What’s better than Dodgem Blue? Dodgem Blue with a pearloid pickguard!
This guy just arrived on Monday. I agonized for a bit on pre 2020 model vs new for a while after reading up on various comments about neck profile and pickup changes. In the end I went with a new one from Wildwood so that I could choose one with the neck depth that I preferred, since even within the two different profile types, there appeared to be significant variations due to the nature of how they’re hand sanded. This one ranges from .83 at the first fret to .95 at the 12th and comes on the lighter side at 7,11 pounds. With the newer rounded shoulder profile on the rosewood models, this feels like a nice C shape and size that seems near identical to the pattern regular profile on my Vela. Certainly not the high-shouldered baseball bat I’ve read about in some reviews of the original profile.
I had a MIM Strat that I bought in the mid/late 90s that I beat the heck out of with the band that I was in at the time. For a long time afterwards it didn’t get used as I moved onto other things. I eventually sold it off 10 years ago. This brings back memories, but it’s so much more. Now, it could be if I tried a current USA made Fender, I might have the same reaction vs the memory of the old Mexistrat, but I’m fully happy with the SS, so why bother?
That being said, out of the case it wasn’t 100% perfect for me. After mainly playing shorter scale length for a couple of decades now and the effects of age, I felt the strings were a little higher tension than I’m comfortable with nowadays. I dropped it down to a set of 9s and now it feels similar to the 10s on the 25” scale guitars. I also felt that there was way too much tension on the trem holding it firmly down on the body - even before the string swap. I didn’t necessarily want it to float, but I also didn’t want to feel like I had to put a ton of weight on my wrist to get it to move. I pulled one of the three springs and now it’s just right. It’s still solid against the body and doesn’t rise when I’m bending the heck out of the strings, but the effort required to push is now on par with my guitars equipped with the standard PRS trem.
Oh, and that pickguard came from a seller on Reverb called “Silver Sky Mod Shop.” It fit perfectly and is very well done!