Fender Blacktop Strat HH Floyd Rose

That double fat strat is a classic design. It came from the 70s when Strat players wanted a fatter sound that could compete with the Les pauls. This is just the modern take on the same design. This guitar comes with a locking tremolo system to make it appeal more to modern guitar players. The guitar has an alder body and is finished in the cool Titanium color. The neck is a bolt on maple unit with a rosewood fretboard. There are 22 medium jumbo frets on the fretboard. The neck has a soft C shape with a 9.5 inch radius. The tuners are standard but there is a locking nut to go with the Floyd Rose. The pickups are a set of Fenders Hot Alnico pickups. They are both humbuckers. The controls are not very complicated with a master volume and 2 tone controls. There is a 5 way switch to get extra pickup combinations. One thing I do not like on this guitar are the knobs. They used ugly amp knobs instead of speed knobs on the guitar and I think they look out of place.

UTILIZATION

The playability is all there Stratocaster wise. The bolt on neck has the familiar C shape that strats have. The radius on top is not super flat but its not a vintage Telecaster either. The locking Tremolo is a huge improvement over the non locking vintage style Tremolos that Strats usually come with. The tuning stability is much much better than on a normal Stratocaster. This is mostly due to the locking nut. On a non locking tremolo system when you go up and down on the strings the strings move on the nut and they dont return to their proper position meaning the guitar comes goes out of tune. With the locking nut the strings are clamped down into position so they cannot move and go out of tune.

SOUNDS

With humbuckers all around overall this guitar has a thicker more snarling sound than a traditional Stratocaster. This guitar sounds very punk rock to me. The natural brightness from the Strat design with the overdrive from the hot humbuckers combines well for a bright but not harsh tone from the guitar. The neck humbucker clean sup well and you can get a great jazzy or bluesy tone. With some tone knob rolled off you can get a super smooth tone from it. Both pickups with some tone rolled off give you a funky 70s tone when played through a clean amp/ With the 5 way switch you can get single coils as well. You can do the outside single coils on both pickups for a more telecaster like tone. With the locking tremolo you will find yourself using it more than you would on a traditional style Stratocaster because using it wont instantly put your guitar out of tune.

OVERALL OPINION

This is a good guitar for the modern player who is look for a bit of an old school feel. This guitar has the feel of an old strat but the more refined tone and utility of a modern super strat. Fender should have adopted a locking Tremolo for all their guitars 30 years ago. To continue using a design that you know is bad just shows their complacency. Stuff like this is why I like companies like PRS who always strive to improve their models even if it is super successful. The Double Fat stratocaster enters the modern era with this Blacktop Floyd Rose model.

This is a bit of a lower quality guitar that Fender released to help appease those who want a Floyd on their strat. The problem is that these guitars don't meet the quality that the old school Classic Floyd Rose series guitars used to have. The guitar features an alder body, a maple neck, 22 frets, dot inlays, licensed floyd rose tremolo, two humbucker configuration, one volume, two tones and a three way switch.

UTILIZATION

The frets on this needed some work. The ends were sharp, first of all. When moving your hand up and down the neck, you could feel them kinda dig into your hand, and it was fairly uncomfortable. The frets themselves also weren't perfectly level. I was having some issues getting the action I wanted without some fretting out in certain areas. The rounder radius wasn't doing the guitar any favors, either. The neck joint on this wasn't the tightest thing in the world, but there were no huge neck joint gaps, so no big issues in that aspect. The finish itself was pretty solid, although I wish the back of the neck had a nicer finish on it. The floyd on this is not the best in the world, and you'll benefit from replacing it with a real one.

SOUNDS

The pickups in this are pretty bland. The bridge sounded a bit muffled, and it wasn't what I was looking for in a bridge pickup. The neck was also the same way. That's the biggest issue with these lower quality guitars. They tend to have really cheap pickups in them, and you'll be spending extra money to help improve the guitar when it should have been better from the factory. If it were me, I'd probably put in some EMGs or something in this. You might need to modify the pickguard for the EMGs, so keep that in mind.

OVERALL OPINION

The guitar is decent, but it's not really worth it thanks to the LTD guitars on the used market. You can get a very solid LTD guitar for just as much money as this, and it'll be way better and more consistent than this. On top of that, the higher end models include real pickups, so you don't even have to take the time and spend the money to replace them. It's an average guitar, and there are better options out there in this price range.

This guitar is a Fender Mexico. It has two features, the Floyd Rose tremolo and Humbucking pickups double (splitables in simple ...). His neck is maple with a C key rosewood reported.

Interesting thing: the 5 way switch provides access to multiple configurations: each pickup Either double or single, or a mix of the two microphones ensembles.On has the choice to make the guitar sound a clear sound to Fender saturation greater or lesser degree. Plugged into a Marshall or Fender, this guitar appears versatile enough to rock.

UTILIZATION

The shape of the handle C is very nice and very different from conventional sleeves. It is close to the typical style sleeves Les Paul.

on the other hand, there are some inherent problems with Mexican guitars, namely the hoop (This is the second "Mexican I buy that has this problem, often cited on the Internet). Shrink the lack of finish and even guitar set tendency to curl.'s where the settings are simple on a standard Strat, things get complicated with a Floyd Rose, where accuracy is more demanding ... We must then start a session settings a bit tedious to correct this problem .

Big surprise, the Floyd Rose reveals "hard". Compared to some guitars feature floating vibrato like Ibanez, you have to push hard on the rod ... Again setting the guitar will emerge through the spring, keeping in mind the settings on the frets! Good luck!

SOUNDS

The sounds are really good for a guitar of this price. Fender on a clear channel, the difference is singles and doubles striking. If the sounds are a little less crystalline than a Standard Strato, a simple pitch correction is the case. By Humbucking sound becomes already crunch wish.

A Marshall humbuckers behave very well. At low gain, it's a good spit already saturated, great for blues. With high gain, it manages to scream the beast, even if it lacks some sustain (more vibrato isolates the strings of the guitar body, the body is still pretty light).

OVERALL OPINION

I was really attracted to being able to play with a Floyd Rose on a Stratocaster. I bought a Fender Contemporary Japanese in 1986, and I kept a longing for this beautiful guitar. Unfortunately, this is not the same level of quality and the Mexican Blacktop suffers from defects which are difficult to accept, while innovations in terms of microphones and splits could give him a real chance of success ....

It remains to wait Fender U.S. decides to release a high quality model to convince really. If in addition the Fender luthiers could think of to handle a model Mapple neck in the range, it would really top ...