Lets look at our guitars thread
Discussion
Got it just doing an update!
First surprise is that it sounds really quite pleasant turned off. Not yet played it with all the things working but it is now all set up so will have a proper play in a bit.
Initial impressions are pretty positive, definitely lacking that last degree of finishing for example there is a definite lip between the neck and the fretboard.
Wouldn’t have it as my only guitar but as a Travel size guitar purely as an acoustic I would say it is worth around the £250-300 mark going by the competition. Hopefully the electronics will make the difference, but to be honest at £370 I feel happy with the purchase as even if everything fails in a few years I would still play it as an acoustic.
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I added another dream guitar to the collection this week, an Eric Johnson Virginia Strat.
Except wuh oh, the pickguard is warped. I guess it was drilled badly, so when it has been screwed into the body, it has kinked up where there is tension in the plastic. Unacceptable on a near £3000 guitar. It's going back to the retailer and I'll get another one. I'm still bloody annoyed.
Except wuh oh, the pickguard is warped. I guess it was drilled badly, so when it has been screwed into the body, it has kinked up where there is tension in the plastic. Unacceptable on a near £3000 guitar. It's going back to the retailer and I'll get another one. I'm still bloody annoyed.
Mastodon2 said:
I added another dream guitar to the collection this week, an Eric Johnson Virginia Strat.
Except wuh oh, the pickguard is warped. I guess it was drilled badly, so when it has been screwed into the body, it has kinked up where there is tension in the plastic. Unacceptable on a near £3000 guitar. It's going back to the retailer and I'll get another one. I'm still bloody annoyed.
Notwithstanding the issue with the pickguard, may I ask what is special about a Virginia Strat? I know Johnson is very particular with his guitar tones, but is it the wiring / pickups / neck profile / choice of timber for the body and neck? Just interested (although I'm scratching my Strat itch even more recently after looking at an American for sale at a reasonable price in my local music emporium).Except wuh oh, the pickguard is warped. I guess it was drilled badly, so when it has been screwed into the body, it has kinked up where there is tension in the plastic. Unacceptable on a near £3000 guitar. It's going back to the retailer and I'll get another one. I'm still bloody annoyed.
cherryowen said:
Notwithstanding the issue with the pickguard, may I ask what is special about a Virginia Strat? I know Johnson is very particular with his guitar tones, but is it the wiring / pickups / neck profile / choice of timber for the body and neck? Just interested (although I'm scratching my Strat itch even more recently after looking at an American for sale at a reasonable price in my local music emporium).
A quick summary:1. Sassafras body instead of ash or alder
2. Dimarzio HS-2 in the bridge position, only the top coil is wired up.
3. 62/57 pickups in the mid and neck positions, these are wired out-of-phase with the bridge pickup
4. String tree with a nylon retainer, not the period-correct 54 tree. Eric preferred the later type.
5. The high E string has the more modern Graph Graphtec saddle, the rest of the strings have vintage saddles. Eric thought this tamed the brightness of the string and balanced it more with the others.
6. There's a different nut and washer on the jack socket to the normal Strat arrangement.
7. The neck might be the same as the normal EJ Strats, it's based on a 54 (pretty fat compared to modern Strats) but has a flatter profile and bigger frets to mimic some work Eric had done his personal guitar once upon a time.
8. The headstock has a more smoothed-out carve on the back and sides like the early Strats. Looks really quite different to modern ones.
I'd say that unless you're a real Eric Johnson buff, then the normal EJ Strat would be more than enough. The Virginia is a nerdy thing or a collector's piece. The extra £600 premium or whatever it gets you over the regular EJ probably doesn't have much practical value.
Mastodon2 said:
I added another dream guitar to the collection this week, an Eric Johnson Virginia Strat.
Except wuh oh, the pickguard is warped. I guess it was drilled badly, so when it has been screwed into the body, it has kinked up where there is tension in the plastic. Unacceptable on a near £3000 guitar. It's going back to the retailer and I'll get another one. I'm still bloody annoyed.
Fender qc is shockingly bad ,I’m arguing with them currently as my mij govan frets are so crap they have cut my hand ,they are like the frets from a £50 guitar 30 years ago .Except wuh oh, the pickguard is warped. I guess it was drilled badly, so when it has been screwed into the body, it has kinked up where there is tension in the plastic. Unacceptable on a near £3000 guitar. It's going back to the retailer and I'll get another one. I'm still bloody annoyed.
franki68 said:
Fender qc is shockingly bad ,I’m arguing with them currently as my mij govan frets are so crap they have cut my hand ,they are like the frets from a £50 guitar 30 years ago .
That's a shame. I bought a MIJ YJM Strat at the end of last year and it is absolutely flawless, thankfully. Nobody's perfect, as they say, but when it comes to bad QC I expect it from Gibson but have never had any issues with Fender or the companies under their umbrella. It actually struck me last night that it was the first time I've ever had an issue with a guitar that I've purchased new. Maybe I've had a run of luck up until now.
Wow - I'd be going nuts about that and why I always try before buying. Even then you can miss things.
Imperfections are one thing, major issues are something else. Some of the bigger retailers will try and pass stuff off that is clearly sub-standard and hope that the buyer won't notice.
Imperfections are one thing, major issues are something else. Some of the bigger retailers will try and pass stuff off that is clearly sub-standard and hope that the buyer won't notice.
Actually it's quite authentic in some ways as the earlier single ply 'guards did often warp. 
Not that you'd want that on a new guitar though of course.
I think I tried an EJ Strat back at the end of Covid when I went into GuitarGuitar and tried out loads of different Strats.
Talking of maple finger-boarded strats: Last night I played my old 1982 MIJ Squier Strat for the first time in ages and found myself preferring the maple fingerboard over my Rosewood self build that I usually gig and rehearse with. I'm thinking I might buy a V profile Allparts maple neck for it as a little project this summer: I put a V profile (but Rosewood) neck on a Tele last year, so I like the profile so it would be good to try it with a lacquered maple fingerboard.
Not that you'd want that on a new guitar though of course.I think I tried an EJ Strat back at the end of Covid when I went into GuitarGuitar and tried out loads of different Strats.
Talking of maple finger-boarded strats: Last night I played my old 1982 MIJ Squier Strat for the first time in ages and found myself preferring the maple fingerboard over my Rosewood self build that I usually gig and rehearse with. I'm thinking I might buy a V profile Allparts maple neck for it as a little project this summer: I put a V profile (but Rosewood) neck on a Tele last year, so I like the profile so it would be good to try it with a lacquered maple fingerboard.
franki68 said:
Fender qc is shockingly bad ,I’m arguing with them currently as my mij govan frets are so crap they have cut my hand ,they are like the frets from a £50 guitar 30 years ago .
Surprised a MIJ has poor fretwork. Charvel right? I bought a MIM a year ago that had a couple of frets that had been crowned to a knife edge, but the price was good and it's fixable. I also had a MIM that split down the skunk stripe immediately after collection 20 years ago! But every MIJ and most Coronas have been fine.
Yahonza said:
Wow - I'd be going nuts about that and why I always try before buying. Even then you can miss things.
Imperfections are one thing, major issues are something else. Some of the bigger retailers will try and pass stuff off that is clearly sub-standard and hope that the buyer won't notice.
Insisting on try before you buy will increase the chances of getting a guitar without flaws, but vastly limits the pool of guitars you can choose from, unless you're willing to travel the country or possibly the world to find a guitar in person before buying.Imperfections are one thing, major issues are something else. Some of the bigger retailers will try and pass stuff off that is clearly sub-standard and hope that the buyer won't notice.
Any retailer worth using will have a very comprehensive returns system. I'm annoyed with this EJ Virginia but it's not the end of the world, I'll get another. The retailer agreed to refund me immediately and booked a courier to collect the guitar at my convenience. Buying used guitars in private sales is a different matter entirely, of course, but even then I've never had issues.
The biggest annoyance for me is that nobody would expect this flaw on such an expensive guitar and it should have been picked up before it wss shipped to me. I understand that big retailers maybe don't have time to inspect every guitar in detail before sending to the customer, but this wouldn't have taken a trained eye to spot. I'm fairly sure they opened the case, checked there was no obvious damage to the guitar, that all the case candy was there and said "Yep, ship her out".
At a certain level, you'd expect that they might at least pull the guitar out and give it a good look around, but obviously not, at least not with the place I bought this from.
SmithCorona said:
Surprised a MIJ has poor fretwork. Charvel right?
I bought a MIM a year ago that had a couple of frets that had been crowned to a knife edge, but the price was good and it's fixable. I also had a MIM that split down the skunk stripe immediately after collection 20 years ago! But every MIJ and most Coronas have been fine.
Yes charvel ,I have found mij guitars usually outstanding for such things so very pissed off ,everything else is superb on it .I bought a MIM a year ago that had a couple of frets that had been crowned to a knife edge, but the price was good and it's fixable. I also had a MIM that split down the skunk stripe immediately after collection 20 years ago! But every MIJ and most Coronas have been fine.
I will get it sorted but just being sent back and forth between dealer and fender at moment .
Mastodon2 said:
Insisting on try before you buy will increase the chances of getting a guitar without flaws, but vastly limits the pool of guitars you can choose from, unless you're willing to travel the country or possibly the world to find a guitar in person before buying.
Any retailer worth using will have a very comprehensive returns system. I'm annoyed with this EJ Virginia but it's not the end of the world, I'll get another. The retailer agreed to refund me immediately and booked a courier to collect the guitar at my convenience. Buying used guitars in private sales is a different matter entirely, of course, but even then I've never had issues.
The biggest annoyance for me is that nobody would expect this flaw on such an expensive guitar and it should have been picked up before it wss shipped to me. I understand that big retailers maybe don't have time to inspect every guitar in detail before sending to the customer, but this wouldn't have taken a trained eye to spot. I'm fairly sure they opened the case, checked there was no obvious damage to the guitar, that all the case candy was there and said "Yep, ship her out".
At a certain level, you'd expect that they might at least pull the guitar out and give it a good look around, but obviously not, at least not with the place I bought this from.
They are generally pretty good if something isn't up to scratch and will replace - knowing that this will help keep you on as a future customer.Any retailer worth using will have a very comprehensive returns system. I'm annoyed with this EJ Virginia but it's not the end of the world, I'll get another. The retailer agreed to refund me immediately and booked a courier to collect the guitar at my convenience. Buying used guitars in private sales is a different matter entirely, of course, but even then I've never had issues.
The biggest annoyance for me is that nobody would expect this flaw on such an expensive guitar and it should have been picked up before it wss shipped to me. I understand that big retailers maybe don't have time to inspect every guitar in detail before sending to the customer, but this wouldn't have taken a trained eye to spot. I'm fairly sure they opened the case, checked there was no obvious damage to the guitar, that all the case candy was there and said "Yep, ship her out".
At a certain level, you'd expect that they might at least pull the guitar out and give it a good look around, but obviously not, at least not with the place I bought this from.
I'm a LH player and a lot of the fancy stuff is right handed only - so when something good comes up I will travel to try it out. I bought a Gibson ES335 dot a couple of years back and initially tried out the figured version in the shop but it kept going out of tune. I reckoned the nut hadn't been set properly (this is on an expensive guitar!) so I asked to see the 335 dot that they were advertising online. Reluctantly they brought it up and I took it out of the box - it looked like it was the first time it had been out since leaving the factory. I tuned it up and it was a big improvement over the first one. I commented on the out of tune-ness of the figured version and the guitar guy said they could get their guitar tech to fix it (nope). I guess that once it is out in the shop they are limited in what they can do - but this was a really obvious defect.
franki68 said:
Yes charvel ,I have found mij guitars usually outstanding for such things so very pissed off ,everything else is superb on it .
I will get it sorted but just being sent back and forth between dealer and fender at moment .
Disappointing given they are not £500 MIJ mustangs but Corona prices. Hope you get it sorted soon. Lovely looking things. I will get it sorted but just being sent back and forth between dealer and fender at moment .
Mastodon2 said:
I added another dream guitar to the collection this week, an Eric Johnson Virginia Strat.
Except wuh oh, the pickguard is warped. I guess it was drilled badly, so when it has been screwed into the body, it has kinked up where there is tension in the plastic. Unacceptable on a near £3000 guitar. It's going back to the retailer and I'll get another one. I'm still bloody annoyed.
Cool guitar (other than the annoying pickguard issue - maybe it being single ply doesn't help?) but I don't think I'd be able to cope with a different saddle on the high E...having five that match and one rogue one would drive me mad! Other than that, I think it's ace!Except wuh oh, the pickguard is warped. I guess it was drilled badly, so when it has been screwed into the body, it has kinked up where there is tension in the plastic. Unacceptable on a near £3000 guitar. It's going back to the retailer and I'll get another one. I'm still bloody annoyed.
I hope you get the pickguard sorted and enjoy the guitar!
chemistry said:
Cool guitar (other than the annoying pickguard issue - maybe it being single ply doesn't help?) but I don't think I'd be able to cope with a different saddle on the high E...having five that match and one rogue one would drive me mad! Other than that, I think it's ace!
I hope you get the pickguard sorted and enjoy the guitar!
In a concession to people who would be bothered by the asymmetry of the bridge, Fender include a little bag in the case with a spare vintage saddle and the tools to put it on the guitar if the Graphtec saddle isn't to taste. A nice touch, I thought.I hope you get the pickguard sorted and enjoy the guitar!
The guitar went back to the retailer today. They only had one Virginia so I'll have to get a replacement elsewhere. The warping single-ply pickguard is annoyingly authentic. I can confidently say however, that the Virginia is nicest traditional Strat I've ever played. As good as my Yngwie Strat even, though that's not really a normal Strat in many ways.
Mastodon2 said:
cherryowen said:
Notwithstanding the issue with the pickguard, may I ask what is special about a Virginia Strat? I know Johnson is very particular with his guitar tones, but is it the wiring / pickups / neck profile / choice of timber for the body and neck? Just interested (although I'm scratching my Strat itch even more recently after looking at an American for sale at a reasonable price in my local music emporium).
A quick summary:1. Sassafras body instead of ash or alder
2. Dimarzio HS-2 in the bridge position, only the top coil is wired up.
3. 62/57 pickups in the mid and neck positions, these are wired out-of-phase with the bridge pickup
4. String tree with a nylon retainer, not the period-correct 54 tree. Eric preferred the later type.
5. The high E string has the more modern Graph Graphtec saddle, the rest of the strings have vintage saddles. Eric thought this tamed the brightness of the string and balanced it more with the others.
6. There's a different nut and washer on the jack socket to the normal Strat arrangement.
7. The neck might be the same as the normal EJ Strats, it's based on a 54 (pretty fat compared to modern Strats) but has a flatter profile and bigger frets to mimic some work Eric had done his personal guitar once upon a time.
8. The headstock has a more smoothed-out carve on the back and sides like the early Strats. Looks really quite different to modern ones.
I'd say that unless you're a real Eric Johnson buff, then the normal EJ Strat would be more than enough. The Virginia is a nerdy thing or a collector's piece. The extra £600 premium or whatever it gets you over the regular EJ probably doesn't have much practical value.
. but that really does demonstrate Johnson's ear for a particular sound!Mastodon2 said:
In a concession to people who would be bothered by the asymmetry of the bridge, Fender include a little bag in the case with a spare vintage saddle and the tools to put it on the guitar if the Graphtec saddle isn't to taste. A nice touch, I thought.
Brilliant! A nice touch indeed!I hope you manage to get another one soon, without the warped pickguard.
As well as the usual electric full band thing, I’ve been working with some guys on more casual, well less loud, to be able to play small bars, restaurants or whatever. So, four of us, me guitar /vocals. Another guy keys / vocals, a bass player and a percussionist.
I will mostly play acoustic, either thru the PA or my ASD50. I already had a midrange Martin electro acoustic and a Fender as a spare but didn’t really like the Fender. Now I had a good excuse
Just bought this thru Thomann. Martin gpcx2e. Yes it’s their lower end, Mexican. Top is solid spruce rest is HPL.. actually sounds very good and close to my other one plugged or unplugged. Pretty happy with it. Maybe a small set up and some of the fret ends are a bit rough. This was €864 with martin padded gig bag. Plenty of others in that range and less but I knew it would sound good plugged in.
I will mostly play acoustic, either thru the PA or my ASD50. I already had a midrange Martin electro acoustic and a Fender as a spare but didn’t really like the Fender. Now I had a good excuse
Just bought this thru Thomann. Martin gpcx2e. Yes it’s their lower end, Mexican. Top is solid spruce rest is HPL.. actually sounds very good and close to my other one plugged or unplugged. Pretty happy with it. Maybe a small set up and some of the fret ends are a bit rough. This was €864 with martin padded gig bag. Plenty of others in that range and less but I knew it would sound good plugged in.
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