Fender American Stratocaster Hardtail [2000-2006]

This unit was aquired from Musicians Friend on special for $700. That is almost half of what I would pay for it here in Alaska. So I purchased 2.

The first thing was the hardtail. I have been waiting years to get my hands on something like this. This set-up stays in tune, and stays in tune, did I say that it stays in tune. This model is with the maple neck and a red finish (both).

It didn't come with a woman, but it is an excellent lure for one.

The finish is excellent and the neck/action/intonations did not need any adjusting (that was a first for me). Quality was a premium.

It was worth waiting for and saving for. The case that it came with was also nice. I am surprised that none of the stores in this area stock at least one of these. Everyone that has played it is searching for one. An excellent value and an even better performer.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

For anybody who has ever wanted to have a hard tail Fender, this is one of the guitars that they made for you. No longer is there the classic six point or even the two point modern non-locking tremolo on this. Instead, you have your basic hard tail bridge, and to be honest, I think it changes the tone of the strat in a significant way...and not for the better. The guitar features an alder body, a one piece maple neck, 22 frets, dot inlays, a hard tail bridge, three single coils, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.

UTILIZATION

The fretwork on this model was decent, but it could have been better. The frets themselves were slightly flat, and I wish Fender would have taken a bit more time to crown these properly. The ends weren't sharp, so that was a welcome addition. The nut on this could have used some more work, but it wasn't binding, so there's no huge deal there. The bridge on this is actually what I have the biggest beef about. I'm honestly not a huge fan of the way this actual bridge feels compared to other hard tails out there. I also think something is taken away from the standard strat sound when you use a hard tail bridge instead of just using 5 springs and keeping a normal tremolo route.

SOUNDS

The guitar had some standard American singles in them, and they were average. They weren't the best sounding singles in the world, but they also weren't the worst. The bridge was fairly bright, medium output and had some good bite. It could do blues decently, hard rock without too much of a problem and metal was pretty much impossible thanks to the loose low end and ratty high end. The middle pickup I never use, but it split quite nicely with either the bridge or neck pickup. I was able to get great funk and clean tones in these positions. The neck was medium output, and it got a pretty cool lead tone. The one thing that I really dislike is how the overall guitar sounded. I shouldn't say dislike because it still sounded good, but it didn't exactly sound like the normal strat I'm used to hearing.

OVERALL OPINION

The guitar itself is decent, but be sure to pay attention to things like fretwork, how well the nut is cut and overall construction. These guitars can sometimes have big neck gaps. I'm not a fan of the way these guitars sound, but if you're into the hard tail sound, this'll be worth looking into.

I absolutely love the Fender Stratocaster guitar. It's an iconic guitar in just a brilliantly built guitar. Is one of the most versatile guitars and the world as well. It has a great feeling in overall perfect balance for me. I played a lot of guitars and a lot of guitars have great balances to them but nothing as close as the Fender Stratocaster. It may just be my body shape or how the guitar hangs I'm off my shoulders but if Fender Stratocaster just fits perfectly across my chest. Also the red color is just exciting as well.


UTILIZATION


This guitar comes with three single coil pickups, a volume control knobs, and two tone control knobs. It also has a five way pick up selector switch between each of the three pick ups as well as in between each of the three pickups. These guitars are truly versatile and very exciting play and write music with.

SOUNDS


I love the tone of these guitars with a good high gain amplifier such as a Marshall amplifier or a Bogner amplifier. They sound fantastic with a clean amplifier as well. Of course these guitars were voiced originally to Fender amps so the chemistry between a fender clean and this guitar is going to be very magical. Get a perfect balance to them especially with the voice and have a fender twin reverb or another Fender amp with a solid reverb unit inside.

I preferred these guitars in the neck pickup position because the neck pick up really highlights the feeling and character of this guitar. It gives it a bluesy warmth tone. It's a very fun time as well and to me no other guitar can replicate the sound of the fender Stratocaster in the neck position. It's going to be a little bit less distortion because of the neck pickup but you're going to have a great tone that is easily identifiable as a Fender Stratocaster guitar.

These guitars work with any effects pedal that you have or use. They take can use effects pedal such as overdrive, distortions, Flanders, phasers, chorus, delays, and any type of reverb that you might have as well.

OVERALL OPINION


I highly recommend every guitarists to own a Fender Stratocaster at some point in their playing career. They are an iconic guitar and a very fun guitar as well. You can find them in the use market extremely easily because they're very popular. At new you can find these guitars for about $1100 which is pretty good price for this guitar. It's an American make classic and the tone is just an awesome. This is probably the most recommended guitar that I can ever tell someone else to buy.

In my opinion the Fender Stratocaster remains to be the very top guitar that is ever been produced. It's been over half a century since its original inception in bill and remains to be one of the most influential guitars in our modern time . This is a guitar that has seen very little to almost no modifications . Sure you have added things such as Floyd roses and humbuckers as pick ups but the overall body shape steel in the neck hasn't changed too awfully much in 60+ years. Sometimes the scale length has lengthened and the frets of gotten different sizes but overall the general feel and look of this guitar hasn't really changed at all. That is due to being pretty much been almost perfect instrument. Sure there are classic people in classic guitar players do like the vintage looking one remain true to the originality's of the instrument. So there are those types of people and of course there are those you take this instrument and modified to a whole new level. I also really like red guitars so this is right up my alley.

UTILIZATION

Body Alder
Neck Maple, Modern “C” Shape,
(Satin Polyurethane Finish)
Fingerboard Rosewood (p/n 011-7430) or Maple (p/n 011-7432), 9.5” Radius (241 mm)
No. of Frets 22 Medium Jumbo Frets
Pickups 3 American Strat® Single-Coil Pickups
Controls Master Volume,
Tone 1. (Neck Pickup),
Tone 2. New Delta Tone™
(“Delta Tone” system includes high output bridge pickup and special No-Load tone control for Middle and Bridge Pickups)
Pickup Switching 5-Position Blade:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Middle Pickup
Position 3. Middle Pickup
Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup
Position 5. Neck Pickup
Bridge American Strat Strings-Through-Body Hard Tail Bridge with Stainless Steel Saddles

SOUNDS


I love the tone of this guitar with a good fender amplifier as well as a nice high gain amplifier. When you play cleaning up you can hear all those notes ringing out and sustaining and very clear on their own. But when you put it in front of a hiking amplifier fire you get a great sounding intoxicating sound like you would hear from Jimi Hendrix. If you want to put a nice size distortion pedal and between this guitar and a high gain amplifier like a Marshall plexi and you can get a room really good classic rock and very Jimi Hendrix sound. This is a great guitar used for blues music all way up to hard rock 'n roll. You seen many shredding guitar players use this instrument and many will in the future.

OVERALL OPINION


I highly recommend every guitar player in the world to own a Fender Stratocaster hardtail at some point in their career. It's a classic instrument a great instrument to add to anyone's collection. At new you can find the guitars right around $1100 is a great price for this guitar. You can a use for this guitar and pretty much any it application or any genre of music. It's a solid instrument and will treat its user very well with its total array of voicings and applications.