Next video "Why I sold my perfect guitar"

I bought this guitar new from GAK some years back. I had the tuners changed because I don't get on with locking ones. You can see me playing it on at least Swan Vesta Social Club vids. Sadly, I had to let it go for financial reasons. Watching this vid brought me much pleasure. Thank you.

Perfect guitar Yeh ! heard you say that line before. Perfect until the next perfect guitar rolls in. Great vlog as usual 😁

Killer guitar, killer playing, killer tones! 🔥🔥🔥

Very nice guitar, Paul. Hope it keeps you happy. Thanx for the video.

I absolutely LOVE that Fender Masterbuilt Heavy Relic Strat! An acquaintance of mine bought one just like yours. Same finish, pickguard and everything. But he wasn't crazy about the bridge pickup. Not enough output and no character. He talked about putting in a different pickup in it but I lost contact with him shortly after he bought the Strat. I would have to say that it was like looking at a Jackson Pollock work of art masterpiece. I was absolutely floored by the craftsmanship and aesthetics of that guitar.

Sounds amazing Paul…you definitely know what to look for in your guitar. The sustain you get is superb. Great breakdown of this lovely instrument, love the crispness

Sounds absolutely amazing man!

Loved it yesterday, sold it today, want it back tomorrow.

Enjoyed that video, really cool guitar! Enjoy everything about it. Great sound and playing Paul

Sounds amazing, outstanding playing as usual. 😀

Oooft! Sounds incredible mate 😎👌

Sounds amazing even from here on KZfaq

As the man that actually spec'd this guitar when I worked in a store over 10 years ago, I can confirm it is awesome. I wanted to design the ultimate modded strat. Shame I never actually got to own it! Maybe one day! But I did play it before I sold it.

Looks killer, sounds killer, very jealous mate. 👍🏻🔥🎸

That would definitely be a keeper for me…

I have a Nash 60s strat, got it 20yrs ago. Its got fair amount relic treatment. Neck is fantastic. Converted it from SSS to HSS, just plays and sounds wonderful.

Those little springs fall out all the time. Since finding one that a previous tech had done, I CA glue them to the bottom of the hole so they just stay put! That is a great sounding strat.

Sounds killer!

Killer guitar!

I would drop the height of the neck pickup to match the volume of the bridge pickup because better tones are found lower not higher. Always use your ears when setting pickup heights though. I start with them all level to the pickguard and only raise the ones that need volume balance when switching and then tweak bass vs treble angle (look up old Hendrix videos and you'll see he tilted his pickups by ear). Use the amp to make it all louder not pickup heights, yes louder seems more better but it tends toward muddy going too high. Pickups have a magnetic 'cloud' around the pole pieces. It doesn't really matter if it's a LP or F spaced humbucker because you adjust pickups by ear. Plus you even have screw poles you can adjust string to string output differences you like/dislike as if hooked to a mini EQ pedal. Use your ears not your eyes when setting up pickups and you'll get the best tone.

Another perfect guitar!

The best guitar is the one that makes you play with enthusiasm while penetrating that timeless zone. I have several Fender, Charvel , Schecter and thanks to your page I found a Jet JS 400 on which I installed a Dimarzio Super Distorsion on the bridge. This instrument is by far the one I have been playing since acquiring it 8 months ago. Killer construction, roasted maple neck, great tone and amazing access to the 22 fret. With adding pickup = $450 Canadian money (330 USD). This Fender you show has an incredible sound but the way you play is a part of it . Magic fingers !

I just recently set up my 2000 American Series Stratocaster with a MULE at the bridge, a Klein '56 in the middle, and a Klein '63 at the neck. Was kind of brittle and squawky to start out with; but they have all mellowed quite a bit, quite quickly, and sound "smashing" as you foreigners like to say ... My MULE is 53 mm across, and perfect.

EXCELLENT.

Man, that guitar sings.. 🙏🏻

They didn’t use F spaced because old modded guitars wouldn’t have f spaced pickups because they didn’t exist yet.

That guitar is the jam, very nice. The reason there isn't an F Space in there is because back in the day there were only Gibson PAF and they were not F Spaced and they hadn't made any F Spaced ones yet. So they are going for period correct is my guess? Here is a tip, Seymour Duncans are actually bigger pickups, DiMarzio are the same size pickup, just the poles are spaced for the F style

with a custom shop 60s Stratocaster with HSS configuration do you recommend a pearly gates humbucker or a sh4 JB?

Great video! Love the HB sound from this, although received wisdom normally suggest the player makes the sound, which I wouldn’t disagree with. Have you used RadioShop pups? Chris Buck obviously rates them and his sound is up there. Would be good to hear your style of playing on a RS loaded strat.

Wow! I didn’t know Bill Burr plated guitar! ❤

Please tell me what amp you are playing with this black strat?

Hi Paul: happy NGD. I had an HSS with a non-Fspaced himbucker in the rear pos. but I kept it, as it sounded great (SD SH-2B). The relic job on yours is a bit too much for my taste, particularly the pink part, but alright this is all subjective. Don't know the price you paid, but it must hae been quite a chunk... After Xperiences, I've now kept my own assembled HSS: alder body, vintage floating trem, Michael Landau HSS loaded pickguard, split option for the humbucker, USACG neck roasted maple/rosewood board, LSR roller nut and HipShot Griplock staggered tuners. It took me quite a while to set up the pickup heights to be satisfactory, as those ML pickups are quite hot, but now the guitar is a keeper. I am rather a Tele guy than a Strat, but this is the only one I kept (out of 4) and I'm quite happy with it :) Cheers Paul !

Have you played a Charvel? Be an interesting AB v similar models

I can’t tell the difference between a “F” spaced or a standard PAF humbucker in a vintage style Fender. Ive had multiples of either, sometimes at the same time. The Pearly Gates is an excellent choice o go with Strat singles.

A keeper.

Would love to see you try a Brian May guitar!

You do that sort of arpeggio run a lot. I love that. Could you run through that for us sometime? I think I speak for more than myself.. we’d super appreciate it!

I like how the Zebra HB makes it more discrete in respect of being a HSS Strat, which I’m resistant to tbh! 😊

Guitars is such a 🤔 healthy addiction 😊

Great vid as always. My best guess is that it won’t be a keeper. It sounds great - no doubt - but its a bit generic and Paul has sounded better with other guitars (more character). I am thinking of the Paisley strat. We’ll see 😊

Is that an S1 switch in the volume pot too?

Really nice guitar! Bridge pickup sounds great. How would you compare it with a JB ?

Um, don't change a thing on it. It sounds just great as it is.

Good for you Paul. Enjoy!

Your version of clean on the bridge cracks me up Paul…. Nice guitar 😊

Sounds good. What amplifier are you using?

I just saw this!!! My favorite videos besides you taking us to the guitar store and playing the best gear. I looked quick and thought it was your black ancho Pablano. Going to watch now. Do you think the hb was changed. Cool looking and sounds great. Yea very nice.

Oh yeah. That's a keeper!

That Strat is the best sounding Strat I've ever heard and your chops are insanely good.

Bad ass looking and sounding strat! The relic on the front is a tad bit over the top for my tastes. Other than that, its a 9 out of 10 👍

Great player

Do you think the master built stuff is noticeably better than the regular custom shop stuff or is it all a little bit cork-sniffer?

Awesome guitar. What did you play it through?

Sounds great. That relic job though…

Oh my! That guitar sounds, dare I say, PREFECT! I just found your channel and subscribed. What is the rest of your signal chain?

Do you use compressor pedal?

add a lil vaseline etc to the trem arm tension spring, stops it falling out if you remove the arm

The guitar is great, but the Phil X head is the star 💪🔥

Paul, that sounds incredible... I'm in love..!!! What's your signal chain... amp.? pedals.?

I've had much the same experience with my first and only HSS S type. Having balanced pickups that aren't honky, and using a treble bleed curcuit, really opens up the guitars potential. The TB-14 and two SSL-6's have proven to be the best match for my needs. I have position 2 wired for bridge and neck, so when the bridge pickup is coilsplit the Tele tones are abundant.

Hey Paul ! Vic Vancouver Canada ! I had to chime in about Strat loose term bars . After playing strats live for over 50 years I couldn’t take the wobbley bar anymore so I installed a Floyd Rose pop in tremolo bar on the Strat tremolo unit and man what a difference ! It cost $50 Canadian to my door. You may need a tec to install it as I’m a machinist and did it myself 👍 Cheers!

I dropped a Cunife wide range in the bridge of my custom shop fender. Best mod I ever did. Sounds great and by definition it has F spacing ;-). Funny thing is I just bought another with a single coil in the bridge and I'm enjoying the heck out of it. Of course it has a lot to do with my song choice. It is just fun to have so many choices and perfect guitars! Until the next one!!

Do you still have the awesome green hss strat? This one is really nice too. Hope you will bond with it. I have a hsh relic strat that looks like yours a bit, black with red pickguard but without the pink under coat and mine has a full maple neck. Mine has a 250k no load tone pot for the bridge pu and I love this concept. You can have the darker 250k tone but also have access to the 500k open tone if I want to. I like a lot the 59 and jb humbuckers that came stock with the guitar, but switched them for a antiquity humbuckers set to try lower outputs pickups. I had to remove the covers to fit them in the pickguard. I found I really enjoy the bridge antiquity humbucker. Not a huge difference in tone and output vetsus the jb, I was expecting a more drastic difference. I find the neck a bit dark tho. Less boomy than the 59 but also less bright. But it has nice midranges. I'd like a bit more bite I raised the screw coils a bit to compensate and open the pickup sound a bit. I am thinking a no load pot would be great on neck pu too. I would have access to a clearer sound and still have the woody wooly tone if I want. Also I will have to reverse the magnets on the humbuckers because they are out of phase (and 2 conductors unlike the original pickups) with the middle single coil and the in-between positions sound wimpy. I have ordered and will try an antiquity jb to see if I can have the best of both world. I love tweaking my guitars but I always keep the original pieces, as you said in the video. Great advice.

That sounds incredible!! Just what I’m looking for but in a more affordable option..

What is the bridge pickup? Or did I miss it in there…

Refinish and fret polish, good to go

you make alot of guitars sound like a great guitar

Sounds great, but I attribute a lot of it to your playing and the ODRev behind you. Still in love with that amp?

It's funny but I can't count how many times I've heard people say that the one guitar they have really really bonded with is a Tele. The simplest of guitars and not a pretty guitar by any stretch. But there it is. I let go of a '63 years ago which could have been a les Paul , big mistake. But I've had my Jason Smith '52 now for 12 years and have spent a lifetimes savings trying to find something that comes close. So maybe there will always be just that one guitar that you bond with. If I'd realised that earlier my holidays might be a little more ambitious....

Looks like it has the modern ultra wiring with the s switch in the volume knob. Dont know if you noticed it.

very nice.

Paul has more love affairs with guitars than Liz Taylor had husbands. Here's to romantics! PS The Gibson box is behind the great Fender tone. ;-)

Which drive pedal are you using?

I love your semi hollow paisly strat

You want the guitar perfect but beat up to hell. For this much money I want everything perfect. But whipped . Tasty playing !

Have you checked out a vega trem?

Amazing video as always Paul, in addition to all the info others have provided in the comments about the size of the bridge pickup, another problem can be that there are two common spacing for a strat bridge. The one you have is the vintage ~55mm (with 10.9mm wide saddles) spacing whereas most HSS strats like the AM Pro II have the modern ~52mm string spacing at the bridge. That pickup might not look that out of place on a narrow spaced bridge...

You can't go wrong with an 🇺🇸 strat ‼️ But it came in a Gibson box 😮❓ Personally I don't want to buy a new guitar already worn and from what I seen, used guitars are only like $50 to $100 cheaper than a new guitar ‼️ I think I will buy a new guitar.

Recently bought a Strat to mod. Seymour Duncan (bridge) Pearly Gates just arrived today. Trembucker so the pole pieces “should” line up. Special ordered (Warmoth) a HSS pick guard to fit this slightly wider pickup.The cavity may have to be drilled out a little to fit properly. Hoping it sounds half as good as yours when completed.

When I saw the Gibson box, I thought you’d made a change, but no, no, it’s another reliced CS Fender Strat. It’s really cool.

It looks all right, so before you sell this one maybe you can make a comparison with Ibanez az2204, with Fortuna pickups HSS and with dyna-MIX9 switching system. This guitar is very versatile, but... we don't know what you think Mr Paul. Will you be tempted?

I don't know why you ever sold the candy apple red master built? That was a beautiful sounding, playing & looking guitar!

So what are you playing it through?

The F spaced pickup will make zero difference, it’s more an aesthetic thing if you can get around it. Nice axe!

Can you explain better how to control better the tremolo? With a “spring”? Thank you!

Single coils sound killer...I normally stick with the 50s custom shop but that mix works perfect...I bet you change the humbucker though ;-)

do a show about connecting with a guitar . in the last 4 years i seem to have realised life is about frequency and resonance . nothing like a guitar to return the resonance back to the player x

I wish KZfaq had a rule that in order to review guitars, you need to play as well as Paul does. (Or John Cordy, Shawn Tubbs, etc). Point is, the world is full of great players so there's really no need for guys who know the threads on each screw but can't really demonstrate what the instrument can do.

Could this video be called I Need More Views Guitar ?

i admire you .

Today's perfect guitar is next weeks been there done that...oh my , my G.A.S. won't abate...quickly Robin grab my debit card were off to the Reverbmobile ...oh my look at that a blonde 59 Esquire for a mere 25,500 ducats ...no wait a pre CBS Strat.. Oh yes you will be mine.. and on they danced

Another perfect guitar.... If I may suggest why not find a strat with a good body and neck and have a series of loaded scratch plates that you can have any combination of flavours of pickups or single pickup so you can swap them around to your liking.much cheaper than a new guitar every couple of months.

Looks like the Bridge pickup is 50mm, wich would make it a neck pickup, F spaced pickups are usually 52mm. Could be that previous owner has put in a Neck in the place of a Bridge. You can check the DC Resistance with a multimeter. If its very low its a Neck pickup.PRS guitars Use Two 50mm pickups even on their John McLaughlin model. 😅.

That would be great! I will! I’d love to add that into my tickle trunk

It does sound like a perfect guitar to me but I've always been a Strat guy primarily. My number one is a 1976, sunburst finish, black pickguard, maple neck but it's been modified a lot through the years. Even sported a Floyd and active EMG pickups for years through the 90s. 2000s and 2010s. Now back closer to stock with Tonerider Pure Vintage pickups that sound fantastic to me. Graphtech staggered locking tuners and a Vega Trem that replaced the Floyd (nut area has been put back to as close to stock as possible after removing the Floyd nut by one of the best luthier in Montreal. It sounds, feels and plays better than it ever has. I love the Vega-Trem so much I put one in my PRS Custom SE 24-08 ;) But your new Strat sounds incredible. Makes me think I need to get an HSS... ;) Ah... GAS!

A slight nod to EJ ❤very nice guys

Needs 22 stainless steel frets to be perfect

build your own guitar from scratch like Brian May did and you won't have a problem on ever switching gears anymore

A perfect guitar would have twenty two frets