So the second strat I ordered arrived today. As before it's another 60's CV...first was in Lake Placid Blue, this one in Candy Apple Red...
Not sure which one I like more...at the moment I think I slightly prefer the CAR aesthetically but it's close. I checked the serials and it's coming back with a date of manufacture of 7/22 for the CAR and 9/22 for the LPB...so not like it's some very old stock that's just been sitting around collecting dust for ages.
I only got to play a bit over lunch, so haven't had any extensive testing yet but...
- the CAR is *noticeably* heavier. I haven't weighed them but feels like a good half-pound of difference. It's pretty pronounced.
- They have slightly different tuners. Both are vintage-style but the CAR's tuners have slightly "fatter" buttons. They aren't as stiff as the LPB although the LPB's tuners feel marginally more "sturdy" too.
- The switch and pots have a better feel on the CAR - especially noticeable on the pickup switch which is a lot less "mushy" with more pronounced position detents.
- It feels like the neck on the CAR is very slightly thinner but I haven't measured; may just be imagining that.
- If I'm looking through an ultra-fine microscope...the CAR has a slightly "cleaner" nut. Neither have any nut issues that I can tell but the LPB had just a few tiny spots where it looked like some filings weren't completely cleaned off.
- Fretwork is similarly good on both, neither one noticeably better/worse. Interestingly the "newer" guitar (LPB by two months) feels like its frets have a bit more oxidation.
- I prefered the factory setup of the LPB by a little bit, but doesn't matter much as I will change either to suit me
- Sound-wise they're more or less identical to my ears
- Both have pretty nice looking fretboards to my eyes. It's been discussed here before but I don't mind laurel functionally - I think it plays and sounds just fine and "feels" really close to rosewood, but I can't stand when you get a super light piece of laurel (or pau ferro) on what's "supposed" to be a nice dark rosewood fretboard. Thankfully, both are pretty dark to start and I suspect a bit more cleaning and oiling would have them both looking really nice. No clear "winner" there either.
Overall as before the fit and finish is very, very good on both and I'm really impressed yet again. With no clear "winner" between the two I will probably stick to my original plan and just keep whichever one I can't sell, although if I can find a few extra bucks I may just see about keeping both, though I will probably need to find a way to make the two of them different enough to be able to justify doing so for myself
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