Submitted by filter-frequency
http://www.fender.com/features/starcaster-coronado/
I’m not sure how close it is to the original but it looks pretty great. Might be worth a look for those trying to achieve Jonny’s sound, especially as it’ll be much cheaper than a 70s one.
Thank you for your submission! It does look pretty cool, though between the price point and Fender’s reissue Wide Range pickups, I am skeptical. The relatively low cost could mean that the build quality isn’t too great, which would mean that even if it does sound good, it won’t be easy/enjoyable to play. The original Wide Range pickups had Cunife magnets, whilst the current ones are basically just PAF Humbuckers voiced closer to the original Fender sound. As pickups are the most important part of a guitar’s tone*, I worry that it may not sound terribly much like the original (as with the Deluxe Telecaster Reissue).
*Some might argue against this, but it seems to me that other differences are relatively minimal in comparison. I read about someone doing blind comparisons between various guitar body woods/shapes using the same pickup each time; people thought that they were all the same guitar. It being a hollowbody complicates things, but I wonder if it’ll sound different from any other hollowbody with Wide Range pickups put in it.
However, if the built quality is good and it plays well, the low price means that one can afford to replace the pickups with ones sounding closer to the originals. Curtis Novak ones are possibly the best choice, though the Lollar ones should be great as well. Alternately, you could be like Lee Ranaldo and send the Starcaster’s pickups to Novak to be rewound to sound closer to the originals.
In all, this looks very promising, assuming that it doesn’t play terribly.
Also, not that Jonny uses it as far as I know, they removed the extra knob which was a cool feature.