Fender Mike McCready Stratocaster in Three Colour Sunburst

[Dave Lewis]

I’ve ordered one of these.

 

[DrewJD82]

I’d be curious to try one out to feel the neck, but the relic’ing they’re doing on these is the kind of stuff that gives relic’ing a bad name and this is the one time I agree with the anti-relic crowd with “It’s silly to pay someone more money to beat up your guitar” as it’s an MIM Strat with a very non-convincing relic job.

Fender should hire MJT to be their Murphy Lab.

 

[dbagchee]

I played one of these in the local used shop when I was picking up a Univibe pedal. I’d been curious about these when they were announced as I love Mike McCready’s fender tones. It did sound great and was a lot of fun to play. The neck felt like a slightly fatter C shape, pretty comfy.

But the relic was so strange - I don’t mind the idea but I think I’m more into the journey man relic than something this severe. Also it was the first time I’ve seen a relic in real life and it seems like they lacquered over the relic’ing? Just gives it an unnatural look and some of the “yellowing” seemed like the wrong color.

I’d be down with the same guitar in a nitro finish so I can naturally relic it myself with some playing!

 

[Sleezy E]

I'm sure it's a great guitar and I was a huge McCready fan back in the day.. but relics, ugh.

It's like going to Porsch dealer and buying the one that got keyed and has 2 fenders caved in. I don't get it.

 

[DrewJD82]

I played one of these in the local used shop when I was picking up a Univibe pedal. I’d been curious about these when they were announced as I love Mike McCready’s fender tones. It did sound great and was a lot of fun to play. The neck felt like a slightly fatter C shape, pretty comfy.

But the relic was so strange - I don’t mind the idea but I think I’m more into the journey man relic than something this severe. Also it was the first time I’ve seen a relic in real life and it seems like they lacquered over the relic’ing? Just gives it an unnatural look and some of the “yellowing” seemed like the wrong color.

I’d be down with the same guitar in a nitro finish so I can naturally relic it myself with some playing!

Yeah, Fender uses some kind of template to make their relics, which makes sense on a model like this where it’s copying one specific guitar, but not so much with their run of the mill Custom Shop models.

I’m assuming the relic’d portions get covered by the template when they spray the body, so they’re not scraping paint off after they apply it. Their lighter relics don’t look terrible, just some nicks and dents here and there or a faded paint spot, but when it comes to anything with a chipped or worn nitro finish, IE- anything realistic, it just doesn’t make the mark and looks obviously fake.

I wouldn’t use that guitar to form an opinion around relics because when they’re REALLY done by people who know how to do it, they can be convincing. I’d imagine it’d cost Fender way too much to do it the “right” way as once you expose the wood you’ve gotta do more to it than just leaving it alone to make it look legit.

Whoever at MJT did my Strat probably sat there with a piece of leather for a few hours rubbing the hell out of the exposed wood so every chip/dent was smoothed over as it would be if your arm ran over it regularly.

Poly definitely isn’t the best choice of a finish on something that’s going to be relic’d.

 

[Dave Lewis]

It arrived earlier this morning .
Loved the heavy wafting of nitro when I opened the case

 

[Jarick]

Looks crazy, curious how you like it and especially how you think it plays.

With rising prices I bet we'll see more and more of these import guitars that have a lot more attention to finishing. Not just relic'ing but overall fit and finish.

 

[dbagchee]

That relic’ing looks a lot better than the one I played in store - enjoy and post up some clips!

 

[DrewJD82]

That does indeed look better than the examples I’ve been seeing!

 

[AlbertA]

Now don't go about putting another dent or ding on this thing, you want to preserve the authentic original relic'ing.

<I really hope this is not a thing in the used market, "original factory relic'ing, no additional dings/dents out of factory spec"">

 

[dbagchee]

That does indeed look better than the examples I’ve been seeing!

Yeah even if you compare to the stock photos Dave shared in the original post you can the weird yellow/orange bits which this one doesn't have. Intriguing! Maybe they fixed it after the first run.

 

[Dave Lewis]

I haven’t had a chance to play it since it arrived this morning from Andertons.
My back is playing up so my daughter unboxed it and I took some pictures on my iPhone and
Had a feel of the neck .
Then back to bed with lots of pain killers.
Have been watching the cricket.

 

[dbagchee]

I haven’t had a chance to play it since it arrived this morning from Andertons.
My back is playing up so my daughter unboxed it and I took some pictures on my iPhone and
Had a feel of the neck .
Then back to bed with lots of pain killers.
Have been watching the cricket.

Feel better soon! The guitar can wait :)

 

[DrewJD82]

I haven’t had a chance to play it since it arrived this morning from Andertons.
My back is playing up so my daughter unboxed it and I took some pictures on my iPhone and
Had a feel of the neck .
Then back to bed with lots of pain killers.
Have been watching the cricket.

I might bust your balls about Behringturd but back pain is no joke. Hopefully it dissipates sooner than later!