question about my cherry sunburst strat

[jruss]

I have a cherry sunburst std that i bought off my friend, and i have been trying to figure out what wood it is made of. It's an 07 and on the info i've found some say alder some agaithis. so does anyone know? i can get pics if that would help.

 

[Spudman]

There are tons of "strats" out there. Can you be a bit more specific or post a photo. American, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Squire? What?

Got the first 4 characters of the serial number?

 

[jruss]

haha my bad,its a squier made in china (cy07) and heres a pic, crap cellphone quality though.

 

[ZMAN]

Mine is a 2004 model and I have the corresponding Fender frontline for that year. They are listed as Standard RW SE. Wich mean Standard rosewood Special edition. The Cherry Sunburst was introduced as a special limited edition in 2003, along with 9 others in various colors. The cool thing about the old Fender Frontline is that they have a detailed spec sheet on every guitar.
The model number for the SLE Special Limited edition was 032-1603-530, and it was an Alder body.
In 2004 there still was a listing for an 032-1603-530-RW SE also listed as Alder.
The last Frontline I have is a 2006 and they are listed as Agathis in that one.
After a couple of years that color 530 Cherry Sunburst was added to the standard lineup with a Rosewood Board, and the SE label was dropped.
I do not have any listings for 2007, but my best guess is that they are Agathis.
Hope this helps. I did a lot of research on this one a couple of years ago. It has a lovely neck and the Alnico 5 pickups are very responsive.
Spud has one as well, as do a lot of guys on this forum.
I just checked and I guess they have added it as a special edition again with it's own listing on the Squier web page. Again it is listed as Agathis.

 

[Spudman]

It's a Cherryburst. I have 2 of them and they are alder.

 

[ZMAN]

Hey Spud. What year are yours? I looked up the specs on them and the later ones are now Agathis. I thought because of the wood grain they might stick with the Alder. Of course you cannot trust the specs on the Squier site. I have found multiple errors there.

 

[Spudman]

Hey Spud. What year are yours? I looked up the specs on them and the later ones are now Agathis. I thought because of the wood grain they might stick with the Alder. Of course you cannot trust the specs on the Squier site. I have found multiple errors there.

They are in the cases buried in the west wing. I'll check later on the dates.
Squier is famous for using blanket descriptions for their product specifications so I take them with a grain of salt.

If jruss will post a photo we might be better able to give a more assured answer.oke

It's pretty obvious when looking at the grain which is which. I've personally never seen a burst clear agathis finish. I don't think it's a flattering grain to show off. Especially the Cherry finish.

Does yours look like this jruss?

 

[M29]

That is nice Tater, I always check out the Cherry bursts at the shops, I really like that model . All that I have seen were Alder, that is one of the things I like about them.

jruss.....oke

 

[ZMAN]

I agree Spud. Looking back at the original SE in 2003, on the master spec sheet, all of the clear finishes ie you can see the grain, are in Alder the painted finishes are all Agathis.
Can''t beat a 200 dollar guitar with an Alder body.

 

[jruss]

heres a few pics, best quality i can get for now. i was leaning toward alder since it does show woodgrain. In any case it is a great guitar and plays great! i put i klien s-5 pickup in the neck position and i really like it but i decided to go with a set of fender custom shop 69 pickups =]

View attachment 1982

View attachment 1983

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[Duff]

Cherryburst Squire Standard

Mine is just like Spuds. Mine is an '08 and has the alder type grain that does not look at all like my burst LP copy agathis guitar that has closely spaced little pinhead dot pores in the grain that are clearly visible to the naked eye.

I really like that cherry burst and it picked me out, not visa versa.

It now has a Seymour Duncan 'lil 59 in the bridge, for how long I don't know, might change it out for something else; but the 59 sounds super great.

I have found my agathis guitars to be good sounding and have no problem with them.

I believe wood tone is important and that agathis is a good tonewood, however, I think a lot of the tonal lacklusterness of some of my guitars is directly related to the electronics, meaning wiring, pots, switches, grounding, etc., in the guitar. Probably the individual pickups are not as much of the contributing factor to the lacklusterness but I have noticed definite improvements when installing high quality pickups, especially when replacing the rest of the electronic components.

Think about Danelectro guitars for instance. They are made out of multiple types of material in the bodies of a single guitar, including waffleboard type stuff in the core; but the have a reputation for sounding really good. What's up there?

 

[Duff]

Note

One more note on my Cherryburst. It states on the front of the headstock that it is a Standard Series Squire stratocaster. Don't know if this will help.

 

[Spudman]

Yup, that's alder. Unfortunately it looks as if it was plagued wood. The body might split apart at any time. Your best bet is to unload it quickly to M29. If you're lucky he might give you $75 for it.



















Does this make me evil?

 

[M29]

What...what.............:what

 

[jruss]

haha pass, i think ill keep it :AOK ha im also looking to upgrade the trem, have any of you done this upgrade? or know a direct fit replacement?

 

[Duff]

Note

Also noticed that my '08 Cherryburst was made in China, CY plant I believe. Don't know if this is of interest or not.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Does this make me evil?

no, not by itself, but you kinda are . . . oke :crazyguy

I have seen Spud's. If yours is like his, that is a nice axe!

 

[marnold]

Does this make me evil?

I think we crossed that bridge some time ago, didn't we?

 

[Spudman]

I think we crossed that bridge some time ago, didn't we?

That was my cousin under the bridge. :wave: I don't do bridges. Only choruses, refrains, intros and outros and of course the obligatory crescendo.

Sweet guitar for sure. I have no plans on selling mine but maybe a pot upgrade in the future. Otherwise, it's a completely gigable guitar and I've made money with mine.

 

[jruss]

yea im about to upgrade my pots soon also. I would also like to upgrade my amp haha. Right now im using a line 6 30 watt ... been looking at a blues jr. But that will be later on when funds allow haha. This guitar is my first electric and the line 6 is my first amp. I do like the line 6 but it just doesnt have that ...warmth? i would like it to have. The strat though is awesome I only payed 100$ for it and i think that was an amazing deal. I play with the praise team at my church and also in a worship band and we play at diffirent youth events and such.

 

[Spudman]

A Benjamin is indeed a good deal on that guitar. It's kind of criminal what you can find these used for lately. I almost feel like buying every one I run across that is less than $150.

 

[Duff]

Cherryburst

I might put some gfs pickups in my cherryburst, just thinking about it today, maybe gfs little killers in cream for 59 dollars for the calibrated set. I might decide to go for some neovins or hot single coil gfs pickups though.

As far as the amp goes, Fender has an awesome amp that probably is as good as the blues jr. and it is a tube amp with a 6L6 power tube and a 12ax7 upstream from the power tube with a chip that has digital effects and about eleven fender amp models and eleven other obligatory amp models. Who, they say at the Fender Forum, would better know how to model Fender amps than Fender? Even the 1200 dollar plus Fender Supersonic has a digital modelling section that models a vibrolux and a bassman I believe but could be wrong about the vibrolux, could be a vibroking or other vibro-x.

This amp is called a Fender Super Champ XD known as an SCXD. You should be able to find one on the net maybe even MF for 299 new. That's what I paid for mine before the price went up but I think the price went back down with some vendors. It has an incredible clean channel and lots of different drive models. Lots of people replace the stock Fender ten inch speaker with a 65 dollar Eminence Ragin' Cajun ten inch awesome speaker that weighs about ten or fifteen times as much as the Fender stock speaker and is very loud because it has like a 100 - 102 dB sensitivity rating compared to the Fender at about 95dB. Only a few dB, like four or so, doubles the apparent volume of the speaker. This speaker makes the SCXD capable of jamming and some giging. I drowned out a LOUD drummer with mine set at about three on the volume. He was frantically waving me down; I love that, way better than having a drummer scoff at you and tell you to GET A REAL AMP. Totally opposite feeling.

Check the Fender Forum discussion group for the Super Champ XD threads. One of the threads is huge and Bill M., the guru of the Blues Jr., has taken the SCXD under his wing, done testing and actually recommended putting in the Ragin' Cajun. It is a very, very well respected tube amp for half the price of a Blues Jr.

The Blues Jr. is a great amp though, absolutely. I'd like to have one myself and might get a used one some day.

 

[jruss]

Thanks for the suggestion! ill be shure to check it out! that price sounds a whole lot better than the blues jr haha

 

[Duff]

Cherryburst

Still thinking about the pickups for the Cherryburst.

Yeah, that SCXD is a bargain for sure. Check out the Fender Forum. Also, a lot of guys here have and like them.

 

[jruss]

ive also been looking at this amp seems pretty nice
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Vox-Valvetronix-VT30-30W-1x10-Guitar-Combo-Amp-105156558-i1428847.gc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lHYD0yKOf4

 

[Duff]

Amp

I have a little Vox DA5 that is awesome and a old school Pathfinder15R.

My Vox has not caused any problems other than the input jack having broken the solder trace on the circuit board. The input jack goes straight onto the printed circuit board. It is not a jack with wires going to the circuit board.

I took it apart and examined it closely because it would not produce any sound.

I found a very small crack in the solder trace by the jack input plastic case; it was almost invisibly small. I used my pencil soldering iron and a timy bit of solder of about a half mm diameter to patch the crack without touching solder to anything else like other traces, etc. Problem solved and it works fine now. Great portable amp ac or battery operated with super great tones for such a small amp.

The valvetronix amps have been known to have numerous very difficult to fix problems because they are extremely complicated design amps with all sorts of electronics. All stuff that can go wrong. Very costly often times to get repaired.

The Blues Jr. is a great amp that will last a lifetime and will be repairable for as long as you live most likely.

The Fender SCXD is way less complicated than the Valvetronix and does a lot of the same things in a different approach and has a real power tube section, using a real power tube, not a preamp tube and is not far off the valvetronix price. You might want to test out an SCXD. Almost all the Fender dealers have them in stock. Compare it to the valvetronix. I am positive you will hear a definite difference in sound and usability.

I doubt that getting the SCXD fixed will be a major problem after the warranty expires; at least according to my checking around and asking the Fender customer service rep at the main office. Also a pro tech told me it should be fixable for a very long time and that Fender will stock replacement parts and other parts can be made if not available.

Also, remember: one tube watt is equal to three solid state watts. The SCXD is fifteen tube watts and equates to fourty five solid state watts in terms of volume and is very loud with the Ragin' Cajun, gigable. The Vox is basically a solid state amp with a preamp tube in it to help make it sound like a real tube amp and probably is equivalent to thirty watts in terms of volume.

You might want to try out one of those new solid state Marshall thirty watt amps as well, solid state but awesome sounding, relatively sp0eaking. I have a fifteen watt MG15CDR with a real mini reverb tank and a closed back, well built and does what it does really well. Only effect is reverb and the overdrive channel. It has a button that supposedly emulates a tube marshall, probably a good attempt at a good idea, but you know the story.

A plain amp with an inherent great tone is a beautiful thing. You can try pedals with it but it always sounds good by itself and if it is a tube amp it probably will sound real good, like the Blues Jr.

Right now I'm playing my Crate V32 Palamino with two celestion speakers in it. New old stock. All tube amp with a two button pedal for overdrive channel and boost. The overdrive is incredible with this amp. I never use an overdrive pedal. The reverb is great. But I don't play metal. If you play metal then you should make sure your amp has the qualities that are needed for metal.

The vox valvetronix probably has the ultra gain channels on it that you might need. If you are going to play in a band you may want to get a bigger valvetronix to hang with the drummer and other people because they will probably have loud equipment, very loud equipment, especially if they are metal. Normally 100 watts of solid state would be a minimum I'm thinking. People use anywhere from twenty to fifty watt tube amps for playing in a band, minimum.

For bedroom use you only need five watts or less. Then you can crank it and get some good overdrive with a tube amp or even a solid state with a pedal.

Of course that valvetronics would probably be a super great bedroom amp and okay for some low volume jamming with friends.

 

[jruss]

Yea, I dont play much metal. Im going for more of a john mayer, srv, bluesish sound, like the blues jr with a boss blues driver..but im just going to have to make a trip to guitar center and mess around with the amps and see what I like best. I dont need anything extremely loud if I do any gigs it will usually be church events or hopefully im going to start playing some coffee shops soon.

 

[Duff]

Amp

GC probably won't have a SCXD, some of them don't.

A good question to ask is: do you want an amp that does one or two things really well or an amp that does a hundred things half way decent?

I like the simple amps and then add a multi pedal or pedal, but lately I have been playing good tube amps with just the onboard overdrive, boost, and presence and adjusting the eq. It's just a phase, but the amp tone sounds better without the digital or analog
modification of the amps inherently excellent tone.

 

[jruss]

that s really why ive had my eye on the blues jr. i have a feeling that id dislike another modeling amp for some of the same reasons i dislike the line 6. I do just want an amp that has its own sound im just not fond of the 400-500$ price tag on the blues jr

 

[oldguy]

Spudman's really enjoying his Bugera, another not-so-expensive amph.
I'm diggin' my Jet City 20H, 20w head ($299), no effects, just EL84 signal path w. tonestack, gain, volume, presence.
There are lots of options, you just need to try some out when you get a chance. The SCXD is a good little amph, I don't think you'd dislike the modelling side of it if you were to try one.