I have had one of the new Dave Murray Strats on order since February and yesterday went to pick it up; which also gave the the opportunity to grab a used Classic Vibe Tele in mint condition. I'll post photo shortly (this weekend is proving to be massively busy) so here are my initial thoughts. The new Dave Murray is a lot different to the original - gone are the dimarzio HSH configuration, nitro finish and standard term. Replacing them is a pair of hot rails and JB Junior. Trem is now an original floyd and the guitar has a rosewood board. It's 2 tone burst with a pearloid guard. The new model is Mexican made as opposed to US. I haven't had much opportunity to play test but the initial impressions are good - the compound radius make the neck very playable and the action is spot on with no hint of rattle. The hot rail in the bridge is as hot as Lord Flashheart's pants and cleans up (surprisingly) well. Equally the Neck rail is extremely fat sounding. The JB in the middle is a bit of a revelation (no pun intended) as it sounds great clean, thick without being muddy. There are also a couple of lucky cosmetic wins on the guitar - firstly the body (I believe 2 part) is seamlessly matched and secondly the back of the headstock has wonderful bit of birds eye going on - it's present all along the neck, but most visible on the headstock It's not all plain sailing though - somehow Fender have managed to put the wrong accessories pack in the box - it appears to be from a US Deluxe. The mismatch Allen keys are not a problem as I have others that fit, however Trem action will have to wait until it can sorted next week. My other gripe with it relates more to new guitars in general, the board is coated with quite a liberal dose of fretboard dye -this something all manufacturers are doing and they should all just stop it. Aside from making the board feel very dry, it is prone to marking during the playing off stage. I'd rather have a lighter board that doesn't leave black marks on your fingers! Now for the Classic Vibe - this was £199 of win! This guitar is utterly awesome - I'm very reluctant to say this, but it's better than my Baja tele - in every respect. It's the butterscotch blonde version and the finish is applied flawlessly - the neck tint is also top draw. Hardware and electrics feel solid and the pickups (which I think come from the same factory as Tonerider) sound very authentic (they're not particularly high output, but the bite is present by the bucket load). It's three part body comprising a 10%, 80%, 10% split - matched so well the pieces can only be seen end on. Medium Jumbo frets and 9.25 inch radius mack the guitar play like a modern guitar, yet somehow it still has that vintage look. All in all this guitar reminds me very much of a JV Tele a mate owned a few years back. Although this guitar is second hand, there is not a mark on it, anywhere! I'll add pictures to this thread as soon as I get some done. On a different note every time I go guitar shopping in Guildford I hit a problem - last time (when I bought my Chapman) the trip took 9 hours as a result of road closures. Yesterday went well - good progress there and back; until about 10 mies from home when I blew a tyre. Sorted this and got a replacement fitted, then discovered they had closed the bridge onto the island for "repairs" (workmen seemingly absent from worksite though!) which added a further delay. Just to compound the car problems I had to pop out a bit latter only to have a headlight but blow (both my bulbs came from Halfords and neither has lasted a year!). So good day for guitars, bad day for cars!
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Comments
You win some, you lose some. Sounds like it was a good day for winning guitar wise. Now spend a bit of time enjoying them.
Here are some tele pictures - waiting to get some better light for the Strat as the burst is hard to shoot under flash without blowing all the grain (I could set something up, but thought it would be wise to wait for daylight)
I've tried to capture the flame in the neck - not very successfully though! (Please excuse finger marks - just finished playing it!).
Looks rather nice.
The Dave Murray sounds brilliant. Not really me on any level, but I definitely have a soft spot for a bit of Maiden
2015 model seems to be more like what he's playing today, against the old model which was obviously a factory version of his old 80's one.
And *obviously* the Tele is great. Teles are great
Thanks guys - here is the start, Not so great pictures - still trying to catch up after a manic couple of days.
Nice instrument.
Some very nice looking guitars there Ninja. Does seem a funny thing with the dyed rosewood fretboards - I've not noticed the finger blackening effect with any of my guitars, but I still wonder if any of them have been dyed all the same. Like the shot of the two Dave Murray strats together.
I'm finding the new one has a much more workmanlike feel than the '57 based model - which I think stems from the floyd and the compound radius. The black one is an awesome lump in ways that new one isn't - yet the new one is probably better suited to day on day use (if you see what I mean)
I think the fretboard dying is relatively recent event on rosewood - It seems to have been common on Ebony for a while - where the expectation is that the board should glass like and jet black.
I've always experienced "coalman's fingers" on new guitars as a consequence of the strings being new and heavy on graphite but I notice it a lot more these days (looks different too- more of a black content)
I totally see why it's done because it evens out the variation in rosewood shades - and in all honesty it's not like it doesn't play in or wear off relatively quickly; I think it just makes the boards look and feel very dry on an initial play. In a lot of ways it's very much the same as car dealers spraying the tyres black on new and used cars to give an extra wow factor! (I must confess I use McGuires Wet look tyre spray on my ST after a big clean!)
I think it's very likely that some of my guitars have dyed fretboards, unknown to me, going by what you say Ninja. Have you tried treating the new one with lemon oil (or similar light oil)? I tend to do that almost immediately with any new ebony or rosewood fingerboard guitar, and I wonder if somehow it helps to stop the dye coming out. Just speculation on my part there though.
The new Dave Murray looks kind of slick and modern to me, and I'm sure when you have it played in a bit, it will start to show it's own character. For me though, I do have to admit there is something iconic about the original, with the humbuckers and the silver surrounds on the scratchplate - it's just a very recognisable thing. I'm not an Iron Maiden fan, but I still see that guitar and instantly know what it is.
I'd not heard of dyed fingerboards before it was mentioned in this thread.
I was complaining of getting black fingers in this thread:
http://www.guitars.co.uk/topic/shubb-capos
But as it seemed to be coincident with using my capo I was blaming my Shubb. I'm now wondering, as the fretboard on my Faith acoustic is ebony, whether that is dyed and maybe the culprit? I'll need to be more scientific about determining exactly when I'm experiencing black finger syndrome.
Love the Tele by the way!
Cheers, Reg.
My Chapman has a ebony board and I noticed it first on that one - in the Chappers factory tour he actually show it being applied - it's simply a quick spray over, which. StewMac sell the same stuff on their site.
As Graham says a bit of lemon oil and a fretboard clean does wonders - it takes the dryness away and soaks some of the colour in - my Harley Benton came up a treat after being done - I've earmarked the Murray for a string change this week and bit of an overall fettle - It doesn't need much. I should have said earlier but the setup out of the box is virtually bang on - I see this more and more with new guitars and it is something every manufacturer at every price point seems to be getting right.
Graham - you're dead right about the black one - it's the guitar I dreamt of playing the 1980s, still one of my favourite axes. The new one gives an instant Maiden sound - even though my rig is very different to a maiden setup, it still nails the post 2000 era sound.
On an entirely different note - it struck me this morning that I'm incredibly lucky to have built what I think of as great collection of guitars over the years - although there is no overall plan or theme to the stuff I have collected, they all have a huge personal connection. It was round about now some 30 years ago that I got my first plank - at the time I had no idea how far the guitar obsession would take me - I had no idea I'd ever own any of the guitars I'd dreamt of or be able to play any of the stuff I was listening to on record at the time!
I'm liking the Tele a lot.