Cyclone

Spent Sunday morning with something different, but not entirely. Jaguars & Jazzmasters are predominantly Fender's offset darlings, other models get sidelined for being second fiddle or too estranged (eg. Meteora). The model you see here is the Cyclone. The Cyclone was discontinued in 2006 / 2007 & reappeared in the Japanese end of Fender quite recently. I lost track when that happened... The Cyclone sports a 24.75" scale length so it sits in between the Jaguar & the Jazzmaster.

I dislike the M / Wave-type default string retainer; it sits too low on the headstock. Will always make it a point to replace them with this rounded version. Fender experts told me this is necessary to keep the strings in place at the nut when you whammy. Since I don't whammy, it made perfect sense.

Beez installed these SDs yesterday: Scooped (N) / JB (bridge). Anyway, these are excess pickups that I didn't know I own, really. I'm not into white pickups, was wondering why I have this trembucker version lying around. I recall buying the middle Scooped single coil, not the neck model. Still wondering why I have it to begin with.

I have a fresh set of 9 - 42 in this guitar as an experiment. I'm tuned to fourths, getting a feel for the high E / B strings before making further changes. First impressions - it's necessary to have thin strings for this tuning approach for the aforementioned E / B but the rest of the strings feel floppy. Looking forward to try the 9.5 - 44 instead.