Fender Pawn Shop '51 Electric Guitar 

Comments about Fender Pawn Shop '51 Electric Guitar:

When I started playing this guitar it made me feel like I was just an extension to the guitar. It feels so comfortable. The sounds that come out are just heavenly. I'm very happy I purchased this baby.

Comments about Fender Pawn Shop '51 Electric Guitar:

This guitar is in my humble opinion, a true sleeper. It has an exceptionally good feel, excellent neck and good tone out of the humbucker in the bridge position. It sounds just like what it looks like.... somewhere between a Strat and a Tele. This guitar is built in Japan, and the build quality is excellent. Fit and finish exceed that of most domestically produced instruments. The weak link in my experience is the neck pickup. It sounds sort of Tele..ish but is weak and lacks swat. The bridge pickup is clear, and has a tone that really excells in country rock tunes. Out of the box, the action and intonation were perfect. I bought the yellow/butterscotch version, which is transparent so the grain shows through the paint. It's quite striking in appearance.

If I were to get real picky, I'd like a single tone pot relacing the rotary pickup selector switch, and a 3 way toggle switch similar to a Les Paul installed on the upper bout. Overall, this is an excellent guitar for the money. It plays as good as my American Strat, and the vintage look adds to it's funky vibe.

Comments about Fender Pawn Shop '51 Electric Guitar:

I recently purchased a Pawnshop '51 (blond). I love the finish and feel of the guitar. The grain "just" shows through the finish. It is truly a striking guitar. The craftsmanship is great. I own an American Standard Strat, an American Tele (Highway 1), and an American Standard P-bass. They are all great instruments, but I will put this Japanese made Fender up beside them proudly. I had to set the intonation and action, but beyond that I took it out of the box and started playing it. I have to say, I am impressed with the guitar. I think it is my new favorite!

Comments about Fender Pawn Shop '51 Electric Guitar:

I received my Pawn Shop 51' Yesterday and I had the opportunity to test it thoroughly. Everything feels great! The setup was done perfectly. The Polyester finish is great. My favorite feature is the pickup configuration. It gives my favorite tone from both the stratocaster and the telecaster. (Strat-neck, Tele-bridge) And the split coil feature humbucker just makes it an all around sounding guitar. The Hardtail gives more sustain. And I enjoy the rotatory pickup knob. It makes it impossible to switch pickups by accident. And its easy to use once you're used to it. The minor thing I didn't like was the truss rod adjustment placement. You have to remove the pickguard to get to it. But at least it can be adjusted with a slot screwdriver so that's a plus. :-) This has become my favorite guitar, and worth what I paid for. I LOVE IT!

Comments about Fender Pawn Shop '51 Electric Guitar:

I'm a tele lover, but I think the regin of the tele is being taken over by my love for the 51. I'm glad I added this Fender 51 to my collection.
Can't give it a ten on features as there is no tone control. But the guitar is satisfying without it, but it would be better with a tone control.

The combination of the neck single coil and bridge humbucker it perfect. It has become my favorite combo.
The quality is great. The finish is flawless, the neck is perfect. The pickguard fits, everything looks a feels perfect. The weight isn't too heavy.
The price of this guitar seems kinda high when you compare it to the Squier version, but believe me the Fender version is in NO way comparable to the Squier version. I own three Squier 51s this Fender 51 is head and shoulders above in terms of overall workmanship and quality of parts. It is a guitar I don't have to fix to make perfect.

Comments about Fender Pawn Shop '51 Electric Guitar:

I bought this guitar because it reminded me of my old Japanese Squier Bullet from 1983. I bought mine from this site as a Level One second hand, i.e. returned but like new. I love Japanese made Fenders, and my blonde 51 looks great. Faultless poly finish. You can see the alder grain through the transparent blonde (more like butterscotch) finish. This colour is complemented nicely by the tinted, slim, tele style neck. The guitar is also quite light. My guitar was set up poorly, and I had to adjust the truss rod and saddles. But now she plays sweet - really nice. Hopefully most people won't have to set up their new guitars. I am primarily a rhythm guitarist, so I really like the hardtail (I wish Fender made more hardtails !). I also really like the position and layout of the controls. I often accidently change the volume on my normal strat because the volume knob is too close to the strings. This doesn't happen on the 51 because the controls are further from the strings. It is also cool that there is no tone knob, because tone knobs are generally a waste of space on guitars. You can also pull the volume knob up on the 51 to split the bridge humbucker into a single coil - this adds to your tonal options. The pickups consist of a Texas Special in the neck position and an enforcer humbucker in the bridge position. The Texas Secial gives those traditional, mellow neck pickup strat tones. But I really like the humbucker - it gives a rawer,punchier tone that you don't normally get on a strat. At first I thought that the meandering pickguard was plain ugly, but I am getting used to it now. It certainly highlights the fact that this strat is a little different. The bridge is fairly basic, but solid, and the tuners seem okay (but it is early days yet). In summary, I like the Fender 51. It is a hardtial with some different tones, but it still feels like a Fender. I think this will be a keeper. Now I'm saving for a Pawn Shop Mustang!

Comments about Fender Pawn Shop '51 Electric Guitar:

I decided I would take the leap; glad I did. Very impressed with the pickups and over quality/tone of this guitar. It is super light compared to my Gibson's which I expected. Nice neck, frets and finish. Nice addition to my collection of guitars, not your typically Strat but holds its own in all of the various models.IMHO you should not review guitars based on a release and not playing it first hand, what is the point? I might have got a "good one" but it sounds great. Sure it might be a little overpriced at the start but wait for a sale.

Comments about Fender Pawn Shop '51 Electric Guitar:

ok i do not own this guitar but i own the squire version that was discontinued in 2005 mine also has a strat neck but it sounds amazing it can play any thing but dont take my word for it try one out