I wanted a Jeff Beck strat for a long, long time. Does this make you sound like Jeff? As with all signature products, I see them more kind of like a tribute to. Tone is in your fingers and we all know Jeff was one of a kind and could make your tennisracket probably sing....but the most important advice I can give you for getting more into his tone and playing is very cheap (money saving actually): play with your fingers instead of a guitar pick ;-)....but on to the guitar....as I stated I wanted one for a long, long time and it did took a long time before I had one due to the fact that these guitars a very hard to get but it also took long because I wanted one that I liked in terms of weight. In general, the're weighty.....This is the 4th one and finally a keeper. This particular one weight 3635g and is fine for me. The others were around the 3950g mark and that's just to weighty for me. I want to perform with this one and a guitar of 4 kg. just isn't my thing....it's beautifull made, finish is all good, everything works (out of those 4, I actually have had one with a broken bridge pickup(!)) BUT: two things are not ok and took me some work that I'm able to pull of myself but is actually work that most will have performed by a luthier and in essence should have been done right at the factory. First thing is the hight of the nut: it's too high. This happens with more guitars but since this guitar sports an lsr roller nut, you can leave your nutfiles in the drawer. I took out the two shims that were underneath each side of the nut. This solved the issue on the lower string part but not on the higher one....now we're in trouble: I had to take out some very tiny bits of wood out of the nutslot (we're talking hundred's of mm's) in order to have the nut come down on that part of the neck. This is a very precise job and again, should be done properly by fender. The second problem was the 12th fret: is was seated too high. I had to take out a fretfile and take away a considerable amount of material in order to be able to bent the string on the 11th position without choking. I have to say in this regard that I play with a low action: 1.1-1.2 mm on the treble side at the 12th fret and 1.5mm on the bass side using an 11-49 string gauge. This is of no concern but the frets need to be levelled near perfection. And that is obvious not the case here. The reason I kept the guitar and accepted this type of additional work is purely due to the fact that this model is very hard to get and this particular one has a proper weight. If this was not the case, I had sent it back within a heartbeat....but since everything is solved now, I can enjoy this guitar and it is a joy to play and to hear!
