Tom Delonge Fender Strat | First Impressions Review 

There is absolutely no excuse that this doesn't come with a hard case at this price point.

Dear Fender, I don't want to live in a world where $1400 guitars come with flaws Super cool colour tho! Sincerely, Someone who bought an MIA Tele for ~800 only 4 years ago brand new from Fender themselves.

1400€!!? For a one pickup, hardtail, no frills guitar... My goodness what even are guitar prices anymore

You’re paying 900 dollars for the neck plate on a 500 dollar guitar!!!

Paying this much for a guitar made in Mexico is NUTS!

Link to the Katana preset - sendfox.com/lp/1k0x6n A lot of people have asked about the bridge alignment and in my overhead shot it looks like mine is out too. It isn't. it is the camera angle which is not straight down. I will post some pics on my instagram to show a better angle.

I wish I could justify it but great review. Fluff loved his but Agufish had some defects so guess it is the luck of the draw! The Yellow was a great choice!

The smile when you played those first chords was priceless, love it Andy

Great idea Andy, mod a Squier Sonic and see how it compares to this Fender.

Hmmm, loving your excitement at the guitar Andy, but crikey,minor fret sprout (and they look a bit chopped off); bridge/neck alignment off; and bridge placement off lengthwise as the low E can't intonate without cutting the spring. All forgiveable on a Squier, Harley Benton, etc but at €1400?! Fender need to get with the programme methinks... And then at the end you throw in your friends' poor reports. Eek. Totally agree with your closing comments.

The pricing is ridiculous here in Canada. It works out to approximately $2000 including taxes for a Mexican made fender. I know it’s a completely different vibe, but the fact you can get a new EVH Mexican made Wolfgang for $500 less and it’s more versatile is telling. Would be better if it was priced the same as a Mexican Wolfgang.

I got the graffiti yellow one as well. My one came without the ‘Tom’ engraved neck plate, it just has a standard blank one fitted. I’ve seen a few people have issues with this guitar but as yet have not seen anyone with the incorrect neck plate. Fender are going to ship one out to me, but that’s really not the point. If something as obvious as that can be missed and is allowed to leave the factory, it leads me to believe the QC on these is virtually nonexistent. Shocking for a guitar that costs £1299.

You NAILED it at the end. I still think it would be overpriced for it basically being less components than a student model at $1k. Normally, a signature model is something you cant get elsewhere but this could be any strat that someone dropped a single pickup pick guard into.

I don't even play guitar, but this was a great review moving between the things that felt great and were fun for you vs questions of price and quality control. And those first few notes of What's My Age Again had me smiling despite being much younger than the target nostalgia group :)

$1500 US for a fender that has only 1 knob, 1 pickup, no hard case, and is it even made in the US custom shop or it is still Mexican made? Ridiculous prices; everything is up $50-$200 mrsp from what it was just 2 years ago….baby taylor was $200 and now $350..

Guitar, €800 Nostalgia, €600 Then there's the €100 to pay for the intonation to be fixed...

It would be an interesting guitar at half the price, but i suspect you could make a Squier as good or better, also at a lot less cost. I'd be interested to know if they are routed as a standard Strat!

Over $2000 CAD for this guitar is mental.

Just got my yellow one and it's perfect. No alignment issues or anything else. The bridge/pick guard fit and finish is spot on. Frets are nicely done.

I had the og one that my dad bought me for Christmas in middle school. It was so rad. Sadly I got rid of it in like 2010

I’m not a Blink fan by any means, and the price does seem a bit much for what you get, but I’m absolutely drawn to this. I might be tempted to just buy a classic vibe and strip it down to one pickup

I remember getting mine 20 years ago. Got it for 420 bucks at guitar center, my favorite guitar ever, simple but beautiful. Congrats on getting one!

The made in America thing is long gone professional quality crafted guitars are Available everywhere on all 4 corners of the World

After seeing several recent unboxing reviews, my conclusion is (1) overpriced. By like $500 or so, and (2) inexcusably poor QA for a $1300 made in Mexico Fender. Also, no hard case? Really? For a $1300 MIM Strat?

Man fender is paying these boys on RU-vid!!! 5th video review this week

some internet nerd somewhere said cash grab... it's totally on brand for tom delonge, if you ask me. i still say parts-caster one together for cheaper. i also dont really like signature models because they usually come off like a cashgrab to me. besides, modding a guitar to similar specs maintains the inspiration from artist but adds a personalized story to it, and should make that axe more special to you, or something... but whatever, y'all do you, guitar nerds!

All the reviews I’ve seen people enjoy it! I think the only disappointment is the fact it is 1300 bucks for a Mexican Strat This should’ve cost no more than 800 max

I actually won one of these back in 2004 from a random drawing at my local Guitar Center. Used it for years, and it's a solid guitar!

The first problem is your buying a single humbucker Strat for 1400$

These are coming out of the factory all messed up

Another complete failure by fender. What an embarrassing joke! Squier is doing way cooler things these days.

It looks like your neck is misaligned after loosening the neck screws and shifting it. Look at the gaps between the edge of the neck and both the high and low e strings. Disappointing that a $1300 guitar cannot be intonated out of the box.

The string alignment is miles off. Look how close the low E string is to the edge of the fretboard. Loosen the bolts and pull the neck over to fix. Quality control at fender is a joke.

The invaders sound best as low as you can get them for clarity. Learned straight from the way Tom had them set on his strats. Alluring guitar and still has the magic.

I was scrolling past, saw the thumbnail, and swear to god I thought that Steve-o was doing a skit in a curly wig 😂

I even *applaud* you for liking the big headstock better! 👏😁 I've always preferred it myself 😊

Nostalgia? Not for no $1400 euros. I’d send that POS back ASAP. I wonder what Tom would think of this 😂😂

It looks great and sounds great, but the low E is riding awfully close to the top edge. Awkward!

Why would he get a signature guitar lol ...times are sure wonky . Noone else out there let's drag up some poop just for the hell of it

I play an old Strat. I do like Blink, but I never thought Toms fenders were ever special. They all looked stock and beat the hell out of. I would never even have considered looking for a Tom signature Strat

your bridge is also misaligned like agufish had... seems the low E is meant to be riding the edge of the fretboard?

the guitar is beautiful. and sounds really good too! but it's too expensive for the features this restricted. don't even mentioning it's a mexican strat.

Madness, you can get the schecter AM6 sig for less than this.

I hadn’t watched anyone else’s reviews of this guitar because I knew you’d be getting one soon enough. Tom made me want to play guitar back when I was 17 after I heard what’s my age again, but I just can’t bring myself to buy any signature guitar. Wonderful review!

I don’t know who “everyone” is, but I’m not disappointed. Why? Well because I didn’t buy one. 🤘😀

I’m disapointed because the only way to get a hardtail strat is if you get a signature or noventa

You really make me laugh.. And I'm not patronising.. Funny funny honest genuine bloke.. Great channel.. 🔥

Secretly loved blink 182? Man i openly love blink 182 and I don't care who knows it

Looks like Steve-O with a Jew fro in the thumbnail 😂

As someone that is not the target age for this nostalgia I still found the video entertaining. Thanks.

I need one of these. I actually don't need another guitar, but yet I need one of these.

nice instrument, sounds good too, but, 1433eu for a sinlge pick, minimal, Fender Mexico, guitar, is'nt a bit too much?

It does the Blink-182 thing very well, looks like you're having a blast playing it.

Looks and sounds like a pretty solid guitar. Personally, if I was to pay that amount for a guitar, I'd like more tone options AND locking tuners. Then again, I usually sling Gibson guitars. Gotta say that even though this is a limited one-trick pony guitar, that one trick it does extremely well! Perfect for Blink 182 songs 😁

Folks should play what they want and buy what they want but they should understand why some guitars are so pricey. I have worked within the biz and played guitar my whole life. Often players wrongly think that parts and labor are the cause of their guitar being so pricey. It isn't ! The biggest and most overlooked cause is advertising and marketing. PERIOD. Those glossy catalogs, those guitars given to pros, those tens of thousands(hundred of thousands in Fender's case) spent convincing the consumer that their guitar is superior is a HUGE percent of a 2000-3000 dollar Fender or Gibson. All one has to do is look at a company's production numbers and add/promotion/marketing expenses and do a little math and soon you realize that a 2000- 3000$ instrument has 700$ spent on it by the manufacturer to hype it up to a buying public that rarely has the expertise to make a living with that product. Ouch! The truth hurts. But Fender has to wine and dine pros and give away a lot of stuff and advertise etc...etc ..and that is why their 500$ bolt on neck guitar costs 2 grand.

I've watched a few video reviews on this guitar. I have to say yours is the best! I really like the way you explain stuff. That invader pickup has a lot of power and it has a lot of bass! You might want to keep it a little ways away from the strings because it's so powerful I have one in one of my guitars I have it probably a quarter inch away. Pretty cool guitar great for metal or rock. Not really into the yellow color I would get a black one myself. Great review as always I'm sure this will be in the gear of the week. Thanks Andy😊

Great video! Would love to see one of those without an artist name assigned to it. If Fender does make something similar, I'd bet it's priced much lower.

Great $500 guitar!

I can see a little string aligment issue con yours

Soo it’s an extra $700 because Tom drew an alien on it?

it's a nice guitar, I just love the simplicity of it, however ,I would not go for a yellow finish though.

I don’t even play guitar but I’m here for the same nostalgia you’re describing.

I was proper excited when saw this had been reissued, then I went online and saw they were £1300 😮

Im 44 and i can remember Blink 182 and Unwritten Law playing a show in my town when I was 17 or 18. Used my older brothers ID to get in and rocked out to Cheshire Cat and OZ factor. Smoked a joint with them on their Shortbus with couches. That was a few yrs before Travis was in the band. Anyways, I want one, but cant bring myself to spend that kind of money on a MIM strat

The magic with the neck of the original Delonge from early 00's is that it *looks* full glossy, but does not stick AT ALL ! Perfect neck for me, I can't wait to compare with my reissue that is on his way 😉

Comparing this with my same priced ESP LTD M-1000 Purple Burst, and there are huge differences. Stainless S Frets, 57/66TW pickups, no fret sprouts, FR-1000 bridge, locking nut, neck-thru, and overall great quality. To me, this Fender is like a Squire that it's pickup has been upgraded... It'd had at least a nitro-cellulose finish, as I already said in my other comment. They also have a MiM Jimi Hendrix Strat for 1100 Euro=1000 Usd. which seems to be working well... Also Nostalgia... Still in stock. Poly finish for some reason doesn't stick to the body on Fenders, and once it has a scratch from an accident, you can scrape off little chunks of finish, or the entire finish, by the scratch, it's for me a big flaw.

Im not disappointed. I love mine

that low E is off the board!

I was born in 83 and my wife has to physically restrain me from buying it.

Idk how I feel about the invader pickup, seems like a little too much “twang”, just personal opinion. I play the HSS Strat with the Shawbucker and going through the Boss Katana MK2 is great sounding. Great review video man!

It should be half the price it is

I’m making my own never gonna buy one.. you could make a better one for half the price

Man, I'd love to be able to have one of these. I'm not someone who listens to Blink that much anymore, or even that "kind of music," but yeah... I was a HUGE fan of theirs back in the day. I actually have a Partscaster Strat that I put Invader pickups ( _and a pearloid pickguard, lol_ ) onto and I loved that thing for a good while, some 15 years ago. The electronics in it are shot somehow though, so I need to figure out how to replace those/fix that issue. I have an Esquire where I put some Hot Rails pickups into it and a pearloid pickguard as my "main" now (well... "second stringer?"). Lol, I love pearloid pickguards. It had a wicked sticky neck so bad that I had to take sandpaper to it. Before I did that (just last year), I just wouldn't play it because it was too "sticky."

I'm so tired of the whole thing you wouldn't believe, Skin that wanted Elvis's guitar, Jako that forgot there was already some Fuzz in the room, Janet that had Clean Looks from the beginning and Daft Punk that left Paris without any fast White Perl car, I don't know, you might be plenty of Ibanez but my broken tooth wasn't made of moshpits, that was already a remake. Who really wrote 'hey Joe'?! I didn't know J.J. was the name of JFK's son. Chroma Key is that green, uh?! What a cheap shirt that you've got. It reminds me well why my tattoos are not colored ones. You are Queens of the Stone Hedge tall and I'm not a fan of Jimmy Page, but that's neat. What do you think of Hetfield's LTD, worth picking up the pieces and fighting for the Floyd Rose with the first logo?! I don't know. The Frankenstrat is amazing, I don't really care of those necklaces addictions. Namastè.

I don't even need the volume control. I just wire my pickup straight to the output.

A Squier Sonic Hardtail, with a new solid shaft 250k pot, SD Invader bridge and a new pickguard does the trick for $300 a $400. And it will work hella fine.

I love that guitar! so much that back in the day I bought a peavy predator then set it up with just a volume knob, fixed bridge and humbucker. LOL I also had to cut the spring on the E.

WishI would have bought one 20 years ago when they were $500-$600

Definitely not worth it.

Got a Graffiti Yellow one on the way!

I'm glad you like it. It's a nice guitar that's worth that much money Question . I think Fender is taking advantage of people. You know that on my costume? A couple 100 bucks to make

I'm 66 not the target

This is $1300 LOL. No fucking thanks

8:12 how can you tell a part was not right? i didnt hear anything lol..

I am 38 and the nostalgia makes me kinda wanna buy this guitar. But the quality issues that people are reporting kinda scare me. I wish my local shop had one I could try 😊 Great video - and your take on Blink kinda resonated quite well with me.

Bought my TD strat about 10 years ago in mint condition on eBay for $500 for the same reason as you (I was 15 when dude ranch came out and became a now lifelong fan). Still love it to this day. Paying $1400 now is ridiculous. Even if you have 1400 to spend, why not pay less if you can? Didn't buy the starcaster at launch because I knew they'd be on eBay for less eventually. Now, just a couple months after release, they're going for $800-$900 new. In a few months, they'll be $700 and so on. If you're patient with new gear, the price always goes down

At that price, with those flaws, I don't think I would buy it new. Used maybe.

i laughed so hard when i realized his shirt said iron mando. love it

That close up of the frets tho... yikes 😬 I've seen better on $200 Chinese guitars.

Id like to buy one of this, I am a blink fan, I’m not profissional, but want to have a good guitar, for this price, an easy guitar to play and good this is an option?

Always the ones complaining are the ones who cant afford it...

Fender (and other big name brands) seem to have declining or at least inconsistent quality over the last ten or so years. Around the year 2000 I started taking my playing seriously and Fender was my regular choice for electric, acoustic and bass guitars. I've had multiple Strats, Teles, P's and J's. Mexican, American and some Squiers too. All of them flawless. Even when buying cheaper brands, you never would expect intonation or fretwork issues. Usually the quality of electronics and finish is where you'd see the cost savings. Nowadays, when I'm visiting a guitar shop it seems that MOST instruments I pick up and play have some deal-breaking flaw. People that say "Well, what do you expect for $1000?" Well, I expect something at least as good as what I paid $350-400 for 15-20 years ago. $1000-2000 is still a lot of money to shell out, for what to most of us is a hobby not a profession. I have no problem forking over my hard earned cash if I'm guaranteed some respectable level of quality. Not just a gamble. I refuse to have to finish the job that the factory failed to complete. Setting up the instrument for personal preferences is obvious, but having to pull out my fret files, shim the neck or actually having to move the bridge?! Completely unacceptable. A decade ago I wouldn't have even expected to have to do that to a cheap knock-off purchased at a shady expo center. Examples of my recent experiences with Fender Co.: An American Vintage Fender Bass ($2200) that had a terrible nitro finish. Seemed like the paint wasn't mixed correctly and never really cured. Cheap sounding electronics. A Mexican built Roger Waters sig P Bass. Absolutely flawless in every way. A FSR Squier Tele. Excellent playing, sounding and looking guitar. I was actually there to by an American Fender, but the fretwork wasn't just terrible. It wasn't done at all. Some frets were left completely unfinished. I literally sliced my palm trying to play it. A Mexican P Bass. Same thing. Looked and sounded great but most of the frets were completely unfinished. Some sticking out of of the neck by almost 1/8"! A standard Squier Strat. Nice finish, acceptable but not great fretwork, flawless finish. A Squier CV 60's P bass. Poor selection of fretboard wood, visible flaws left unfilled. Frets cut to proper length but still sharp under my hand. Otherwise decent finish and tone, great neck. I don't exactly have sensitive hands. I've been a metal worker for over 20 years and have pretty calloused, working-stiff hands. Fender needs to up their game big time to regain me as a loyal customer. Until then, I've moved on.

Just picked up a brand new one in blue for £599 UK. Plays and sounds fantastic. All good things come to those who wait.

How is the placement of the bridge? Agufish received a model where the bottom E was practically hanging off the fretboard at the higher frets. It's hard to tell but when you place it on the scales, it does look mis-aligned?

Scissors

Seems weird that it wouldn't be coil split. It wouldn't take away from the simplicity and it would actually be a great feature.

at the end of the day, to me, the purpose of an artist a signature model isnt to create the best value for money for the consumer, its to sell the artist's personalized instrument to people who want to buy that. tom delonge's strat is an iconic instrument to many many people and that iconic image and association is also a huge selling point for the guitar, not just its features. its not designed to be versatile its designed to be the opposite, to fit the vision of one specific and beloved guitarist. it would be stupid for them to price this lower or similarly to a standard strat because it was designed specifically to be a collectors item for blink fans. to me, the pricing makes total sense

Why???? Why????? 😫😫😫 Why Bother. 🥴🥴🥴🥴 C R A P ! Fender is laughing and robbing buyers.. It should’ve come with a Fender HS case..

Great review. You can easily raise the pickup. Watching for a second time. I wonder if this can plan any other type of music.

If only there were another company that could make a better quality version for less profit. Maybe with a decent quality Tesla H pickup. And call it, I dunno, an "ST" or something like that to indicate Strat, and yet somehow imply in the name that it's inspired by Tom/Blink182. Ah well, I can dream...