Thanks to the Ensenada factory for the great job they are doing on their road-worn strats! Many of us older musicians have owned and played the originals from the 50's and 60's and have been disappointed with Fender's attempts to market a re-issue up until now.

The road-worn models in general have a resonance and feel missing from the Custom shop and American re-issue stratocasters. The necks are damn close to some of my old originals and the vibe is right on.
Like any player, I have my opinion on what the Ensenada folks could do to further improve the model, and I hope you people at Fender are listening...
I would also love to hear from other old school musicians on their thoughts concerning the road worns. Here's my particular wish list for some improvements to the road-worn models to really nail these guitars:

1) Get those contours correct on the strat headstock!! This has been a particular problem for the current owners of Fender...on the road worn models, the curve by the logo is correct, but the "ball" on top is noticeably too small...looks funny. C'mon guys, get it right.

2) While NO pickup re-issue I've played sounds quite like the old pickups, the road worn pickups are pretty good...plenty of quack and transparency on the out-of-phase positions, and not too harsh on the neck and middle.
( the bridge pickups are terrible, though)
Bevel those magnet ends, bevel those magnet ends, bevel those...
seriously, the sharp ends look cheap and shoddy, and beveling according to some pickup gurus softens the sound a touch. Also makes the pickups look like old pickups. What a concept.

3) Let's do a better job on the sunburst finishes!! the 50's models were quite a bit lighter in the burst part( light LIGHT brown, and sometimes canary yellow) NOT black into a dark brown.
Most of the sixties I've seen and played had some degree of distinct yellow, not black into a messy tequila sunrise....

4) And finally, for those really nit-picky fifties strat folks...the contours on the back of the fifties strat tended to be wider, a cool distinction that I've NEVER seen the current owners of Fender try to duplicate...why not? give it a go...

I know what you're thinking, nice ideas but if Ensenada implented these appointments, the cost would rise signifigantly. And I (and other players) would still purchase them.
Thanks for letting an old-timer rattle on....

Actually many people think the Road Worn Strats suck because they don't like the fake relic job. And they can't understand the concept of buying a guitar that looks beaten up when they themselves didn't do the beating.

But I disagree. I think they look cool and I don't think it matters in the slightest who did the beating.

Actually a machine did the beating.To each their own.I like to keep my guitars looking new.If they were to offer it in a unreliced (nos) version, i might bite.At 949 definately not.I paid 849 for my American Standard in February.

Still doesn't matter to me whether a man or a woman or a penquin or a machine did the beating. How you get there is irrelevant.

But there are priced a little too high. But I guess the necks are superb.

I played a Road Worn Telecaster and I found it to be a much more expensive beat up Mexican Standard Tele.

Played really nice and sounded good, but no way was it worth the extra premium over the Standard.

I assume the Strat is the same?

Yep,949 unless its on sale.I actually like the texmex pickups .I almost bought me a 60th anniversary a few years back.I think they are a descent guitar,but not for 949.

They can be bought of Ebay for hundreds of dollars lower.

I don't like them because they all look almost exactly the same and they have mediocre pups for a fair bit of coin. I've also only found a couple with even a half decent setup and I've tried dozens. IMHO the only thing more fake looking is the Joe Strummer Tele. That's just horrible. It looks almost silk screened.

We all have different tastes though. I just find it so easy to spot a poorly done relic no matter who makes it.

I didnt care for the cookie cutter relic job.My experience in trying out guitars in february was the same .They had 3 60s and 2 50s roadworns and the swtups werent good.Most of them had fret buzz pretty bad , 2 of them the innotation was off and most of them had fret sprout .I ended going with an american standard .It was a uch more solid guitar and i got it for 100 bucks cheaper than the roadworns.Kind of a no brainer.

The Road Worns are nice guitars too, but I prefer to relic the Strat myself.

I love the feel and the sound. I'm not such a big fan of heavy relics that aren't real, but the Road Worns are just about right. As for the factory cookie cutter thing, if you play it enough it'll become more and more unique as you wear off more of the finish.

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...Thanks to all of you for your spot-on comments concerning the road worns.
Looks like my initial topic posting got quite a bit of response.
I agree, the relic job is cookie-cutter, but I've also seen worse on the custom shop relics.
I have yet to play a custom shop NOS, CC, or relic that had any kind of resonance to it. They may be out there, but not in my neighborhood...
I also don't like the lighter rosewood boards that the custom shop uses...to me they look horrible. While some older rosewood board strats had lighter boards, many had that classy dark DARK chocolate look to the wood. To me, that is a classic rosewood board look.

Have any of you tried the Leosounds strat pickups currently being manufactured in Germany? what's your take on them?
How about the strat pickuos that Junior Watson uses? (forget the name of the manufacturer--check back on line)

Ok, I saw a "Road Worn" Tele in GC this weekend. I gotta say, there is no way I would ever buy one. The think looked like it had been left out on the beach in the salt air and got rained on. Rust in the bridge... c'mon guys, you have got to be joking.

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I do like the concept of the Worn. But like many here, theres no way Im gunna pay a premium for one. I had a chance to play a '50s. As usual for any out of the box guitar, it was need of a set up. The thing I didnt like was the feel of the body. It was all fuzzy. The relicing was obviously done with a sander. To fix it would take a week with fine steel wool. The Tex Mex pups are a good fit for the Worns. For me, Tex Mex are THE Strat sound.

My Canadian cents
Craig

Road Worn 50s Strat in Black only is 499 till 11pm p.s.t.

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