Nah, that usually comes from tone snobs. Bolt on necks have been around forever. Fender did not invent the 3 bolt neck. My 63 Supro and 57 Dano are 3 bolt necks. The bolts are in a straight line to. A bad guitar is a bad guitar whether the neck is bolted or set. I can get a little more sustain from my set neck guitars but who cares? I get great tone from all of them, just different.

Nah, that usually comes from tone snobs. Bolt on necks have been around forever. Fender did not invent the 3 bolt neck. My 63 Supro and 57 Dano are 3 bolt necks. The bolts are in a straight line to. A bad guitar is a bad guitar whether the neck is bolted or set. I can get a little more sustain from my set neck guitars but who cares? I get great tone from all of them, just different.

Nah, that usually comes from tone snobs. Bolt on necks have been around forever. Fender did not invent the 3 bolt neck. My 63 Supro and 57 Dano are 3 bolt necks. The bolts are in a straight line to. A bad guitar is a bad guitar whether the neck is bolted or set. I can get a little more sustain from my set neck guitars but who cares? I get great tone from all of them, just different.

To each their own.

This sardonic opinion of pre-worn guitars brings to the forefront of consciousness, the same word as pre-washed-ripped jeans, etc.

"Poseur"

Why buy: Well, here is what I exactly wanted: Nitro finish, vintage hardware, jumbo frets, 1969 pick ups rosewood fret board.

All that poly finish eats tone. My strats with it, get a nice sand job on the back of the neck. Next, get rid of the pick ups and replace them with 69's or Van Zandt's - then reset-up the whole guitar

Options: buy an actual 1960's strat...Not. I have checked some of them out and.......30-60K. Forget it. I bought My house for 115K and I get a hell of a lot more out of it.
Buy the hot rod strat. The cost on that now is insane and there is no guitar store in my area that has one.
Buy a mim road worn 1960's for a 1k, change the pick ups, set up the geetar and I am good to go for under $1300 - oh wait, I replaced the pick guard too. Oh yeah, buy it through guitar center at 0% interest for a year.
Pay it off in a year. I love when a business will loan money for free!!!!

The Road Worn strat is now my favorite to play. Compared to my other strats, the tone is much warmer.

Gear: 5 strats, American and Mexy - with many changes, SDG & Parker all tube amps, Analog Man TS9 and Sunface, RMC wah

There is one cool thing about the 50's Road Worn. It has a "soft" V neck. It is hard to find a V neck on anything but a high end custom, vintage, or signature models. It puts that option of neck in a reasonably priced guitar.

_________________
2005 Fender American Stratocaster W/Seymour Duncan Hot Rails in bridge and Seymour Duncan SSL-5 in neck.
1995 Fender American Standard Stratocaster
Line 6 Spider II 150 watt head W/Ampeg 4x12 Cab
Laney Pro-Linebacker PL65R

I went to see them at GC... I don't know. They look phoney.

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"...The final truth is, there is no truth..." - (from "Nice n' Neat" by the Boomtown Rats)

Cause they are phony.

[quote="Symbiont"]

All that poly finish eats tone.

Yeah, I used to believe that too. I had a one refinished because I bought into the hype. Cost me a bunch and didn't improve the tone one bit. It's more the hardware than the finish.

I've heard from many people that these come set up terribly. Not sure how they come out once they're properly set up.

But yeah an artificial relic job just seems stupid to me altogether.

I've tried a Tele and 2 Strats and the setups on all 3 were terrible. Whoever is doing the QC at FMIC should be canned.

63supro quote

"Yeah, I used to believe that too. I had a one refinished because I bought into the hype. Cost me a bunch and didn't improve the tone one bit. It's more the hardware than the finish."

I cannot speak for your guitar, but when I played My American delux with the 69 pickups side by side same amp, cables ect, (which should be a much better guitar across the board), there is no comparison. The tone out of the road worn, hands down stands apart from the American delux. Now that being said, that doesn't mean that your stripped and refinished guitar was going to have the same experience. I have found that guitars anf their tones differ as much as people's opinions of them do.

It's interesting to hear these guitars called "Fake". Does anybody here know the history of a relic'd guitar? Where the idea seems to have come from?

In regards to set up, I have not bought an electric guitar yet that didn't need to be set up. In my opinion they should all have to be set up. Every player, after they have been playing long enough, develops their "own thing". Strings, playing positions, string height ect.......that should make it necessary for a new set up.

I agree, but they should at least follow the radius and not fret out and have bad intonation. Action is a personal thing. There is no solid evidence what so ever that there is a huge difference in tone due to finish. It could still be hardware. It could be something as small as a different value tone cap. Your talking two different instruments. I'm talking about the same guitar. Finished then re finished. It originally was a sunburst with poly, I got it back with a sunburst nitro finish and it sounded the same.

63supro,
I will make a gentleman's bet with you. If you play that refinished with nitro guitar on stage nightly, in two years that guitar will breath, absorb and sound way better than that polly finish

I am assuming since your listed as a professional that you are gigging and in the studio very often. My experience with soft finishes when I was playing out 4-6 nights a week ect....(thank the gods that's over) is that they, in a very short period of time sound, feel & play incredible. I have not experienced that with those thick polly finishes.

I am a bit disappointed that my MIM road worn has a much better tone than my American delux with the better hardware ect.....
I do understand however, that is a matter of opinion, eras & hands.

As far as intonation, frets ect......That is the down fall of anything that is mass produced in an assembly line fashion. I have played every make, model ect... and out of 10 git fiddles, I find one or two that meet 80% of what I am looking for. I have even started to see that with newer line of Fender tube amps. I played 3 identical amps in Guitar Center and they all had problems!!!!! From tubes to reverb units. Go figure.

If Ibanez, lower end PRS, even middle of the road Epi Pauls can do it out of the box, why can't Fender? I dumped the refin about 3 years ago. I'm no stranger to guitars having be a musician for over 40 years. I've had what is now called vintage when they were new in both poly and nitro. One guitar I still have is a 72 Strat that I kept all original. It's an amazing guitar. One of the most versatile guitars I own is a 63 Supro Martinique. It's made of resoglas which is a fancy name for fiberglass. The finish is built in. No Poly or Nitro. It is also an amazing guitar. It sustains well and plays like a Gibby fretless wonder. I've played Nitro finished guitars that sounded great and some that were tone turds. Same with Ploy finishes. I really doubt the lack of finish has anything to do with the sound of your MIM. Pup's, bridge saddles, trem block, strings you bet.