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New, but Hot Rodded
This is a brand new Fender® Road Worn Player Stratocaster® that we've modified with some very nice upgrades, which are detailed below. All original parts are included in the sale. We're an authorized Fender dealer, and this guitar is sold with a full factory warranty. The guitar weighs 7.55 pounds. Fret Level, Crown, & Polish
The degree to which the frets are level determines the degree to which the guitar can be setup with low action. The frets need to be right, and so we level them in-house. We almost always level/crown/polish frets on the Mexican Fender guitars, so they'll be as perfect as possible. You can read more about our process here. After final assembly we completely setup the guitar, so that it plays perfectly. We adjust the nut slots, and adjust the truss rod, the action, and the intonation. When you get a guitar from us, it plays right. Just like it should. Wiring
These RW Player Strats ship from Fender with Texas Special pickups in the neck and middle, and a Duncan Pearly Gates Plus bridge humbucker. We've left the pickups in the guitar, but modified the wiring to be more perfectly-mated to a SSH setup. SSH Strats pose a few head-scratchers, because there are a couple of challenges when you combine single-coils and humbuckers in Fender guitars: one is that you don’t want to compromise hum-canceling; and the other is that you want to optimize the pot values. Most Strats use a middle pickup that is reverse-wound and reverse-polarity (RWRP) so that you get hum-canceling in positions 2 and 4. Add a humbucker into the bridge, and it’s important that you split the humbucker in the 2 position, so that you combine only one of its coils with the middle pickup. This allows you to retain hum-canceling in this position (assuming the pickups are compatible - all Acme SSH prewired assemblies will hum-cancel in this position), and it also most-closely approximates the tone of a Strat in the 2 position. You could add a switch of some type that would allow you to manually split the humbucker, but this would mean manipulating two switches. Most players prefer to let the 5-way switch perform this function automatically, so that position 1 is always the bridge humbucker, while position 2 is always the split humbucker combined with the middle. This is usually how we do it at Acme. What about pot values? Humbuckers are voiced with 500kΩ pots (the traditional Gibson value), while Strat pickups are voiced with 250kΩ pots (the traditional Fender value). A 500k volume pot will make the guitar a little brighter, so it’s great with the humbucker, but can make the single coils a little over-bright. Conversely, a 250k pot can make the humbucker a little too dark or “wooly”. With our SSH assemblies you don’t have to compromise. We use a 500k volume pot so that the humbucker sounds right in position 1, but we add a resistor into the circuit in the other 4 positions, dropping the load to 250k, so that the other positions sound right. Hey, who wants to compromise where tone is concerned? Need more features? We’ve added another biggie: the ability to toggle the 2 and 4 positions between series and parallel. If you’re into humbuckers then you probably know about the difference in output and gain that humbucker-equipped guitars produce compared to Fenders. This is because their coils are connected in series, while a Strat’s coils are typically connected in parallel. Now you can have both options available on your Strat, and toggle between them quickly and easily. We use our ToneShaper pushbutton switch to toggle the 2 and 4 positions between series and parallel. This switch fits neatly between the first two pots and the 5-way, and is completely unobtrusive while remaining readily accessible. In the “down” position it protrudes from the face of the pickguard only slightly, and in the “up” position it’s still very low-profile, so it won’t get in the way of your finger if you like to do volume swells. Finally, to make this wiring truly custom, we’ve used our ToneShaper narrow superswitch rather than the standard 5-way, so that we can customize the tone controls. The standard Strat switch assigns the tone controls to specific pickups, but the superswitch assigns them to specific switch positions, which allows for more granular control. We’ve assigned the lower tone control to position 1 only, and we’ve used Gibson-esque values for both the pot and the tone capacitor. This optimizes the tone controls for their respective positions: Gibson values for the “Gibson” position (1), and Fender values for the “Fender” positions (2/3/4/5). Bridge Upgrades
We've upgraded the tremolo with one of Callaham's enhanced vintage solid-steel inertia blocks, which are denser and provide a more-authentic old-school tone than the cast zinc blocks that ship in these guitars. We've also added Callaham's virtual pop-in tremolo arm in his '64 length. We've added a black Fender arm tip (aged, of course) to match the rest of the plastic, which was necessary because the arm that ships with the guitar from Fender isn't the same as the vintage-style arms, and so the stock tip wouldn't fit the Callaham arm. Oh, and one more small detail: we've added a Fender spacer under the string tree, reducing the angle of the B and E strings over the nut in an effort to reduce friction in the stings' paths. This improves tuning stability when using the tremolo. It's the details that count! Cavity Shielding
There are many sources of hum and noise in our modern world. Many of the ones that plague guitar players fall into one of two classifications: EMI (ElectroMagnetic Interference) and RFI (Radio Frequency Interference). Both can be effectively dealt with by comprehensive shielding of the electronics. If you've ever experienced touching the strings on a guitar and hearing a reduction in hum, this is EMI/RFI. The hum is reduced when you touch the strings, because touching the strings connects you to ground, and your body provides some shielding for the electronics. The way to effectively shield a guitar is to enclose the electronic components in a box that's electrically conductive, and then connect this box to ground. Fender shields the cavities on Mexican Standard guitars with shielding paint, but the Classic Series guitars, and the Road Worn guitars, are usually not shielded at all (the Road Worn Player Strats are partially shielded). We shield the cavities on these guitars using a high-quality nickel-based paint, and connect this paint to ground. This provides an effective shield so as to keep unwanted noise (radio transmissions, hum from magnetic fluorescent light ballasts, etc) out of your signal. Giddyup
So now this guitar is ready to gig. Sounds great, plays great, is great! All in all, a fantastic guitar for not a ton of cash. Bonus: It says Fender on the headstock. It can be yours today, unless you live outside the US (because this guitar cannot ship internationally, sorry!) | | | | Video of actual guitar for sale | | | | | | Click images below for larger versions |  |  |  |  |  |  | | | |