Does anyone have any comments of those Road Worn strats???
I have an american Strat and a two Tele's and i was looking at the RW strats, they are a little expensive for a Mex...just wanted someone's two cents i guess.
Cheers
Mike

My only comment is, for the life of me, I'll NEVER understand why someone will pay MORE than the comparable worth of a given guitar for a specimen that is deliberately dingy and beat up. Moreover, where each and every one of them has the identical abuse marks which makes them look all the more foolish. I tried but I honestly cannot fathom this whole, "Road Worn" concept. I would think that the owner of a new guitar should have the reserved privilege of uniquely wearing it in/down his or herself from personal use. Obviously, YMMV.

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You dig?

i just bought one, they play smoothly and i have a deluxe players which is also a mex. the thing about the roadworn is the sc pickups and not noisless. the 60s cycle hum is there just like martian posted in my topic. they sound warm and nice, i didnt really care about the look, even though i like the vintage look it was the sound that called too me.

do what feels right, play it and mess around with one before getting one

Ive had my RW Strat for 2 weeks now and I am in love with this guitar.
I love the feel of it the sound of it, I love it so much I scratched off the made in Mexico so I wouldn't be reminded where it was from.
The only problem is now my American deluxe strat feels big, bulky and uncomfortable.

Nice guitars and I really like them, but for my money I'd get Hwy 1 Strat and relic it naturally.

I was completely fooled the first time i seen one untill i realized that the tags were saying it was brand new... still they are a grand here in Canada and a american standard is like 1300 bucks.. Go figure but they sound way better than the regular MIM strats.

+1 I don't get it either. I never found one that didn't have setup problems. The pups are really nothing special either. For the premium price, you should at least get some better pups to make up for the lack of finish. I find the whole look cheap and like Martin say's they are all worn pretty much identically. I just don't like artificial Mojo. But, if that's what floats yer boat, It's cool.

I played a few of them and they were set up horribly.Quality control was really bad and way overpriced for what it is (a cookie cutter reliced MIM guitar).Almost as much as a MIA that comes with a case and way better quality control.

I played a few of them at GC and really like the feel and sound (maybe spent 15 minutes total time, so by no means know them ). The main reason i would not EVER take one home is the looks.....I dont even want my guitars to look like that when they are 25 years old....much less buy one like that.

But thats just me.

And me too!

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You dig?

I want my guitar beat up from playing not artificially!
I don't mind Road Worn series though. They are good players I believe. Great sounding from what I've heard. Never played one but I'd sure like to.

I could never see the rationale for making a guitar look like it had been subjected to years of playing,I take pains in trying to keep my guitars blemish free and let very few people go near them.This can be seen in pictures I posted a few weeks ago see:Guitslingers Babies the $100 Dover guitar I got new for Christmas in 67 is near mint save for a banana sticker I put on the headstock in Jr. high.As far as I'm concerned it would be all right to buff or lightly sand the neck to give it a more played in feel,but why pay more for chips and gouges when you could spend the extra on a good case to keep your guitar from harm.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

My 2 cents ..

I own one and the setup is horrible.
Warp neck, fret job is not okay (the 20th and 21st frets are too high)
when I bend, it buzz on the end of the neck.

The bridge also has issues, the saddle tiny Allen screws are very hard to adjust.
The same "worn" pattern are identical on every guitars which is silly IMO.

On the positive side : Very light weight. You won't fear to scratch even bump the thing since it's already beat up.
The V shape neck is very comfortable.

I paid ( .... ahem ... ) 800$ for it (yeah, I'm still crying... I paid the same for my MIA).
I was a little lucky tho, the guy who sold it to me "gave" a tolex Fender case to store it (better than a gig bag !)

I tore the thing down in parts and it will be my "winter project" soon.
Sad but true.

This was the worst Fender guitar I bought. I didn't had luck I guess.
Maybe there are some very nice among them. I just don't know.

My opinion : Stick with regular MIM, there are a lot of very good ones.

Ray.

Just for the sake of balance, I've played 3 of them and they were all spot on. No problems at all.

If they were £200 cheaper I'd have bought one in a heartbeat.

Look great, but more importantly they feel the age they're supposed to represent. It's not just visual.

Don't need to tell you that they sounded superb to me. Slightly hotter than vintage tonality. The clean sound is always the test as far as I'm concerned and these all passed muster.

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Haven't played one yet, so I can't speak to how they sound and play. But I thought the idea of something being road-worn is that it's a map of your experience not something that is arbitrarily applied by someone else.

On the guitars that I've had awhile, I can pretty much identify the cause of ever dent, nick, and major scratch, and unless you have that kind of association with your guitar's battle scars, I don't see the point.

The only exception I can think of is if you've bought the guitar from someone else, and your just adding your chapters to the guitar's story.

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Chris
FindaGuitarTeacher.com