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Fender '60s Reverse Headstock Special Strat Electric Guitar Review
For any Jimi Hendrix
fanatic like myself, this reverse headstock Strat guitar is a dream
come true. It combines all the good features like reverse headstock,
'68 Reverse Wound style pickups as were in Jimi's Olympic White
Woodstock Strat & his Band of Gypsys
Black Beauty Strats since those were both reputedly made in
1968. What's nice is the body is a "righty" so you don't have to try
to stretch your fingers up in the top registers like Jimi had to and
the cool reverse headstock not only looks killer, but it definitely
gives the guitar a whole different tone than the regular right
handed headstock sounds. Since the 6th bass string now has to travel
several inches further to the tuning peg, it gives it more of a
baritone bass tone to that and to the 5th and 4th strings. When you
play those Hendrix chords you can really hear that voodoo twang ring
out! In addition, one of the best things I found is on a regular
right handed Strat, I kept finding myself using heavier and heavier
gauge strings because the 1st E & 2nd B strings sounded like they
were getting lost in the mix when strumming a chord. Not so with the
reverse headstock! Since the 1st high E now only has the short
distance to the first tuning peg, it's seems to cut through a lot
stronger and cleaner overall, strumming a chord sounds beautifully
balanced now even with light gauge .9s-.42 while the bass strings
sound so much fuller and funkier. To boot, the pickups are reverse
wound as are the pole pieces to emulate Jimi's upside down Strat
playing exactly! I've read that the reverse poles makes A string a
little stronger and the 2nd B string a little smoother. I was
actually in shock at how great they sound in all 5 positions and
especially in those in between 2 & 4 positions that Jimi loved to
play it. Positively nails it! I already had a set of Fender Custom
Shop '69 pickups laying here to install figuring they would be Made
in Mexico cheapies but in spite of the plastic bobbins, they really
have Jimi's tone down pat.
I read that this was a
special issue limited run of just 700 and Musiciansfriend was down
to their last couple at last time I spoke with them so an of you
Jimi fans should run out and grab one while you still can! There's
no other Fender Strat made that has the reverse headstock and '68
lefty pickups in a righty body. Even the custom shop '69 Strat has a
right handed headstock unless you buy a lefty model and want to
struggle with playing the upper register notes like Jimi had to.
Having been following
all the various Voodoo Strats, Hendrix Strats over the years, they
only go up, up, up in value! Fender won't be making anymore anytime
soon since they discontinued this model. Musiciansfriend wanted to
unload them and did a Stupid Deal of the Day on them for $399
including shipping! That was really a no-brainer of which I
discovered when they ran it. Now the few left at the time of this
writing are selling at a clearance price of $699.95 and there's a
few on eBay selling in the $5-600 range from those who saw the
stupid deal and bought a few to make a few extra bucks on them. If
you ever wanted a Hendrix style Strat, now is the time to grab one
unless you want to spend $2-3k or more down the road. If I had the
extra cash, I'd buy them all and hang on to them till they go up in
value.
Construction: The
maple neck on my black model is smooth as silk with perfectly
dressed frets and feels like a 20 year old broken in Strat. The
Alder body is perfect, smooth as silk glossy black finish and
surprisingly light at only 7 pounds 10 ounces! My Custom '70s Strat
is made of swamp ash and much heavier and a brighter tone that I'm
not as akin to as the warmer toned Alder. Normally bodies this light
cost more due to the lighter wood typically being more resonant and
this one surely is. The neck fits nice and tight and only drawbacks
were the typical zinc trem block which I promptly replaced with a
Callaham Steel block and that really made it come to life. Only
problem I had fitting it in was that it rubbed up against the inside
trem cavity wall, so I had to do a little sanding to make the trem
block return to position but otherwise, it really improved the
dynamics, clarity, sustain and harmonic complexity tenfold. The
tuning machines are Klusens with the string going down the center
and hold tune great! No need for Sperzels or other locking tuners
here!
Likes: Aside from
everything already mentioned, it would be otherwise impossible to
get a Hendrix lefty sound in a right handed Strat without this
model's current availability, except for those older Voodoo Strats
and other Hendrix issues that are out of circulation and selling in
the thousands now.
Dislikes: I
didn't care much for the white version which is more of an Arctic
white with a single ply white pickguard that looked kind of cheap
and with the yellowed pickup covers and knobs and the vintage tint
neck, it just seemed kind of ugly, though you could easily replace
the pickguard with a nice 3 ply white-black-white and new white
pickup covers and knobs which would probably make a big difference.
Still, the somewhat darkly tinted neck against the white just didn't
seem to jibe. Also, I wish they would have the Fender decal look
black like Jimi's '68 with the "Synchronized Tremolo" words, but
instead they opted for the '66-'67 gold transitional Fender logo
which looks a bit weak but still acceptable. If I wanted to go the
full 9 yards, I'd strip the tint away and put a black '68 logo on,
but my black model looks so nice and the finish is so beautiful that
I'm not going to mess with it. In fact, I even kind of like the
yellowed pickup covers with the black model since it looks almost as
if Jimi stuck his Black Beauty Strat away in a closet and pulled it
out 40 years later. I also wish the neck had a maple cap without
being able to see that black truss rod adjustment up top since
Jimi's white and black Strats adjusted at the neck heel, not at the
headstock. The earlier Voodoo Strats had the maple cap but for some
reason they opted not to do it with this model. If you ask any of
the neck makers like Warmoth, Allparts, etc. they also won't make a
CBS style maple capped neck due to Fender licensing which strictly
prohibits it for some reason. Most likely to keep the Jimi mystique
going. Even so this model is close enough to the real deal to earn
it's place as one of the best Jimi clones (albeit modified) to date.
Specs borrowed from
Musiciansfriend's site
Create your
own screaming "Star Spangled Banner" with this unique Strat!
A modified version of a famous Strat seen at
Woodstock, the flipped headstock reverses the length of the strings,
and combined with the reverse-slant bridge pickup, delivers feel and
tone uniquely different from traditional Stratocasters. 3
vintage-style single-coil pickups with staggered pole pieces, alnico
magnets, and aged covers generate vintage styling and tone. Highly
requested by players, a great addition to your Strat collection.
Fender '60s
Reverse Headstock Strat Electric Guitar Features:
- Alder Body
- Maple neck with 7.5 Inch Radius
- 21 Vintage Style Frets
- 1-Ply White Pickguard
- Aged Plastic parts
- Chrome Hardware
- Vintage Style Bridge and Tuning Machines
- 3 vintage-style single-coil pickups with
staggered pole pieces, alnico magnets, and aged covers with
reverse slanted bridge pickup
- 5-Position Blade
- 9-46's
Internal Pics
Note:
Sorry about the text repeating itself twice! Microsoft Frontpage
extension error. Sorry! Pics are down below the second set of text.
|
Fender '60s Reverse Headstock Special Strat Electric Guitar Review
For any Jimi Hendrix
fanatic like myself, this reverse headstock Strat guitar is a dream
come true. It combines all the good features like reverse headstock,
'68 Reverse Wound style pickups as were in Jimi's Olympic White
Woodstock Strat & his Band of Gypsys
Black Beauty Strats since those were both reputedly made in
1968. What's nice is the body is a "righty" so you don't have to try
to stretch your fingers up in the top registers like Jimi had to and
the cool reverse headstock not only looks killer, but it definitely
gives the guitar a whole different tone than the regular right
handed headstock sounds. Since the 6th bass string now has to travel
several inches further to the tuning peg, it gives it more of a
baritone bass tone to that and to the 5th and 4th strings. When you
play those Hendrix chords you can really hear that voodoo twang ring
out! In addition, one of the best things I found is on a regular
right handed Strat, I kept finding myself using heavier and heavier
gauge strings because the 1st E & 2nd B strings sounded like they
were getting lost in the mix when strumming a chord. Not so with the
reverse headstock! Since the 1st high E now only has the short
distance to the first tuning peg, it's seems to cut through a lot
stronger and cleaner overall, strumming a chord sounds beautifully
balanced now even with light gauge .9s-.42 while the bass strings
sound so much fuller and funkier. To boot, the pickups are reverse
wound as are the pole pieces to emulate Jimi's upside down Strat
playing exactly! I've read that the reverse poles makes A string a
little stronger and the 2nd B string a little smoother. I was
actually in shock at how great they sound in all 5 positions and
especially in those in between 2 & 4 positions that Jimi loved to
play it. Positively nails it! I already had a set of Fender Custom
Shop '69 pickups laying here to install figuring they would be Made
in Mexico cheapies but in spite of the plastic bobbins, they really
have Jimi's tone down pat.
I read that this was a
special issue limited run of just 700 and Musiciansfriend was down
to their last couple at last time I spoke with them so an of you
Jimi fans should run out and grab one while you still can! There's
no other Fender Strat made that has the reverse headstock and '68
lefty pickups in a righty body. Even the custom shop '69 Strat has a
right handed headstock unless you buy a lefty model and want to
struggle with playing the upper register notes like Jimi had to.
Having been following
all the various Voodoo Strats, Hendrix Strats over the years, they
only go up, up, up in value! Fender won't be making anymore anytime
soon since they discontinued this model. Musiciansfriend wanted to
unload them and did a Stupid Deal of the Day on them for $399
including shipping! That was really a no-brainer of which I
discovered when they ran it. Now the few left at the time of this
writing are selling at a clearance price of $699.95 and there's a
few on eBay selling in the $5-600 range from those who saw the
stupid deal and bought a few to make a few extra bucks on them. If
you ever wanted a Hendrix style Strat, now is the time to grab one
unless you want to spend $2-3k or more down the road. If I had the
extra cash, I'd buy them all and hang on to them till they go up in
value.
Construction: The
maple neck on my black model is smooth as silk with perfectly
dressed frets and feels like a 20 year old broken in Strat. The
Alder body is perfect, smooth as silk glossy black finish and
surprisingly light at only 7 pounds 10 ounces! My Custom '70s Strat
is made of swamp ash and much heavier and a brighter tone that I'm
not as akin to as the warmer toned Alder. Normally bodies this light
cost more due to the lighter wood typically being more resonant and
this one surely is. The neck fits nice and tight and only drawbacks
were the typical zinc trem block which I promptly replaced with a
Callaham Steel block and that really made it come to life. Only
problem I had fitting it in was that it rubbed up against the inside
trem cavity wall, so I had to do a little sanding to make the trem
block return to position but otherwise, it really improved the
dynamics, clarity, sustain and harmonic complexity tenfold. The
tuning machines are Klusens with the string going down the center
and hold tune great! No need for Sperzels or other locking tuners
here!
Likes: Aside from
everything already mentioned, it would be otherwise impossible to
get a Hendrix lefty sound in a right handed Strat without this
model's current availability, except for those older Voodoo Strats
and other Hendrix issues that are out of circulation and selling in
the thousands now.
Dislikes: I
didn't care much for the white version which is more of an Arctic
white with a single ply white pickguard that looked kind of cheap
and with the yellowed pickup covers and knobs and the vintage tint
neck, it just seemed kind of ugly, though you could easily replace
the pickguard with a nice 3 ply white-black-white and new white
pickup covers and knobs which would probably make a big difference.
Still, the somewhat darkly tinted neck against the white just didn't
seem to jibe. Also, I wish they would have the Fender decal look
black like Jimi's '68 with the "Synchronized Tremolo" words, but
instead they opted for the '66-'67 gold transitional Fender logo
which looks a bit weak but still acceptable. If I wanted to go the
full 9 yards, I'd strip the tint away and put a black '68 logo on,
but my black model looks so nice and the finish is so beautiful that
I'm not going to mess with it. In fact, I even kind of like the
yellowed pickup covers with the black model since it looks almost as
if Jimi stuck his Black Beauty Strat away in a closet and pulled it
out 40 years later. I also wish the neck had a maple cap without
being able to see that black truss rod adjustment up top since
Jimi's white and black Strats adjusted at the neck heel, not at the
headstock. The earlier Voodoo Strats had the maple cap but for some
reason they opted not to do it with this model. If you ask any of
the neck makers like Warmoth, Allparts, etc. they also won't make a
CBS style maple capped neck due to Fender licensing which strictly
prohibits it for some reason. Most likely to keep the Jimi mystique
going. Even so this model is close enough to the real deal to earn
it's place as one of the best Jimi clones (albeit modified) to date.
Specs borrowed from
Musiciansfriend's site
Create your
own screaming "Star Spangled Banner" with this unique Strat!
A modified version of a famous Strat seen at
Woodstock, the flipped headstock reverses the length of the strings,
and combined with the reverse-slant bridge pickup, delivers feel and
tone uniquely different from traditional Stratocasters. 3
vintage-style single-coil pickups with staggered pole pieces, alnico
magnets, and aged covers generate vintage styling and tone. Highly
requested by players, a great addition to your Strat collection.
Fender '60s
Reverse Headstock Strat Electric Guitar Features:
- Alder Body
- Maple neck with 7.5 Inch Radius
- 21 Vintage Style Frets
- 1-Ply White Pickguard
- Aged Plastic parts
- Chrome Hardware
- Vintage Style Bridge and Tuning Machines
- 3 vintage-style single-coil pickups with
staggered pole pieces, alnico magnets, and aged covers with
reverse slanted bridge pickup
- 5-Position Blade
- 9-46's
Internal Pics
Note:
Sorry about the text repeating itself twice! Microsoft Frontpage
extension error. Sorry! Pics are down below the second set of text.
|
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Note how the pickups are labled with some numbers that appear to say 87 i.e. '68 Fender? LH = Left Handed
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Bridge pup has different numbers written on it like 88 - LH?
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Tone Cap is .1uF but not dark sounding at all!
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Nasty swimming pool route but has great acoustic tone due to vintage style 6 screw bridge that Fender has reverted back to in the new USAm Std models!
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May 2007?
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Neck Pickup reading 5.59k
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Middle Pickup reading 5.71k
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Bridge Pickup reading 5.70k
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New pink polysol coated wire for better punch and sparkle
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Plastic bobbins moot point
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Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire!
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Note black truss adjustment & mid '60s Gold transitional CBS logo - Jimi also used these, just not on '68 Black Beauty
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Vintage style bridge - Sweet Mojo tone!
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Callaham steel block replacement - Painted sanded cavity with clear nail polish lacquer for the time being till I can get some black touch up.
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Borrowed pics of white and black models below
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AreYouExperienced.net
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AreYouExperienced.net
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