I already have an excellent Fender parallel universe 2018 Whiteguard Strat and as much as I love it, it just doesn't do that Strat position 2 and 4 thing. Eventually the craving go too much but hardtail Strats are not easy to come by and my pockets are not deep enough to go full custom shop so I decided to get the Robert Cray signature Strat and hoped it could stop the itch.
Unboxing was good, no delivery issues, no transit damage, the guitar appeared to be as it left the factory.
The build quality of the Mexican Fenders is really very good I couldn't detect any defects visually. Looking closely you can see that the body is made from three parts. The finish of the neck feels really nice and smooth but not too glossy or sticky.
Setup was good but not perfect: a good starting point but one step, the neck finishing was not done at all. There was a hint of sharp fret ends, the fretboard itself had sharp corners, as did the nut and the fretboard surface was a bit rough. This was in comparison to the beautifully polished fret ends and rolled over edges and super smooth fretboard of the made in USA Whiteguard.
I cleaned conditioned the fretboard and left it a couple of weeks to get acclimatized before taking time to dress the fret ends and the nut. I smoothed fretboard and rolled over the edges a little with sandpaper, put a quarter turn on the truss rod and raised the high E slightly to remove a full tone bend choke at the 15th.
Now I have a really nice looking, feeling and playing hardtail Strat and yes it does the Strat thing perfectly. The pickups were set lower that Fender recommend but it sounds great so I’m not going to move them. I have no regrets about this purchase, it’s a keeper!
