{"id":1606,"date":"2024-12-02T17:24:19","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T21:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?p=1606"},"modified":"2024-12-02T17:34:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T21:34:47","slug":"fender-mike-mccready-stratocaster-a-counter-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?p=1606","title":{"rendered":"Fender Mike McCready Stratocaster – A Counter-Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[72,70,68,69,71],"class_list":["post-1606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-fender-stratocaster","tag-guitar-review","tag-guitars","tag-mike-mccready","tag-stratocaster"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p32FB4-pU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1473,"url":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?p=1473","url_meta":{"origin":1606,"position":0},"title":"My First Electric Guitar","author":"Matt","date":"October 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20090315-Matt-with-guitar-Highland-Trl503.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20090315-Matt-with-guitar-Highland-Trl503.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20090315-Matt-with-guitar-Highland-Trl503.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20090315-Matt-with-guitar-Highland-Trl503.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20090315-Matt-with-guitar-Highland-Trl503.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20090315-Matt-with-guitar-Highland-Trl503.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54,"url":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?p=54","url_meta":{"origin":1606,"position":1},"title":"Strat-Alternative Explanation","author":"Matt","date":"November 25, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I've had a couple people ask me, \"if you wanted a 'Strat-like' guitar, why not just buy, well.. a Strat?\" (Meaning a FENDER strat since \"Strat\" is actually a trademark of Fender.) I have several answers to this question, but the ones that matter are 1) Fretboard Radius, 2) Tremolo\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1316,"url":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?p=1316","url_meta":{"origin":1606,"position":2},"title":"Fender Fret Wire, and My Preference","author":"Matt","date":"May 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"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:\u00a0The smallest fret wire found on older Fender necks (.078? x .043?). 6150:\u00a0Vintage jumbo. Much wider\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53,"url":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?p=53","url_meta":{"origin":1606,"position":3},"title":"New Guitar","author":"Matt","date":"November 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm selling my Peavey Wolfgang hardtail on eBay, and it's already had its reserve met. So, I went ahead and purchased its replacement, a brand new Parker P-30. It arrived today and it's an excellent guitar for the price. It has a single-single-single pickup configuration with a traditional Fender-style synchronized\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1288,"url":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?p=1288","url_meta":{"origin":1606,"position":4},"title":"Peavey and EVH Wolfgang Pickups Are the Same Says Jim DeCola","author":"Matt","date":"May 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\"I worked at Peavey.\u00a0Yes, 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1283,"url":"https:\/\/www.pressleypress.com\/blog\/?p=1283","url_meta":{"origin":1606,"position":5},"title":"Bad Info Abounds : The EVH Wolfgang Online","author":"Matt","date":"May 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"My History with The Wolfgang Ever since Peavey came out with an affordable model of Eddie Van Halen's signature guitar, the Wolfgang, I've made myself somewhat of an expert on the guitar. 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