SeriesFender Stratocaster

This Fender Stratocaster is part of their Classic Series line of guitars. Made in Mexico, they are designed to capture the different "classic" eras of Fender guitars such as the fifties, sixties, and seventies. This model is the seventies Stratocaster. The features list is as follows: *Ash body (with three colour sunburst finish) *Maple neck with rosewood fretboard and 21 frets *7.5" neck radius *CBS style headstock with bullet truss rod *Fender "F" tuners *Vintage style synchronized tremolo *3 single coil pickups with standard controls (volume/tone/tone/5 way selector switch *More stout body contouring overall *Fender Deluxe gigbag included It's essentially your typical 70s Stratocaster in its features, but with better quality control, so many of the issues of the past have been left in the past. For being a MIM, this guitar was surprisingly well crafted and held up very well in various rock and blues projects that I was in. UTILIZATION The issue I have with Strats is that they're generally cumbersome unless you get one with modern refinements. This guitar was certainly no exception to the rule. Seventies Strats are generally very clunky and hard to get around for me and unfortunately, the reissues suffer from this flaw as well. It's inherent in the design but it's still a grievance to me. The upper fret access was average at best. Getting to the 21st fret wasn't overly difficult but it wasn't as easy as I would've liked because of the neck heel getting in my way. The 7.5" radius was a huge problem as well. Bends of more than a half step were almost always choking out, especially as I went higher up the neck. Oddly enough, I replaced this with a real deal 1979 USA Stratocaster and had no problems with the vintage radius... though the contouring was even less pronounced than this MIM reissue. Getting good tones was very simple. The pickups were great. They had a slightly overwound character that allowed them to have a bit more punch and raw attack than the 50s/60s style pickups. It allowed clean tones to be much fuller and beefier, and the distorted tones took on a very throaty, viscous quality that was (to my ears) very reminiscent of Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple or Ulrich Roth of The Scorpions. SOUNDS When I owned this guitar, I was primarily using a 6V6 loaded Orange Rockerverb 50 head and a Haggerty 2x12 loaded with Eminence speakers. As I stated in the above column, the tones delivered by this guitar were great. I was almost surprised that a MIM could sound as good as this one did... The clean tones had that classic seventies "overwound" texture to them. They weren't wimpy, nor meek and quiet. Chords and fast passages asserted themselves with a dominating brilliance throughout a band mix that sat very well with bass and drums. Adding a bit of reverb helped to bring lead based passages some more depth to help them really cut through. They had a great sound for jazzier or bluesier styles and worked very well overall. The dirty tones were great as well. Again, that overwound character comes into play here. The rhythm tones were surprisingly thick and booming for a Strat, but they still had that glassy shimmer from the single coils that allows Strats to cut in a mix so well. Tonewise, the pickups were definitely more vintage than modern (again: think classic Deep Purple or Scorpions) but they had a ton of serious punch and worked well for even heavier rock at times. The biggest thing to watch out for (and Strat users will already know and understand this) is that the 60 cycle hum from the pickups can be problematic. A good noise gate can compliment this but it's still worth mentioning that these pickups aren't noiseless and will hum and buzz when serious doses of gain are applied to the signal. OVERALL OPINION All in all I thought this was a killer example of a Strat. Sure, it was heavy (solid ash body), clunky, not so ergonomic, etc, but the sheer power and pummeling nature of the pickups was a real shocker. Mind you, I replaced this guitar with a '79 and found the pickups to be even better. Perhaps I just like them? It was a very well crafted guitar that held up to whatever I was doing and never gave me any trouble. If you get a chance to try or buy one of these and you're looking for a cool throwback to that era where it was all about the power, go for it. You won't be disappointed.

Noone ever said that buying a custom shop guitar means that you can play everything.. this applies here as well. It’s about a guitar of certain characteristics with unique features. Biggest advantage is the weight of this axe. Significantly low weight without losing the tone/sustain. Excellent pickup quality, can perform great under any conditions. Hot might be a slightly misleading term since the output is moderate. Tonewise this guitar has something that can’t be easily described and might let you down when used on ss amps, but shines when plugged to high gain tubes. You might get the feeling that the EL34s won’t reveal more than the 6L6s. The oxymoron is that even though the guitar looks quite vintage ish the sound and the playability is 1985++ oriented. The fretboard seems ideal for lead style playing, something which is also being supported effectively by the bridge that it has. Chunky 60s C shape preserves the sustain and maintain the volume of higher freqs. Contoured Heel is also a great asset of this guitar, something that can be considered as an evolution of the common joint (of course there is nothing remarkable here but still a nice detail to have, compared to the common ones) while justifying that the “pro stands for prototype” moto. The appearance of the cracked nitrocellulose suits great to the 50s style string tree and pickguard. Pros: Red hot Abby PUs - Awesome fat signal and sound when recording and of course on one of the last new guitars to feature her hand wounds... Swamp Ash - One of the best woods to go avoiding the extra weight Vintage look of the beautifully matched guitar parts Cons: Perhaps not the best instrument for a working musician since it’s a bit hard to perform well on everything, while being mostly lead playing-style oriented. ;)

- Noiseless pickups - SSS configuration - Locking tuners - LSR roller nut - Compound radius neck - C profile - Original contour body - Alder body - Birdseye maple neck and fretboard - Controls for volume, tone, and tone - 5 way switch - Straplock ready - Deluxe bridge - Customshop backplate - Made in the USA UTILIZATION In the Custom Deluxe, Fender have taken the classic Strat design and thrown in some of the most useful modern innovations available today. The result is a beautiful guitar that maintains tune and plays effortlessly. The LSR roller nut and locking tuners provide near perfect tuning stability. I’ve rarely had to tune in the middle of a set. The modern deluxe style bridge makes setup and intonation a breeze, much more intuitive and effective than the older style bridges. You will not be fretting out on the compound radius neck, and the pickups really are pretty much noiseless. Fantastic action, quite low, but no buzz. SOUNDS It is difficult to judge the sound of a guitar without taking into the account the amp it’s being paired with, but I’ll do my best. This guitar has been beautifully well built, and that comes out in the sound it produces. The intonation is pretty much perfect all the way up the neck, and it doesn’t go out of tune, so everything you play really sounds the way you mean it to. The pickups are a little light and airy, they sound better for more modern strat stuff, if you are really after a vintage strat sound I’d recommend swapping them with a Lollar blackface or BKP apache set. The guitars is SSS, so not really suitable for heavier material. OVERALL OPINION It is a pleasure to play. The Custom Shop guitars stand head and shoulder over anything else that Fender makes, and this is no exception. It’s apparent from a first glance that very part of it is clearly built with loving care and perfection. I was playing a deluxe strat when I came across this, which is a great guitar in its own right. But there is just no comparison. They aren’t cheap, but definitely well worth it, and used prices aren’t horrible. If you want something more vintage feeling/sounding the CS does some really good reissues. But if you want a beautiful guitar with modern features and convenience, the custom deluxe is a great way to go.

This was my first good USA made Stratocaster after owning only import models for several years. Next to a custom Strat that was put together by Rob DiStefano, I found that this '79 was the best feeling and sounding Strat type guitar that I'd owned. This particular guitar featured an alder body, a maple neck with 21 frets, a hardtail bridge, and 3 single coil pickups paired with the standard compliment of 1 volume and 2 tones, rounded off with a 5 way selector switch. It was built in the USA at Fender's CBS owned plant right around the time that the infamous CBS quality slip was at its height. There was a severe lack of contouring on what should have been a very sleek and sharp body... there was a fairly major gap in the neck to body joint, and the pickups hummed and buzzed more than your average single coils would. However that's the way things were back then, so I'm going to try to focus my review on the positive aspects of this guitar. All in all, there was nothing super out of the ordinary about this guitar... just a late seventies hardtail Strat with the typical CBS appointments. As an interesting side note, compared to the tremolo equipped models that I've tried, the hardtail model had more sustain and tuning stability, even when compared to a late seventies Strat that was outfitted with all brass hardware (but had a tremolo unit.) UTILIZATION The guitar was not the most ergonomic that I've owned to be sure. The body, as stated above, displayed a serious lack of contouring and overall it was much heavier than other Strats that I've played or owned. In comparison to my old Mexican made seventies reissue Stratocaster, the 1979 looked and felt (to the touch) much cheaper overall. That being said, the neck on it was truly a work of art, and that's about half the reason I kept it as long as I did. It was refretted professionally at one point in time and the edges were perfectly worn in, giving the neck a wonderful vintage feel. Though it was on the thinner side width wise, it had a nice chunky "U" shaped profile and fit my hand like a glove. The action upon my receiving the guitar was as low as it gets... absolutely a lead player's dream! Fast runs ala Yngwie Malmsteen flew from the guitar effortlessly. That being said, the thicker neck profile allowed me to dig in a lot if I wanted to as well... so it was an excellent compromise. I find that the typical Strat doesn't have the greatest upper fret access in the world and this guitar was no exception. That being said, it wasn't HARD to get to the upper frets, just not as good as I would've liked. On the topic of tones, I found it to be very easy to get a wide variety of different sounds from many genres without issue. Though the pickups were a tad on the thinner side, I found that they had a nice medium output, perfect for a huge range of different styles from country to blues to hard rock. SOUNDS The tones that this guitar produced at times made me realize why the pros love the classic SSS Fender Stratocaster so much. It produced crisp, clear clean tones and viscous, searing lead tones with a nice bite as a result of those nice snappy single coils. When I owned it, I was using an Orange Rockerverb 50 head with 6V6s, and I also had extensive time with a Peavey Delta Blues 1x15 combo combined with a few pedals (overdrive, wah, analog echo.) Through these rigs I was able to conjure up classic cleans that reminded me of that classic early sixties vibe. Play dry and you've got awesome funk tones... but then add some reverb and you're surfin'! Switching over to the overdrive sounds, I found that this is where the guitar really shined. The single coils were bright, so to compensate I would dial in a fairly dark overdriven tone... add some echo and then turn up the tone on the guitar. The result was an extremely balanced and very punchy blues and rock tone. If I added some more gain and reverb, I was heading straight into the neoclassical shred realm. The only issue was that the pickups did tend to squeal at higher volumes, so I often would only use the guitar for lower gain tones at most. Obviously a big factor of these guitars and their tones is just the specific guitar. I've played many early to late seventies Strats that were total DOGS. Lack of sustain, punch and general tone. However, sometimes you wind up on a good one, and that was the case here. A truly great sounding Strat! OVERALL OPINION All in all, I thought this guitar was great. I initially came into it because it was a deal that I couldn't pass up. I figured I would sell it within the week and then move on. However I ended up keeping it a bit longer, and only ended up trading it when another great deal came along. It has been my first and only USA made Fender instrument, and it was definitely a great experience. Though the quality control and general look of the guitar left a bit to be desired, the feel and tone that it offered was extremely great. Everyone who tried it agreed with my sentiment, and it's definitely one of those guitars that will be harder to replace down the line. If I could've had my choice, I MIGHT have opted for a tremolo equipped model since the bar is a good part of my style, but I was more than content with the hardtail when I had it. It's definitely put a good taste in my mouth where it had been mostly sour before. Strats are a fickle beast... you either love 'em or hate 'em. I've had countless S type guitars... and this one is the most recent one that I've had. CBS' crank 'em out attitude meant that the guitars were fairly inconsistent... but I definitely wound up with a good one from one of my favourite eras in music.

Hendrix, Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Edge, Mark Knopfler, Hank Marvin, Buddy Holly, David Gilmour, Ritchie Blackmore and every guitarist who's been in Iron Maiden. So what do they all have in common? The Fender Stratocaster. Originally built in the 1950's the Stratocaster has seen and done it all, the most popular and best selling guitar of all time apparently and one which has been copied by thousands of companies around the globe looking to cash in on it's legendary status and widespread appeal, but the Daddy of them all is still the American Standard Strat. It comes equipped with 22 frets, 3 single coil pickups, a pickup selector switch with a choice of 5 pickup positions, 1 volume knob and 2 tone knobs. The neck is made from maple wood and also comes with a tremolo bar or whammy bar as i prefer to call it. The bridge is a stock Stratocaster bridge but from what i hear it can be upgraded to a floyd rose or similar locking bridge system (sold seperately) if you feel like doing a bit of Van Halen-esque divebombs and still want to stay in tune afterwards. UTILIZATION The top frets are easy enough to access, although the bigger your hands are the better... and it has a classic design that back in the 50's must have looked futuristic and ground breaking but these days it's just part of life and history, the shape can only be described now as 'shaped like a strat'. With regards to the shape and design - if it's not broke then don't fix it, and with credit to Fender they haven't. They only modify it slightly every now and then to have a certain optional model with humbucker pickups or a new colour for the body, or in their custom relic series where they purposely wear out the wood and the paint to make a new guitar look as if it's been used out on the road for 40 years, but with the American Fender Stratocaster standard - you know exactly what you're getting. SOUNDS And moving onto the tone of the Strat. It's trademark sounds are found in it's solid, bluesy neck pickup and it's stinging bridge pickup. Match a strat up with a good Marshall amp and you'll get instant chemistry, you will have the sound of late 60's heavy rock at your fingertips. For example the master of them all, Jimi Hendrix, dial in a healthy amount of gain on your amp and select the neck pickup and you will get a sound close to the lead in 'The 3rd stone from the sun'. Dial back on the volume control on the guitar till it gets clean, select the middle pickup and you will have the 'Little Wing' intro sound. Go full on with the overdrive and master on your amp, select the bridge pickup with the tone and volume all the way up on the guitar and you will have the Voodoo Child (slight return) hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck-standing lead sound. The Strat can cut through the mix like a knife through butter and demand attention, or it can sit in the background and hold the fort as a rhythm guitar while bringing tears to a glass eye as heard in the Eric Clapton ballad 'Wonderful Tonight'. The Fender Strat is always open to new ideas, and when paired with effects pedals it can bring new and exciting sounds to mainstream rock and pop music. As shown by Hendrix in the late 60's with the Wah wah and Uni-vibe pedals mixed with wailing feedback and whammy bar abuse, and Bon Jovi's Ritchie Sambora for the super-catchy Talk Box riff on Livin' on a Prayer, or with U2's main axeman The Edge with his never ending stadium-sized delay pedal sounds as demonstrated on 'Where the streets have no name' from the Joshua Tree album. The Strat also featured heavily in the 1970's funk/disco era, with it's light but dancy clean, compressed sound paired with a Fender twin amp (as well as many other types of amp) chopped it's way through many a hit song and delivered every time live and in the studio. It even made an appearance in the Grunge area, basically whatever the decade and whatever the style of music that's been forefront since the 1950's - the Strat has been used to great effect. It is a reliable, work horse guitar that is perfect for out on the road live gigging, or in a recording studio being put to the test in session work 365 days a year. There is no least favourite sound with a Strat, unless the input jack is faulty which can happen from time to time, maybe once every year or 2, or when trying to play a clean chord after a 15 minute straight Hendrix-at-Woodstock inspired feedback-fuelled lead with whammy bar torture session (only in the rehearsal room of course) and realising it's about 5 miles out of tune. Great times. OVERALL OPINION My favourite thing about a Strat is the fact it's a Strat. It sounds simple and cliche but when you've been playing guitar for a long time and are maybe a bit jaded by guitar music or music in general you just need to clear your mind, and just realise how honest and magical a real American Fender Stratocaster sounds. Even with a copy by Squire or Yamaha or some Chinese brand you've never heard of, even if you haven't got that great sound of an American model you can still pretend you are at Woodstock in front of hundreds of thousands of people playing a half hour long version of Purple Haze. For new and casual guitar players that might be all they want, and that's perfectly ok. With me when it comes to drumming i am honestly the worlds worst drummer but whenever i get a shot of a drum kit i pretend i'm John Bonham or Dave Lombardo trying crazy double bass pedal runs (then seizing up with leg cramp after 30 seconds) but enough about that. I actually got given my Strat as a present years ago but i would buy a Strat time and time again, along with the Les Paul it is one of the most iconic guitars money can buy and if you can afford the $700-800 price tag for an American Strat, then it will be well worth it as it will never lose it's value and sounds like a guitar should. It does have limitations (use for drop tuned Slipknot-esque metal is not recommended with a Strat) but it's possibilities far outweigh them. So all in all, if it's good enough for Nile Rodgers and the 3 guitar players from Iron Maiden (yes all 3 of them) then it's good enough for me and you. Give a Strat a home and buy one now.

(Originally written by barvador/translated from Audiofanzine FR) I installed these pickups on a Japanese Strat from 1989, which already sounded very well. I bought them secondhand. The pickups are wired with cables with a thick cloth jacket. They provide a very wide and warm sound. The sound is more precise, lows are more present, high-mids are smoother. The sound is wider and less tight. It's more a blues sound than a rock sound. Perfect for arpeggios because it's well-defined. Surprisingly, they generate less noise than the original pickups of my Japanese Strat. The neck pickup is just fantastic. Position 2 sounds wonderful and dynamic. The guitar has still the same sound character because the original pickups were very good, but now it sounds smoother. I play blues and the crunch sound is wonderful. They provide the legendary Strat sound (the reason why we buy this guitar). I give them a 10. Good value for money. I would buy them again.

(Originally written by rockeur60/translated from Audiofanzine FR) See other reviews UTILIZATION The neck feels really nice, the frets are not too small nor too big. It's not a Vigier Excalibur neck but it's still very slim. Its lightness is normal for a Strat. The guitar is comfortable to play sitting or standing. Access to the upper frets is ok, except with the higher, fatter strings. SOUNDS This guitar fits my music style perfectly. Red Hot Chili Peppers is not a problem, nor Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones or Shadows, this guitar was made to rock! Don't expect to get a real high-gain tone even if the results with distortion are good. I play with a Vox AC 30 so I get excellent clean and crunch tones. I like all pickup combinations (neck for Red Hot Chili Peppers, bridge for Shadows and middle position for all other styles) but I find the middle pickup has not enough character. I will replace the pickups with Fender 57/62 to get a real early-Stratocaster sound. OVERALL OPINION I've been playing the Classic 50 for one year and I can't seem to get bored. The value for money is good and I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again.

(Originally written by tommythecat/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Made in the USA UTILIZATION - Very pleasant neck. It's clearly the most comfortable of my Strats (I own a Highway, an American Deluxe and a Clapton signature) The fingerboard is really great Accurate and crystal-clear sound I play it with a JCM 900 and the sound is perfect SOUNDS I'm a Strat fan and I like this one the most I'm a professional musician and I take it with me for every recording session I really love its bridge and neck pickups OVERALL OPINION I've been using it for 8 years. I've never had any problem with it I bought it in the US and I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again It's a high-quality limited edition!!!

Fender Stratocaster is a great fantastic instrument for pretty much any style of music. Fender strats' balance guitar mixes very well with pretty much anything from blues rock all the way up to metal sounding guitar tones. This guitar features three single coil pickups and a line with a volume control knob and two tone control knobs. You also get a five way pickup selector that allows you to pick up each individual pickup or the positions in between. It's not that extremely versatile of the nutriment but hearing the different tones you get from the bridge all the way to the next gives you a variety of total options. But if you compared to some modern guitars with switches or push pull pots to split coils this guitar doesn't really do any of that. It's just pretty much a straightahead rock 'n roll instrument. UTILIZATION Fender American Special Stratocaster HSS Solidbody Electric Guitar Features: Body: Alder Finish: 3-color Sunburst, Gloss Urethane Neck: Maple, Modern "C" Shape Fingerboard: Rosewood Frets: 22, Jumbo Frets Scale Length: 25.50" Nut Width: 1.69" Hardware: Chrome Tuning Keys: Fender Standard Cast/Sealed Tuning Machines Bridge: Vintage Style Synchronized Tremolo Pickguard: 3-Ply Black/White/Black Pickups: 1 Atomic Humbucking Pickup (Bridge), 2 Texas Special Strat Pickups (Neck/Middle) Pickups 5-Position Blade Master Volume Tone 1: (Neck Pickup), Greasebucket Tone Circuit (Rolls Off Highs without Adding Bass) Tone 2: (Bridge Pickup), Greasebucket Tone Circuit (Rolls Off Highs without Adding Bass) Case: Deluxe Gig Bag included SOUNDS No matter what amplifier setting or effects you have this guitar is going to sound great. If you using a load of effects to get an ambient type sound and this is could be a great guitar for that sound. If you using a medium to high gain amplifier than this guitar will give you the great sustained and feel for getting that every ay lead tones. The matter what you can use with this guitar is really get compliment your existing guitar rig quite nicely. Overall this is a very solid guitar and will be a instrument that will go great on any recording or live gigging situation. OVERALL OPINION You can find these guitars pretty much anywhere you find musical instruments. You can find them online or in most retailer shops around the world. Most of the guitars come in new right around $1000 or so. Depending on the features in the extras they come along can determine if you hundred dollars or so. But you can bet on this is going to be a great instrument that will have a fantastic feel and balance. I highly recommend this guitar to any guitarist out there because it is a very versatile instrument and as a fantastic tone for any stylus music.

This guitar is made to look like a 70s modded strat. With its big headstock and natural finish, these are all 70s things and the humbucker in the bridge was a very common mod at the time. With this strat you get an alder body. A bolt on maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. The neck has a modern C profile to it and the fretboard has a 9.5 inch radius to it. The neck has 22 Jumbo frets. Up top you get 6 nonlocking tuners on the big 70s style headstock. There is a non locking tremolo bridge down at the bottom. The pickups are in an HSS configuration with an "Atomic" humbucker in the bridge with 2 hot single coils in the neck and middle. The finish is a thin coat of nitro over the natural wood to give you a cool look with a vintage feel. UTILIZATION This strat has a really nice feel to it because of the neck. It feels not unlike the custom shop models they put out that come with huge frets. This guitar having jumbo frets and a 9.5 inch radius mean you can really get a low action and really bend notes forever. The rest of the guitar feels pretty stratty. The nitro finish is a bit sticky at first but this goes away with playing. The neck bolt is big and gets in the way on the high frets. The guitar will go out of tune if you use the tremolo a lot. SOUNDS HSS strats still sound like strats but with more beef in the 1 position. The switching is typical 5 way switch with just a humbucker in the bridge. Position 1 you get the full on humbucker. This humbucker is pretty hot but it is not metal hot. It does not completely over power the single coils. It complements them well. It is more suitable for high gain tones than the single coils. It is a bit smoother sounding overall and has more thickness to it. You still get the bell like tones from the single coils in the middle and the neck. You can get that ringing single coil sound from the neck position. That kinda smooth but kind of bitey single coil sound. When you combine the bridge humbucker with the middle single coil you get a cool tone that kind of reminds me of a P90 with the single coil clarity up top with the smoothness and bottom end of the humbucker. OVERALL OPINION This is one of my favorite strats that Fender has put out recently. I love the big headstock look. Some people say they make the guitar sound better, I just think it looks cool. The original strat was supposed to have a big headstock like this but they made it smaller to cut costs. The jumbo frets make up for the reletively round radius of the fretboards. Coming from Gibsons and super strats with radiuses higher than 14 inches a 9 inch radius is pretty round but when you put big frets on it you get some of the modern feel back. If you are looking for a nice HSS strat that plays really well and looks pretty vintage the Highway 1 is a good choice.

Intro/Context: Fender American Special Stratocaster SSS in surf green with mapple fingerboard. I'm a Strat guy, this is my 4th strat and by far my favorite to date. I went to the shop wanting to buy my new main axe with a large enough budget to come out of the shop with a deluxe american Strat if that's what suited me.After testing Standard, Deluxe, AS Strats for a few hours (yes I'm that annoying kind of customer) I decided to buy the American Special for 2 reasons: -Surf Green is life and a paint job is more expensive than changing the tremolo and the pots (if you, as I, don't like greasebuckets) -The sheer sound of the instrument, the pickups play a role, for sure, but I had an immediate crush on the sound of that particular guitar and at the end of the day this made the choice obvious for me. Keep in mind while reading that I had that "near perfect match" feel and that, as I try to keep it objective I'm talking about a guitar I really love and can't go by it without saying "what a beauty" even more than one year after the purchase. I mainly play it on a Fender Blues Jr with a RC Booster into an English Muff'n wich is almost all the time activated and sometimes on a Ashdown Fallen Angel on the saturated channel I play mostly bluesy stuff from Hendrix to SRV but I also like to shred a little and play hard rock stuff. workmanship, electronics, and finish The finish is really good, well assembled with a seemingly fragile but "lovely to touch" varnish. The fingerboard satin finish is quite nice but in my case the wood could have been chosen better as you can see not so sexy darker wood veins. The trem, well, is a vintage trem. I tried it for a few months and while it works decently it affects the tuning too much to my liking so I locked it. The electronic part of the guitar is what you'd expect from a US Fender, you can turn the volume all the way while keeping a bright sound. Sound That's where this baby shines. Texas Specials can divide but on the bonus side you immediatly know if you like 'em or not, they have a sharp attack wich I love and a quite high output for single coils. They make the guitar sing with an OD and are reactive to any variation of picking, nuance, very satisfying. the bridge pickup has a very sharp attack without beeing too harsh an is great for saturated chords. the middle pickup has a "telecasterish" sound, I love it, very in you face The neck pick up adds warmth while keeping the middle-heavy signature sound of the Texas Specials The 4th and 2nd positions are in the spirit of the SRV sound on "Mary had a little lamb", I just adore it. The guitar seems at ease with any kind of clean and saturated sound both for solos and chords. Pros and cons + Available in surf green Build quality Available in surf green Sound Available in surf green Price Available in surf green - Vintage 6points trem Varnish looks fragile Gig bag

The Fender Stratocaster guitars are one of the best instruments that is ever been created. You have a great tone and great balance and overall a fantastic feel for any style of music. These are very versatile guitars from country all the way up to hard rock tones. They don't really excel at the nu- metal or a type of drop tuning type tones. However they sound fantastic and virtually any setting that you put them in. UTILIZATION The features on this guitar are a little bit upgraded because of the deluxe model. So for instance you have three single coil pickups. However the pick ups have been upgraded to the lace sensor noiseless pick ups. That basically eliminates your 60 cycle hum that you typically get with single coil pick ups. This allows the tone to really come through without any extra white noise. In addition to that you have a celluloid pick guard which really brightens and brings up the look and the cosmetics of this guitar. The rest of the features are pretty much the same of any Fender Stratocaster guitar. You have a volume control knob and two tone control knobs with a five way pickup selector. In addition you have a tremolo system installed in the bridge. SOUNDS The tone of this guitar is fantastic. If you really like the Fender Stratocaster bluesy clean style tones. The pickups really highlight this guitar a lot more than your standard Fender Stratocaster pickups. By meaning they come off a little bit brighter and have a little bit smoother tone than the standard pick ups. You can put any single coil pickups you wishing in these guitars because they accept whatever single coil pick ups that you might prefer. But if you go to buy the deluxe guitar you probably going to spend the extra money particularly for these pickups so I would imagine if you go at the deluxe or not to be switching out the pickups. However the celluloid pick guard is a nice highlight to this instrument. This guitar sounds like any other Fender startocaster you have ever played or heard but just a little bit more tweaking with the pick ups. OVERALL OPINION Is guitar such a little bit more money than the standard US built American Fender Stratocaster. So your looking at spending a few extra hundred dollars comparatively to the standard version model. Overall this is a great instrument for recording or gigging and I highly recommend every guitar player to own a Fender Stratocaster at some point in their career.