The Most UNDERAPPRECIATED Fender Design (aka: Unboxing the Squier Paranormal Toronado)

Рет қаралды 4,607

Күн бұрын

What do you get when you merge basic the Gibson layout and their scale length within an easily identifiable Fender product? Yup, we get the Toronado; a product that deserves a lot more love than it's ever had before.
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Пікірлер: 48

@robbreeze8794 9 ай бұрын

Excellent review! (Loved the overdrive riff.) Looking at one of these right now.

@11thFret 9 ай бұрын

Thanks! You’ll love it once you snag one. They play so wonderfully.

@lonewhitewolf7772 6 ай бұрын

I have one and love it , it is so unique !

@heavypizzas6004 10 ай бұрын

Liked and subscribed, mainly because I just bought this exact same one (same colour) for USD $339 delivered, here in Australia. Can’t wait for it to arrive! But also of the 8 or 9 review videos I watched, this was in my Top 2 👍 well spoken, thoughtful commentary, & no blues.

@heavypizzas6004 10 ай бұрын

$339 brand new, I might add.

@11thFret 10 ай бұрын

Congrats on the buy and thanks for the amazing compliment! Thats a killer score for Australia! I think you’ll love it. I still absolutely love mine. Although, because it’s me, I’ll likely still mod the $#¡+ out of it. 😉

@SquirrelDarling1 3 ай бұрын

Good idea to change the pickups, I did that on mine, they were very microphonic.

@11thFret 3 ай бұрын

Totally. I didn’t mind them at first, but there was something going on with the neck pickup that bothered me. Turns out, the north coil was out. I also started noticing how dark they were compared to my main go-to players. So I’ve currently a set of GFS Lipstick humbuckers in it which sound pretty awesome. I just don’t like how small the GFS’s are within the PAF sized pickup route. But that’s not Fender’s issue now, as much as it’s me either needing a new pickguard or putting in another PAF sized set of humbuckers.

@markpell8979 10 ай бұрын

Hey Kris! I lost touch with your YT channel not long after you moved to your new place and wondered why you have not been in my regular feed for several months. It's because somehow I became unsubscribed. Did KZbin do that? Because I didn't. So I happened across your channel this morning looking at Toronado reviews and resubbed, happily. Very glad to know you're ok and still here, hope you're digging your new home and studio. Very cool guitar, btw. I'm surprised they're not more well-known/appreciated. Happy holidays brother!

@11thFret 10 ай бұрын

Great to hear from you Mark! That’s odd that you were unsubscribed. This raises a lot of questions for me. I hope KZbin doesn’t unsubscribe viewers for whatever reason. 🤔 I’m still okay, still here, and all that jazz. I’m working on a couple new videos but had to pause as my household both has COVID and Strep throat. It’s a party over here and everyone’s invited. 😬

@vasilakiz 10 ай бұрын

i got a 1998 fender toronado mexico model.great guitar that sells more that i bought it new back then now

@11thFret 10 ай бұрын

I have those on my radar to buy if the price is right. I played them way back when, which then they disappeared right after I decided I wanted one. They’re definitely an amazing design, largely ignored by the common Fender lover. I’ve so many ideas for this Squier but haven’t flipped the switch on any of them yet.

@Chimp_No_1 6 ай бұрын

Really interesting review ! Thank you for sharing !

@stevenperry4466 8 ай бұрын

I would love to have one of these but I'm left handed .Aside from salvaging parts I could use for a home build, It's a very pretty piece of firewood!

@11thFret 8 ай бұрын

Awe man! That sucks to hear. Besides the unfortunate “left handed tax” you have to pay for the same model as a right handed version, I remember searching product sheets for gear to wholesale in just to find that harshly limited array of left-handed models to choose from. But thanks so much for watching.

@stevenperry4466 8 ай бұрын

Thanks for the great review. I've been playing since the early 60's and am something of a Gibson hater because of lack of L H models and high prices. I've had Epiphones and they are nice but that Toronado really floats my boat! I would swap out the pu's with my low output PAF's. Maybe they will make them in the near future.

@RA-ew8rv 11 ай бұрын

Would love to hear this with new strings and through a clean amp. Looks like you got a great deal. Cheers!

@valueofnothing2487 9 ай бұрын

Unless I am mistaken, the neck pickup is a bit further away from the fretboard, so it might have less warm sound than the equivalent LP. On the other hand, the neck pickup is pretty high output at 9k.

@11thFret 7 ай бұрын

I kept sitting on this comment for the next opportunity to look and compare. The neck pickup on the Toronado is exactly a half inch closer to the bridge than the Les Paul’s. So yeah, you are right. I don’t think it’d make a huge difference with tone, but there’d definitely ‘be’ somewhat of a difference. Thanks for commenting and watching.

@caseylee12 8 ай бұрын

Found a Mystic Seafoam one last week at a pawn shop for $149USD. It looks unplayed. Gave it a setup. Plays good, sounds good. I'm gonna sand the gloss off the back of the neck. It's a real keeper!

@11thFret 8 ай бұрын

That’s amazing!!! I’m super jealous! Congrats on the score. Let me know how the sanding goes.

@caseylee12 8 ай бұрын

@@11thFret will do

@margaritisschoinas5664 2 ай бұрын

I got a Lake Placid Blue model last year that was sold as a clearance item. Seller told me that nobody showed interest in this guitar which was pretty odd to me as I immediately fell in love with the neck and overall feel of this instrument. While there were no issues initially, after a while I ran into trouble with the bridge pick up which for some peculiar reason was not producing the same output in comparison to the neck pick up. I took it twice to a technician and finally the output was OK, however it became very microphonic. He along with a couple of other technicians suggested this could be because the guitar is a vintage style instrument and does not support high gain. But I see now that this is a general issue. Can you please suggest a brand and model of pick ups that will help me in eliminating the problem?

@11thFret 2 ай бұрын

Sorry it’s taken a minute for me to respond. I’m currently out of state on a trip. That aside, I’ve also since had an issue with one of my pickups too. One of the coils failed on the neck humbucker. I was able to “save” it, so to speak, after identifying that as the issue, wiring up a permanent split instead to just run the other coil. But that is absolutely not satisfactory to me. So I swapped the pickups. I haven’t really jumped down the rabbit hole with options just yet. But I do have a wealth of uninstalled pickups at my disposal to choose from. So, for the moment, I choose the GFS (aka: GuitarFetish) Lipstick humbuckers. They honestly sound pretty damn amazing, but sit inside the pickguard weird. I’m not dead set on keeping these Lipstick installed yet, so I don’t want to commit to ordering a new pickguard that could contour around the curves of the lipsticks. But, for what these lipsticks both sound and look like on a Toronado, I am a fan. If I were to change them out again, I might consider a set of Seymour Duncan 59 Models or Pearly Gates. I even have an uninstalled set of chrome covered GFS Dream 180’s that need a home. I’ve also toyed with the idea of ordering a set of GFS Surf 180’s for a review to be installed in the Toronado. There’s a lot of possibilities.

@margaritisschoinas5664 2 ай бұрын

@@11thFret Thank you very much for the info!!

@rappel28 11 ай бұрын

You missed the chili peppers video from early 2000s. They played and orange one. I went buck wild on mine and changed a bunch of stuff. 500k volume push pull splits into orange drops with 50s wiring into 1megs for tone pots. Swapped the pickups for humbucker sized widerange pickups with lower output, 7.8 neck and 8.2 bridge. Shielded the cavity and put a new picguard on it. Its my daily player at the moment, getting most the attention. Mostly because it's got 8 different voices after splitting the humbuckers. I don't really need a different guitar for different types of music anymore. Being 100% honest, i didn't use it much before the upgrades. It's pickups aren't the greatest, but after I figured that part out, it's my alltime favorite. My hope is that fender does an American run and I can upgrade again at some point, but until then I'm loving my upgraded toro.

@11thFret 11 ай бұрын

That sounds killer, which is something I was talking to my friend about earlier. I’m all about going up from this one to a used USA or MIM run when the opportunity arises. Like you, I was thinking of modding to something like a mashup of a 1972 Telecaster Deluxe in a Toronado with the oversized wide range humbuckers and 1 Meg pots. But that might be going too crazy on a Squier. So now I’m leaning on tossing in a set of white/chrome GFS Surf 180’s on this particular Squier model since Surf 180 demos seem to be pretty sparse on KZbin.

@rappel28 11 ай бұрын

@@11thFret if you go that route, consider splitting the humbuckers. Its been so useful to be able to add or remove grit. The generic widerangers i choose are standard humbucker size so I didn't have to change anything. My reason for swapping pick guards was purely cosmetic. It was black on black, now it's tort on black. Looks way cooler 😎. Being able to split to single coil on the fly is awesome. Fuzzy gain leads drop into melodic ambience and clarity with a simple pull. Its like playing a les Paul and a strat at the same time. Anyway it takes pedals way better both humbucked and split to single without getting quite or turning into mud.

@11thFret 11 ай бұрын

@rappel28 I might. There’s a lot of contemplating going on at the moment. I’ve been sitting on this guitar for a hot minute, not wanting to touch it as I hadn’t published the unboxing yet. I have a vintage set of DiMarzio cream PAFs floating around. I also have a set of GFS Chrome Dream 180’s and GFS Chrome Lipstick Humbuckers looking for a home. I used to go gung ho wiring up splits, phase reversals, blowers, etc. But I’ve appreciated simplicity more as of late. However, maybe the Jimmy Page harness would be fun in this.

@rappel28 11 ай бұрын

@@11thFret I've often wondered about the Jimmy page harness,the Brian may and on board crossed germanium diodes fuzz or black box distortion mods. How do they sound and affect an amp, is it really worth the effort? The splits are as basic as it comes. I mostly use them to thin the neck out. Or pull the bridge if I'm using delay and reverb for ambience. It's worth the extra time while wiring to not have to stop and unplug to get a single coil tone.

@elyieflorez9890 11 ай бұрын

I've got the Mystic Seafoam one. The only thing I had to change out was the crappy tuners that it came with. 🤘

@11thFret 11 ай бұрын

I’ve been eyeballing the tuners on mine. So far, they’ve been rock solid with no stability issues …yet. But I love that Mystic Seafoam. If I had a different choice, I’d have either snagged that color or the Lake Placid Blue.

@elyieflorez9890 11 ай бұрын

@@11thFret I agree with you on the blue one. If the opportunity every arose and the price is right, I would definitely snag it up.

@guelintonquiu6933 10 ай бұрын

Got a mystic seafoam toronado a couple weeks ago and holy shit, im in love with this guitar, only thing im missing here is a tremolo to nuke dive-bomb those hot asf humbucker pickups, but that hardtail combined with poplar made the delightfuller sustain i've felt with this cheap woods

@11thFret 10 ай бұрын

I keep trying to find ways to dislike this “cheap” guitar. But nope. I still think this thing is killer. I love the Mystic Seafoam color and am jealous. I’m probably going to mod mine soon because I can’t ever help myself.

@cadenceandchaostv 4 ай бұрын

Hey, I bought a sunburst toronado last year that also has this misalignment / gap between pickguard and bridge. I bought a new pickguard which made it even worse. I am trying to ignore it but I can't 😀Apparently, some of them seem to have it, some of them don't. I wonder what happened there ...

@11thFret 3 ай бұрын

I actually redid mine as it bugged me enough. I went in to quickly change the pickups and harness, but ended up trying to see what the bridge placement issue was all about. It turns out the bridge & pickguard were both legitimately off, even drilling the string through holes in the wrong place. So after a lot of measuring and plugging most of the stock pickguard holes, I reinstalled both to their proper placement. Intonation is perfect. Strings are perfectly centered. I did have to widen the string through holes a tiny bit under the bridge’s new placement since I kept the stock string through holes. But that’s it. Now it’s all perfect and no longer a jarring OCD eyesore.

@cadenceandchaostv Ай бұрын

@@11thFret That seems to be too much work even for a guitar at that price point. Great you figured it out. I ended up selling my toronado unfortunately since I didn't really fall in love with it. My main issue was how the neck felt. I tried a contemporary jaguar HH ( same price point ) and the neck felt so much better in terms of quality and shape.

@11thFret Ай бұрын

It wasn’t exactly too much work, but it was just enough for me to grumble and moan a bit over it. 😂 I’m glad you found a guitar that fit you better. Those Jag’s with their 24” scale are just so easy to get along with. I still like my Toronado a lot, but I don’t know if I can justify keeping it either. I’ve just too many guitars to content with and others I play far more than this one.