I know, folks, it's no Fender and you probably aren't very interested but I just wanted to share my joy and astonishment about this new guitar I just bought. AND NO! I WILL NOT TURN MY BACK TO THE GUITARS WHICH I LOVE MOST: FENDER STRATS!

I've been here for a while now and you might probably know already that I'm a fan of US strats and I also love the MiJ strats. (I've got 17 guitars now, 8 of which are US Fender strats).

Now I happened to stumble across an interesting review video on YouTube which drew me to get myself a low budget BURNS COBRA!

I got it brand new from a dealer in GB for the price of 250 Euros and I knew that if I wouldn't like it, I could easily sell it for the same amount of money here in Germany, if not even for more (I've seen a used one going for 360 bucks on *bay lately).
So I gave it a try because it looks stunning cool with those "split pickguards" and all the reviews I've seen were very positive.

What can I say .... I was very surprised about sound and playability.

This guitar is pretty much head to head with my American strats as far as playability and sound go. The tremolo (vibrato) is even better! Overall the American strats by Fender are in pole position as far as general quality goes but of course they cost 4 times as much!

Okay, there were some minor issues: the plastic saddle needs to be reslotted, I got a "ping" sound on every bending note on the G and B strings and the setup was catastrophic! (dealer issue!!) A good dealer would give the instrument a proper setup before selling it.
These are just minor issues compared to what this instrument can do!
If you're just a little bit experienced in setting up a guitar, this will be corrected within minutes!

I don't want to sound snobistic but I admit, I have quite some expectations from an instrument which I would take on stage with me and it would most certainly be no MiM, not at all to speak of Squier!! (this is solely based on my experiences with these!).

This is the first low budget guitar which I would use live (I haven't yet but I will!).

Just check out the video on youtube by "ProGuitarShop" (first one coming up when looking for Burns Cobra.

Kick me but IMHO this guitar beats every Mexican Fender I EVER had in my hands! And no, I'm in no way connected to Burns Guitars in any way, neither do I intend to make this an advertisement for them! It's just that I'm so completely astonished about what you can get for this amount of money, that I simply wanted to share my experience with you.

This Burns burns!!
It jumped right on #3 position of my favorite guitars I own. #1 is my 1986/87 American standard and #2 is my US Buddy Guy Signature strat.

Here it is, in white with tortoise pickguards:

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

Unbelievable price, Trisonic (Brian May) pickups, very cool.
I think it is ugly but the price is outstanding. I absolutely have to try one out.
Always loved the Trisonic sound.

Cheers,
Robin

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http://www.youtube.com/robinstrower
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Love the unique layout and design of the pickguard! Congrats!

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

Thank you, guys!

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!