rauchman wrote:
Great info....thanks. What is it about your Comanche that you see as "better" than the US Legacy?
Let's see how can I
quantify this? It's all going to come down to the Z-Coil pickups.
There are other noiseless pickups - I still have the Fender Strat Plus I bought new in the eighties. It came with noiseless Lace Sensors pickups (Golds), and though they do reduce the hum, they likewise seem to deaden the tone a little at the same time.
Now if those noiseless pickups were MFD, I expect that I wouldn't seem to experience the same tone-loss across the spectrum in my Lace Sensors as I do now, since the MFDs will suck more tone out of the strings by virtue of the better managed magnetic field. But the Z-coils have two things going for them (three if you count the MFDs) that normal noiseless pickups do not - and this is where the genius of Leo Fender shines - they have split the coil and offset it so that instead of having one coil closer to the strings than the other, they both serve their own triplet of string at the same height - and because the coils are offset - they can reverse the poles between coils, without losing sound when you bend the third and fourth strings.
It helps that there is a toggle that pulls in the neck pickup in any configuration, so you can play like a tele if you want.
Now, having said that, what you get is a guitar that sucks every nuance out of the strings, without losing any signal in doing so, or having various harmonics in the signal, washed out by the hum.
The first time you play one, you'll be wondering what's missing? It's the hiss. All you hear is the guitar, that can be a little off-putting at first, since we typically crank the bass and treble cuts wide open the first time we play, and we're used to a signal that mixes hiss and guitar. When it isn't there, it can be almost jarring. It doesn't sound like you expect it ought to... It isn't wrong, or worse, it is just pure, naked, signal.
When you dress it up with some effects - that is when you realize how (a) getting rid of all that noise, and (B) having a more nuanced tone (because of the MFDs), makes your guitar sound incredible through any effects you throw at it.
I've played lot of guitars in the past 30 years. I haven't tried every guitar known to man, but I can tell you, I can do more with my Comanche than I could with any other guitar I have owned/played. I haven't found any tone I couldn't nail on my Comanche.
Mileage may vary, but I for one can't praise the Comanche enough. I like my other guitars, but since I've got the Comanche, it's the only guitar I gig now, it just keeps on giving.