$300 vs $3000 Strat shootout! (Fesley vs Fender)
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
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Well, I've been pretty over the moon with this $300 FESLEY so lets do a proper shootout with my ATF stratocaster... "Goldie!" Does the Fesley make me want to sell Goldie? Nah, but it's pretty cool to hear them back to back...
Maybe tone really is just in the fingers?
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This budget guitar video topic is just so fascinating HW. I hope that you will continue to revisit it from time to time. 🙏
You even get 1 more fret on the 300 dollar guitar :D
I honestly don't understand the reason for a 21 fret strat. 22 gives one extra note and it doesn't interfere with the pickup placement like a 24 fret guitar does
That is more about the vintage graze... a majority want their copies and reissues (not only of Strats) as close to initial specs as possible.
@@SarahAndreaRoycesChannel Ok I guess thats it
Accurate comparison and review. Both sound good. The Fesley shows how awesome an affordable guitars can be, and the Fender shows overpriced a awesome guitar can be.
Yay you did a comparison! Thanks! That’s my one “gripe” with a lot of these budget Fender style guitars. Most of these brands have a 12” radius, which is not the standard radius Fender uses. Only Jet Guitars seems to have the 9.5” radius for their Fender style guitars, as most Fender and Squier players would expect. If the bodies look like an Ibanez shape, then the 12” radius would make more sense. So yeah, no idea why they’d copy Fender style guitars without also providing a more accurate spec.
I never tried a Fesley, but Jet Guitars necks are really amazing with the 9.5” radius, satin finish - they are like butter! If you were to try another budget brand with a 9.5” radius, I’d totally recommend a Jet. They are the only budget brand I’ve seen that offers this radius.
I’d also recommend a Tease guitar, as they have budget prices and inspect all the guitars in NY and even offer a pro setup for $50 (including your choice of strings). Their guitars have a 12” radius, but the beauty is that it’s been fully checked and meets high standards even if you don’t pay for the $50 pro setup.
Anyway, it’s interesting seeing both of your guitars going head to head. They both sound great and clearly play really well. It’s a true testament to how far budget guitars have come and are closing the gap on what budget can do as compared to more expensive brand names. Even in the last 5 years, there have been considerable improvements as far as budget QC - some of these factories are super modern and high tech. You should also see what they are doing with acoustic guitars too - that’s even more impressive! They will likely keep getting better. I’m sure the electronics and wiring will improve.
Have you seen some of the kits from Fesley and Leo Jaymz? They even come with step by step color instructions for people who never built a kit, very precise holes, tight neck pockets with perfectly fitting necks, all the parts, etc.
And then there are budget pedals too!
Somebody pinch me! 🤏🏻 😂
The Fender should be cheaper for having one fret less. lol But the looks of the fender is priceless.
Pickups can be change out to suit however is the feel of the neck and frets under the fingers is also important....
You’ve got me really wanting to pull the trigger on a Fesley! And at those prices, with the current coupons and discounts, I could get a strat and a tele for $550! That’s absolutely insane 🤯 Then put some Lambertones in both and still come out with 2 iconic guitars for under a grand! Sold!
I have 3 guitars with specs much like those of the Fesley, and they rock like a mofo. No, I don't know how they will endure over time, but really, you never can until enough time has actually passed!
To my ears your Fender CS Strat is absolutely the better sounding Strat, and I can only assume it's a better feeling guitar than the HB too, but,...... your point is undeniable, the quality of the imported guitars these days is unprecedented! I own a HB Tele that plays and sounds great, for reference I also own a Fender Strat and 3 Gibson Les Pauls'.
I'm an old guy, (68), and when I was learning guitar in 1966, (absolutely had to learn guitar after seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, lol), Asian made guitars were Junk, absolute JUNK,... including from Japan, mostly from Japan. In those days the only good, quality-built electronics were made in the USA made, it was a running joke about owning cheap Japan made guitars and other electronics.
How times have changed, huh? Even in the 80's when I first picked up the guitar, the budget Asian ones were mostly plywood junk. I think it really started to turn around in the late 80's and early 90's with Ibanez leading the way (maybe due to Steve Vai's JEM influence?). I have a '92 RT650 that blows almost everything else I have (including a bunch of USA made stuff) out of the water.
I can hear the 3k difference whenever the Fender appears on the screen.
Wilkinson makes some great pickups
You make any guitar sing! Budget guitars are great today. Specially if you can't or don't wanna spend much to just play
The Fesley pickups def sounded hotter... a bit less dynamic. Also, there was a slight high end scratchiness to the tone, I'd guess were a combination of the pickups and the frets, so refretted and new pickups would likely get the tones much closer, but for $300, it might be worth doing DEPENDING on the other specs on the guitar. What's the fretboard made of? How about the neck and body woods? How well was the neck dried and is the Truss rod solid... any carbon fiber re-enforcement? What's the weight like? To be worth it those other things need to be solid enough be a guitar you'd bond with and not want to throw away at some point due to neck warping or other issues related to environmental changes sensitivity... because resale value is virtually $0.
Both sound like tone monsters.
Yeah….gimme the Fesley any day and then watch me parlay the $2;700.00 USD into more than $2,700.00. Or, I could use at least some of it for something even more important than a Fender strat…..like food. 🍱😋
Would be interesting to hear the Fesley with a/the loaded Fender pickguard, whether it's a production vintage model or the actual Custom Shop guitar in the video. I think the Fesley destroys the Fender from a sonic standpoint. The feel is a preference for the differences. Gut feel is the satin Fesley with a 12 inch radius is going to feel like a Super Strat with a 14 inch radius and again that's a preference. I bought a Monoprice Eclipse LP style with a 14 inch radius. Up to now I had preferred the 9.5 radius, 7.25 is too much curvature. The Monoprice Eclipse LP is my favorite guitar at this point.for a neck. It's just a beefier feel (since you compared them to hamburgers. And if a CS Fender is a Gordon Ramsey burger. The Fesley an In & Out burger. Then my Monoprice has to be a Flannigan's burger. I enjoyed both guitars, but if I'm buying one, the $ 300 brand gets my money. There just isn't $ 4K worth of guitar difference there, I don't care what the story behind the CS is for how they stamped the hardware or who who handwound the pickups or even the rest of the BS about how they picked premium wood from the forest and warehouse lot. There were differences in the sound, but there wasn't $ 3.7K better sound in the CS. Doesn't matter, they are both keepers. But playing at a bar gig, the CS isn't that guitar for me. In that regard it's a home or studio instrument. Playing a tour.arena. Anyone ever gets that big for performances, Fender's probably giving them their own artist's series guitars. And most likely the artist isn't playing Fender pickups, most likely Seymour Duncan. And in that case SD's drop into the Fesley just the same, is there really any reason to play a Fender unless there is a collaboration of financial share ? John Mayer is a PRS player, he's no longer a Fender guy. Doesn't seem to have changed his earning potential.
Did it come with a gigbag? Just looked at their site. Bags look nice.
Sounds good to me. Not much of a strat guy.
Yeah the bags look good. They are thinner than you expect… they aren’t like padded or anything but it’s a good looking gig bag.
@ 😄
I still think Goldie has a smoother sound but i wondering if just swapping pickups put the other guitar would change that.
When I got my first Tokai 16 years ago I knew I never had to buy a Fender or Gibson again.
Money doesn’t make it sound or play better. Quality wood, hardware materials, and electronics assembled with care makes a great instrument. Imports can be good but they are more hit or miss. American made is much more consistent and they always use the best materials because they know it’s going to be expensive. Doesn’t have to be American made but you’re going to get something good. You can get great instruments overseas though.
Sure, there is a little difference... but not 3000 difference. But, who cares.
The Fesley doesn’t sound as good as the fender, but it sounds a hell of a lot better than a 300 dollar guitar has any business sounding.
IF Clapton was going on tour and had to pick one which would it be ? Case closed.
I think the Fesley is a great beginner to intermediate guitar, light years ahead of what was available when I was a kid over a half century ago, but as you improve your chops, there's nothing like a professional instrument to make you want to play better. Fender has been making guitars for what, 75 years now? Will the Fesley brand still exist in 10 years? It might, but instrument companies come and go. It's probably just a brokerage that has them made by a subcontractor in China, puts their name on them (which is, interestingly, spelled Fe**e*), and sells them through Amazon. When you buy an American-made Fender, you're supporting the people that work at Fender, the people they trade with locally, the community they live in. You're making a connection with other Americans, and with American history. When you buy a Fesley, you might support a few Americans, but mostly the retail behemoth Amazon, which is putting countless local brick and mortar shops out of business, and a Chinese company taking full advantage of the cheap labor over there.
If you can afford it, you should go for the domestically-made Fender (or other real American guitar). I like a bargain as much as the next guy, but I think we're hurting ourselves in the long run in our quest for cheaper and cheaper products.
I appreciate your take on this, HW, but I really don't think you would replace all of your instruments...your investments, with cheap imported guitars, no matter how good they are.
Very close tbh and those are waaaay cheaper pickups lol for me, the fender custom just isn’t worth that amount of money, regardless of my income.
Absolutely Mr. Speaker!🎸✅
I agree
In the other I said the feasley sounded like a Turd compared to the Fender but this Video they both sound really really Close. So they either both sound like turds today or maybe they sound decent.
Cheap guitars are cool but I don’t feel any attachment to them. Like they aren’t a guitar that I’d be excited to pass down to the next generation.
You know how to get a clean tone right that was hard on the ears it’s not clean or distorted just a nasty od
Makes both guitars sound trashy
Check back in five years and let’s see which one has a twisted neck or needed to have electronics replaced etc.
Sounds like guitar sour grapes. 🎸😝
@@ckelly5141 Actually, I think that's a valid point. How well do these cheap wonders hold up over time? I'm wondering the same thing about the several cheapies I have.
@ Yup….i get that. I would never spend that kind of money on an electric guitar, but if someone is a pro, and make their living from playing, I understand. What a great argument though, about how really good a guitar can sound for under $500.00 USD.
@@ckelly5141 You're right about how great the argument is, but getting killer instruments for cheap money is something to pursue. In some cases, I figure what we're looking for is how long the glues the manufacturer used will last. With enough time, if the glues prove durable enough, those guitars will become wonders of longevity as well as of value!
@ Personally, I don’t care about the value of the guitar down the road, only that the playability is good, and that it doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg.
The Fender has a bit more mojo but 3k more I'm not sure?