Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster (Black)

Fender Billy Corgan stratocaster

Ok, so weather you believe he should of got his own guitar or not lets leave that argument aside for the time being and judge the guitar solely on its own merits.

For a shade under £700 your getting a brilliant guitar, USA made nitro finished (satin but hey beggers cant be choosers) hardtailed strat. This thing is loaded with 3 singlecoil sized humbuckers that make this guitar wail! seriously to a blind audiance they would swear you had a thick bodied les paul, the tone this thing puts out is Fat! obviously this is also down to your amp/set up but on a basic clean setting you realise this guitar is capable of anything. I've personaly never owned a hardtail strat before but i've always locked down the trem as i just dont use them, I think it lacks a little of the Fender punch/percusive response because of this but the sustain it adds more than makes up for it, no it's not quit les paul terratory (its a strat!) but its a huge improvment. The neck is nice and will be of no suprise to you if you've played any modern strat but the jumbo frets help you play this thing with ease,bends are a doddle with no choking and you realy can play faster and cleaner.
The pickups are amazing (but any of you corgan fans out there will know his original 90's guitar was fitten with lace sensors!) the neck pickup is warm and clear again like a paul but with a touch of sparkle on the highs, middle is just a compressed sounding rocker of a pickup that can sound a little wooley to these ears and the bridge is a beast, like a cross between a duncan JB and the Duncan dimebucker, plenty of mids and highs without loosing the bass response, the inbetween sounds an some nice tones to the mix that i find very pleasing and more in the fender camp i.e singlecoil like sparkle and attack but remember your still using a humbucker with anothers single coil so yes no hum but still not a true singlecoil sound.
All in all this guitar to me is a les paul players dream, the same sound without the weight plus the cool classic looks of a strat. However if you want classic strat sounds you should buy a classic strat or ameerican std rather than this one. I think Mr Corgan has done a great job in spec'ing this guitar and its a true joy to play.
He's a phenominal guitar player (new stuff not so good) who wrote some killer songs and if it wasn't for some bad timing on his part releasing siamese dream at the same time some band called erm...nevermind released an album called nirvana they could have been much bigger. anyhoo a brilliant guitar that will stay with me for a long time....right time to sell my les pauls any takers???