This feller does an excellent review if I may shamelessly plug his website. His review of the blues junior sounds amazing as well.

http://www.steviesnacks.com/gear-videos/fender-kenny-wayne-shepherd-strat-demo.html

Alright, a little sad update on my Kenny Wayne Strat

I restrung it with my favorite gauge strings which are on the light side, and we had a huge problem.

I had noticed before how close the high e string was to the edge of the frets, but now, with a lighter gauge string, you can easily slide the string right off of the edge of the frets. I am doing this easily and even when I guard against it, I still do it a few times in a song. Just a little vibrato and the string is off the edge.

I contacted Fender Support and took it into two licensed fender support stores and they both told me that the graphtech saddles in the guitar are the American size, but the neck width is Mexican size which is slightly smaller.

Fender support told me that I could tweak the neck, but it was clear that this "tweak" would move the problem to the low e- string. When I took it in to one Fender guy who had never played around with one, he was shocked that Fender would do this.

So, in order to have the Kenny Wayne guitar as it was advertised, I'd have to switch to some Graph tec saddles that are fit for a Mexi Strat. This would cost $60ish for parts along with another new set of strings, plus whatever labor the guy would charge, and Fender won't pay for it. They say that tweaking the neck a little bit to the side would be fine, however they would not pay for this either.

Because I was frustrated, I decided to take the guitar back and use the credit to buy a brand new Sunburst Mexi Standard Strat, a black pickguard, and new strings along with the Fender G-Dec 3 Fifteen for about the same amount of money. I am currently hand relic-ing the strat and it looks awesome.

I would now say... don't buy a KWS Strat without buying a set of Mexican sized string saddles.

Still, the KWS neck and pickups are top notch, the design and Fender Customer Support were lacking however.

Im just confused as to why fender would issue a guitar with saddles that dont fit it.

So were the 2 licensed Fender Service techs that I took it to.

I agree with the above poster who said that with a heavier gauge string, this would not have been such a pronounced problem, but I like a lighter gauge and this should not be how it was designed.

I fully realize that I could have purchased some saddles that fit better, but that would have put me out $60-$70 for comparable Graphtec saddles, and whatever the cost of my strings and a new set would come to; and Fender was not willing to pay for this fix.

When I took it back, Fender did send me a gift package with some cables, a shirt and a leather strap.

I am actually having a blast and learning a ton from customizing the Standard Strat that I replaced the KWS with.

I've had fun customizing my strat. I originally had a Lonestar, traded it in for a Roadhouse as I don't like HSS strats. I then replaced the neck with a Lonestar neck because I love rosewood. From there, I changed all the hardware to gold. It looks awesome and I've learned more about my guitar that I never thought I would....

I bought my MIM Standard about a year ago, and now that I've customized it and learned a lot about pickups and neck styles and what I like in my guitar, I wish I would have known to shell out the extra hundred for a Roadhouse from the getgo.

I guess it just bugs me that this seemed like an OK thing for Fender to do. I do like lighter gauge strings, but even with the 10's that came on it the problem was pretty darn pronounced.

Personally, I'd think that for blues style playing with all of the bends and vibrato, you'd want as much room as possible rather than making it a tight fit.

It was a frustrating problem for me to love this guitar so much and to have this problem with it.


Now, a few weeks later, I can't even tell you how thrilled I am with my decision to bring it back. For the same price that I paid for the KWS, I bought and relic'd a brand new MIM Strat, and bought a G-DEC 3 15 Watt amp. Last week, I bought and installed the Seymour Duncan Everything Axe pickup set, and Mexican sized, American style Graphtec Saddles, and I feel like I have made the guitar that I never would have imagined playing.

My guitar is the best feeling and playing and sounding guitar that I have ever played myself.