I bought another SX Furrian
It's Banana Part II!
I now own two SX Furrians. These are Telecaster copy guitars.
Why did I buy another? I had a few reasons.
The first Furrian is a "fat" model, which means single-coil at the bridge and humbucker at the neck. I had never owned a Tele with this specific pickup configuration before and wanted to check it out. SX Furrian Fat is far less expensive compared to the Squier equivalent. Squier does make one, it's called the Classic Vibe '70s Telecaster Custom, and it's not cheap. I saw no reason to get the Squier since the SX was so much less in price.
Given the good experience I had with the SX, I decided to get another, this time with the traditional single-single Telecaster pickup configuration. Those who have been following me over the years probably remember the 2010 Squier Bullet Strat I had in what I called "Banana" yellow that Squier called Arctic White. SX offers a Furrian in Vintage White, which is very close in color to what I had with the Squier, so that's what I went with. The color looks great and I have no regrets getting it whatsoever.
The second Furrian has three things that are notably different compared to the first Fat Furrian, other than color. The neck is several shades lighter, the body is lighter (around 1 to 1.5 pounds lighter), and the sound has much more treble response to it because of the single-single pickup configuration.
SX is good if you're willing to level frets
I'm not saying that SX guitars are delivered with uneven frets. I'm saying that almost all guitars are delivered like that in this day and age.
The lowest priced guitars I know of that are mostly guaranteed not to have uneven frets are by Schecter. I've said this before and will say it again because it's true. If for example you buy Schecter's version of a Telecaster, the PT, I can confidently say the necks on those will have proper even-leveled frets - but you'll pay for it. Not a ridiculous amount, but still, we're not talking bargain basement prices here. For anything else outside of Custom Shop territory, uneven frets will happen, even on American Fenders.
I did have to level the frets on my Furrian. And in fact I have to do some more leveling because I found out I missed one on the high end of the neck around the 18th or 19th fret.
Am I upset about this? No, because the guitar was bought for less than $150 new.
If I found uneven frets even to the slightest degree on an American Fender (all of which are over $1,000), oh yeah, that would make me mad. But on a $150 guitar, there's no reason to get mad. You just get some tools, get some sandpaper and even out the frets yourself.
I don't claim for one second that either of my Furrians were perfect out of the box. In fact, the Fat did have better frets compared to the second one and required less work to get it right. However, getting a Furrian to being an excellent player takes very little work. Again, if you're willing to level frets, a Furrian is the best thing going for what it sells for.
From a short distance...
Strictly speaking of the headstock shape for a moment, something I've found quite interesting is while the shape isn't Fender-like, it is similar to other boutique guitar brands that sell for thousands of dollars.
What many boutique guitar brands do is take a classic body shape (because they can legally get away with that), and then "massage" the headstock to have a modernist style shape...
...and this happens to exactly be what the SX Furrian has, except SX isn't a boutique brand. From a short distance away, it is almost too easy to mistake the Furrian for one of those ultra-expensive boutique guitars.
What would it take to change the Furrian into a boutique guitar? Surprisingly, not much.
The body is already alder and the neck is maple. No need to change anything there.
If the Furrian had the nut switched out for a TUSQ, tuners switched out for Grovers, pickups switched out for a Tonerider set, electronics switched out for CTS, and saddles switched out for roller saddles, you're really, really close to a boutique instrument. Granted, all that stuff most certainly costs more than the guitar itself, but at the end of it all you've got a "boutique quality" modernist Telecaster at a fraction of the price.
And if you really wanted to go all-out boutique, you could sand down the body and refinish it with ColorTone nitro, and switch out the frets to stainless steel fret wire. And that's just about as boutique as it gets where a Telecaster type guitar is concerned.
The headstock shape of the SX dictates to do a modernist style Telecaster guitar, but that's not a bad thing. And to do everything I just mentioned can't exactly be done over a weekend. It would take time. However the point is that getting a Furrian to boutique level status is a totally possible thing.
Do I plan on doing all this stuff to my Furrians? No. I just play them. Maybe I'd entertain the idea of a nut swap and some electronics upgrades. I might even entertain the idea of sanding down the neck and refinishing with satin urethane just because I like the feel of it. But other than that, again, I just like guitars I can pick up and play. Furrians are great for that once the frets are leveled.
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Published 2020 Jun 16