Fender 50s classic player stratocaster

                        The fender classic player 50s stratocaster

I noticed there wasn't much information about these guitars from actual owners, so i thought i would create a blogg about the specs,design and how it all works together to make it what it is.
I will also be posting regularly about my other guitars as i have a few good ones and a couple of rare ones that you don't see very often.
                       
                            Here are my thoughts on the Fender 50s classic player stratocaster

The '50s classic  player Stratocaster guitar features an alder body, a maple neck with a 9.5" radius, 21 medium jumbo frets and Gotoh vintage style locking tuners, '57/'62 vintage style single coil pickups that are reverse wound/reverse polarity on the middle pickup creating an amazing sound , custom two-point vintage style tremolo, (a  player upgrade) a five way switch and custom pickup switching. (position 4 gives power to the neck and bridge pickups together)

 My guitar was made in 2007 it has 21 vintage medium jumbo frets on a polished maple fret board, It  has a 3 piece alder body in 2 tone sunburst, which to me is better looking than the modern 3 tone sunburst. Vintage 2 point synchronized tremolo which does go out of tune if you dive bomb the hell out of it, but what strat wouldn't? I play a lot of David Gilmour Floyd licks and it is perfect for dark side of the moon songs, really nails the tone. It has  1 volume knob and 2 tone knobs, does what  they should like on any other Strat. It has 3 single coils pickups, (USA Vintage ones) and they sound amazing. Locking Fender/Gotoh tuners. It also has aged pickup covers and knob controls and they look awesome. The five way switch feels good and has no issues.

 I play mostly bluesy rock, like Pink Floyd and Gary Moore and Mark knopfler. I also like to play some funky Robert Cray.  It really does give you some very Straty sounds, as you'd expect from a custom shop design. I play it through a peavey valve king 212 and it sounds really decent. It's not noisy  which I was  pleasantly shocked at, expecting it to have a single coil noisiness but it is all good. It gives a nice, bright sound on the bridge pickup, and a deep deep mellow creamy sound on the neck pickup. The middle pickup positions  sounds nice as well but position 4 is my favorite. Quite versatile, but although it can handle distortion very well  i wouldn't want to do any heavy metal on it, it wasn't built for that in the first place but if you want to then you will need a lot of gain. plug it into a decent fuzz pedal like a big muff and you will fall in love with it.

This guitar was set up perfectly from the shop it is a really  well built guitar. The action is nice with no fret buzz, frets are beautifully crafted onto the shiny maple fret board and the pickups were adjusted perfectly no flaws at all. feels very solid and the bridge is properly routed.

 This guitar definitely does withstand Live playing. The only reason for having a back up would be if you broke a string. I've had this guitar for a few years now and everything seems as if it is built to last. You get your standard year's warranty as with all fender products so if it breaks they will fix it but don't expect them to give you a new one unless it just falls to bits, I can vouch for it and say that will never happen. I use it at a gigs but I do have a backup because like I said before" if I broke a string"  it would have to be replaced fast and the show must go on. The finish will last a lifetime.

My overall impression of this guitar is that it is so good I will not buy another American standard because I have one already and in comparison to the 50s classic player the American standard is way over priced. I would be gutted if my 50s classic player was stolen, I would buy another one but if my American standard was stolen I don't think I would bother that much that i would go and get another one. Maybe a second hand one if the price was right.

This is by far the best strat I have ever played, the soft v neck is so nice to play and the look of the vintage frets and the lacquered fingerboard together with the 2 tone sunburst sets this guitar off, pictures do not do it justice it has to be seen in the flesh to fully appreciate the beauty of it. You wouldn't think it would have that much of an impact but the single ply pick guard and the vintage tremolo finish it right off. attention to detail is amazing. The nice people at fender have made this one a custom shop design range with the nice custom neck plate on it. You could call these guitars the Mexican deluxe strats because i would rate the quality of them to be superior to any standard strat.

I would say there is only one down side to it and it has nothing to do with the guitar itself, but the fact it only comes with a gig bag rather than a hard shell case. You can buy a hard case for £50 though so i didn't mind spending £600 on the guitar and another £50 on a case for it.

I hope you enjoyed my review of this guitar. Feel free to leave any comments or ask any questions and ill answer them. My next review will be on the boss ME-50. i use mine all the time and ill explain how it works and what settings i use to get the tones I'm after.

Thanks for reading

                               Steven

.