2023 PJD Guitars Woodford Standard | The ultimate HSS hardtail Stratocaster-type? Review & Demo

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This is my in-depth look at the 2023 PJD Guitars Woodford Standard in Firemist Gold: a boutique, made-in-England Strat-type that could just be the ultimate hardtail HSS guitar on the market!

Check out PJD Guitars here:

The Woodford is PJD’s take on the legendary Fender Stratocaster design, and the 2023 model has had a few choice tweaks and upgrades. It’s also cheaper than the previous model, at £1,299.

The new Woodford Standard has a lightweight obeche body – this specific guitar weighs just 2.88 kgs, or 6 lbs. 5 – and the satin nitro Firemist Gold finish is simply divine to look at. You also get the usual top notch appointments: Gotoh hardtail bridge and tuners, CTS pots, Switchcraft switch/jack socket, and a set of PJD pickups – a Wadfather humbucker in the bridge, and Dr Wallace single coils at neck and middle.

Then there’s the neck, which is nitro finished maple with a maple board and a bone nut, a 25.5” scale length, 22 Jescar nickel frets, and a compound 10-12” fingerboard radius. The neck’s profile is a supremely comfy medium C shape.

This all sounds – and looks – great on paper, but how does the Woodford Standard really perform? And is it a match for all the other HSS guitars out there, primarily the Fender Strat? That’s what we’re about to find out! In the video, I put the guitar through its paces in as many different genres and styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk, metal and more.

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:11 Introduction to the PJD Woodford Standard
01:25 Specs and info
04:53 Today’s rig and plan

Clean Sounds
05:34 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup settings
05:57 Ringing open indie pop chords
06:10 Country ballad arpeggios
06:23 Country lead sound
06:29 Funk rhythms
06:42 Strummed pop chords
07:02 Soul pop riff (all pickups)
07:32 Blues progression
07:43 Cowboy chords/tone control test
08:48 Strummed folk pop chords
09:04 Poppy melodic riff
09:25 Ascending droning indie chords

Overdriven Sounds
09:38 Kings Of Leon inspired riff
09:44 Southern rock picked arpeggios
10:03 Upbeat indie barre chords
10:28 Volume control test
10:51 Choppy barre chords
11:00 Fat indie rhythm chords
11:29 Edgy indie rock chords
11:42 Droning indie riff
11:54 Indie rock octave chords
12:20 Airbourne inspired rock riff
12:31 Van Halen inspired riff
12:48 Classic rock riff
13:01 Hendrix inspired riff
13:24 Driving classic rock riff
13:39 AC/DC inspired riff
13:56 Groovy rock riff

Higher gain drive sounds
14:11 80s rock riff
14:32 Classic hard rock riff
14:48 Melodic hard rock riff
15:09 Glam rock riff
15:24 ZZ Top inspired riff
15:35 Alternative rock riff
15:59 Pop punk riff
16:12 Pop punk melodic lead riff
16:27 Green Day inspired punk rock riff
16:40 Less Than Jake inspired punk riff
16:51 Modern pop metal riff
17:02 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
17:17 Modern rock palm-muted chords (Drop D)
17:42 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D)

Heavy Distortion sounds (all in Drop D)
17:58 Metal chugging riff
18:14 Heavy metal lead sound
18:29 Hardcore punk riff
18:44 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
18:56 Rammstein inspired industrial metal riff
19:09 Classic heavy metal/sludge riff

19:46 My thoughts
20:43 First impressions
21:14 Weight
21:36 It comes with a MONO gig bag!
21:57 Build quality and hardware
22:54 Playability and neck
23:19 Sounds and pickups discussion
25:37 What other similar guitars are out there?
27:59 My conclusions on the St. John Woodford and why you should buy it

My setup was as follows: I ran the Woodford into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed and my Revv G3 pedals for overdrive and heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

Here’s some gear links:

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H&K Black Spirit 200 at Thomann:
At Sweetwater:

Greer Lightspeed:

Revv G3 at Thomann:
At Sweetwater:

Focusrite 4i4 (the new 2i4) at Thomann:
At Sweetwater:

Mono Guitar Sleeve at Thomann:
At Sweetwater:
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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#PJDGuitars #HSSStrat #Strat #Stratocaster #FiremistGold #42GSFive

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@Pjdguitars.