SeriesFender Pawn Shop

Model Name: Pawn Shop™ Fender® ’51 Series: Pawn Shop Series Color / MSRP* / Part # : Black $1,149.99 026-6002-306 Blonde $1,149.99 026-6002-307 Body Body Material: Alder Body Shape: Stratocaster® Body Finish: (0266002306, 0266002307) Polyester Neck Neck Shape: "C" Shape Number of Frets: 21 Fret Size: Medium Jumbo Position Inlays: Black Dot Position Inlays Fingerboard Radius: 9.5" (24.1 cm) Neck Material: Maple Neck Finish: Polyester Nut Width: 1.650” (42 mm) Scale Length: 25.5" (64.8 cm) Neck Plate: 4-Bolt Neck Plate Truss Rods: Standard Truss Rod Truss Rod Nut: 3/16" Hex Adjustment Electronics Pickup Configuration: H/S Bridge Pickup: Enforcer™ Humbucking Pickup (Bridge) Neck Pickup: Texas Special™ Single-Coil Neck Pickup Pickup Switching: 3 Position Rotary Toggle Switch Controls: Master Volume with Push/Pull Coil Split, 3-Position Rotary Hardware Hardware Finish: Chrome Bridge: '70s-Style Hard-Tail Stratocaster Bridge String Nut: Synthetic Bone Miscellaneous Strings: Fender® USA Super 250L's, NPS (.009-.042 Gauges) Unique Features: Telecaster Neck, Hardtail Bridge, HS Pickup Configuration, 3-Postion Rotary Pickup Selector Switch, 2-Knob Chrome Control Plate Accessories Case Gig Bags: Deluxe Gig Bag UTILIZATION What an interesting idea - Fender decided to make a hybrid of their two most iconic designs, the Stratocaster and the Telecaster. This Pawn Shop '51 is a Strat in body shape and neck pickup, yet a Tele in neck, bridge, and controls. Fender added a humbucker in the bridge for some more modern versatility, and then throw on a pickguard resembling the Telecaster Bass pickguard. It is a bit strange to look at, but it is a neat guitar to play. The neck is super comfortable like a Tele, and the guitar has great tuning stability and resonance like a Tele. Yet the impression one gets from sitting down to play this is firmly Strat! It's a bizarre headgame this guitar played with me, but very rewarding at the same time. SOUNDS The sounds are simple - Strat Texas Special pickup in the neck (think SRV tones, which this has in spades), and a Fender Enforcer in the neck (brighter, more bold and aggressive, good for hard rock). The middle position resembled the bridge setting yet tamed the treble output and added some more smoothness. This axe could play literally any style well. OVERALL OPINION It may be a bit strange to look at, but I am a fan of this guitar. It's good that Fender is starting to push some design boundaries, looking into its storied past and drawing inspiration from multiple sources, yet still incorporating some modern features. I'd like to see a Bass VI version of this guitar!

The Fender Pawnshop series has been interesting, dishing out some of the cooler guitars Fender has to it's name. The idea was to join together ideas from different guitars to mimic what might have been found in the highly modified--secondhand environment. The Mustang special features an alder body, a maple "C" shape neck, and two "enforcer" wide range humbucking pickups. The guitars finish is pleasant to the eyes and it feels more expensive than the tag would suggest. It is surprisingly light as well. UTILIZATION I found the switching setup to be awkward but effective. The single coil sounds, while not the best out there, were definitely passable. The 24 inch scale length made for a nice elastic playing feel. I've found that the Fender fret jobs have been shaming Gibson USA's lower cost models for a while now. My only complaint in this department is that the tuning stability is pretty mediocre. SOUNDS Played through a Vox AC15 I was able to get some decent clean sounds with both the humbucking and split coil configurations. I felt that the separated coils were more convincing when applying gain. The Mustang Special, while being underpowered for more aggressive styles of music, held it's ground with higher gain levels through a variety of amps. It's strongpoint, however, lies in the low to mid- gain realm. OVERALL OPINION This guitar is my favorite of the series. Fender's sense of aesthetics and finish quality sorely beats out Gibson USA and other manufacturer's at this price point. While tuning stability is at a loss here, the guitar can always be upgraded-- keeping with the spirit of the pawn shop line. With other manufacturer's starting to incorporate coil tap functionality in entry level models, the switching features on the Mustang might seem dated. However, this guitar was never intended to draw out consumers looking for cutting edge feature sets.

The Pawn Shop line from Fender is a great new series of guitars. This series of guitars is based on what you might find in a pawn shop in the mid 70s. These guitars are what people would have been putting together in their garages at home back in the day. They are essentially parts bin guitars that Fender feels represent the custom guitar attitudes of the time. Fender has created some cool designs for the Pawn Shop series based on what some crazy luthier would have made with a few broken Fender guitars. This is the Pawn Shop 72. It is similar to the 51 but it has more 70s style modifications. It has a Telecaster style neck with a 70s bullet truss rod adjustment. It has the 3 bolt 70s style neck with the micro tilt adjustment. There is an F-hole in the body like on a Thinline Tele. The neck pickup is a Fender WideRange pickup taken from an old Deluxe Tele from the 70s. It has an Enforcer in the bridge like the 51. The guitar has 2 knobs on it. It has a normal volume knob like what you would expect but next to it is a blend knob like you would find on a bass. The body is finished off by a hard tail bridge. UTILIZATION This guitar plays like a typical hard tail strat. It has a 9.5 radius which is kinda flat but it has medium jumbo frets that let you really use the whole neck in bends. The neck is smooth and lets you play fast. Upper fret access is like any other strat the heel kind of gets in the way but it isnt bad. The hard tail allows for good tuning stability and it is strung through the body for more sustain. The micro tilt adjustment provides an easy way to shim the neck without actually shimming it. The blend knob is a cool feature. It is notched in the middle so you know when you have both pickups on. You can dial in how much neck pickup and bridge pickup you want in the sound. SOUNDS The bridge pickup bites hard like it did in the 51. It is bitey with good clarity. All the notes ring out well and you can hear just about every string in a chord. The neck pickup is nice and smooth like you would expect. The neck pickup on its own is really jazzy sounding with its darkness. The blend knob allows a cool mix of tones. You can dial in bite with the bridge humbucker with a bit of dark bottom end from the neck to get cool tones. Or you can make it mostly neck pickup and add a bit of bite and clarity from the bridge to clear up the tone. Using the blend knob while playing can get you cool wah like tones. OVERALL OPINION The Pawn Shop series is a great idea from Fender. I hope they keep making these guitars. Maybe they can make some 80s Pawn Shop guitars like Strats with Kahlers and humbuckers and whatnot. The 72 is from my Favorite era of Fender guitars. Because Fender guitars are modular they are so easy to mod and mix and match so you can get really cool and unique creations going on. If you are looking for a Fender that looks unusual and can give you great tones this is a good guitar.