Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster Electric Guitar Flat Black

Comments about Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

I loved this guitar immediately in so many ways. The finish feels very nice to the touch, the neck is wonderful. The frets are great - I love having the jumbo frets on this because it helps so much with bending and vibrato. Sustain for miles and miles - makes sense, because this guitar is set up completely for sustain. What they've done with the pickups and the switching is such an incredible value. You can bring most any kind of grungy, hard rock, metal tones out of it - I even played this through a blues junior and it pulled very respectable buesy tones. These pickups are a little bassier compared to single coils or a HSS configuration, something you could EQ out but personally, I go with it. They have tons of output and 'punch' which makes for amazing tone through a Marshall or similar.

This is an artist model that carries a lot of credibility because Billy actually plays this guitar on stage, night in and night out. If you look at recent clips (2008/9 and later) you'll see him switching between the white and black one, but more often than not he's playing this guitar.

I have an American Standard which I will keep for that clean, vintagey sort of tone, but I'm going to be playing this guitar most of the time from now on.
First the obvious. The guitar has three humbucking DiMarzio pickups - three of the quietest pickups I've ever heard on any instrument, by the way. It has custom switching that allows you to blend the pickups in some cool ways. It is a hardtail with the string-through body, and it has two string trees for better sustain. The nut is a synthetic bone. It has jumbo frets and a pale maple neck without the tint and coating that necks carry today. The body has a thinner, old-style finish, and is a heavier wood than normally found in a strat. Comes with the also seperately available Fender "vintage tweed" case.
The fit and finish on this guitar are perfect. Just perfect. This is an American strat artist model, so this is to be expected. The fretwork is very nice, the finish on the matte black is really impressive in person. Other than that, it's the same high quality you would normally expect from a USA Fender.
Amazing value - this can replace several different guitars with the tones you can pull out of it. The pickups and switching allow you to pull anything from really trebly scorching leads to very heavy lower tones. In particular I like what they did with the switching. All these pickups are humbucking - the 2 and 4 positions on the 5 position switch give you the full middle pickup, which is a DiMarzio Chopper, but also blends the inside or outside coil of the bridge or neck pickup, respectively. This gives you the ability to pull a wide array of tones that have a single coil kind of character to them. Compared to an American Standard strat, the pickups have significantly more output which really pushes tubes beautifully.

Comments about Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

I received this guitar a couple days ago. I purchased it from my local music store. Playing this through a mesa boogie triple rectifier i can easily go from jazz to hard rock by pickup selection and channel selection on my amp. If i crank up the gain it sounds perfect for hard rock, and if i add an overdrive i can get metal out of it. I have several guitars and this wont push that crushing metal tone like a jackson or esp with emg's but its passive and thats to be expected. You can get metal out of this though. the clean tones out of this are perfect you can get that fender strat quacky sound as well as a more crystal less quacky tone. The fourth pickup position is all blues and its amazing, its ridiculous to be able to go from acdc to stevie ray with the flip of a switch. I always wanted a guitar i could play most styles on and i have it now.
The features on this guitar are amazing. The pickups and coil splitting lets you get any sound you could want.
So far no problems at all. I had to adjust the intonation slightly but thats no biggie after it being in a box and shipped. Frets and nice and filed smooth, and the finish is perfect. I got the olypmic white.
For how many guitars this thing could replace with its wide array of tones, this guitar is worth every penny and more.

Comments about Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

I had not owned a Startocaster since the 1970's. When I decided to finally buy one again, I first purchased an American Standard Strat. I immediately had issues with getting used to some things. I didnt like the tuning issues related to a floating bridge that comes with a guitar equipped with a tremelo. I didnt like the 60Hz hum or the weak output level from the standard single coil pickups. I then decided to do more research and decided that I wanted a hard tail. Further research on the pickups led me to look at the Billy Corgan model, a hard tail Strat with some very amazing Dimarzio pickups that are actually humbuckers that look like single coils. What a great decision it was to purchase this guitar.
The pickups themselves and the sounds available from the 5 position switch are truly the feature that make this guitar great.
Excellent American made quality.
Well worth the extra money over the American Standard.

Comments about Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

This guitar has the tonal range and capability to play everything from beutiful sparkling clean/ warm acoustic sounds to crunching powerfully dark riffs and sparkling leads. I was really impressed with how many sounds I could get out of these pickups, so many options, choices and configurations. As for sustain, I have never played a guitar with better sustain, ever. I own Gibsons, Teiscos, ESPs, and other Strats and this beast has such wonderfully capability that it is now my number one, go-to, axe.

Comments about Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

I picked up the Arctic White model a couple of weeks ago and I was lucky enough to get the last one they had still in the box from Fender, when Ivan (the sales guy) took it out of the case I was instantly impressed. Fender really pulled out all the stops on this one; the tweed case is absolutely beautiful! Next came opening the case and getting my first look at the guitar that would wind up being mine, it was almost like the scene in Pulp Fiction where John Travolta opens the briefcase and he is overwhelmed at the sheer beauty of whatever was in the briefcase, everyone standing around MY Stratocaster had nothing to say, yes it was that impressive.I had played the display model for over an hour and I instantly fell in love, the tones generated by this guitar are absolutely insane. I play everything from Metal, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, and Jazz and this beautiful instrument is able to handle all styles of music. I did take it to my local music shop and had the action set and now the action and playability are smooth as silk, the maple neck is nice and wide (after the Highway One Series Strats) and having big hands and long fingers this guitar is a perfect fit for me.Back in the last 80s I had purchased an American Standard Stratocaster and even though the playability was great I always hated the sound of the single coil pickups, I even upgraded to EMG stacked humbuckers but my old Strat still did not have the bite I was looking for. This is no longer an issue with the Billy Corgan Stratocaster as the stock Dimarzio pickups sound freaking amazing, the guitar screams and snarls with killer tones. I would even go as far as to say that this Stratocaster sounds better than the Les Paul Standard I used to own a few years back (yes, the Billy Corgan Stratocaster sounds that good).

Comments about Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

I don't know what I could possibly say to convey how rad this guitar is. I've owned multiple fenders, gibsons and ESP's and this one beats them all hands down. Smoothest fretboard ever, the looks are there and the sucker gets killer clean and distorted tones. If you like playing metal, punk, hardcore, alternative or blues or whatever this guitar is what you need. It won't let you down. Billy did a fantastic job with this design. If I ever get another guitar it will probably be this one in black! Worth every penny

Comments about Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

I bought this on a lark because it seemed a great value for the money and I needed a Strat.The neck is PERFECT. I have fairly large hands and I can find all notes and chords here easily and smoothly. I've determined this is THE strat neck for me (also the same specs as a Deluxe or Highway One neck).If you're looking for a truly vintage sound, skip this one. With the "personalized" humbuckers it won't quite deliver that. It's made for high gain applications and boy does it shine there, with little noise and a balanced dynamic sound. With some twiddling and imagination you can get the traditional vintage Strat sounds, and I like that I have to work for it and there's great satisfaction in exploring this guitar and it's sound with your amp(s). I use this with a '59 Bassman Reissue LTD and a Blues Jr. NOS and it delivers with either and both. It's a very expressive and articulate guitar really, helped probably by the excellent (and lovely) finish (I have the Olypic White, beautiful guitar, lovely pale maple neck) and the adler body and responsive hardtail bridge. I'm not really a tremolo man, snd the hardtail was a draw for me and I'm very satisfied with the sound and feel.A very well thought out ad executed "Artist" model, at a good price. If you can live with a hardtail, or prefer one as I do, and love that 'Seventies Strat look and feel, be sure to audition this one. The price is right as well for an Artist model.

Comments about Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

I love this guitar. I tried to avoid buying it because I am a huge Corgan fan, and didn't want to copy him totally, but once I tried it, the decision was over. The neck is great. DiMarzios are not my favorite pickups, I generally prefer Duncans, but these pickups are great. A full range of tones, and GREAT playability. I do wish more colors are available (Inca Silver, Daphne Blue) but the Olympic White (mine) and the Flat Black look great.

Comments about Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

What can I say about this guitar other than it completely ROCKS! Neck plays like butter and you can get holy grail distortion and shimmering clean tones. I'll put this strat over any other on the current market! Thumbs up to Corgan for designing this.

Comments about Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster Electric Guitar:

Billy Corgan isnt a guitar god by any extent, but when I picked this guitar up and played it I realised that he did do a fantastic job designing it. Firstly, this guitar is a high gain guitar, and it screams. I played it through a little Laney combo amp at the store and it sounded great but through my Hiwatt 50w it sounds masterful. This guitar can get any tone you want, just take your pick (and yes this is a stratocaster). The Dimarzio pickup configuration is well founded on this guitar. I personally like the old 70's style headstock and maple neck which will "relic" with aga. I chose the flat black model. It stays in tune quite well. The only thing I plan on doing is replacing the bridge with a Callaham. Other than that this is one of the best guitars I have ever picked up for any genre of music I would want to play.