Toronado
Reviewed by:
Ramco, on november 09, 2012 7 of 7 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 400
Purchased from: Jim Laabs Music
Features: The Toronado I purchased was made in Mexico in 2003, Graffiti Yellow (my favorite color) with 22 frets. It has two Fender Atomic Humbuckers that sound incredible - I didn't buy it for the pickups, yet now I'd probably use Fender Atomics if I needed replacements on any of my other guitars. It was a string-thru body setup and the tuners are similar to (yet smaller than) a P Bass. // 10
Sound: I play rock, punk, ska, swing and surf and this guitar fits well with all of those genres. The bridge pickup is the twangiest humbucker I've ever heard, while the neck pickup has a fantastic smooth sound without being muddy. There are quite a few sounds you can make with the tone controls, however it sounds best with the tone at 10. I doubt this guitar would go over well with a shredder or metalhead, however I can get some (not many) good shredding solo sounds from the bridge pickup. The biggest complaint many other Toronado owners have is that the pickups produce a lot of feedback, however that makes a lot of feedback tricks possible without having to stand 6 inches away from your amp, and you can eliminate the feedback entirely by turning your volume down a tiny bit on the guitar. // 10
Action, Fit & Finish: This guitar is beautiful, with a Vintage look and loud colors. The action was a bit high for my tastes, however I was still able to play very well with its original setup. The pickups were very low, yet very sensitive (hence the twangy single-coil-esque tone). There were no other flaws with the guitar. // 10
Reliability & Durability: This guitar would hopefully take a real beating, however I am not sure how time will affect it. I would definitely depend on it while gigging. Occasionally some strings will slip out of tune when I tune other ones, but this is a rare occurance and only happens when I do a LOT of changes to the tuning of a string (this never happens when I can tune quickly with an electronic tuner). // 10
Impression: This guitar definitely matches what I play, from punk rhythms to Brian Setzer-style swing solos to ska upstrokes to EVH-style guitar licks to heavy-reverbed-extremely-fast-right-hand-picking surf leads. I have been playing for five years and the Toronado fits everything I do like a glove. I would have appreciated a single coil bridge pickup, however the humbucker does just fine. If it was stolen or lost I'd definitely buy another one, in fact I might just buy another one even if it wasn't stolen. I'd hold in in the same respects as a Highway 1 Strat (another guitar I think is awesome), and would love to see it advertised as one of Fender's front line guitars. // 10
Toronado
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on november 09, 2012 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 545
Features: I spotted this guitar almost instantly when I walked into my local music store. The odd shape and cherry red color jumped off the wall when I first noticed this guitar. Although it's slightly on the lower end of Fenders instrament (being made in mexico and all) it still has all the features I like in a guitar. It came standard with 2 alnico humbuckers, 2 volume and 2 tone knobs, and a 3-way toggle switch. The bridge is a Tune-O-Matic in silver along with the Standard Fender engraved tuners. The major letdown from all the goodies about the guitar came from the sticky toggle Switch that I had to replace, the cruddy knobs which fell off and had to be replace, as well as the volume pot that broke when I tried to put the knob back on. Once all that was repaired it worked much better. // 8
Sound: The alnico series humbuckers sang beautifully through my Crate GLX120 full stack. My styles range from Texas blues to heavy metal, so once I scratched the surface of what the can do, I ran wild. Using clean tones with different kinds of reverb, the bridge pickup gives a bright sound almost too bright. That can easily be adjusted by turning the volume knob on the guitar down, but it is good for certain tones that are trying to be achieved. The neck pickup however did not act like this, it's highs were just right and it's lows were nice and warm.Using a Vintage tube screamer sounding gain, it comes out very blues and almost like a fat Strat at times and a les paul at others. Once I kicked some high amounts of distortion and overdrive on it, it sounded like a metal machine. I could hear every note clearly and every chord note ring thru. It screamed wonderfully. // 9
Action, Fit & Finish: The action on the guitar was nice and fresh from the factory. The neck isn't too small or too wide. I feels like a newer Strat neck. The pickups I always adjust to where they are almost flush with the body and then I raise them as I see fit.The strings also sit just high enough off the fretbord and just feels like you're playing an odd shaped Strat. // 10
Reliability & Durability: This guitar is my main guitar for shows and performances. It's got a great look to it most other guitars don't have, and puts out just the right tones I need. Although you can never go wrong havin a backup les pual on hand (just in case) it's a dependable rock machine. The finish seems well enought to last for years and even if it doesn't, Vintage instraments are in high demand. // 10
Impression: I've been playing now for about 7 years, this is my 9th guitar i've owned and I enjoy it. I love the look it has and i love the tones it gives. I love fenders look, but i love the sound of a les paul, you can achive some of those paul tones with it, and you can also achive classic Fender tones with it. Affordable, a good "go-to" guitar, great tones, cool shape. Lacking Fender quality craftesmanship in certain areas, clean tones almost too bright, and as of 2007 are no longer being produced. // 9
Toronado
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on november 09, 2012 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 350
Purchased from: Overstock.com
Features: This guitar is a 2005 Mexican Fender Tornado, 22 frets, alder body, C-shape neck, with a Jazzmaster style body and Jazzmaster neck. Tune-O-Matic bridge, 2 pickup volume controlls, 2 tone controlls 3-way pickup selector with Fender Atomic pickups, it also came with a fancy Fender gig bag. // 9
Sound: I play mostly hardcore, and this guitar sort of fits my needs, this guitar could be called a jack of all trades in my opinion. This guitar can pull off nice blusey jazzy sounds aswell as some nice distorted or overdriven tunes. I have one complaint about the sound of this guitar, and that's the neck pickup. It seems a bit cool, and thin, it isn't as deep and rich as I would hope it to be. I could really see myself replacing this pickup in the near future. // 9
Action, Fit & Finish: The action on this guitar is great. There are a couple factory blemishes on the fingerboard (dents, overspray), but for the price I paid, I really don't care. The tone pot for the brige pickup is pretty bad though, the sound cuts out, and it acts more like a volume controll then a tone controll. The brige pickup also rattles from time to time, but this is an easy fix. // 8
Reliability & Durability: This guitar is rock solid, I could mos def gig with this thing without any backups in sight, I haven't had any problems with the strap buttons. The guitar stays in tune pretty well, especially considering how hard I am on it. the finish feels like it will last a long time, and it wont wear out any time soon. // 10
Impression: This guitar suits me well, I'm actually a bass player in a band, but I decided to give the guitar a shot for fun, and I bought this to replace my worn out Squire tele (it's completely thrashed now). I've been playing bass for 6 years, and the guitar form only 9 months, but I've picked up the guitar pretty fast, and I'm reaching the intermediate level. If this guitar were to somehow break (which it will never do), or get stoled, or lost, I would buy a new one. // 9
This guitar is a sweet all around player. I have two Mexican deluxe's and the Korean race car one too. Come on ! The race stripes so goofy it ends up being cool! I love all of mine and they are my favorite go-to guitars out many I have. If you like a Les Paul scale and set up but your really a Fender person and like a Fender neck, this guitar is for you. People like to pick on the Atomic Humbuckers but I think they have a great rock and blues sound (they're not for metal though). They're not weak by any means. I've got a few guitars with Duncans in them and I like the Atomics just as much. For what it's worth, I've seen comments about the buzzing and I want to comment on the cause of it. The problem is the Toggle Switch wires run from the pots right under the pickups to the switch and Fender didn't use a sheilded wire for the pickup selector wires. (Shame on you Fender but maybe you get that included when you buy an American Model for $400 more) Get a Luthier to run you two new sheilded wires to the toggle and it will be quiet as a mouse. Only $50. Regards fellow Toronado owners!
I bought my Toronado back in 2003 I think it was from a good friend and former guitarist in my band. I'm not going to lie. Technically I don't know too much specifics about guitars, but I do know what sounds good and plays well, and I've got no complaints with this one. It's a deluxe series made in mexico, black with a red marble pick guard. It's my primary electric guitar, my secondary my ESP LTD F-250, and as long as it's in tact i don't plan on moving it out of that position. Although I have no problem with the sound or how it plays, I do however have a problem with the stringing. The original open top tuning pegs make it tiring to restring. Having to hold the string down in place as I tighten them usually leaves my thumb blistered, but overall it's worth it. I'd change them but I kind of like to keep my guitars as close to original as possible. I don't have a desire to modify them.
I just grabbed one of these yesterday at a fleamarket, it's a 1998 in black with the tortoise pickguard, i just need to swap out the selector switch, tighetn up the input jack and grab a new knob for one of the tone pots. Great guitar (I very much enjoy that it's a fender with a gibson scale length)
Whilst being aware that he doesn't actually own it, John Frusciante 'plays' one in the Can't Stop video. If it's good enough for him to pretend to play, it's good enough for me.
