Fender Standard Stratocaster HSS [2006-2008]

The Fender Standard Strat HSS is one of the Mexican made models that is meant to offer the Fender look, feel, and sound in an instrument of decent quality that is priced at a lower point than the American models. This particular model has an HSS "Fat Strat" pickup configuration as well. It features an alder body, a maple neck with maple fretboard and 21 frets, standard tuners, a 6 screw fulcrum tremolo unit, and a pickguard loaded with two single coils and a humbucker, wired to the standard Strat controls of a volume, dual tones, and a 5 way selector. It's not really anything new features wise, but hey, the Strat has endured for the last 50 or so years, must mean that people like it!

UTILIZATION

The design of this guitar is pretty ergonomic. I find the newer Mexican Fenders to be a bit lighter than some older ones which is definitely good. The body is reasonably ergonomic and the contouring is nice and slick a-la the older Strats. The neck has a nice thin finish that's not too glossy and difficult to maneuver around. The neck joint is the typical design and presents no real problems unless you just aren't a fan of the 4 bolt neck joint and prefer something like an Ibanez AANJ heel. Getting a good sound out of this guitar is pretty easy. It's nice in the sense that it allows a few extra/different tones because of the humbucking pickup at the bridge. This makes it more ideal than the regular model for rock or even some metal where the extra bite is an asset.

SOUNDS

This guitar is pretty much your typical sounding Strat to my ears. The stock pickups are not the greatest in the world, but they do a decent enough job at nailing that classic Fender sound. Using a clean sounding amp brings in some nice chimey tones for blues, funk or country, and then the thickness is kicked up a notch with use of the humbucker. Bringing in some drive is great for getting that classic set of rock or blues tones, and you can really go nuts when you switch to the bridge humbucker for even some metal tones, though these pickups certainly don't have the output of say, some DiMarzio or EMG active models. It certainly does a decent job at covering the typical tones you would expect from a Strat for sure.

OVERALL OPINION

All in all I think the Fender Standard Strat HSS is a decent guitar for someone looking for a Strat with a bit of added versatility in the form of humbucker for a reasonable price. The quality is decent, the feel is actually quite nice from what I've seen from guitar to guitar, and the tones, while not the best in the world, do ape classic or modern "Strat" tones quite well. At about $550 new it's a decent deal and well worth checking into if you need a budget, yet quality S type in your arsenal of guitars.

This is actually one of my favorite configurations for a strat as you get the best of both worlds. You have both the singles in the neck/middle for the clean tones and the humbucker in the bridge for those rocking rhythm tones. The guitar features an alder body, a maple neck with a maple fretboard (one piece with a skunk stripe), 21 frets, dot inlays, vintage tremolo, one humbucker and two single coil pickups, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.

UTILIZATION

The guitar is put together decently, but it's nothing amazing by any means. The frets themselves could have had some more attention to them. The edges aren't sharp, but they need to be leveled a bit more. Getting low action on this is a pain due to the small radius, too. The neck joint had a slight gap, and that can potentially hinder tone in a negative way. The nut itself was cut properly, so no issues there. I'm not the biggest fan of the vintage tremolo, but it can work for certain things. I like to deck mine, personally. They seem to be a bit more stable then.

SOUNDS

The stock pickups in this were a bit uninspiring. The bridge pickup sounded like a regular bridge humbucker. It didn't really jump out at me as something that blew my socks off. It was decent, but it's nothing to write home about. I think I'd swap it with a DiMarzio Andy Timmons pickup or something. The neck and middle singles were standard Fender singles, and they were a bit noisy for what they were. They're workable, but I prefer something with a little more power and oomph. The in between positions were great, and delivered a great clean tone.

OVERALL OPINION

Play a few of these before deciding on which one to get. Also, I'd recommend a pickup change to really get the most out of this guitar. Buying used is a good way to save money, but just expect to potentially pay for a nice setup if you decide to to that.

This is a 21-fret, standard vibrato bridge, maple neck/rosewood fretboard Fender Stratocaster -- but one with a humbucker. As you may expect this series is made in Mexico. The controls are the same as usual: one general volume knob, two tone controls (one for each of the single coil mics) and a 5-position selector which allows to combine the mics (from top to bottom: neck pickup only, neck+middle, middle pickup, middle+split humbucker, humbucker alone).

The presence of a humbucker makes this guitar suitable for many more styles than a "normal", three-single coils Strat -- don't expect the stock humbuckers to lead you through metal/thrash though.

UTILIZATION

This is a well-made Stratocaster so as far as playibility is concerned I think this says it all... The SSH configuration brings polyvalence, so finding a suitable sound is easy, just tweak the tone knobs a little while and here you go -- too bad the humbucker originally doesn't have a tone control...
Some people will tell you that a Strat with standard vibrato just can't be kept in tune: do NOT believe them, if you take your time and tune it properly then these variations will hardly be noticeable at all.

SOUNDS

First of all let me tell you that the fact this guitar has a rosewood fretboard DOES matter. I once A/B-ed it with a 1991 US Fender Strat with a maple fretboard and guess what -- I preferred the sound that this cheap Mexican provided (both through my SansAmp GT2 and a friend's Marshall Valvestate). Even in using only the single coils, this guitar provides smooth mediums but can also deliver darker sounds, while a "classical" Strat will always keep that brilliance in sound that has made the legend of the model -- but which makes it less suitable for modern distorted rhythm sounds.
I wanted a guitar that could do the job for a variety of rock styles including blues, pop-rock, hard rock and (mostly) alternative/grunge rock. Even with the original configuration this guitar was well suited to my expectations. Then, I had the idea to have the humbucker (which was a bit too bright-sounding for me) changed for a Seymour Duncan SH-4 (the Jeff Beck one) and connected to a tone knob -- now the guitar sounds even better and metal sounds are no longer out of reach (provided you have what it takes). I mostly play power-chords rhythm so I also changed the strings for 10-52s.

I usually play it through several distorsion stompboxes and a Small Clone chorus into a SansAmp GT-2 & ISP Decimator noisegate, then direct to the mixer (yes, I use no "real" amp, and so what?), and I definitely LOVE the way it sounds. I can get from Clapton to Nirvana or even more "modern" metal sounds with no real effort, and the sustain is more than acceptable (hey, don't expect miracles though, this is a Strat, not a Les Paul!).

The single coils are noisy (as usual) but provide a very mellow sound (especially the one in the neck position) which will get you through the most beautiful sounding and/or country-like ballads -- a compressor, a chorus, a good reverb and here you go!

As said earlier the stock humbucker sounded a bit too bright to me, but it really is usable for vintage hard rock. With the proper mics installed on it I can hardly think of a style on which this guitar couldn't take, by the way...

OVERALL OPINION

I've had this guitar for 8 years now, this is the first (and only to this day) electric guitar that I've owned. With the aforementioned mods that I had performed on it this guitar is now perfectly suited to my intense use of power-chords-rhythm with heavy distorsion -- please note that I'm NOT a soloist or "technical" player in any way.
I had tried a few other guitars before choosing this one -- including a "usual" (3-single-coils) Strat and a few Ibanez (which sounded too metal-oriented to me -- I really wanted to be able to play different styles with the same guitar). I paid it approximately 530€ at the time and I think the quality/price ratio was really great. That's a choice I never regretted and most likely would do again.