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tjon901 « Mixture of Fender designs »
Published on 06/29/11 at 09:12The 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.
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.