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#1
03-03-2018, 08:59 PM
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Sit Right Back and Read My Hot New Reviews! What CV Can and Cannot Do
Hello
Okay, after 2 months of evaluating the following guitars, I want to summarize the pro and con for each for new buyers. I tested them and had expert players test them with me for comments. Tested were; 1. Classic Vibe (CV) 50s Strat 2. CV Tele in Butterscotch These are both the most commonly cited value packed electrics for beginners or moderately experienced players. They both come in at about $500 new and probably show the state of the art for low cost guitars. I did also test the 2018 Squier Bullet in HSS and it actually got very high marks. So we did conclude that for under $300 the new Bullet is the best bang for the buck. Against 3 established lines; 1. US Special Strat 2018 2. Godin Freeway SA (used by John McLaughlin) 3. Ibanez RG Series (for rock) 4. MIM Telecaster 5. MIM HSS Strat So lets hear how they did! First, the key qualities of the standards; 1. US Special has warm pickups to control for icepick trebles, modern C neck 2. Godin has clean jazz tones and C neck 3. Ibanez has wizard thin neck 4. MIM has C shape CV Tele Compared with the US strat it faired well on country licks and had a twang much deeper than the MIM. On all pickup settings, it beat the MIM Tele. It compared favorably to the Ibanez when used for high gain metal. Its clean tons compared well to the Godin and its C shaped thin neck had the same dexterity as the MIMs. The modern Tele US is not a fair comparision, its workmanship is superior on all counts. However, we were comparing the emulation of Tele twang with the US Strat to ask, is $500 justified for a Tele tone if you are already using the US Strat, our gold standard for versatility. Pros: Butter smooth fretboard, traditional twang beat out MIM by a long shot, good pickups, lovely build in butterscotch Cons: Heavy, set up from factory is abhorrent, on 2 guitars we were unable to adjust the truss rod because it came already at its extreme end, with fret buzz on both models! That is too much for coincidence. The quality control on these is weak. We also had a weird clicking sound as you pressed your hand on the pick guard, suggesting poor insulation or wiring inside. Verdict. If you have even a passing interest in the sound of Keith Richards, The Pretenders, Springsteen, Heavy Metal, smooth jazz sounds like Ritenour (neck pups) or classic twangy country, buy one. You will not regret it. It gives the US a run for the money, but does lose out on pure quality to its American brother. CV Strat This comes in two versions, we checked out the 50s. Okay, so lets get started. It had icepick lead tones compared to the tamed down SRV texas specials in the US Special. The US Pro which is their new "standard" has a big neck and jumbo frets so for smaller hands, uh uh. Also, it was hard to compare pickups because the new Pro pickups are completely re-designed. We can comment on the Special ($1400) vs the Pro ($1800) as two different instruments entirely. The Pro, when we tested it, had funny pickup design, it seemed to balance all the signals at the same level, like running an EQ flat. So it was hard to dig in and separate the lead tones in a run on the G string for example, because it never stood out next to its adjacent strings. It was so balanced that it through us for a tonal loop. Hard to compare it to any previous build. The Special, by contrast, had a warmer tone and strong note separation. If you use a bit of overdrive and reverb you immediately get an Eric Johnson type of violin tone. So the Special, the step up from MIM on the way to the Pro and beyond, has lost the icepick 50s strat sound that makes things really harsh, like Hendrix's guitar, with all those harmonics. Its, in a word, cleaner. The 50s CV had the Hendrix harsh on it, very rich harmonic pallette but with the single coil bridge it never approached that Gibson like flow of the Special. It sounded terrific doing David Gilmour lead tones against a backing track of F, Em, Am....you really felt his spirit. The action on the fretboard was, in a word, to die for. Bends at the 12th and 15th fret just encouraged us to soar. The tone off the single coil at bridge was really musical.. However.. When we swapped to middle and neck pickups on overdrive it muffled out and was not nearly as useful as the higher Strats. This plagues the MIMs as well, kind of unimpressive middle and necks. Of course, clean tones all were lovely for all Strats, even the little Squier. But its seeing how they perform under load, do they turn into der der machines or can you express yourself with some nuance at high gain? Pros: Hot pickups, gorgeous paint, absolute 50s and early Hendrix sounds, lovely fretboard. Cons: Did not out perform the Bullet Squier on lead tones or harmonic complexity or clean tones. Verdict. I think we give this one a pass. As in, keep moving along. However, we need to qualify this. It does outperform the MIM standard on a few counts, so if its between these, take the CV. The MIM is slowly being boxed into a funny price bracket, it is nearly $900 here with taxes inc...for those who like to insta-binge shop instead of waiting on used... So for that money, could you just jump up to the Special? The other issue is that the CV have C necks. They, along with MIM and Squiers, are the only ones that do for under $2600!!! What in tarnation is that about? Its thick necks or go cheap or go high. That should probably change. Not everyone likes a thick neck. I don't. Hope you enjoyed this. This represents about 100 hours or more of testing to the point of exhaustion. But there you have it, the beginners guide to Fender. 
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#2
03-04-2018, 06:55 AM
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Thanks for your review. I own a butterscotch 50s CV Squier Tele and also a vintage modified special Squier Tele which has a Jazzmaster neck and neck pickup.
In case people are interested Squier make 4 different quality models. The Affinity are at the bottom, followed by Deluxe then Vintage Modified with CV at the top. My CV Tele is heavy at around 9 pounds. The neck is slim like all of my guitars and it suits me as I don't have chubby fingers. The stock pickups sound great. Really. I don't think I will bother changing these in a hurry. The guitar seems very well made with the exception of the jack socket but I already have a replacement socket that will fix the jack socket problem forever, the next time it works itself loose. Same problem on both guitars. Both of my Squier Teles have had a good pro setup and the truss rods are fine in both guitars. The clicking you refer to I believe is due to insufficient screening. Some adhesive copper foil applied to the back of the scratch plate and connected to the earth points should fix that.
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Yamaha AC3M Acoustic Guitar Gretch G5220 Electromatic Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Special Yamaha BB414 Bass
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#3
03-04-2018, 10:19 AM
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Thanks, about the clicking. Good point, I figured it was something like that.
I should also note that the high E only, in both guitars, was buzzing after a day or two. A single note buzzing, high E on the first fret, suggests something amiss in QC. It may be that they are getting sloppy on production for the tele CV. It made me wonder if we should get yet a 3rd CV Tele to test. Thanks for the clarification. The comparison here was against the Bullet, which I believe is the lowest production model. It has remarkable tone for its price point and a great setup. The fretwork is a bit sharp, but not nearly what you would expect for its price. To be honest, we had a hard time seeing where, for a performing artist, a Pro or a Special would really out pace the Bullet. On tone it was comparable, for neck comfort the Bullet exceeded the US models, for weight it won on all counts. That is why the CV series is so tricky to evaluate, especially for a first time buyer. To be frank, the Bullet hold its own against these guitars and can be had for ridiculously low prices. The ranking system thus set up, from where I sit is, in order of progression; a. Bullet b. MIM c. CV Squier d. US Special e. US Pro f. US Deluxe Now, concerning used electrics. That is a risky thing to do with Strats. Here is why. The parts are inter-changeable and we have noted more than one local Kijiji seller with "franken-casters" being sold is US! That is, they remove the US quality pups, swap the neck out with something cheap with a random serial number (we could not corroborate the serial number on our purchased 2012 "US Strat" on the Fender website or any other). In other words, the buyer is often going to buy a parts-caster, that is, a junk guitar with the good stuff removed but the neck from a real Fender, so the buyer sees the serial number and thinks its authentic. So we have seen "US Strats" going for $800 in local ads. When I answered my first one, it was a parts caster lab, for lack of a better word. The guy was swapping gear from one axe to the other, giving you something with NO resale value, bad action, weird tone, and complete uncertainty about its pickups, whether they had been swapped out for cheap ceramics. Our guitar pros at one location, 3 in total, took 20 minutes to evaluate the Kijiji "cheap US Strat", failing to find any reference to its serial number. So buying used, not advised unless you are really seasoned. So this review is about what we do suggest, is buying new, but pushing the MIM behind the CV for the final decision, saving $300 or more in the process. Cheers.
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#4
03-04-2018, 11:16 AM
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Good comparo, though I think you reference "strat"(US) when you meant to say "tele" (US) in the first CV section - "Compared with the US strat"
I can't say I'm having an easy time navigating Fender's numerous offerings: Fender Custom Shop - USA - I get that Fender USA (pro/deluxe, standard, etc etc etc) - USA - off the rack non-custom offerings - I get that Fender MIM - Mexico - One level with less components and decent QC - I think I get that. Bullet? China? - No idea. Squier - China - I think I get that (and your article helped). But what is "Modern Player," relative to Bullet and Squier? Assuming MP is also China, why have 19 offerings from China? Why not do a Gibson(USA)/Epiphone(China) thing and call it good? I actually tried to looking up all of these Fender-related entities and couldn't crack the code. I also appreciated the warning about stripped USA stratocasters sold as the real deal. I won't risk that waste of time/money. Thanks for info!
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#5
03-04-2018, 06:23 PM
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Quote:
Davis - what a great review. I think you hit a great point regarding the Classic Vibe and the MIM models. From what I've read in the past it sounds like those two are more closely related in terms of quality/tone than MIM compared to USA models.
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#6
03-04-2018, 09:00 PM
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#7
03-05-2018, 11:51 PM
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Good points, thanks Dru.
I think the gold standard is the 2014 60th Anniversary standard Strat, with its fat 50s in it and the C neck profile. After that the necks got fatter, the pickups changed a ton, Texas Specials went in the Special.... So i would compare the tones to that iconic recreation/homage to 1954, the first production year for Strats.
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#8
03-10-2018, 06:35 AM
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I have to revise my review of the CV Strat. I was wrong. After reading hundreds of user reviews and giving it another long run, it seemed to come up as a strong contender. It has enough improvements, ie, alnico pickups, good fretboard work and decent weight, to warrant a recommendation.
So, just to be clear, this continues to out-perform the MIM Strats. So its the go to choice after the bullet and affinity series. The next step up for me , is to avoid the MIM strats altogether and jump to USA special. The USA special really is a great move up from Cv Strat. After that you hit $2K and up here in Canada.
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#9
03-10-2018, 08:10 AM
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