!!
The flaws are not really flaws to me because they can be resolved (frets, nut, volume pots and , maybe, PU's).
One more thing! I became a fan of vintage style tuners! So easy to restring!
I have guitars with standadrd fender tuners, locking tuners, etc... and these vintage ones beats them all - simplicity and stability!
I will post further opinions and changes...
Thank you for reading until here!
