Category: Music

Fender Mike McCready Stratocaster – A Counter-Review

When searching Google for reviews of the Fender Mike McCready Stratocaster, a made in Mexico replica of Mike’s beloved 60’s Strat, you’ll mostly find positive things being said. Yes, the fretwork is great. The rounded fret board edges are super comfortable. The electronics quality is impressive. If you like relic’ed guitars, then yes – it looks cool. BUT at a cost of $1899 (I bought mine B-stock for slightly less) there are some things about the guitar that has prompted me to return it.

I’m not going to bury the lead here, so I’ll start with the biggest issue, the back of the neck. The McCready model is supposed to have a “worn in” neck back where the gloss of the nitro finish has been worn off. If you look at the photos provided by the Fender website, you can see what I mean :

First off, one of the reasons I bought this guitar was because I was hankering for a 60s Strat but I’m not a fan of gloss necks. This sixties-esque model would have solved that dilemma for me but for whatever reason, the one I received wasn’t very “broken in”. Yes the gloss has been dulled, but not to the extent as shown in the marketing photos. The neck is STICKY. So much so, that sliding up and down the neck is a chore. I don’t think this is intended by design, but an indication of Fender’s recent quality control issues. My guess is that this one made it out of the factory with the “worn in” neck barely worn. (Perhaps my expectations are unrealistic here, but I’ve owned other MiM relic’ed guitars with the neck back worn, and in those cases it was almost a bare wood feel.) For this reason alone, I was highly considering a return.

Secondly, after playing the guitar for a good while, I found the neck pickup especially dark. So much so, I had to EQ my amp differently from all my other Strats. It was dark enough that at first I thought the neck tone knob was turned down. It wasn’t. And even with amp EQ changes, I still wasn’t happy with the neck pickup sounds.

Third, the action upon receipt was HIGH. I’m not one of those guys who needs his action super low to enjoy playing. Many of my guitars have what I’d call “medium” action, but this guitar’s setup exceeded even my tolerance. (Granted this could be an issue with the shop I bought it from, and their setup – not the fault of Fender) I adjusted the action to meet my needs and it was much better, but when paying as much as you do for one of these guitars you shouldn’t have to make such an adjustment.

Finally, we come to the case. It’s cool that it comes in it’s own special case. I dig the brown tweed, and the yellow interior. However, the case is not the highest quality. It’s flimsy. It flexes easily. Setting it down any kind of non-level surface will prevent the locks from lining up. The stitching of the interior fabric is not the result of someone being shall we say, detail oriented. There are sloppy folds, and wads of fabric in the corners. Being used to my G&L cases, this one was disappointing.

In the end, I’ve decided to send the guitar back. This is an expensive Mexican model (if not the most expensive) and for that price point it should really be an awesome experience to own one. For me it wasn’t. At that price point you could buy impeccable Indonesian models from other manufactures with more features and better quality control. In fact, I might just forgo my desire for a 60s-like Strat and go with one of those manufacturers. Or better yet, another G&L might be in my future.

New Tone X Software and Firmware Released!

The new Tone X update is out. Upgrade your software and firmware today!

While I don’t agree with several of this reviewer’s complaints, (especially given the price point), the demo is very good.

My First Electric Guitar

In 1991 my parents bought me my first electric guitar and electric guitar amp for Christmas. The guitar was a brand new Squier II HSS Stratocaster in red, and the amp was a Peavey Rage 108 solid state practice amp. I loved that thing, and I learned on it for years but it eventually became my experimental project guitar. It was on that guitar that I taught myself how to replace pickups and knobs, and as you can see in the 3rd photo I even tried my hand (unsuccessfully) at painting. Eventually, I moved on from that guitar to others, an Aspen Les Paul copy, a Washburn (also seen in photo 3), and some other off-brand emerald green S-type that wasn’t work its weight in wood. Unfortunately in the end, I modified the Squier into oblivion. Its mangled body resided at a friend’s house for years, while its neck lived the rest of its life in my storage shed. The bridge and electronics live in a ziplock bag in my tool box. While my original Squier II won’t be played again, I may have found its brother online, and it may have to come live with me soon…

Fender Fret Wire, and My Preference

From Fender:

The main fret wire maker, California-based Dunlop Manufacturing Inc., produces five main fret sizes. Listed by part number, name (where applicable), crown width and crown height, they are, from smallest to largest:

6230: The smallest fret wire found on older Fender necks (.078? x .043?).
6150: Vintage jumbo. Much wider but not as tall as 6230 (.102? x .042?).
6105: Modern narrow and tall; currently very popular (.090? x .055?).
6100: Jumbo. The largest fret wire available (.110? x .055?).
6130: Medium jumbo (.106? x .036?).

Which size you like is purely a matter of preference, although it can affect your playing style. If you like your fingers to actually touch the fingerboard when fretting the strings, frets that aren’t very tall like the 6130, 6150 or 6230 are for you. On the other hand, jumbo 6100 fret wire can provide easier playability with better sustain, tone and bending because you don’t have to press as hard to fret the strings, but your fingers probably won’t even touch the fingerboard, which could take some getting used to if you’re accustomed to smaller frets.

The main guitars I play are my Made-In-Japan EVH Wolfgang Specials. One of the primary reasons I love these guitars so is because they (and the MIC models) are the only EVH Wolfgang Specials to have “Vintage” frets on their fret boards. When production moved to Mexico in 2014, jumbo frets were used on the Specials, and they have been that way ever since. Now, only the USA made EVH Wolfgangs come with “vintage” 6230 sixed frets.

Peavey and EVH Wolfgang Pickups Are the Same Says Jim DeCola

“I worked at Peavey. Yes, I designed them and they were all the same across the range of models. The bobbins changed early on, but they were always wound with the same specs on both neck and bridge pickups. The current Fender made pickups have the same exact specs.
The initial bobbins were supplied by a domestic supplier, then later tooled overseas. By early 2000, we were told to have the winding and assembly outsourced. I had approved the samples, but left before they were actually put into production. That would have been after spring 2000. All of the parts (bobbins, magnets, base plates, magnet wire, cables and wax dipping process were all the same so you really can’t distinguish the domestic from the outsourced pickups. It took a long time to approve them, but they did such a good job that there really was no difference. EVH was sent samples and he approved them as well.
I worked at Fender (Nashville) for 11 years after Peavey. They wanted me to move to Corona, but they couldn’t come through on their promises, so I turned down moving there. I did commute between there and Nashville for a little over a year and a half.They picked my brain a little before I realized they were trying to lure EVH away. I already discussed what I did with the pickups casually to coworkers. After the guitar was released, I got copies of the pickup specs and blueprints. They are the same specs. They made up a story (as he did with Peavey) about trying to please him and having to make dozens of pickups…but they are the same specs. When I had to go through it, I had to make dozens and heard “No, this is too weak, this too warm, this not warm enough, etc. I finally sent him the first set of pickups, and that was it. smile emoticon I did use the EBMM for reference, but couldn’t do exactly as they had done, so I had to do my own thing.”  ~Jim DeCola