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Hatsubai « CBS era strat »
Published on 10/25/11 at 15:51The CBS era is a very love or hate era of the famous Fender stratocaster. They went through some major changes, and not everybody liked these changes. On top of that, they were a bit inconsistent, not to mention CBS started to employ bean counters who were pinching on every little thing. The guitar features an alder body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 21 frets, dot inlays, a vintage style 6 point trem, three single coils, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The first thing I noticed about this guitar was that the neck joint on this was pretty awful. It has the three bolt neck, and I'm just not a fan of these. It has shifted slightly off, and the high e is slipping off the fretboard. I worked on moving it towards a more centered position, and while it worked out for a bit, the neck joint is so sloppy that I'm afraid it'll happen again. The frets on this were fairly worn due to its age, and the nut needed to be replaced. The rest of the guitar was pretty good, especially weight wise. Some of these can be a bit heavy, so keep that in mind.
SOUNDS
The guitar had some pretty cool vintage style singles. Well, we call them vintage now, but they were standard pickups back in the day. In the bridge, you have your standard bright and medium output single coil that works great for everything from blues to hard rock. It struggles with metal, but it can pull it off. Just listen to old school Yngwie before he swapped his pickups for noiseless ones. The middle I never use alone, but it got some great funk tones when mixed with the neck and bridge position. The neck was a bit too underpowered for what I tend to play, and I was struggling a bit with how the guitar was setup in combination with this pickup. Great cleans, though.
OVERALL OPINION
These are very hit or miss guitars, and you need to be careful when buying these. Some of these are absolutely amazing and have tone for days. Others are pretty dead sounding or have other QC issues that might cause problems with heavy usage. Be sure to play a few if you can. Buying blind is a bit of a risk, but you can usually sell it for what you paid.
UTILIZATION
The first thing I noticed about this guitar was that the neck joint on this was pretty awful. It has the three bolt neck, and I'm just not a fan of these. It has shifted slightly off, and the high e is slipping off the fretboard. I worked on moving it towards a more centered position, and while it worked out for a bit, the neck joint is so sloppy that I'm afraid it'll happen again. The frets on this were fairly worn due to its age, and the nut needed to be replaced. The rest of the guitar was pretty good, especially weight wise. Some of these can be a bit heavy, so keep that in mind.
SOUNDS
The guitar had some pretty cool vintage style singles. Well, we call them vintage now, but they were standard pickups back in the day. In the bridge, you have your standard bright and medium output single coil that works great for everything from blues to hard rock. It struggles with metal, but it can pull it off. Just listen to old school Yngwie before he swapped his pickups for noiseless ones. The middle I never use alone, but it got some great funk tones when mixed with the neck and bridge position. The neck was a bit too underpowered for what I tend to play, and I was struggling a bit with how the guitar was setup in combination with this pickup. Great cleans, though.
OVERALL OPINION
These are very hit or miss guitars, and you need to be careful when buying these. Some of these are absolutely amazing and have tone for days. Others are pretty dead sounding or have other QC issues that might cause problems with heavy usage. Be sure to play a few if you can. Buying blind is a bit of a risk, but you can usually sell it for what you paid.