Awesome guitar with a few glaring misses. I love the 12" radius necks that Fender has been making, and this one feels perfect. The gloss headstock and metallic logo look cool. Here's my first issue, though: why did Fender go to the trouble of spraying it with "vintage" tint instead of just using roasted maple? Especially considering how bad the overspray is up onto the nut and frets. I've seen this reported on other sites as well. I had to file way too much amber lacquer off of the frets for a guitar that costs more than a stack. Come on guys. Otherwise, just a regular old setup was required and the neck feels broken-in and awesome.My other big gripe comes at the neck joint: why are we still doing that giant, cube neck joint, Fender? You sculpted it down beautifully on my MIM Deluxe Strat from like 7 years ago. Where'd that go? I get it when you're making vintage reproductions, but can we just start making that permanent?The silverburst finish is beautifully done. The pickups remind me of a modern SG. I've really grown to like them, and I even like the coil-split in the neck. The controls are solid and much more responsive than any MIM Fender I've used before. Here are just a few changes in the body that, from my perspective, would make this good guitar a great guitar:There is plenty of room on that giant pickguard for an input jack. The jack's current placing feels weird on the very cool but unfamiliar offset body. I'm less likely to mess it up if it's on top too.Again, giant… read more pickguard. Why the humbucker rings? Just seems unnecessary. Seems perfectly sized to hold a future Wide Range humbucker version, which I would have loved as an option.The toggle switch is in a weird spot if you're used to Strats & Teles. There is plenty of room near the knobs for a more Fender-esque blade switch.I still haven't made up my mind on the Meteora's Strat bridge. It gets the job done and I'm used to it, so it adds a little more familiarity to a new body shape.Tl;dr: Awesome looking, sounding, and playing guitar with a very disappointing neck spray quality issue and some questionable design choices. Still, you should totally buy it.

read less