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Hatsubai « New compound radius »
Published on 09/17/11 at 18:04Fender has been lagging a bit these past few years with their strats. People today are moving more and more towards flatter radii than before, and the solution to appease everyone was a proper compound radius. Companies like Suhr, Anderson, Tyler, etc. have all been doing this for years and years, and Fender has finally caught up with this new strat. The guitar features an alder body, a maple neck, 22 frets, dot inlays, two point tremolo, HSS configuration, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar was pretty good, for the most part. The biggest thing people want to know about is how the compound radius neck feels, and I'm here to say that it feels great. The 9.5'' to 14'' radius transition is great, and bending with slammed action feels so nice on a Fender. Before, you could only go so low before you'd fret out, but now you can slam it to your hearts desire. The only real issues I had were that the nut could have been cut a bit better, and the frets needed to be polished a bit more.
SOUNDS
The pickups in this are fairly solid. The guitar features an HSS configuration, and it's one of my favorite configurations in a strat. The bridge is like a hot humbucker, and it does wonders in terms of getting that aggressive rhythm sound. It's not quite as dynamic as other humbuckers out there, but it does a good job. The neck and middle pickups are those Fender noiseless pickups, and they do great at clean tones, although I'd probably like a little more power for some super powerful lead tones. The blues tones with the pickups, however, is top notch, and I have a feeling that's what most people want when they play this guitar.
OVERALL OPINION
This neck is something that needs to be installed in every Fender out there. The compound radius makes all the difference in the world, and anybody who has ever played one will probably agree with me. There are very few out there today who enjoy that rounder radius like on the older Strats. The biggest issue with this guitar is that it's a bit expensive for what you're getting. You can get a higher quality Suhr for almost as much money...
UTILIZATION
The guitar was pretty good, for the most part. The biggest thing people want to know about is how the compound radius neck feels, and I'm here to say that it feels great. The 9.5'' to 14'' radius transition is great, and bending with slammed action feels so nice on a Fender. Before, you could only go so low before you'd fret out, but now you can slam it to your hearts desire. The only real issues I had were that the nut could have been cut a bit better, and the frets needed to be polished a bit more.
SOUNDS
The pickups in this are fairly solid. The guitar features an HSS configuration, and it's one of my favorite configurations in a strat. The bridge is like a hot humbucker, and it does wonders in terms of getting that aggressive rhythm sound. It's not quite as dynamic as other humbuckers out there, but it does a good job. The neck and middle pickups are those Fender noiseless pickups, and they do great at clean tones, although I'd probably like a little more power for some super powerful lead tones. The blues tones with the pickups, however, is top notch, and I have a feeling that's what most people want when they play this guitar.
OVERALL OPINION
This neck is something that needs to be installed in every Fender out there. The compound radius makes all the difference in the world, and anybody who has ever played one will probably agree with me. There are very few out there today who enjoy that rounder radius like on the older Strats. The biggest issue with this guitar is that it's a bit expensive for what you're getting. You can get a higher quality Suhr for almost as much money...