I think my description says it all Charlie, I have nothing to gain by praising these guitars, but I was so impressed with what I found by comparing with some very expensive Fenders’ that I own and I am a bit miffed that SX have pulled this off at such a cheap price, being as my Fenders are so expensive, though on the other hand I’m pleased that I paid nowhere near the new price for any of them, unlike some. I have had top of the range Strats and as nice as they are, they are not worth the prices being asked.
The thing is, the gap is narrowing between Fender/Squier as well as Gibson/Epiphone because of the latest manufacturing methods in the far east and other firms have caught up and caught on.
The good part of this is that we benefit from all the competition and as one who has spent more than enough on instruments I’m happy with that.
To answer the question about the bridge, isn’t the big heavy thing that everyone believes it should be, it’s the modern lightweight type but it makes no difference to my ears although some claim it improves sustain. Well I played Parisienne Walkways at our last gig on my new SX and held that note for as long as I wanted to, so I don’t know what people expect.
The early Shads tunes sound earthy and aggressive as they should, with the later numbers sounding as expected with a fuller tone. Other than binding the tremolo arm thread with PTFE, I really have no desire to change anything else.
If I had time I’d do a comparison video using our kind of material, but since I retired have less time than before.
Forgot to mention, I set up the trem springs to correctly float and tuning is perfect, I did a full set without having to touch the tuners.