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Hatsubai « The revival of the original Fender »
Published on 08/12/11 at 18:42Here'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.
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.