Hey man, just wanted to say your videos are always the best quality and your enthusiasm for what you do really shines through 👍 one of the very best guitar gear review channels on UA-cam
I own this guitar in Olympic white. I don’t have any nut issues. No pings, no pinch. The guitar I have is super clean. The neck is superb. There are no high frets (it doesn’t need a plek) The pickups are perfect 60s spec. The weight is 7lbs 9oz. The flight case is better than older versions. My only complaint is the height adjust screws. For a guitar as spec’d as this it shouldn’t have irritating “palm cutters”. I love the guitar. It’s a keeper.
fenders getting closer to the perfect baby pink. love the lightly roasted neck i thought i hated how roasted maple looked. playing and video the best as always
Fantastic looking and playing guitar. Love the inlays, colour and roasted maple neck look. Seems a few inspection and setup issues which is frustrating at the price point when it’s supposed to have been set up (if it hadn’t or they knocked off money so you take it to a tech then I guess that would be ok) Thought it sounded good but really interesting and informative video as ever especially about the pickups- great stuff as per! 😊
Actually SW doesn't do free setups. It's a 55 point inspection. Most serious guitar players have nut files or a piece of sand paper and could easily file that slot and be done in 2 mins. This isn't a big issue.
@@johnsmith-ug5tp oh yeah sorry I’m the UK here so wasn’t sure what was done or offered. But surely spending 2k or whatever on a guitar it should meet the minimum functional requirements of staying in tune and having a properly cut nut? Easy to fix or not would be like buying a new car and having a flat tyre on it - easy to fix but shouldn’t really be the purchase standard surely?
But yeah like you say grand scheme of things not a tough fix and a nice guitar just seemed strange to me especially if you go to the effort of plekking it just felt like an oversight but maybe I’m old and grumpy so it’s all good lol
I think we’re venturing into analysis paralysis. Your pick, strings, style, amp, cables, touch….it all adds up. I think where we are is that there are bad guitars, good guitars, and great guitars. I can have a blast with my CV 50s Squier Strat, stock.
Perfect timing on this video since I was just gawking at these two nights ago. I'd be all over buying one but I literally just bought a shell pink Charvel Pro-Mod DK24 on Monday.
I own this guitar in Olympic white. I don’t have any nut issues. No long, no pinch. The guitar so I have is super clean. The neck is superb. The pickups are perfect 60s spec. The weight is 7lbs 9oz. The flight case is better than older versions. My only complaint is the height adjust screws. For a guitar as spec’d as this it shouldn’t have irritating “palm cutters”. I love the guitar. It’s a keeper.
Fender and Sweetwater should start to realize that guitar buyers desire the level of setup advertised as “Plek” included without a $300 up charge. Also, that improperly cut nut slot is an easy fix but, mailing a guitar back and forth to have it fixed is just plain maddening.
It's one thing if Fender don't get the nut right from the factory - as sad as that sounds that wouldn't surprise me. It's the fact this guitar got the plek pro and still did not have it addressed I find baffling
Every local shop threw in an initial setup on a new guitar. I like Sweetwater, but it's disappointing that the advertised free 55 point check doesn't make check the nut, neck relief and intonation. Instead they have these expensive options. I'm really interested in one of these, but I'll make the four hour round trip drive to Sweetwater to inspect the guitar in person before buying.
I own three Fender guitars and all are great players, so this isn't a rant on Fender. But in my opinion, when you are buying a top grade guitar there should never be an upcharge for a plek. I got my first guitar in 1958 and back then guitars shops were mostly small mom and pop shops where the owner took great pride in never letting any guitar out of his shop until it was the best it could be. Today there are few guitar techs that can set up a guitar properly, or adjust it to the buyers special requirements. Thus the plek process. But first, a high end guitar should never leave the factory in need of a plek and second, if a plek is needed it should be covered by the shop, not the buyer.
This is what makes brands like Suhr imo the best in the business. Suhr guitars get the best fretwork, plek, and dress from the factory out of ANY US brand I've seen that isn't just a tiny workshop. They put Fender, Gibson, PRS to absolute shame in that regard. If they can do it with 1/100th at best of the staff of the big guys it's inexcusable for other brands not to at least on the american guitars.
@@AudiomoMusic I bought 2 Suhr Analog Discovery Delays in 2023. 1 of them was faulty. I sent it in for repairs and it came back the same. Luckily, I was 2 days away from the 30 days from purchase and I could take it back to the guitar shop and get store credit. Suhr is definitely not the best, it's just one of the better ones.
Great demo. That strat has a lot going for it but that color combo is not for everyone, admittedly I'm bias toward midnight wine, black guard, cream pu covers and knobs, maple board. Horses for courses. Cheers!
@@AudiomoMusic TT is one of my all time fav strat colors along with surf green. So much so a few years back I got the rgb/hex and modded my Firefox browser scroll bars to those colors. ✌🎸
Sad that the nut otherwise dings a great setup! I wasn't even aware that the nut was included in the Plek, and it's kind of an "It Depends" scenario -- the description says "[Includes] Cutting nut slots for better action and tuning stability (if optional nut ordered)" But as you say, the pinging/binding should've been caught in any Sweetwater basic inspection! Did this slip by because they should be setting the Plek to your preferred tuning and gauges? Did it bind when it first arrived in E standard? Otherwise, seems like a great player!
It was binding the second I got it, I noticed it immediately and just laughed to myself. Outside of that annoyance I have no complaints. Neck really is fantastic on it
I'm getting one in a couple weeks. Due to the price, I am not paying the extra $ for a setup. I hope I don't come to regret that because it already appears, looking at pics, that the nut slots are very shallow.
In the long run it's worth the money to buy a decent set of nut files anyways, you save more over time and they cost way less up front. you may not need them for this guitar but they are a godsend to have around at times
It's an old marketing trick, since it is 11 you'll remember it even if it's just for the very reason stated thus you'll remember the guitar itself because of that.
Anyone else find that 11” radius off-putting? Using a spec as a marketing gimmick just rubs me the wrong way. If they had went with 7.25”-9.5” compound radii and a nitro finish, I’d be buying one in every color.
I was like that until I started playing Suhr. I don’t find it to be a gimmick at all but that’s not to say everyone would like it but it’s absolutely effective at what it sets out to be and feels great. If these had nitro and a Taos turquoise I’d buy 3 of those specifically hahaha
Nothing new here according setup. For those prices you expect a perfect guitar according setup and fretjob (manually or machined). Sweetwater should have noticed that the slot wasn't properly cut. As a Luthier I see this more and more on high end guitars. People buy expensive instruments online and then come to me to adress issues they have with them. The QC of some of the biggest brands isn't that great anymore. Poorly installed frets, poorly installed nuts. Loose hardware, wrapped necks, trussrod problems, paint issues, etc, I see it all. It's a shame IMHO. On the other hand it's a part of my job and I earn money with it but I doesn't feel good. Nice guitar and review btw.
The problem with this instance isn’t Fenders QC, it’s sweetwater $300 plek and setup that were included that did not address the QC. I never expect a Fender out of the box from them to be 100% unless it was made in Japan
@@AudiomoMusic, and because a lot of people don't expect a €1500 plus instrument to be perfect is where the real problem lies. The instrument should be perfect. A cheap Asian instrument is something else. They have blemishes but the price is much cheaper. In your case the guy who plecked and setup your guitar missed something. He didn't play the guitar otherwise he had noticed the issue. That's also a shame. I don't have exper experience with Fender Japan instruments.
I had a guitar Pleked at Sweetwater. Supposed to take 3 days because of the quality that goes into it LOLO, The guitar shipped the next day LOL So much for spending time on the process. The guitar played terrible. Amateur kids doing the plek.. I sent the guitar back all BS. And to hear you say despite the set up issues LOL A guitar plays bad with set up issues, I hope you sent it back.. Sweetwater people are robots.. I've tested them several times with basic questions about things and most of them talk out of their necks about the products. All Hype Engineers My A__ Oh and I couldn't agree more about the pickup choices. All strats have a hyped G string volume and most have a ringing hi e string too not a good ringing an annoying one. I love Strats but Fender needs to up their game Sorry but truth is truth.. I always look for an older one. Takes time but well worth it.
if you wanna see something wild, a guy who does a lot of tech work posted his experience with one of these in Fiesta red with pictures. It was unbelievable how poor of a job Fender USA did on it... hell even one of the clay dots just fell right out.
Finally someone reviewed the GT 11 exclusive. Thanks for the upload
i was really surprised nobody had done one yet myself, it's a killer guitar man not many people know about it maybe?
Hey man, just wanted to say your videos are always the best quality and your enthusiasm for what you do really shines through 👍 one of the very best guitar gear review channels on UA-cam
I appreciate that! I do enjoy making them because I know there are a few people do like the style in which I do it
I own this guitar in Olympic white. I don’t have any nut issues. No pings, no pinch. The guitar I have is super clean. The neck is superb. There are no high frets (it doesn’t need a plek) The pickups are perfect 60s spec. The weight is 7lbs 9oz. The flight case is better than older versions. My only complaint is the height adjust screws. For a guitar as spec’d as this it shouldn’t have irritating “palm cutters”. I love the guitar. It’s a keeper.
fenders getting closer to the perfect baby pink.
love the lightly roasted neck i thought i hated how roasted maple looked. playing and video the best as always
Fantastic looking and playing guitar. Love the inlays, colour and roasted maple neck look. Seems a few inspection and setup issues which is frustrating at the price point when it’s supposed to have been set up (if it hadn’t or they knocked off money so you take it to a tech then I guess that would be ok)
Thought it sounded good but really interesting and informative video as ever especially about the pickups- great stuff as per! 😊
Actually SW doesn't do free setups. It's a 55 point inspection. Most serious guitar players have nut files or a piece of sand paper and could easily file that slot and be done in 2 mins. This isn't a big issue.
@@johnsmith-ug5tp oh yeah sorry I’m the UK here so wasn’t sure what was done or offered. But surely spending 2k or whatever on a guitar it should meet the minimum functional requirements of staying in tune and having a properly cut nut? Easy to fix or not would be like buying a new car and having a flat tyre on it - easy to fix but shouldn’t really be the purchase standard surely?
But yeah like you say grand scheme of things not a tough fix and a nice guitar just seemed strange to me especially if you go to the effort of plekking it just felt like an oversight but maybe I’m old and grumpy so it’s all good lol
I take it you missed the part where this included the plek pro which does include a setup and it is very much not free at all John
plek pro costs 300 and you are saying no big deal I will be pissed off if they did not do a perfect work on it for that kind of cost
I think we’re venturing into analysis paralysis.
Your pick, strings, style, amp, cables, touch….it all adds up.
I think where we are is that there are bad guitars, good guitars, and great guitars.
I can have a blast with my CV 50s Squier Strat, stock.
Thanks for video! That fretboard on the SW link looks just gorgeous.
I love the old school dark necks with the clay dots - they always look awesome!
Perfect timing on this video since I was just gawking at these two nights ago. I'd be all over buying one but I literally just bought a shell pink Charvel Pro-Mod DK24 on Monday.
Can’t buy em all, believe me I get it haha
@@AudiomoMusic GAS is a real affliction. Lol. A pastel colored Fender Strat is hard to pass up though.
I own this guitar in Olympic white. I don’t have any nut issues. No long, no pinch. The guitar so I have is super clean. The neck is superb. The pickups are perfect 60s spec. The weight is 7lbs 9oz. The flight case is better than older versions. My only complaint is the height adjust screws. For a guitar as spec’d as this it shouldn’t have irritating “palm cutters”. I love the guitar. It’s a keeper.
Fender and Sweetwater should start to realize that guitar buyers desire the level of setup advertised as “Plek” included without a $300 up charge. Also, that improperly cut nut slot is an easy fix but, mailing a guitar back and forth to have it fixed is just plain maddening.
It's one thing if Fender don't get the nut right from the factory - as sad as that sounds that wouldn't surprise me. It's the fact this guitar got the plek pro and still did not have it addressed I find baffling
Every local shop threw in an initial setup on a new guitar. I like Sweetwater, but it's disappointing that the advertised free 55 point check doesn't make check the nut, neck relief and intonation. Instead they have these expensive options. I'm really interested in one of these, but I'll make the four hour round trip drive to Sweetwater to inspect the guitar in person before buying.
Send it back and buy somewhere else because of the poor quality and uninformed people at Sweetwater. Joke
Looks like a killer strat and enjoy your channel
Neck really is great on this one
Glad some custom shop features are making their way into the standard line! If they added a NOS nitro finish (not over poly) these would killllll.
I don't think Fender are brave enough to do a NOS nitro on these at these prices or they'd kill their custom shop version off hahaha
@@AudiomoMusic Oh I 100% agree, keeping a true nitro finish to the custom shop is what gets a lot of people in the door. But one can dream lol
Sounds very nice, and I like the push/push too, very good.
I really liked the combo of the bridge and neck, I don't know what I was expecting but it did sound great
I own three Fender guitars and all are great players, so this isn't a rant on Fender. But in my opinion, when you are buying a top grade guitar there should never be an upcharge for a plek. I got my first guitar in 1958 and back then guitars shops were mostly small mom and pop shops where the owner took great pride in never letting any guitar out of his shop until it was the best it could be. Today there are few guitar techs that can set up a guitar properly, or adjust it to the buyers special requirements. Thus the plek process. But first, a high end guitar should never leave the factory in need of a plek and second, if a plek is needed it should be covered by the shop, not the buyer.
They should come professionally set-up from the factory, whether pleked or a manual set-up and leveled frets.
This is what makes brands like Suhr imo the best in the business. Suhr guitars get the best fretwork, plek, and dress from the factory out of ANY US brand I've seen that isn't just a tiny workshop. They put Fender, Gibson, PRS to absolute shame in that regard. If they can do it with 1/100th at best of the staff of the big guys it's inexcusable for other brands not to at least on the american guitars.
@@AudiomoMusic I bought 2 Suhr Analog Discovery Delays in 2023. 1 of them was faulty. I sent it in for repairs and it came back the same. Luckily, I was 2 days away from the 30 days from purchase and I could take it back to the guitar shop and get store credit. Suhr is definitely not the best, it's just one of the better ones.
I can't speak for their pedals, I'm only talking about the actual guitars.
11:01 super good comment
i really think this was some sort of oversight because there is zero benefit on a radius this flat for staggered pole pieces
I love the narrower 2 1/16" string spacing. And, I'm one of those weirdos that keeps the trem cover on. I make the hole larger if needed. 😊
nooooo deb they are pointlesss!!!
@@AudiomoMusic To each their own. 😊 If you had some belly fat, you'd know why. 🤣🤣😜
@@AudiomoMusic 🤣🤣
Great demo. That strat has a lot going for it but that color combo is not for everyone, admittedly I'm bias toward midnight wine, black guard, cream pu covers and knobs, maple board. Horses for courses. Cheers!
In a perfect world this would have been available in Taos Turquoise and i'd have been the happiest man on earth so I get it haha
@@AudiomoMusic TT is one of my all time fav strat colors along with surf green. So much so a few years back I got the rgb/hex and modded my Firefox browser scroll bars to those colors. ✌🎸
Nice demo/review - is staying or going?
Gonna be sticking around, my white JV strat is now in retirement until I get back out to California to have my tech refret it.
Sad that the nut otherwise dings a great setup! I wasn't even aware that the nut was included in the Plek, and it's kind of an "It Depends" scenario -- the description says "[Includes] Cutting nut slots for better action and tuning stability (if optional nut ordered)"
But as you say, the pinging/binding should've been caught in any Sweetwater basic inspection! Did this slip by because they should be setting the Plek to your preferred tuning and gauges? Did it bind when it first arrived in E standard?
Otherwise, seems like a great player!
It was binding the second I got it, I noticed it immediately and just laughed to myself. Outside of that annoyance I have no complaints. Neck really is fantastic on it
I'm getting one in a couple weeks. Due to the price, I am not paying the extra $ for a setup. I hope I don't come to regret that because it already appears, looking at pics, that the nut slots are very shallow.
In the long run it's worth the money to buy a decent set of nut files anyways, you save more over time and they cost way less up front. you may not need them for this guitar but they are a godsend to have around at times
Did you pay extra for the Plek? I don't see it as a standard feature, so it's an add-on.
Yep, it’s optional. Don’t think I’d do it again honestly
Any idea why there’s no string tree?
Loosen tension on the b and e for easier bends is what I was told
@@AudiomoMusic Interesting. Wonder why they never did that before.
@@seanzingerthe tuning machine post are staggered so the trees are not needed
Man I wish you would have just played through an amp with a mic on it. Good review though
that's a great sounding guitar, a shame the peek pro made that mistake
Considering it’s an optional $300 add on it shouldn’t happen imho
Why not just go with a 12 inch radius. Kind of an industry standard isnt it? 11 inch just seems odd.
It's an old marketing trick, since it is 11 you'll remember it even if it's just for the very reason stated thus you'll remember the guitar itself because of that.
Anyone else find that 11” radius off-putting? Using a spec as a marketing gimmick just rubs me the wrong way. If they had went with 7.25”-9.5” compound radii and a nitro finish, I’d be buying one in every color.
I was like that until I started playing Suhr. I don’t find it to be a gimmick at all but that’s not to say everyone would like it but it’s absolutely effective at what it sets out to be and feels great. If these had nitro and a Taos turquoise I’d buy 3 of those specifically hahaha
@@AudiomoMusic yeah, I guess when it comes down to it, if these had nitro finishes, I’d buy multiples too, gimmicky radius be damned, lol
The radius size is subjective. For me I find it to be better for my style of playing.
I just don't know what to think about that cap on your head..
if that's your takeaway from the video man, that's a weird one
@@AudiomoMusic even more strange is the combination of a short-sleeved shirt and a woolen cap, believe me
Nothing new here according setup. For those prices you expect a perfect guitar according setup and fretjob (manually or machined). Sweetwater should have noticed that the slot wasn't properly cut. As a Luthier I see this more and more on high end guitars. People buy expensive instruments online and then come to me to adress issues they have with them. The QC of some of the biggest brands isn't that great anymore. Poorly installed frets, poorly installed nuts. Loose hardware, wrapped necks, trussrod problems, paint issues, etc, I see it all. It's a shame IMHO. On the other hand it's a part of my job and I earn money with it but I doesn't feel good. Nice guitar and review btw.
The problem with this instance isn’t Fenders QC, it’s sweetwater $300 plek and setup that were included that did not address the QC. I never expect a Fender out of the box from them to be 100% unless it was made in Japan
@@AudiomoMusic, and because a lot of people don't expect a €1500 plus instrument to be perfect is where the real problem lies. The instrument should be perfect. A cheap Asian instrument is something else. They have blemishes but the price is much cheaper. In your case the guy who plecked and setup your guitar missed something. He didn't play the guitar otherwise he had noticed the issue. That's also a shame. I don't have exper
experience with Fender Japan instruments.
I had a guitar Pleked
at Sweetwater. Supposed to take 3 days because of the quality that goes into it LOLO, The guitar shipped the next day LOL So much for spending time on the process. The guitar played terrible. Amateur kids doing the plek.. I sent the guitar back all BS. And to hear you say despite the set up issues LOL A guitar plays bad with set up issues, I hope you sent it back.. Sweetwater people are robots.. I've tested them several times with basic questions about things and most of them talk out of their necks about the products. All Hype Engineers My A__ Oh and I couldn't agree more about the pickup choices. All strats have a hyped G string volume and most have a ringing hi e string too not a good ringing an annoying one. I love Strats but Fender needs to up their game Sorry but truth is truth.. I always look for an older one. Takes time but well worth it.
I ended up with a Suhr, this pink one went back. After the hurricane video should get posted but I can’t upload a file that big from cell service
@@AudiomoMusic Nice Please do a post on the Suhr. Is it the S HSS? Stay safe I'm in Naples Florida
What a piece of crap guitar for what you paid.
if you wanna see something wild, a guy who does a lot of tech work posted his experience with one of these in Fiesta red with pictures. It was unbelievable how poor of a job Fender USA did on it... hell even one of the clay dots just fell right out.
@@AudiomoMusic could I see the post? haha
F Sweetwater!
Man I wish you would have just played through an amp with a mic on it. Good review though