Fender Alternate Reality Sixty Six Electric Guitar (with Gig Bag)
A guitar that's as unique as you! The Fender Alternate Reality Sixty Six features a down-sized Jazz Bass body and HSS pickup configuration fit for any style.
Overall User Ratings (based on 1 ratings)
Submitted December 24, 2019 by Tucker F in Victoria, BC
"A breath of fresh air from Fender (sort of)"
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I have been a fan of Fender's limited run oddities for a few years, starting with their Pawn Shop series and moving through the alternate reality/parallel universe series. I'll admit these are what really drew me to Fender as a brand. I haven't ever really felt a pull towards their run of the mill stuff. I have one of the Coronado reissues, a Jag Strat, and I just purchased this Sixty Six. I had some saved up cash and thought about getting a new guitar this season, so I perused zZounds' Fender page to see what might be interesting this year. I happened upon the Sixty Six. I will say right out of the gate that I have sharply contrasting feelings about this guitar. I absolutely love the aesthetics of it, its oddity, its limited availability, and the colour choices (I ended up getting the sunburst and it isn't the traditional Fender burst, it has more red in it, which is amazing looking.) Where I am stuck with this one is its features. To me, it feels a little uninspired compared to the rest. I love the Jazz Bass body, the maple board with the gloss finish, etc. But the pickups! Oh man, the pickups. I cannot for the life of me understand what made them go with two Tele pickups and a humbucker. That's where I hit a wall. I am not a Tele fan, and I am not really that much of a standard humbucker fan. So I'm a little biased, but I decided to try this one out to see if it would convince me to switch over, or at least, try some new things. I got it today and opened it with an open mind and I was ready to be amazed. I had watched so many youtube demos/reviews and every person I watched had a similar reaction, something along the lines of: "I love this, it's amazing, I need it now" or so. I was ready to be wowed. I was not. It isn't a bad guitar by any stretch. But for me, it was just not what I was expecting. As I said, I'm not a telecaster player, so I can't comment on its comparison to a Tele, but when compared to a standard strat, it sounds so ungodly thin and tinny. I hear no twang in it, which is what I've heard you're supposed to hear from a Tele. The only position I found myself comfortable in is the neck and middle pickups, but they are so quiet and low output that you almost have to crank the amp (played through a Vox hand-wired AC30) to hear a clean tone over the ridiculous hum. It seems to me that the two Tele pickups are either wound so low normally, or these are specifically low output. I might have just gotten a bad one of the batch too, but I don't know. Conversely, the bridge humbucker is overwound to the moon. It is ridiculously high output to the point that it was almost overdriving my amp on a clean channel with minimal gain. However, it wasn't the traditional meat of a humbucker. Compared to a Les Paul, or even another humbucker sporting fender, it still sounds thin and tinny, even though its louder and supposed to be beefier. Personally, I'm not a fan of this one for these reasons. But, it is still a great guitar, it just isn't a great fit for me. This part of the review is the subjective part, and the rest will be more impartial to give you an idea of what you're looking at. I would highly recommend it still, as build quality is still amazing, and the sound is good, just not my bag. At this point, I don't know if I'll sell it, return it, give it to someone,etc. I'm wondering if this becomes my new DIY mod project to make it more personable to me. I'm still happy with my purchase, but I feel like Fender and I just missed each other with this one. I didn't feel that 'spark' when you pick up something that really jives with you.
Sound
The sound quality of this guitar is objectively fantastic. The pickups are clear, although the neck and middle seem a little quiet. The bridge is loud and has presence, it is just again more on the trebly side of the spectrum. They all seem to be very responsive to different picking styles (it sounds smooth as glass with fingerpicking and a little reverb). If you gently pluck or strum, you get a nice quiet and smooth sound, and they respond well and seem to be quiet sensitive to hard strumming. The pickup combinations are really nice and when you're playing a blend of them, is where I feel most pleased with the sound quality. The "two" and "four" positions on the five-way switch give you a silky sweet full tone (neck and middle) and a snarly bright tone (bridge and middle) which are good. I am personally not a major fan of any of them on their own though. The neck feels like it doesn't have enough depth to it, and so it is hard to dig into that fatter, more bassy neck pickup tone unless you crank the bass on your amp (if it has a bass EQ) or roll off the tone by about half. The middle pickup is the most "tele" sounding one of the two Tele pickups, with it being a spanky, almost twangy single-coil, but for me, it was a little forgettable in terms of sonic pleasure. Overdriven, it is ok, I ran it through an EHX Crayon, and it can scream. Fair warning though, when you're dialled in for an overdriven neck tone and switch to the bridge, get ready for a massive increase in volume!I can make it sound good, but the sound isn't really something I'm vibing with. It is a good guitar, and I'm sure it fits someone's musical style, just not mine.
Features
The features on this are quite basic really. It is essentially a partscaster from their "player" series instruments (top tier Mexico stuff, just a step below the first American made ones). It has two player series Telecaster pickups, a player series humbucker, what appears to be player series Jazzmaster or jaguar pots/knobs, and a player series strat switch and tremolo. They are all fine parts individually, but for some reason, all of them mashed together feels less like the other fenders of this type I've owned (jag strat, by comparison, is insanely weird and it all sort of works). The tremolo works well, it's set up as a floating trem when you get it and gives you good enough action. I am not a huge fan of it for this guitar though, as I feel it would've been better as a hardtail personally. For some reason, the tremolo just doesn't seem to fit with the Jazz Bass body/concept. Its got a beautiful alder body, a satin-finished maple neck with a skunk stripe that looks to be Pau Ferro. The neck is a good feeling one and I do believe it is a unique profile for this model. It almost tapers at the nut like a jazz bass, which I really, really like. It plays very fast given the oil type treatment on it. The fingerboard is a high gloss, and to me, it plays so incredibly smooth. For me, this guitar plays and feels amazing, the sound just isn't for me (see above). The tuners are the vintage style fender posts where you bend and insert the strings down inside, which I personally have come to love since buying a jaguar several years ago. A weird thing, at least for me is that on the sunbursts, they seemed to have included a mint green guard which looks cool, but out of place on a brand new instrument. I almost wonder if tortoiseshell or even an anodized one would've looked better. The final thing I'll touch on as far as features is the switch. In short, I hate it's placement. On my jaguar strat parallel universe, the switch is in the same place and is fine. However, for some reason, it bothers me on the sixty-six. It isn't in the way, but it feels out of place. I think what would've been better would have been either a blend knob (like a jazz bass) or on-off switches like a jag/bass vi. Overall it feels like its a bunch of things added together to make a strat. And they don't make that amazing of a strat, but they do make something that some people will love.
Ease of Use
This guitar is very playable, and I have no complaints. The switch does bother me in terms of placement, but more from a design perspective, not a functionality one. All in all, its perfectly and easily playable. It is fairly lightweight, and comfortable. It is a slightly small body (feels almost like a mustang for size), but it works.
Quality
The thing is a tank. It looks amazing and feels solid. All the parts seem to be in great shape and are on Fender's higher side of their more affordable range, so they are here to last and are functional. The finish is poly, so it will look the same in fifty years as it does today. The included gig bag is also great and stores it well. No complaints on the quality. My issues are more subjective. Objectively it's a beautiful instrument.
Value
In short, to me, this guitar is not worth $900.00. To someone else, it may very well be priceless. I haven't yet had my wow moment of bonding with it, and until that happens, I'll feel it isn't worth it. I am holding out hope for that value to come about though. Value in guitars always fluctuates. I have an Epiphone Sheraton ii that was almost traded to guitar centre for 200$ at one point, that is now priceless to me. It takes time, man.
Manufacturer Support
I haven't yet contacted Fender. I am going to contact Zzounds when their support lines open up as mine did arrive with a small but prominent dent in the neck pickup cover that I want to discuss. Knowing how great Zzounds has been to me over the years, and how they value customers, I don't expect this to be an issue at all.
The Wow Factor
See the rest of the review, but there isn't a wow factor for me in terms of sound. In terms of the look of it though? its definitely a 'wow'. Someone else may very well have their wow moment, and I fully reccomend buying this is you are interested. Who knows, maybe in 40 years Fender will be doing $10k custom shop tribute signature models to the person who's reading this review right now.
Musical Background:
I've been playing guitar for 10 years, mostly at home/with friends sometimes.
Musical Style:
I play classic rock, psychedelic rock, neoclassical mood music, blues, and some jazz.
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