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Hello all,
I just spent a good hour or more playing the new Elite Strat with a HSS setup. The Humbucker is from one of the Engineers from Gibson Tim Shaw so it's called the Shawbucker. The guitar was sweet looking in Peal White which they called Olympic White. I liked it a lot as it was a very well built beautiful Guitar.
I was at Guitar Center which this guitar was selling for $1799.99 which I felt was fine for an American slightly Hot rodded Strat. I was going to plug into the Tipical for me Twin Reverb but they had the new Fender Bass Shaker Amps and I wanted to hear one go.
The first thing I thought was AC30. This amp sounds like a Vox not a Fender. It's one channel and you just dial in the amount of gain you want. Again British sounding amp from a Fender. It made no sense to me. I couldn't really dig into the Strat which is what I wanted to do but the damn Fender now Vox sounding amp was a huge distraction. I played around with it for a while but moved away from it as I wanted to dig into the Strat.
I asked for a Orange Dark Terror II but they only had the micro Mini and Solid state Orange amps on the floor. Again I was getting annoyed with the amp selection and Saw they had the Peavey 6505+ 60 watt 1 12 combo which I played many times and know what to expect from it.
So I warmed it up and tuned up the Strat again making sure I was in tune. It has locking Fender Tuners and I got it perfectly in tune.
I turned on the Crunch channel and dialed in a somewhat clean tone. The Neck position pickups are quite for single coils. These are the new Noiseless pickups from fender. I thought they sounded amazingly thin even for a single coil. I gotta be honest right now, I hate single coils and I thought these new models might change my mind on that opinion. well it didn't , I was trying to whip out some RUN TO YOU by Bryan Adams which on the Album he uses a Strat single coil and I was annoyed in the overall sound.
I went Crunch Engaged and dialed in some really sweet rock tones out of the 6505. I went for the Shawbucker and found some very usable tone. The Rock tone I was getting was very AC/DC like and warm sweet and very inviting. The More gain I added the more 80's metal I moved into. I also heard some Brown Sound out of this combo. I was digging my tone and Played some SUMMER NIGHTS by Van Halen. I was just plugged in basically nailing Eddies tone with this combo. I had a bit more Mid range push and a slightly darker more compressed sound then how Eddie sounds but I was close. I think it's the 1 12 combo that was restricting me from achieving what I can hear inside this amp. I think a more suitable amp would be a version of the 6505+60 watt would be a 2x12 combo instead. Peavey needs to make one of them as I think it would open up the tone and push it over the edge for a better more well rounded amp. I would probably swap out the Speakers for legends and get a more natural Clean out of it. I know I can dial in a decent clean with this head not with this cabinet and speaker combo.
The new Heal is neat, it's round. You gotta play it to see if you like it or not. I don't think it helps as much as Fender says it does. At least to me I found hitting the highest notes didn't feel any better then the typical square heal. But someones hands might just not mine. I looks very cool.
Overall I think the Strat is probably going to make many Strat player happy. I use to be a Strat player 25 plus years ago. I never had an issue with single coil sound but today I do. Even these new pickups are very annoying to me. The unbalance between the Shawbucker and the Single coil just makes me never want to own a Strat again. The combo of a hum bucker and single coil is way out of balance for me. I want a warm thick sound of a humbucker neck pickup when coming from a Fat strong hum bucker Bridge position like the Shawbucker. They should release a HH version of this Strat and then I would re visit it.
The neck however isn't really for me. It feels slow and sticky. The finish on it makes me feel like I'm stuck in the mud playing guitar. I'm a Charvel Guy and those necks are like silk in my hands especially my new 2016 San Dimas Hard Tail. What a wonderful guitar that is. Without it being in the same room as the Strat , I was comparing from memory and then when I got home. I would much rather have 2 San Dimas Charvel Pro Mod's over this Single Strat American. I feel the Charvel destroys it in every single way. Well one way It's almost a tie is the bridge. The new Fender Trem is sweet and very comfortable to play. I was loving that part of the Strat but it's not better then the hard tail feel on the 2016 Charvel. Charvel killed it for me on this guitar, it's my favorite of all time guitar and I have owned way higher end guitars then the San Dimas Pro Mod. Something magical about that guitar. I gotta go but 3 or 4 more of them. I might just keep buying them until my Wife say's "IF you buy one more I'm leaving you". Then I might have to sneak in another and hide it, they are that good to me.
I'm sad about the Fender Bass Shaker thing, Why build a British sounding amp? I would rather have a new Fender creamy sounding sparkle with a better hard rock Gain channel , some sweet spring reverb and a nice effects loop Midi controlled amp. Not this British sounding Vox copy AC30 to be exact.
I'm also sad about the Fender, I was loving the new Blue color they have and strongly wanted to add one to my collection. But it's not in me to own one of these, I'm a HH setup kinda guy weather a Floyd or Hard Tail.
One thing that got me thinking is this damn 6505+ combo amp. I'm kinda loving all the different kinds of tones I was able to dial in, I didn't talk about everything I did so I didn't bore anyone but guys this amp as most anyone probably already knows is a fantastic little big combo. The cleans suck ass to me but I'm sure many don't give a Rats ass about the cleans. I do as my Krank sounds like a Fender cleans and has a different gain structure then the Peavey. What I like better about the Peavey is I can dial in a much better Rock tone then the Krank, The Krank is high gain one trick pony on the Krank channel which is who doesn't know the OD channel. You can try to dial it all the way down to gain 1 or even 1/2 and it still has this bite that screams KRANK ME. So I don't use it that way and just use OD pedals out in front or from my GT100 on the clean channel.
I just spent a good hour or more playing the new Elite Strat with a HSS setup. The Humbucker is from one of the Engineers from Gibson Tim Shaw so it's called the Shawbucker. The guitar was sweet looking in Peal White which they called Olympic White. I liked it a lot as it was a very well built beautiful Guitar.
I was at Guitar Center which this guitar was selling for $1799.99 which I felt was fine for an American slightly Hot rodded Strat. I was going to plug into the Tipical for me Twin Reverb but they had the new Fender Bass Shaker Amps and I wanted to hear one go.
The first thing I thought was AC30. This amp sounds like a Vox not a Fender. It's one channel and you just dial in the amount of gain you want. Again British sounding amp from a Fender. It made no sense to me. I couldn't really dig into the Strat which is what I wanted to do but the damn Fender now Vox sounding amp was a huge distraction. I played around with it for a while but moved away from it as I wanted to dig into the Strat.
I asked for a Orange Dark Terror II but they only had the micro Mini and Solid state Orange amps on the floor. Again I was getting annoyed with the amp selection and Saw they had the Peavey 6505+ 60 watt 1 12 combo which I played many times and know what to expect from it.
So I warmed it up and tuned up the Strat again making sure I was in tune. It has locking Fender Tuners and I got it perfectly in tune.
I turned on the Crunch channel and dialed in a somewhat clean tone. The Neck position pickups are quite for single coils. These are the new Noiseless pickups from fender. I thought they sounded amazingly thin even for a single coil. I gotta be honest right now, I hate single coils and I thought these new models might change my mind on that opinion. well it didn't , I was trying to whip out some RUN TO YOU by Bryan Adams which on the Album he uses a Strat single coil and I was annoyed in the overall sound.
I went Crunch Engaged and dialed in some really sweet rock tones out of the 6505. I went for the Shawbucker and found some very usable tone. The Rock tone I was getting was very AC/DC like and warm sweet and very inviting. The More gain I added the more 80's metal I moved into. I also heard some Brown Sound out of this combo. I was digging my tone and Played some SUMMER NIGHTS by Van Halen. I was just plugged in basically nailing Eddies tone with this combo. I had a bit more Mid range push and a slightly darker more compressed sound then how Eddie sounds but I was close. I think it's the 1 12 combo that was restricting me from achieving what I can hear inside this amp. I think a more suitable amp would be a version of the 6505+60 watt would be a 2x12 combo instead. Peavey needs to make one of them as I think it would open up the tone and push it over the edge for a better more well rounded amp. I would probably swap out the Speakers for legends and get a more natural Clean out of it. I know I can dial in a decent clean with this head not with this cabinet and speaker combo.
The new Heal is neat, it's round. You gotta play it to see if you like it or not. I don't think it helps as much as Fender says it does. At least to me I found hitting the highest notes didn't feel any better then the typical square heal. But someones hands might just not mine. I looks very cool.
Overall I think the Strat is probably going to make many Strat player happy. I use to be a Strat player 25 plus years ago. I never had an issue with single coil sound but today I do. Even these new pickups are very annoying to me. The unbalance between the Shawbucker and the Single coil just makes me never want to own a Strat again. The combo of a hum bucker and single coil is way out of balance for me. I want a warm thick sound of a humbucker neck pickup when coming from a Fat strong hum bucker Bridge position like the Shawbucker. They should release a HH version of this Strat and then I would re visit it.
The neck however isn't really for me. It feels slow and sticky. The finish on it makes me feel like I'm stuck in the mud playing guitar. I'm a Charvel Guy and those necks are like silk in my hands especially my new 2016 San Dimas Hard Tail. What a wonderful guitar that is. Without it being in the same room as the Strat , I was comparing from memory and then when I got home. I would much rather have 2 San Dimas Charvel Pro Mod's over this Single Strat American. I feel the Charvel destroys it in every single way. Well one way It's almost a tie is the bridge. The new Fender Trem is sweet and very comfortable to play. I was loving that part of the Strat but it's not better then the hard tail feel on the 2016 Charvel. Charvel killed it for me on this guitar, it's my favorite of all time guitar and I have owned way higher end guitars then the San Dimas Pro Mod. Something magical about that guitar. I gotta go but 3 or 4 more of them. I might just keep buying them until my Wife say's "IF you buy one more I'm leaving you". Then I might have to sneak in another and hide it, they are that good to me.
I'm sad about the Fender Bass Shaker thing, Why build a British sounding amp? I would rather have a new Fender creamy sounding sparkle with a better hard rock Gain channel , some sweet spring reverb and a nice effects loop Midi controlled amp. Not this British sounding Vox copy AC30 to be exact.
I'm also sad about the Fender, I was loving the new Blue color they have and strongly wanted to add one to my collection. But it's not in me to own one of these, I'm a HH setup kinda guy weather a Floyd or Hard Tail.
One thing that got me thinking is this damn 6505+ combo amp. I'm kinda loving all the different kinds of tones I was able to dial in, I didn't talk about everything I did so I didn't bore anyone but guys this amp as most anyone probably already knows is a fantastic little big combo. The cleans suck ass to me but I'm sure many don't give a Rats ass about the cleans. I do as my Krank sounds like a Fender cleans and has a different gain structure then the Peavey. What I like better about the Peavey is I can dial in a much better Rock tone then the Krank, The Krank is high gain one trick pony on the Krank channel which is who doesn't know the OD channel. You can try to dial it all the way down to gain 1 or even 1/2 and it still has this bite that screams KRANK ME. So I don't use it that way and just use OD pedals out in front or from my GT100 on the clean channel.
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