rupe":2zknle3p said:
Sweet! What kind of Filtertrons are in that? I've been wanting to play one the El Carbonitas for a while but haven't had a chance yet...seems like a great idea.
They're Fender's own... "Fidelitrons"....
Fender is doing a super job on these out of Mexico as they want to launch a USA production model next.
$590 DELIVERED from MF!!
Here's the review I left at musiciansfriend.com
"I'm going to start with a couple criticisms of this guitar and end on a positive note. Surprised to see that Fender did not include a gig bag with this model. Also Fender should lose the vintage spaced hardtail bridge as the strings do not align well with the pickups and are at the edge of the neck. This is easily fixed however, with a Warmoth humbucker spaced hardtail Strat bridge which is a direct drop-in replacement. The neck plate chrome is thin, wavy and cheap looking.
On to the good news! Fender raised the MSRP on the ash model $100 over the alder colors, and Fender is currently backordered on the ash, but Musicians Friend has them in stock at the SAME PRICE as the alder colors!!
THIS IS A 22 FRET NECK! Fender's official description is 21, that is wrong. The neck is NOT a "Modern C", it's very chunky and is closer to a U. Mine is .870" at the first fret and .930" at the 12th. Nut is not 1-5/8" but is every bit of 1-11/16". This is the best, fattest neck I've seen Fender put on a production guitar in a very long time! Neck has a light color tint. Finish on the neck and body is flawless. Nice grain on the two-piece ash. I tried an alder burst model in the store, it was three-piece. I did not care for the burst alder appearance which is why I ordered the ash model from MF. The alder model did indeed play well and sounded fantastic. These pickups, Fender's take on the TV Jones Filtertron (Fender calls theirs Fidelitron) sound fantastic! No weird mid "honky-ness". They sound like vintage output A2 humbuckers. IMO they are better sounding than the TV Jones. Internally, Fender feels this way as well, they like these better with this guitar than the Filtertrons that the Custom Shop is using. Winter NAMM 2013 will see Fender introducing the Cabronita as a new US model. Fender is very excited about the Cabronita and is doing a very good job with the quality on these as they are using this Mexican-made line as a springboard to a new US line.
Change out a couple hardware pieces and this model is every bit as good as the Custom Shop La Cabronitas, and the pickups even sound better.
This line is an incredible value. In my opinion, I would order one sooner rather than later. Specs, quality or MSRP will have to give at some point. No way they can keep selling a guitar this good at this price point. First new guitar I bought out of my pocket in many years. You can't build one from aftermarket parts at this price. And if you did, it wouldn't be any better than what Fender has done with this model. I never thought I would say this, but, Good Job Fender! Bravo!"