Shimmilou

Deluxe Players Strat

A beautiful, playable, 2007 model, vintage styled guitar that sounds very sweet and unique. Honey-Blonde Ash body with polyurethane finish, Gold vintage hardware, 4-ply tortoise pick guard, fast "satin" 12" radius lightly tinted maple neck with 1-11/16" nut width, vintage tuners, 21 medium-jumbo frets, spaghetti logo and vintage strat look. This guitar is put together very well, looks, feels and plays great with nice low action, and it compares very favorably to an American made Fender in quality and feel. It has vintage looks and sound with modern upgrades including American parts.

Included are American made noiseless pickups that sound fantastic. The pickups have a traditional vintage sound, and cleaner sound that doesn't have the humming noise usually associated with single-coil pickups, they are absolutely quiet and have wonderful sustain, and the tones that they produce are so sweet and smooth. The push-button between the tone knobs will add the bridge pickup to positions 4 and 5 of the pickup selector switch and that's really what sets this strat apart from others. The additional sounds with the button pushed are more like a Telecaster in position 5, and all-3 in position 4, and just have to be heard to be appreciated.

The gold Fender bridge has the wider 2-3/16" string spacing, and a big block, Fender stamped saddles with black screws and springs, and a spring in the tremolo arm hole which allows positioning of the tremolo arm to remain where you want it. I have replaced the bridge saddle Allen screws with shorter ones to have a smooth bridge that won't snag the palm of the hand like the longer screws do. I have also replaced the tremolo spring cavity cover with a 4-ply tortoise one. I have it set up with 10-46 strings, and have reset the intonation for 10s, as it came with 9s. Overall this is a fantastic guitar in all aspects, and the only change I would make, if any, would be to move the tone control from middle to bridge pickup.

I did have one issue that I noticed after I'd had the guitar for a while. I noticed while playing one day that the ends of the frets on one side of the neck were sticking out too far and snagging my fingers when sliding down the neck. The dealer said it was due to a low humidity environment (yet every other guitar that I've had has not developed this problem). However, being a bit of a luthier myself, I carefully filed the fret edges without much problem and the neck plays smoothly once again.

Classic Series '70s Strat

A very nice 2004 reproduction that has the look, sound and feel of an authentic 70s Strat, with better quality than the originals. Natural Ash body with polyurethane finish, vintage big block bridge with 2-3/16" string spacing, maple U-shaped 3-bolt micro-tilt neck with 1-11/16" nut width and 7.25" radius, 21 medium frets, bullet truss rod adjustment, large headstock with vintage logo and F-tuners. Everything seems period correct for this guitar and it would be hard to tell this one from an American made without a close inspection.

The stock pickups are staggered pole, alnico magnets, and have a definite 70s rock sound, really much better suited to driven or distorted rock than for cleaner playing. I haven't really considered changing the pickups as the stock pickups are pretty nice sounding when using distortion. It has great sustain and nice low action on a smooth neck. The U-shaped neck is thick from front to back and with the 7.25" radius is very cofortable for making chords.

The Micro-tilt neck can be difficult even for a pro to set up. Considering varying tastes in string height and neck bow, the guitar is unlikely to come from the factory set to your liking and could mean a little trial and error during setup. But the correct combination of tilt, truss rod, and saddle height adjustments make this a very nice playing guitar.

All of the Classic Series guitars are very nice quality, authentic looking reproductions for each decade, 50s, 60s, and 70s and this one is no exception. The main differences between the Mexican and American versions of the reissues are the pickups, maybe the finish coating, and more hand finishing detail on the American versions. Generally speaking the American guitars usually use nicer wood grains for their bodies, but I like the Mexican natural finished wood better than the US version of the 70s reissue. Any other differences would be for the truly discerning and would be very subtle. The polyurethane finish coating on some versions mean that they'll be much more durable and the finish will be protected better. However, a nitro-cellulose finish coating, found on some American models, allows more for the woods natural resonance to affect the sound of the guitar, and will allow the wood to age and sweeten the tone over time. Unfortunately, you will have to get a Strat that was made before 1963 to have a true all Nitro finish.

One issue with this guitar was the incorrect string spacing of the nut. I have seen this on a few Mexican strats and some Squiers, where the nut was cut with inconsistant string spacing. Usually the problem is noticable by the fact that the fret dots don't line up with the strings properly (assuming the neck is on straight). I got out my luthier tools, cut and installed a new nut and the string spacing is now correct.

Vintage 62 Reissue

A beautiful 2007 American Vintage Reissue in 3-color Sunburst, nitro finish and dark rosewood fret board. Vintage bridge and tuners, mint-green pick guard with aged knobs, covers, tips, 7 1/4 inch radius, 21 vintage sized frets, truss-rod adjust at body-end of neck. A nice, light-weight, 3-piece Alder body, and maple neck with rosewood fret board, and nitro finish, all combine with the new American Vintage 62 pickups to produce tones that are the most beautiful, full, rich, clear, ringing authentic 60s bell like sounds that I've heard.

This guitar is as authentic looking and sounding as you can get without owning a real 1962 Strat! The middle pickup is not reverse polarity, so there is no noise-cancelling in the 2 and 4 position of the pickup selector switch (I left the 3-way switch in, I have to use the "in-between" positions). But, this is like everything else on the guitar, true to the originals in sound looks and feel.

This is the most authentic reissue ever in the American Vintage series as there have been a few corrections to the original reissue design. Some of the corrections include: correct headstock shape, correct 12th fret dot spacing, thinner under coat on the body, new 62 Vintage Pickups (instead of the earlier 57/62 pickups), mint-green pick guard and a period correct Brown Tolex Case (instead of the earlier Tweed Case). It seems that the only thing that makes this guitar instantly recognizable as a reissue, instead of an original, is the lack of patent numbers on the headstock decal.

As with all guitars, each may require a different setup than the way it comes from the factory to suit the individual players needs. I like my action fairly low (sometimes to the point of buzzing a little when strumming very hard), so I removed the neck and adjusted the trussrod to straighten the neck just a little. This was the only adjustment that it needed, and I left the action a little higher than I normally would, to preserve the sustain and tone.

Road Worn 60s

Coming soon

American Standard

New for 2008! Maple neck, Blizzard Pearl. Light Alder body, polyurethane finish, new design bridge with narrower string spacing of 2-1/16” instead of the usual 2-3/16” spacing. Nice, modern, slightly thick, c-shaped neck with 9.5” radius, 22 medium-jumbo frets, bi-flex truss-rod, staggered tuners.

My first thoughts were that it was beautiful, decent sounding, great quality and feel, and the new features were great, including the new case. I thought that the pickups didn’t sound like any others that I’d heard, they seemed too bright sounding, but the tone was nice and loud. A few adjustments of string height and pickup height, and replacing the factory nines with a new set of tens (10-46) made a nice difference.

The first thing that I liked, besides the looks, was the satin finish on the back of the neck, it’s very smooth and fast. The guitar is lighter than my Ash body Strats, but not as light as my 62 RI which is also Alder. The brightness of the pickups, especially the high output bridge pickup, could be tamed a little with tone control, called the “Delta Tone System”, which basically means that the second tone knob is for the bridge and middle pickups (jumper wire). The pickups produce all of the subtleties of every little touch on the strings, and only require light playing to get good sounds.

At first I played the guitar on a Blues Junior tube amp clean and smooth and the tones are nice and bluesy in the neck position with all-of-the quack and twang that you can handle in the other positions. When I kick in a distortion pedal the pickups really scream and sustain which is great for rock. But when I plugged this guitar into a Deville 4x10 60-watt amp, it really sounded amazing, but still too bright! The clean channel, with reverb and presence, sounded so smooth, and punchy it was really a dream to play. I could get some great Clapton tones, and some awesome blues sounds. When I used the overdrive channel I could get some nice Buddy Guy sounds, real gutteral and trashy sounding, with pretty good sustain. UPDATE: I finally replaced the Fender cast-steel/copper bridge block with a Callaham block and that eliminated alot of the brightness in the sound and gave the guitar more of that familiar Strat tone. It now has a much more rich and full sound with better overtones, it really rings now. I am in the process of replacing more of my Fender stock blocks with Callahams as the improvement in sound is well worth the money. Even on a high quality American model, the difference in the sound is noticeable, from good to great.

The new-for-2008 improvements and features worth mentioning include: a thinner undercoat on the body, staggered tuners, satin finish on back of neck, tinted neck, rolled fret edges, bi-flex truss rod, new bent-steel saddles, Delta-Tone control, high output bridge pickup, (copper infused high-mass bridge block)*, parchment pick guard and pickup covers, and new design case. Overall this is a great guitar that I would recommend. It has great looks, sound and feel and is the best American Standard ever produced in my opinion. I can’t put it down now and my others Strats are left in their cases, it is a great guitar! (*not necessarily an improvement)