Fender "Dan Smith" Stratocaster

Here's a real quick history lesson for those who don't know: Fender was owned by CBS from 1965 until around the mid 1980s. As a last ditch effort, CBS hired Dan Smith to help improve the strat (since most people say they destroyed it with their cost cutting measures). He single handedly brought about the revival of what we now now as the classic Stratocaster. The guitar features an ash body, a maple neck with a maple fretboard (one piece with a skunk stripe), 21 frets, dot inlays, vintage tremolo, three single coil pickups, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.

UTILIZATION

The guitar had some wear on it, but that's pretty obvious considering this guitar is 30+ years old now. The frets were worn and had some grooves in them. The nut also needed a slight filing, although it wasn't too bad given its age. A good tell-tale sign that you own a Dan Smith era strat is that it has a four bolt neck plate, smaller headstock, truss rod adjustment at the pickguard but still has that bigger 70s logo that Fender-CBS used throughout the years.

SOUNDS

These guitars had the extra hot X1 pickups in them, and they're alright. I'm not the biggest fan of them as I find them somewhat noisy. The bridge pickup has some nice output, and you can play everything from blues to metal with it, assuming you have the right amp. It's a bit bright, but the tone knob takes care of that. The in between positions are cool as always, and you can get some sick funk tones out of them. The neck pickup is pretty cool in that you can get some really nice leads out of it, but I'm still more of a humbucker guy at heart when it comes to lead tones.

OVERALL OPINION

These can be kinda hard to find, but they were integral towards bringing about a positive change towards the inferior CBS era. If you happen to find one of these at a good price, grab it. They're very solid players. Just expect to give it a good setup and maybe a refret due to its age.

WHen Dan Smith was brought over by Yamaha they decided to basically shut the Fullerton plant down. They went from making 300 guitars a day down to a handful. This would ensure that they would pay more attention to detail and quality and less on quantity. There was an attitude that they would build guitars that they were proud of and rather take a hit as far as how many guitars they could sell. This woulnd't last very long.

UTILIZATION

This guitars is a classic looking Fender Stratocaster. They went with the smaller headstock and kept basically everything in tact. The weight of the guitar is more fluid and balanced. You will find that easy of play is more of a custom shop piece rather than a mass produced guitar. This comes from Fender:

In 1981 Fender-CBS hired William Schultz, John McLaren, and Dan Smith away from the U.S. division of Yamaha. Schultz became the president of Fender-CBS, McLaren the managing director while Smith was appointed the director of marketing for Fender electric guitars. In a drive to rejuvenate the quality control and Fender's market position, Dan Smith oversaw an upgrading of the basic production model Stratocaster and by late 1981 the new production model was unveiled as the 1982 Stratocaster. It featured a pre-CBS smaller headstock (compared to the 1980 "Strat"), a four bolt neck plate, an overwound X-1 pickup (introduced on the 1980 "Strat" model) in the bridge position and a body end truss-rod adjustment without the Bullet nut. The following year the guitar received a short-lived redesign lacking a second tone control, a newly designed Freeflyte vibrato system and a bare-bones output jack. A reshaped ‘Comfort Contour’ body with deeper forearm and waist contours similar to an early 1960s model was introduced. What it did retain was the 70s-style headstock decal. It's the 1982/83 version of the Standard Stratocaster that has become to be known as the "Dan Smith Stratocaster". After the Standard Stratocaster was discontinued in 1984, Fender Japan produced a 22-fret version with a flat 9.5" radius and medium-jumbo fretwire which lasted until 1986.

SOUNDS

The guitar sounds like a Fender Stratocaster should sound. That is one thing about all Fender Strats, they sound almost identical to one another. It is really hard to tell one Strat from another just by hearing it. You can definitely tell a Strat from a Telecaster or a Gibson Les Paul or Sg. They have a character to them that is purely Strat.

This guitar sound great with a Fender blackface or tweed amp. It sounds excellent with any amp but those amps just connect perfectly with this guitar. I love the natural wood grain in the body of this guitar. it gives it a good feeling to the good sound of the guitar.

OVERALL OPINION

These guitars were only produced for a short period of time. You can find them in the used section of classifieds or ebay. they are hard to find and if you get an American made one then you should hang onto it for collector purposes.

You may not like the head stock if you are after a standard Strat headstock but I can see collectors buying this guitar more than the average guitar player.