Fender Jim Root Stratocaster

This is the kind of Stratocaster I have always wanted. This guitar is a metal machine from start to finish and fits what I want in a metal guitar perfectly. This is how you make a Stratocaster for heavy metal. First you get a Stratocaster body made from solid mahogany. There is no alder or ash here this is a beefy piece. Cover the mahogany body in a thin coat of black lacquer so the wood can breath well. Drop in a set of EMG pickups in a matching black pickguard. Throw away all the controls except for the volume knob and the 3 way. Give it a matching black string through hardtail bridge for ultimate tuning stability. For the neck you get yourself a thin C shaped piece of maple. Throw on an ebony fretboard clean with no inlays anywhere on it. You get 22 of the biggest railroad tie frets you can find, in this case Dunlop 6100s. Up top you give it a big in your face 70s headstock with some black locking tuners. This is what you have here. This is probably the heaviest tone you can get with a Stratocaster. You can also get this guitar in white and when you do it comes with a maple fretboard but other than that everything is the same.

UTILIZATION

This Fender has a real Charvel super strat feel to it. It has the smoothened out neck joint heel that you find on high end Fender guitars. This gives a bit better access to the upper frets. I have heard that the neck profile is based on Jim Roots favorite Charvel guitar and you can really feel it. The neck has a compound radius like you would find on a Jackson nowadays. The compound radius allows the for great playability on both ends of the neck. Near the headstock on the low end the radius is 12 inches which means the fretboard is slightly more curved up there to make playing chord shapes more comfortable. Near the high end the radius is 16 inches which makes shredding and lead playing effortless. The locking tuners are a great feature and I wish every guitar came with them. This with the huge frets make the action so easy the guitar pretty much plays itself. The ebony fretboard is smooth to the touch and well finished.

SOUNDS

The one thing I would do different with this guitar is the pickups. I am not a big fan of the 81 and 60 combination. EMG's are some of the best active high output pickups you can get for metal. Since they are active they need a 9v battery to work. The 81 in the bridge is a classic setup for metal. The 81 gives you great high end crunch and clarity even in the lowest of tunings. With the 81 harmonics pop right out and you get a nice searing high end tone. This high end is what keeps the sound nice and clear. The 60 in the neck is a pretty much neck only pickup. It is not super high output and is best used for clean tones. In the neck position I personally prefer an 85. The 85 has about the same output as the 81 and I think it is better for dirty solos in the neck position than the 60 is. I would have liked to see them put an 85 in the neck. The 85 in the neck is a great pickup too. It has a more fuller sound than the 81 so in the neck position you can get fat lead tones. The 85 is also good too in the bridge. With EMG's quick connect system you can easily swap these pickups position without soldering anything. The 85 in the bridge produces a super thick tone and cleans up better than the 81. Speaking of cleans if you do the 18v mod on the EMG's. With the 18v mod you run the pickups on two batteries instead of one. This provides a more organic tone with more headroom.

OVERALL OPINION

Its like Jim Root and I are on the same wave lenght when it comes to guitars. This guitar is pretty much exactly what I would do to a Strat right down to the big 70s headstock that no one likes. If you are looking for the heaviest strat possible this is it. Finally there is a strat designed to melt faces with metal tone and most importantly it has the 70s headstock.

Guitar made in the U.S.. The finish is flawless, and very simple at the same time, the nitro lacquer is thin enough and patina gradually as you play the instrument. "The traces of wear" may therefore appear to places that we touch most (where the right arm rests eg).
Some love it, like me, some do not, matter of taste, it is certainly not a fault.
Fixed bridge and string through, locking tuners, frets ééééénormes, body-neck heel with a cutout for easy access to acute, etc..
EMG 81 + 60, a single volume knob.

Yay! ...

UTILIZATION

The handle is great, I do not like Ibanez sleeve not to the stereotype, I'm not crazy either Jackson, and then certainly not uncomfortable large sleeves desire in Gibi ... No there is is somewhere between it all and it is just perfect, it fills the hand and is fast at the same time.

With a solid mahogany body, it weighs your shoulders ... believe in a Les Paul. But the balance is perfect and honey remains stable, moreover, everything is there for her to marry the best of our physical scratch, cut stomach, right arm, heel.

The last frets are easily accessible on a standard strat, and this is compared to a Les Paul. The sound is obviously typed EMG's not helping, but I must admit to have played on different fifilles with different woods and whenever EMG's, it, unlike the others who all had a pretty cold and incisive, exudes presence and exquisite warmth, it is impressive in high gain, and EMG 60 delivers a clear WOOOOW ... lower the volume on the guitar and you get bluesy tones and creamy, creamy, granular, thick, worthy more great recipes!

SOUNDS

See above.

I plugged into a Marshall JVM 50w for high gain and a Randall KH120 + + MXR Analog Chorus MXR Carbon Copy for clean ... this is my config ', and it farts!

OVERALL OPINION

I have now for + / - 5 months, this is far from being my first, I know quickly when an instrument suits me or not, and this one, I keep no question of selling it!
I played on Jackson, Gibson, Ibanez, Fender's other, Schecter, Charvel, Mayones, Dean, ESP and finally I also have an Eclipse, and this is the one I prefer my ESP.

New it is between 1100 and 1300 depending on the store, I got it for 800 and I am too but then too hyper super mega giga satsfait ...

Made in the USA
It is a fixed chevaet (I'm not a big fan of tremolo or floyd)
Handle C.
It has two "blocks" EMG 81-60 (humbucker so).
Simple setting: 1 volume, 3-position selector and ... THAT'S ALL! You plug, you play. POINT!

UTILIZATION

The handle is just a treat. I do not have very large hands, but we made it really, really fast. One can easily make small neoclassical flights or large riff bourin. Anything goes. This is a great round.
Access to acute is could not be more simple. There is a small cut for this purpose.
I find the guitar a bit heavy. Well, at the same time I am very tall and I'm a stick so good.
For sound, EMG FENDER +, no complaints. This is the highest level.

SOUNDS

I play ALL. Wholesale of metal that spot with more bluesy stuff (Led Zeppelin for example). All sounds are obtained we want. Provided you have the amp that follows behind. I plugged in a Dark Terror (Read my review).
I love all its sounds.

EDIT: I replaced the EMG after a year by Seymour Duncan. My style has changed a lot in the meantime and I needed to go to the crunch in a jiffy. So I made up a Screamin Demon in TB12 bridge and neck in SH1N. For me it's the perfect combination!

OVERALL OPINION

So I use it for over a year and a half and I'm still in love with her (lol). I've always enjoyed it immensely FENDER. J4ai tested beaaaaaaaaucoup model before this one. Ibanez (which I find unplayable), of Gibson (too heavy), the ESP (not super comfortable) and others. I plugged in the FENDER and there. Miracle. My hands are grafted on and not move more. The violin is nikel. I just changed the pickups because j'adoooooore this guitar and I wanted the best for her (to me rather)
The value for money is excellent. If you want an original FENDER Stratocaster HSS comes out of the classic, go for it, this is Jim Root for you.
Another very nice thing is that there is not big signing MR Root on guitar. Indeed, it is located behind the head.
FYI, I have the white. The black was too aggressive for my taste.
I remake that choice without a doubt!

Made in USA Fender Artist

-Mahogany body. Key ebony (beautiful and really comfortable)

-Maple neck C-profile, super comfortable in my opinion. And super fast, it's a strat, but it's a skyscraper to move. Say that it has not much to do with strats in general.

Extra jumbo frets-, very high and rounded, this can be disconcerting at first, but when we got it done and dose strength you put in touch hmmmmm this is huge, it gives the sound a fluid hyper character that slide, bend it or anything. With EMG 81 bridge and EMG 60 neck, the sound is more precise and clean. In sharp rhythmic distortion, you can detune the guitar, if it is set dirty consequences sends ca. The solos sleeves have a beautiful sound, really huge pur.Sustain to passage.Et strangely, the clean sound is really cool, dry, well it's not it's fender pickups emg franchment should not complain you can type arpeggios and a few tricks of san problems. you play or not knopfler.Seul clapton bb's are mechanical, but hey they could put grover or what ...

In addition, a small detail huge, terminal block body is rounded handle on the side, it's really comfortable for access to acute.

In sum super skyscrapers, the finiton is a bit fragile, black all this I have not seen the white. The violin is not exceptional, after the wood is of good quality and the guitar is finished. The emg do the rest. It's cool because it's a strat and as first glance people will expect not necessarily what was going to come out lol. this is really oriented rock and metal as scratches, signature jim root (slipknot, stone sour). I love what they do and what he does not necessarily have to buy the guitar for him. I play on a marshall jvm410 head and body all Orange jim root justemnt the dark terror n4. And the guy is really not merely put his name on the gear, as the guitar amp are typed enough but really it's good stuff. The amp is huge and really versatile, see my forthcoming opinion on it.

That said the guitar is worth the money any more. I tested John5 Telecaster Custom on the advice of a friend, this is double the price but it is! really! also special but if you have something and you really want a fender which saw the police car in a riff, this is one of the two that you need!

UTILIZATION

9

SOUNDS

9

OVERALL OPINION

9