Fender Robert Cray Standard Stratocaster Review!
The Overview
All you need to know about Fender’s Robert Cray Standard Stratocaster is it’s a tone machine! Holy smoke on the water folks, this thing has got some serious spank to it! If you’ve had doubts about Fender Mexico, you can leave them at the door. This made in Mexico strat will blow you away, and you won’t want to put it down.
I haven’t seen too many of these on the used market, so it’s hard to judge what this guitar would cost second hand. When searching Fender, Sweetwater, or Musicians Friend’s sites, you’ll see the Robert Cray Stratocaster available for $925 new. The guitar comes with a Fender deluxe gig bag, which is nice; however, given the price and how well this guitar plays, I’m surprised Fender isn’t shipping these in hard cases.
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Features
Today we’re demoing the Robert Cray Stratocaster sunburst model which is identical to the Inca Silver model, and there is no price difference between the two finishes. The sunburst body is made of two solid pieces of alder, and the joint is visible on the guitar, slightly off-center. I don’t think the glue joint will be a deal-breaker for you, but if you want to see smooth grain from edge to edge, this may be disappointing. Both the body and neck come with a high gloss polyurethane finish.
The maple neck has that classic “Fender” look, and the ’61 C profile feels great. It comes with a 9.5″ radiused rosewood fingerboard with medium jumbo frets. You’re going to love the combination of the ’61 profile neck and the medium jumbo frets because this guitar feels and plays smooth as butter. This is one of the best feeling strats I’ve ever played!
The Robert Cray Strat comes with three Custom Vintage Strat single-coil pickups and a 5-way position switch. The switch positions are standard for a Statocaster, and all pickups are controled with a master volume pot. There are also two tone controls. The first tone control is for the neck pickup, and the second tone control is for the middle pickup.
Now, here’s what makes the Robert Cray Stratocaster stand out from the pack. It comes with a hardtail bridge rather than the tremolo bridge. I know! Crazy right? Welp, that’s how Mr. Cray likes his strats, and after plugging it in, you’ll be able to hear why.
How Does it Sound?
I think the Robert Cray Stratocaster sounds incredible, and a big part of the sound is the hardtail bridge. The hardtail adds so much resonance, sustain, and character but most importantly, it fattens up the sound!
Stratocasters are legendary, and I don’t want to waste much of your time describing the sound when you can hear it yourself!
For the demo, I used a Fender Champ. I recorded audio clips using a clean setting with the amp turned up to 3.5 to start, and progressively turned the volume up. On the guitar itself, we’ll start with the switch in the neck position and progress through all 5 positions. The volume knob and tone knobs on the guitar are turned to 10. I recorded this sound bite using Presonus Studio One Artist 4, Presonus’s AudioBox iTwo, and a Shure SM7B microphone.
Clean
We’ll start out on clean settings. Let’s go!
Overall, the clean tones here are classic Stratocaster. I love how the Custom Vintage pickups sound, and how the Strat is able to brightly articulate the notes in these clips. You can hear even start to hear some of Robert Cray’s sparkly tones in there!
Amp is Starting to Break!
It’s always fun to get a bit of distortion going. When the amp starts to dirty up, the strat starts to show off how bluesy it can get.
Crunch Tone!
Let’s turn that amp to 10!
What can I say about crunch time? It’s sick. This guitar did not let us down.
The Wrap Up
The Robert Cray Stratocaster is an awesome guitar. It’s not American, but to get a Made in USA guitar, you’ll need to upgrade to the Custom Robert Cray Signature model. You’re going to have to fork over $5,000 and place an order from the Fender Custom Shop.
At one-fifth of the cost, the Robert Cray Standard model is much more budget-friendly. Plus, if you’re going to pay 5 times more, you would expect 5 times more guitar. From what I can tell, the Robert Cray Standard holds its own, plays great, and sounds great. I’m not sure what changes or additions you can make to convince me that the Signature model is worth the extra $4,000.
Action & Intonation
I can’t praise Fender enough for the action & intonation on this guitar. The 25.5″ scale, 0.010″ gauge strings, and 9.5″ radius neck all feel great and the 60’s neck makes you feel like you’re holding an old classic. I thoroughly enjoyed playing this guitar, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised too.
Modifications
There were no modifications made to the Stratocaster I demoed for this post. It’s all original, straight from the factory.
Final Thoughts
For being Made in Mexico, this is quite a guitar. I know that a lot of players will harp on the Mexican made Fenders, and claim that they are not as good as the American Fenders. Well, I’m here to tell you that this guitar is going to make you question your preconceived notions about Fender Mexico.
After playing this guitar, I honestly don’t care that it is not made in the US. I am impressed enough with the quality and playability that I think Fender Mexico is going to become the new standard, and it appears that Fender is moving in that direction. The American Original 60’s Stratocaster is retailing at almost $2,000, which leads me to believe that Fender is putting a premium on the “Made in USA” label.
Does this matter? No! What matters is that the guitar gets the job done. If a Made in Mexico guitar sounds good, plays good, and feels good, then IT IS GOOD!
Other Guitars to Consider in the Same Price Range
Get excited because I have another case to make for Fender Mexico. Check out our full review of the Fender Classic Player Baja 60s Telecaster! Telecaster fans are really going to love this one. It’s another Fender Custom Shop design, and you are going to be very impressed with the signature Tele tones, extra pickup wirings activated by the S1 switch, and how well it plays!
Higher End or Better Sounding Guitars
In the higher-end category, I’ll recommend the Gibson SG 61 RI. You get a completely different sound and feel. This guitar fetches a premium and is made in the USA if you’re still hankering for a good ol’ American guitar.
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