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James... « Beats the pants of the other strat copies »
Published on 08/09/11 at 08:28I went in a mom and pop store looking for a strat to use in my studio. They happened to carry G&L instead of Fender. Personally I'm not a big fan of what Fender has been doing lately. I feel like the quality isn't quite up to the price in most cases. Unfortunaly most of the G&L's they had were out of my price range. I wasn't looking to drop a ton on a studio guitar. However the staff turned me on to the tribute line. The first thing I thought when I picked up this guitar was "Indonesia?" It feels like an American made instrument all around. I was really surprised when I learned they used the same pickups as the California made line.
UTILIZATION
The tuners on these are great. The vibe is strat through and through. I think these feel more like a strat than a real strat if that's even possibly. The neck is by far my favorite thing about this guitar. So smooth and the shape is perfect. The switch has no noise and the pots seem solid. The feel is really that of a $1000 plus guitar. Finish is really nice too. I was never a fan of how strats felt until I got my hands on this one. It just has a very familiar touch in your hands. Maybe it's just me. Oh, and the bridge is great too. Actually I'm a big fan of their design over the normal trems you see on these. Much more solid.
SOUNDS
In my studio I play this through a variety of amps. Axe-fx ultra, Orange AD30, Vox AC30, Mesa amps, JCM800, Fender Super Reverb, Tophat Supreme 16, Splawn....the list goes on. I have a lot of amps and this guitar sounds great through most of them. It's not your typical strat sound though. It kind of has its own thing going on. A little more hifi than vintage sounding I think. I don't mind this because in the mix everything sounds hifi anyway so this is a great studio guitar for me. I use it mostly on ballads and slower stuff like that. I don't think I'll ever change the pickups. They fit this axe well.
OVERALL OPINION
I got this thing for something like $450 out the door which I thought was a steal. I think these are worth twice that probably. If you want a classic strat then you might look elsewhere because the sound of these is more modern I think. The feel is spot on though. Very old friend-like. I call it my fender killer. Honestly it would rival and American strat out there. Just a sick piece of guitar.
UTILIZATION
The tuners on these are great. The vibe is strat through and through. I think these feel more like a strat than a real strat if that's even possibly. The neck is by far my favorite thing about this guitar. So smooth and the shape is perfect. The switch has no noise and the pots seem solid. The feel is really that of a $1000 plus guitar. Finish is really nice too. I was never a fan of how strats felt until I got my hands on this one. It just has a very familiar touch in your hands. Maybe it's just me. Oh, and the bridge is great too. Actually I'm a big fan of their design over the normal trems you see on these. Much more solid.
SOUNDS
In my studio I play this through a variety of amps. Axe-fx ultra, Orange AD30, Vox AC30, Mesa amps, JCM800, Fender Super Reverb, Tophat Supreme 16, Splawn....the list goes on. I have a lot of amps and this guitar sounds great through most of them. It's not your typical strat sound though. It kind of has its own thing going on. A little more hifi than vintage sounding I think. I don't mind this because in the mix everything sounds hifi anyway so this is a great studio guitar for me. I use it mostly on ballads and slower stuff like that. I don't think I'll ever change the pickups. They fit this axe well.
OVERALL OPINION
I got this thing for something like $450 out the door which I thought was a steal. I think these are worth twice that probably. If you want a classic strat then you might look elsewhere because the sound of these is more modern I think. The feel is spot on though. Very old friend-like. I call it my fender killer. Honestly it would rival and American strat out there. Just a sick piece of guitar.