), I had a spare Fender-licensed All Parts All Rosewood Chunky U neck without a body. It had been on my daphne blue Fender Vintera '50s Stratocaster for quite some time, but I really prefer a maple neck on the daphne blue Strat. So I swapped out the All Rosewood neck with my Fender-licensed Maple Chunky U neck. I had the maple neck on my now gone Squier CV '50s Strat.I found on Stratosphere a Fender Player Plus Series Stratocaster HSS Strat in Belair Blue, a Fender finish that I've been admiring from afar for quite some time.
I've always loved the Belair Blue of the Fender Player Plus series Stratocaster HSS and Meteora. Since I had the 7-way mod thing covered with my other two Strats, I think the HSS will be a nice addition to the tool box. Worse case, I still have a loaded 7-way modded SSS pickguard if I didn't get on with the HSS.
It arrived on Saturday and I put the all rosewood neck on it, then some D'Addario 11-49 strings, and I was off to the races. I was hopeful that I'd like the noiseless SS pickups and the Fireball humbucker. Happily, I'm really loving it. The noiseless SS pickups and humbucker sound fantastic, even in split-coil mode, although I'm super happy and prefer the normal humbucker mode. And oh, that lovely Belair Blue is even finer in person.
My resistance finally gave way to another Pro Audio Star Black Friday sale - this time, a Squier Paranormal Cabronita Telecaster Thinline in Lake Placid Blue, which has always been on my GAS list but I held off due to having more Teles in various forms than I know what to do with. The price was too amazing to resist and who knows if Squier will have another Paranormal series.
I knew going in the neck would be very thin and the stock pickups not so great (harsh). I can play the neck fine standing up but even then, my hand does start to fatigue, so I'm looking for a Vintera 50's roasted U-shaped neck or '50s Modified roasted Soft V-shaped neck. I can play bigger necks for hours with no fatigue.
I couldn't get on with the stock pickups at all, try as I might. Since they've been in my parts drawer for some time, I installed my Fralin Hum-Cancelling Jazzmaster pickups. I had them previously on a Squier CV '60s Jazzmaster but they didn't sound right to me for some reason. I was hoping that maybe they would sound alright in the Cabronita.
I think I know now what happened. I bought the Fralin pickups used on Reverb. Listed as a set, they were both Fralin-labled as "Neck" with one of them designated as "-10". I think I had either put them in the wrong way or the neck in the bridge position and the bridge in the neck position.
Mystery solved, though. I put the "Neck -10" in the neck position on the Cabronita and the other neck pickup in the bridge. I guess I put them in the correct way, because now they actually sounded like awesome, noiseless Jazzmaster pickups. Absolutely sound amazing.
Huzzah for me, but still
for getting it wrong when they were in my Jazzmaster.Here are the new guitars with the daphne blue Vintera '50s Stratocaster Modified...um, Strat. These naming conventions from Fender...
Unless they offer the Belair Blue finish in future offerings, I'll still be on the lookout for a used Meteora. There was a used Cosmic Jade one at one of my local guitar shops, but I'm holding out for the Belair Blue.
I've also been tempted to get a Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI $399 at Pro Audio Star, $374.99 at Fender but my resistance is still holding...FOR NOW.
