Fender Road Worn Report

[mike@nortoncable.com]

Played 3 New Road Worns tonight at Cintioli's in Philly. :AOK Its a hit!

Amps used: Marshall 18watt handwired with matching 2061x cab
Fender Super Sonic 112 Combo
Fender Texas Red Blues Jr Combo

Guitars Compared with
58' Masterbuilt strat
69' Custom shop strat
50's Custom shop tele

Black 50's Strat, Medium V Shaped maple neck, exceptional fretwork, medium sized frets, well crowned and level. Overall feel was great, action was very decent for an out of the box guitar. Started off playing into a Marshall 18watt handwired with the matching 2x12 cab,nothing but shimmering tone in all 5 pickup positions. The neck pickup produced a nice beefy sound but remaind spanky and responsive , position 2 \| which most lower priced strats seem to really fail at was great on the Roadworn.. After about 20 minutes of the marshall it was time to try the highgain setup so I plugged into a Fender Supersonic 1x12 combo, the stock pickups really have me shocked, aside from having every nuance of classic strat sound the attack dynamics were solid as a rock, tone controls were a bit usless, I would have gone with a different pot maybe, seemed to be either on or off with not too much inbetween, The nut needed some fine tweaking but other then that, the 50's strat for $600 is a total bargin, its a contender with relics triple the price, has the look & Feel down.

60's Strat in 3 tone sunburst- My favorite out of the 3-
Neck shape was a perfect 60's Medium/Fat C Similar to the new Eric Johnson strat., Fretwork was the best out of the 3 roadworns, nut didn't need any tweaking either. Tonally
Bridge is hot and punchy, Mid pos wasn't as good as the 50's but the half positions made up the difference, by far the best sound was the neck pickup into a Blues Jr with some extra reverb, Did an A/B Comparison against a masterbuilt 58' strat- Was pretty tough to accept the $600 strat sounding just as good as the $5000 strat. Finish on the neck was exellent, all though it was relic'd it played easy and the relicing didnt get in the way. Also Compared against a 69' relic it held its ground, the 69' Tremolo felt a tad better and it was setup just a hair better on the action/intonation side.

50's Tele 3 tone burst- BIG BIG Neck, Its a club, Massive C shape, think 58' Les paul big. Big frets, Chikin pickin was real easy, again with the amazement that a mexican fender didn't need a setup out of the box, good fretwork. Tuners weren't holding at first but snugged up after a while. Sounded best into the Super sonic with some verb, but for rythm- plugged into the 18watt marshall it had that classic bite and punch.. Pickups again- solid- Bridge Position rocked great and the neck/bridge at once had a good response to pick attack. Compared against another relic tele, Triple the price and the Road worn was just as nice. Compared against a 50's custom shop tele, Sound was completely different, Feel was about the same, quality of build was almost par with the CS Relic- the biggest difference was the extent of relicing, CS tele was beat a bit too much..

Conclusion: Fender really has stepped up on the quality side, most of the mexican fenders over the last decade have been either really GOOD or really bad, Fender finally has their equasion nailed!! Go check these out! totally outragous. Keep in mind these are Relic'd to a certain extent, its not like some of the heavy relics, they tastefully did these, they're not overdone in anyway.. No hard cases but heck for the money I don't think it can be beat..

[XKnight]

Originally Posted by -Analog-

Was pretty tough to accept the $600 strat sounding just as good as the $5000 strat.

Who is selling the Road Worns for $600? Every place I've seen has them listed for $949.

[mike@nortoncable.com]

Usually everything at Cintioli music is Half off list
there $1200 list, everything I've ever bought there, fender, marshall anything
has been half off list..
The best music store I've ever set foot in!

[bynt]

I could see maybe 600.00. The grand that they want for them, I don't know. I've played four or five and most of them weren't bad at all. The one's at the store here are really pretty heavily relic'd and a couple of them look really good while a couple of them literally look like somone just blindly attacked a Standard Strat with a belt sander. In all, I think they're decent guitars and I have to agree that the Mexican plant has been churning out better and better stuff quality-wise.

For the record, it sounds like you had a blast!!! I'm hoping to go to Philly in the Spring and I'll definately look up that music store.

[shane88]

the custom shop is now outta business

[richey88]

That Marshall 18w is the shit!! I tried out my Epi '57 RI through it that I got there. Cool 'lil store. Haven't been since RW came out. After playing a few, I must say I am intrigued by the RW's. Waiting for used ones to come around......nice reviews Analog, thanks!

[mc5nrg]

I love Benny and Cintioli's...tell 'em Chris says hi...but discounts approaching 40% off list is a more realistic description. Of course, this will change with the discount from the manufacturer (A,B, whatever) and the need to clear some room. Cintioli's is an old school high volume MI store, with veteran employees and repairs on premises. Sort of like a Philadelphia version of Chuck Levin's in a smaller space. The original poster may qualify for "professional courtesy" pricing as a supplier.

[GoofyDawg]

Is it just me? I can't seem to get into this relic craze. I'd rather wear out a guitar myself, or get a guitar that has already been broken in by someone else - I mean really broken in, and not a new guitar that has been chipped and worn by a machine. I don't really get the sense of it.

[voodoo364]

great report..better than my Nash

[drewl]

Say hi to Benny for me..!

I tried a couple out at my friends store last week and really liked the tone and feel of these guitars.
Having a hard time justifying a grand for a beat up guitar, but they do feel nice.

[nsriley]

Well I came home with a 50's RW Tele last night from my local store. They gave me a good price, basically, old Fender prices with no tax. I have never been into the whole reliced thing. I pulled about 5 different Tele's off the hangers, from USA's to the Baja. Based off of feel and sound, I walked out with the RW one. The fret work was great, none of the fret spout hat people have been saying. The setup was fine, action was a bit high, but that's personal preference and was easily lowered when I got home. I also adjusted the intonation a bit, as much as you can do with the 3 saddles anyways. I really like the sound of the steel saddles and have always used brass, but man this guitar just rings out. The broken in feel of the neck was the best part. I usually don't like 7.25" radius but with the taller frets it works for me. It's very light weight unlike the others I played. Probably 6-7 pound range. Anyways I'm happy with it and never have to worry about dinging it! I didn't buy it for the look, I bought it for it's tone and feel. I always try and judge a guitar as if I was blind folded.

[Joe Perry]

Cintioli's is THE best in Philly for pricing. 40% off is the norm there. More especially with $. I have no professional affiliation and have received 45% + off. Go in pet his old dog, catch Benny on a good day and who knows what deal you'll get. When Zaphs music was still around it was like Macy's vs Gimbels.

[steviej21]

Originally Posted by Joe Perry

Cintioli's is THE best in Philly for pricing. 40% off is the norm there. More especially with $. I have no professional affiliation and have received 45% + off. Go in pet his old dog, catch Benny on a good day and who knows what deal you'll get. When Zaphs music was still around it was like Macy's vs Gimbels.

That's the way NSTuff Music is in Pgh. They actually put 2 GCs in the PGH area to try to knock them out of business. However, their still going strong because of their prices, knowledege, and reputation. Long Live the independent dealers.

[mike@nortoncable.com]

GC realisticly- and I'm not just saying this.
GC- Cannot compete with other music stores now- their fixed pricing is the Ultimate handicap.. These little mom and pop shops are what the music business is built on and what it will continue to run on, that + the internet, Large corporate Firms like guitar center, sam ash can't compete, mars music couldnt compete, they went belly up, guitar centers closed how many locations?

the oxford valley GC has had the same load of expensive guitars for quite a while, nobody's paying retail!..

[jazzandmetal?]

Originally Posted by -Analog-

GC realisticly- and I'm not just saying this.
GC- Cannot compete with other music stores now- their fixed pricing is the Ultimate handicap.. These little mom and pop shops are what the music business is built on and what it will continue to run on, that + the internet, Large corporate Firms like guitar center, sam ash can't compete, mars music couldnt compete, they went belly up, guitar centers closed how many locations?

the oxford valley GC has had the same load of expensive guitars for quite a while, nobody's paying retail!..

GC doesn't have fixed pricing or charge retail. Guitar Center hasn't closed any stores. Where are you getting your information from?

Mars closed and Sam Ash closed some stores a few years ago, but Sam Ash is far from going out of business.