NGD - Squier Classic Vibe '50s Strat

[warfrat73]

Well, I did it again. I had been staring at these on ProAudioStar for several weeks, and bought a Paranormal Series Offset Tele a few weeks back.

But, it's my birthday this week, and I decided to treat myself.

I'd been wanting a strat with a maple fingerboard for some time. Also have been wanting a strat with a whammy bar (not that I'll likely use it much), since the strat that I've had for years is a hardtail.

So, this joins my 3-tone burst late 80s MIJ (E-serial) ST-62 hardtail strat that I bought NOS in the late 90s. I'd say that the necks on them feel very similar... once I hit the new one with a bit of steel wool, they'd be hard to tell apart towards the middle frets. But, it's kind of weird, there's a ramped transition from the headstock into the neck, so it's thicker behind the first fret than behind the third and then the whole neck is kind of a sweeping concave curve/arch until it starts swelling again towards the body joint. I'm finding that a bit off-putting... it seems weird. It feels good in the middle positions and up the neck, but playing a barred F chord feels a bit like I'm grabbing onto a goiter. Maybe that's a normal thing on a '50s reissue? I can probably get used to it.

The fret ends on this are a bit rough in places, but not too bad, it'll clean up with a few minutes of file work (the work on the Paranormal Tele is better).

It's a two piece body, and I really like the straight grain. My MIJ is a three piece body, and there's really no visual grain and it's very plain looking (it's either poplar or alder, one of the two).

I think the Squier is really a very nice looking guitar, save for the one-ply white pickguard with clear tooling marks all along the bevel. I think I'll replace it with black pearl (or maybe aged white pearl?).

So, this is supposed to be made of some kind of pine... but it's heavy for a strat , like 8lbs 13.7oz (per my kitchen scale). My MIJ is just over 7lbs, and it's a hardtail.

Early impressions are that the pickups are pretty solid. The neck in particular is very full and rich, and very nice played through my DRRI with a touch of reverb, and the bride has some decent quack. A fair bit better than the stock ones that came on the MIJ, which I long ago replaced with 57/62 Custom Shops.

Anyway, other than being a bit of a brick, it seems really nice for the $250 the open box ones are going for over there.

[Jdogblues]

Wow that is kind of a tank! I got the 60's open box as well its sitting right at 8lbs. Looking at Sweetwater it seems like 8lbs + is the norm for strats and tele's. I wired up a new pick guard for mine with all CTS junk and some Custom shop fat 60's I had sitting around and its pretty legit.

I also picked up a Paranomal 54 bass for $209. Felt like I couldn't lose at that price, but now I'm wondering why the hell I wanted to learn bass.

[lowrider]

On my fairly recent trip to GC to play electrics, there was a Classic Vibe Tele that out-weighed everything else by a lot, and that included a Gibson and Epiohone Les Paul. They felt light compared.

It must be whatever wood they are using on the Classic Vibes.

[Glennwillow]

Congratulations on your new Classic Vibe Strat! What a great looking guitar!

- Glenn

[marty bradbury]

Sweet guitar! Enjoy!

[Chickee]

I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a couple a hundred bucks! As far as we know that little maple necked piece of timber will last one hundred years into the future with a minimal amount of care. Those Squiers are bulletproof!

Your great grandchildren will be rocking out with that Strat at the Mars space station for all we know! Nicely done.

frank d.