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Post subject: My review of my CV '60s Strat.
Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 2:35 am
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I got my CV '60's Strat in today.

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Just so happens it came on the same day we were having a practice with an up and coming Hawaiian artist Kimie. It came about an hour before the practice was to start.

Initially I thought I'd have to do some set up work, so I wouldn't be able to try it out tonight. But in reality, it came out of the box ready to go! More on that later.

When I first took it out of the box, my first thought was that the paint job wasn't as good as the one I saw at Sam Ash. I'm not a big fan of prominent lines showing in a sunburst. I like a smooth fading effect. But still not a big deal. The guitar does have a nice gloss, and looks fine. It's a matter of taste, but for mine, I'll give it a "C". Very little fading effect between the black and red, excellent clear-coat work.

I put it on the bench (aka, my coffee table), ready to do the setup. Tuned it, and checked for the intonation. Slightly off, but very close. Took about 2-minutes. The saddles were set up correctly (nicely curved with the neck). Neck nice and straight. So overall, I was very impressed with the setup on a guitar shipped to my home. I encountered WAY worse in my test driving at the actual store. Those guitars were JACKED!! Saddles all over the place (height-wise), and nowhere near intonated. "A" for setup. Not any one saddle even reached 3-cents out. Neck as straight as they come. No buzzes, lose parts, or odd circumstances.

Now comes the fun part. Plugging it in. I ran it through my Hot Rod Deville for the test drive. It took a little tweaking at first. The relationship between any guitar and amp is an individual thing. Find the sweet-spots. Initially, it sounded average compared to my guitars which mainly have after-market Dimarzio, Duncans, and Gibson CS pickups. I switched through the different sounds to see what was going on. pos. #4 is pretty dull. Mid pickup seems has a nice tone to it, Neck pickup has a great bluesy tone. Very usable and musical.

This is where things got strange.. When I switched to the bridge pickup, it was nothing like the 2 '60s models I tried out this year. Much brighter, very sparkly... This is a '50s Bridge pickup. My other guitar player was with me as we both compared the different models of CVs. And even he believes it's a CV '50s bridge pickup as well. Do I care?? HELL NO!!

I debated in my head over and over between the '50s and '60s Strat. I loved the '50s bridge PU, but that was it compared to the '60s (of course, I could go either way on a Maple neck vs, Rosewood). I have been preparing myself to buy a different aftermarket pickup for the bridge for that very reason, and lo and behold, there's a '50s pickup in my CV.. SWEET!!! I don't care if it was a mistake. It was a perfect one that worked in my favor. A+ ..After coming to this conclusion (whether right or wrong), I did some pickup height adjusting to compensate for some output balancing.

We had our practice with Kimie, and the CV was absolutely beautiful. What a treat Squier has provided at a low cost. The guitar was focused, nice smooth feel of the neck. Very versatile. Any clean sound I had in my head I could pull off, and in distortion, the neck pickup was a beast!! Great harmonics, and a nice bite to it. You can actually rock some ZW with this guitar. Surprised the Hell out of me.

Now to compare it to my prized Stagemasters (neck-through models). I'm very sentimental to my Stagemasters. They are my personal favorite Squiers. Does the CV compare?? I've gotta call it a draw.. For now anyway. But that's saying a lot. The Stagemasters didn't come with very good pickups, but the neck-through craftsmanship and design of the guitar is freaking awesome. Cheap FR Bridge, but still very functional and works fine. Once one is setup properly, they're hard to beat. But in all honesty, this is a first for me.. This is the first time in my career that I wouldn't change the stock pickups on one of my Squiers. I'm pretty sure I'll be changing pots, installing a treble bleed and wiring the bridge PU to a tone pot, But the pickups will stay in it.

Overall, the guitar impressed me more than I thought it would. I highly recommend one. I would have no problems rocking this thing in front anyone, on any stage, at any time.

Here's a video of Kimie, in case anyone's interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kkwwXCaZk0

I'll be sporting my CV to this song tomorrow night. Lounge t-shirt and all.. Pics coming soon.

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Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:02 am
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I've been losing my mind thinking over and over about CV '60s and Vintage Modified. Thanks for the review! It's a beatiful guitar!


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Post subject: Re: My review of my CV '60s Strat.
Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 6:10 am
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Location: Deep in the Heart of Texas (San Antonio, y'all)
Shredd6 wrote:
I'm not a big fan of prominent lines showing in a sunburst. I like a smooth fading effect.

My Jazzmaster is like that. I call it the "German flag" burst. :shock:

Sharp-looking guitar, Shredd6. Glad you like the sound too. Congrats! 8)

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Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 7:23 pm
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Location: Magnolia, Texas (just north of Houston)
Shredd6,

I absolutely love my CV 60 too. The only thing I changed on it was the pickguard and pickup covers. They are white now (just like a CV 50). All I can say is this guitar is awesome. I play it as much as I play my Highway 1 Stratocaster.

RK


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Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 5:04 am
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The guitar is really nice to play. I took it for it's first live performance tonight. One thing I have to say is that the #4 position really saved me in a spot tonight.

In Reggae music using sharp highs when you skank (picking method) is pretty common. Using a wah pedal and scooping up is a nice way to achieve that. Well' a song came up where I needed to use the wah with a more smooth sound, not so bright in the highs. But in pos. 1.3 and 5, the toe up position on the wah was still too bright and sharp. Switched it to pos. #4, problem solved. It was much more subdued and fit the song nicely. So while it may seem dull in it's normal state in the clean channel, it can still serve a purpose. I was relieved to hear it. My '57RI Strat doesn't give me that option. It's equipped with a 3-way switch.

The guitar really is functioning in the set just fine. Like I said before, I don't see a reason to swap the pickups. It did everything from roots Reggae, to R&B, to Blues and distorted leads tonight, and sounded great in every situation.

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