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tjon901 « Dressed up double fat »
Published on 08/30/11 at 17:03The Big Apple strat is basically a dressed up double fat strat with a hard tail bridge. It is a stratocaster with two humbuckers. This model has never been as popular as the traditional strat but it is a model with a devoted following. It started in the 70s when this was a popular mode. Then and now fender looks whats going on in the aftermarket to help decide what models they should make. The specs on this guitar are pretty basic for a strat. It has a alder body with a maple neck. The neck has a 22 fret maple fretboard. The fretboard and headstock have a cool flame finish to them. The neck has a 9 inch radius so it is pretty vintage. These guitars came with awesome Seymour Duncan pickups in them as well with a cool 5 way switch that let you get some split tones.
UTILIZATION
These guitars play pretty well for a strat. The neck is fairly wide and the shape is sort of a flattened C or maybe a D shape. Differant than any other Fender I have tried but I like it. Reminds me a little of the neck of an SRV Strat. The frets are medium jumbos and the set up is just fine. The hardtail bridge helps tuning stability and tone. I dont know many people who actually use the fender non locking tremolos so having a hardtail on a strat takes care of a lot of your problems.
SOUNDS
Not being a huge Fender single coil fan I am naturally drawn to these humbucker equipped Fender guitars. This guitar came from the factory with a great set of Seymour Duncan pickups. It has the Pearly Gates in the bridge of Dickie Betts fame and the unbeatable 59 in the neck that everyone loves. The 5 way switch gives you cool combinations. Starting from the neck position. You get the full neck humbucker. The full 59 gives you a super smooth tone. It is just perfect for bluesy or jazzy leads in the neck position. The next position over you get the outside coil of the neck humbucker split. This gives you your traditional strat neck pickup tones. The middle position gives you your neck and bridge humbuckers combined like on a Les paul setup. The next position gives you the neck and bridge inside coils split so you can get your Telecaster sound. The last position is the full on bridge humbucker. The Pearly Gates is like a hot rodded 59. It has a bit more bite so it is more voiced towards classic rock playing. It has a pretty bright tone overall because it was made to go in Les Pauls and balance out the darker tones. In this strat setup the pickup screams.
OVERALL OPINION
Nowadays if you want a double fat strat you have to build your own pretty much. This was the perfect strat for a lot of people like me. People who want a strat with humbuckers and a hard tail. You can find these guitars for sale around the place for about 700 dollars. Because of the strats modular design you can easily make your own version of this guitar starting out with a basic normal Stratocaster. Either way you can get humbucker tone and strat feel in a guitar which is a great combination.
UTILIZATION
These guitars play pretty well for a strat. The neck is fairly wide and the shape is sort of a flattened C or maybe a D shape. Differant than any other Fender I have tried but I like it. Reminds me a little of the neck of an SRV Strat. The frets are medium jumbos and the set up is just fine. The hardtail bridge helps tuning stability and tone. I dont know many people who actually use the fender non locking tremolos so having a hardtail on a strat takes care of a lot of your problems.
SOUNDS
Not being a huge Fender single coil fan I am naturally drawn to these humbucker equipped Fender guitars. This guitar came from the factory with a great set of Seymour Duncan pickups. It has the Pearly Gates in the bridge of Dickie Betts fame and the unbeatable 59 in the neck that everyone loves. The 5 way switch gives you cool combinations. Starting from the neck position. You get the full neck humbucker. The full 59 gives you a super smooth tone. It is just perfect for bluesy or jazzy leads in the neck position. The next position over you get the outside coil of the neck humbucker split. This gives you your traditional strat neck pickup tones. The middle position gives you your neck and bridge humbuckers combined like on a Les paul setup. The next position gives you the neck and bridge inside coils split so you can get your Telecaster sound. The last position is the full on bridge humbucker. The Pearly Gates is like a hot rodded 59. It has a bit more bite so it is more voiced towards classic rock playing. It has a pretty bright tone overall because it was made to go in Les Pauls and balance out the darker tones. In this strat setup the pickup screams.
OVERALL OPINION
Nowadays if you want a double fat strat you have to build your own pretty much. This was the perfect strat for a lot of people like me. People who want a strat with humbuckers and a hard tail. You can find these guitars for sale around the place for about 700 dollars. Because of the strats modular design you can easily make your own version of this guitar starting out with a basic normal Stratocaster. Either way you can get humbucker tone and strat feel in a guitar which is a great combination.