Woo Hoo... NGD! CP60's Sunburst.

Well, today is the day. I just picked up a 2010/11 Classic Player 60's in Sunburst and it's a beauty!

I've been a little obsessed with the Classic Player Stratocaster's for a while so I kind of knew it wasn't a matter of if but more of a matter of when. Even my lovely better half knew this NGD was coming and has been asking me when I was planning to get my new guitar. She's the intuitive one in the relationship.

I was going to hold out for one in Sonic Blue but weirdly I haven't seen on for sale used in about 6 months or so and none of the dealers I checked even stock the CP60's, or CP50's for that matter. Also, the last Sonic Blue one I saw was pretty beat up so I figured I had better jump on this one.

The funny thing is that when the advert was posted on CL the other night, it was $100 more than I thought the value should have been so I didn't give it a lot of thought. I figured I would ask him if he was flexible and then see if he would take my asking price of $100 less. Well, the next morning I checked and the ad had been adjusted to the exact value I was willing to pay.

Was that a sign? I think it was

Anyway, I ran out this morning and met up with the seller, had a coffee at the Starbucks with him, played a little ditty on it and gave him the asking price. It's a win-win deal!

Now I've given it a good assessment. It's hardly been played but needs a new set of strings and a pickup level adjustment. It came with case candy too! Someone decked the tremolo so I'll have to learn to set up a 2-point tremolo; I like them floated. I haven't even wiped it down yet so I've got to get busy but I wanted to post this first.

PICS!

 

Thanks guys. This guitar is really a treat.

When I first started itching for a Strat a few years ago, I thought I’d look for a 2-tone sunburst. I ended up with a black one instead and began digging the solid colour finishes. That aside, I’m back to digging the sunburst. It’s really nice. From the front, it has the appearance of a single piece of Alder but from the back, you can see the joins. The clear finish is pretty flawless. There are a few extremely minor scuffs here and there but the way it was finished from the factory is really nice.

Today I took it apart, gave it a good cleaning, polished the frets, conditioned the fretboard, new strings, floated the tremolo and did a basic backyard setup. It’s a little fussier than my vintage style 6 screw tremolo for getting all the strings up to pitch but once it’s set, it’s locked in and holds the tuning just fine. I still need to go in and get the action to where I like it but I want to play it the way it is for a while to get used to the wider 12” radius board before I make any adjustments. Everything feels wider and roomier on the fretboard compared to my 9.5” and 10” radius necks. It feels wider than my old American Standard did too. A whole bunch wider.

I don’t know what string gauge was on it when I got it. They were old and tired and might have been 10-52 or something. I floated the tremolo with the original strings on it and when I changed strings to a new set of Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky 46, 36, 26, 16, 11, 09 the Trem was pretty much decked again. I turned the screws out another turn and a half to get it where I like the tremolo to be floating.

It’s got a full sized zinc Trem Block. I may change it to steel but it sounds really nice the way it is so I’m not in any rush to change it. I will adjust the bend on the tremolo arm. It’s tighter than 90 degrees and I like to have a little room so I can hang onto it while I’m picking. If I do that now, my hand is too close to the pick guard and controls so a little bend to back it out to about 90 degrees should be just about perfect.

The pickups and wiring are all cloth, the height adjusters use rubber tubing, not springs but there’s are no coveted AY initials on the Custom 69 pickups which may or may not have come with the earlier, mid-2000’s CP-60’s Strats. That said, it sounds really nice through my little lunchbox sized tube amp. I haven’t taken it for a good long play through the amp but I did play a little this afternoon and it really sounds nice to my ears. It’s all new and exciting so my opinion is skewed and I can’t be trusted to give an objective opinion; even when I play clunkers or the wrong note on this guitar it sounds amazing to me.

There’s next to no shielding in the body or around the pickups but it’s not noisy at low volumes. Well have to see what it’s like at high volumes. It does have a buzz if my hands are off the strings which leads me to suspect the bridge ground is at fault. I’ll have to give that a look because I know that will start to bug me when I get to actually playing it.

Here’s a picture of what I found when I pulled the pick guard. Note the buffing compound around the pickup route. I cleaned that up and also pulled and reformed the wiring so that it wouldn’t get squished between the wood and pick guard or pickups. Then I popped it back together. You can see where the pickup wires were crammed a bit between the pickups and the body in a few spots.

 

I’m getting used to this guitar now that I’ve been playing it solid for a couple of weeks. The fretboard radius and string spacing is wider than my other Strat and it’s not quite as fast a neck as my other one. I think I flunked out with the other one. The CP 60’s plays really nicely but I can’t quite get the setup as sweet as I did on the other one; then again, I think I might just be splitting hairs... it’s an amazing guitar. I may take it in to my favourite luthier to see if it can be dialled in just that much more.

Anyway, what’s got me posting tonight is the tone of these Fender Custom 69 pickups. To be honest, they aren’t the sexiest looking pickups in the world with their flat poles and haphazard appearance but damn... they sound incredible. They’ve definitely got that Strat bite and growl but they’ve got this Tenor voicing that sounds so darn good. I did some recording tonight (it’s been months) and I was just putting down some bed tracks and recording some ideas so as not to forget them and while I was playing it back I couldn’t help but think that the tone I was recording had real character; the sort of tone you remember.

So all in all, I am loving this guitar. It has killer tone.

 

Yup, that sounds familiar. I’ve got my set neck semi hollow and solid body guitars and a Telecaster so obviously I needed a Strat... or two... or more.

The Classic Player has been on my radar for a while. A friend I jam with from time to time pointed me toward them a few years ago and I couldn’t help but see what a great value they are. I was also considering the American Pro and the Eric Johnson Strat but those are in a higher price range and the Classic Player sort of fits in a price range between the MIM Standard and those more elete models.

My other Strat has a 10” radius one piece maple neck so I figured the 12” radius would be similar but it took me a while to get used to the flatter and wider fretboard on the CP 60’s Strat. I’m still going to drop it with a luthier to see if the action and relief can be dialed in just a little better but now I’m pretty used to it and like it a lot. The frets are amazingly smooth for string bending.

The 2-point tremolo is really smooth. I’m not a huge whammy bar acrobat but I like to use it on some songs. I find it a lot smoother than the 6 screw Trem on my other guitar. They’re both great and hold tune well but the feel is quite different. I think I can get more subtle tremolo effects from the 2-point Trem.

These Custom 69 pickups are really something else too. They have a midrange bark that I haven’t heard from other Strat pickups. It could be a combination of the rosewood neck and the pickups on this guitar but my other Strat has a more scooped tone and these have more of a bark. The in between positions don’t seem to have as much quack as my other Strat and the tone in between is darker (in a good way). On my other Strat for lead, I generally play the neck pickup or the middle and the in between position would be just for effect. With the Custom 69 pickups I find myself using the in between neck + middle position with some overdrive for lead and I get a really great tone.