All user reviews of 4/5 for the Fender Highway One Stratocaster [2006-2011]

It's a Start!


- Top mics not to my taste
- Bridge I find light and rusted in no time
- Mechanical standard, nothing special
- Varnish very fragile
- Guitar very well finished, no apparent defects

UTILIZATION

Very comfortable neck that despite the flaw that I rule slightly. The ergonomics are perfect, it is a strat.

SOUNDS

So this guitar has made me see all the colors. I played a lot in live with and microphones simply m'insupporte. It was the symphony of buzz, I could even capture the radio again!
I opened it, I stuck it copper everywhere but to no avail, it was still quite present. So I asked Fender Tex Mex pickups and there it was better except that I did not like these pickups too runny.
I finished by asking EMG DG 20 and then WOW! Perfect, nothing more buzz the guitar dream.

My rating does not include change of pickups.

OVERALL OPINION

It's been 7 years since I played it and I love it .. The violin is wonderful despite a lack of resonance.
Change mics been beneficial and bridge will soon be leaving for a better one.

Wholesale solid foundations and not overly expensive, there's more that custom!

I bought mine at a local dealer for around six hundred out the door.

I own three strats. Two are American Standards and one Highway 1. The Hwy 1 has the best sustain and tone of all three. I much rather prefer it's vintage style trem
over the new style because it feels lively and bouncy in comparison. (which is good because I really pound the strings.)I think I'll try to trade one of my Americans in on a cheaper Hwy 1.
I dont believe the Americans are worth the extra $300 - $400.

All three of my strats have severe cracks in the same place...that piece of wood that seperates the neck joint and the front pickup routing (under the pickgaurd). I can understand it on my Hwy 1 because I really abuse it on the road, but my Americans hardly leave the cases. Oh well, thats why there Elmers wood glue...

I actually stripped the finish off exposing the natural wood and it looks great. The neck joint is really tight too. The neck and frets are awesome. The Hwy 1 feels a little lighter than my Americans, which is good after 4 sets.

I believe the Highway 1 strat is the best buy in there line-up. It's great for blues, country and classic rock.

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

$599.99 from a gear website. I've always wanted a strat & thought $600 for an american strat was a good deal.

This guitar is worth every penny in my opinion. I got the blonde finish with the maple fretboard. My main ax was a Les Paul at the time so it took awhile to adjust to the rounder neck but now that I have it feels very comfortable. I love the way the pickups sound especially through a tube amp. The trem actually stays in tune alot better than I thought it would.

The finish is kinda light & easily scratched but I take care of my gear so for me that's no problem.

C'mon it's a USA made strat! I've seen SRV hold his strat in mid air by just the tremelo bar & then literelly throw it on the floor. After a little tuning it sounded perfect. If Fender builds 'em like that then I've got nothing to worry about.

For the money, you cant get a better USA made guitar. It suits blues & southern rock very well but also clean work too. I dressed mine up a little with a white pearloid pickguard & it gave it a great look.

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

Guitar Usa
22 frets
3 single coil pickups fender (or us mex?: S: s great mystery, everyone says different things ...)
two knobs of tonalitée
volume

stratocastèrienne simplicity, everything I love.

UTILIZATION

Handle quite round but very nice. this does not amount to a gibson that said 50 years but a real feast for the hands. n'accroche not perfect bridge to that standard for this price.

I personally find the easy access to acute

everyone knows that the shape is very nice fender. cut in the arm to scratch, while the weight nikel. to rate a gibson which weighs three bison death is great, and the humbuckers for a SG, I did not do, I cling to each top notes.
hik a small, often need a small passage at the bends as the maker no longer ring at the high E after the 12th fret.

SOUNDS

being in a funk rock group, I can make that guitar it takes for this style! (-M-, Frusciante, Prince ...) a slight lack of bass for micro base for sound micro base: Here are some songs from my band: www.myspace.com / backfromvegas (Note that 57/62 were placed to the song "Only Me")

I am also part of a group of experimental blues to punk trend with some well chosen pedal is PERFECT!

there is no need to look far for a good sound. nevertheless it is true that the basic microphones are not the best on the market. For my part I have placed 57/62 to give me a real good blues sound in the round bass and treble in Péchu all plugged into a fender blues deville, that happiness!

I really love the sound stratum is the most recognizable of the earth!

OVERALL OPINION

It's been three years since she is my little darling all custom (pink for my part, we do not see bcp: p) and I will never part with it, even if it is not the best in the world , I got very attached.

for that price, it is worth seeing and I would do it gladly choice

The Fender Highway One Strat was introduced a number of years ago as a lower priced counterpart to the famed American Standard version. It features many of the same features, but the most notable difference is a thinner nitro lacquer finish that will age quicker and give your guitar a more relic'd appearance, as well as improve the tone because of the minimal coats of finish. Otherwise, it features an alder body, a maple neck with 22 frets, a CBS style headstock, a Fender bridge and tuners, and 3 alnico magnet pickups with the Fender Greasebucket tone circuit living inside. Here's the full list of specs:

Body Alder
Neck Maple, Modern C Shape,
(Satin Urethane Finish)
Fingerboard Rosewood (p/n 011-1160) or Maple (p/n 011-1162), 9.5 Radius (241 mm)
No. of Frets 22 Jumbo Frets
Pickups 3 Hot Single-Coil Strat Pickups with Alnico 3 Magnets and Reverse Wound/Reverse Polarity Middle Pickup
Controls 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)
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 Vintage Style Synchronized Tremolo
Machine Heads Fender/Ping Standard Cast/Sealed Tuning Machines
Hardware Chrome
Pickguard 3-Ply Parchment
Scale Length 25.5 (648 mm)
Width at Nut 1.6875 (43 mm)
Unique Features Satin Nitrocellulose Lacquer Body Finish,
Parchment Plastic Parts,
Large 70s Style Headstock Shape,
Large 70s Style Headstock Logo,
Original Body Shape,
Original Contour Body Decal on Headstock,
H/S/S Pickup Routing,
Reverse Wound/Reverse Polarity Middle Pickup
Accessories Deluxe Gig Bag

UTILIZATION

The design of this guitar feels good overall. It feels a bit slicker and I'm sure it's a bit lighter because of the thin and slippery paint job. It might not be for everyone, and to my credit I generally prefer a gloss finish, but for those who really want the aged or "pure" thing, you can't go wrong here. This guitar is a true Strat in every other sense... I can only say so much before I start repeating the same mantra. The Highway One is well designed and feels like a Strat when you pick it up... always a good sign!

Getting a good sound out of this guitar really isn't hard... I love the tone of Strats and this one is no exception. The nitro finish does make things a little bit different, but the difference is only really noticeable if I'm looking for it. The alnico pickups in this guitar are a bit hotter than most Strat pickups, but that's not a detriment to the pure tone that the guitar should and does deliver.

SOUNDS

I've tried this guitar through various different amps, most notably Fender and Mesa Boogie, as those are my preferences when I want to hear how a guitar sounds and hear it sound GOOD. This guitar sounded better overdriven than clean to my ears, but that might have just been that particular one. That isn't to say that the clean tones were bad... I just found them to be a little bit too overbearing at times... the certain understated quality that I look for in a Strat's clean tone wasn't quite there as much with this one. I'm sure it has to do with the hotter pickups in there, which is fine, as many players are using higher gain rigs with Strats nowadays anyway. The cleans were fairly gutsy and heavy sounding, breaking up the amp's preamp quite low on the gain scale. Definitely an excellent choice for blues or certain mellow/lite rock.

The drive tones were certainly a sound to behold! To say I had fun playing Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover" on this guitar was an understatement. When hit with gain, this guitar comes alive. Harmonics just bloom from everywhere and it just sounds thick and righteous overall. When hit with a dash of reverb and applied to a more British amplifier, it was perfect for 80s era Yngwie.

OVERALL OPINION

All in all I feel that the Fender Highway One is a great Strat. For the $700 or so you can find them for new, it's a sheer bargain. Fender has superseded this model with the new American Special, and though I find that guitar to be superior for an all rounder... it doesn't quite have the viscous and raunchy overdriven persona of the Highway One. Definitely worth checking out!

Body-painting sucks, orange peel and even paint over the dust but they were not zealous on that side, I could remove all the paint without too much difficulty using a only the steel wool which allows me to say that the wood underneath is very beautiful. In terms of hardware is also fully reviewed as soon as one uses the tremolo is death, back to the tuner box ... I replaced the saddle (Tusq), mechanics (Sperzel) and tremolo (wilkinson vintage) and there nothing to see ...

UTILIZATION

Channel to play nice, light weight (I'm also bassist ...) access to acute as a stratum (there are better).

on the other hand in sound, it's great and it's principal, it sounds great vacuum and it is only the criterion that made me choose because I compared it with all strata of the store . (Balance, strats tried on the 5, two and three standard U.S. highway is it with the maple neck that sounded better).

SOUNDS

On amp, the sounds were nice but to play jazz, condos in place do not bring me the color you want. I have therefore replaced by two condos papers (16 euro coins) and the beautiful surprise was discovering that there were two condos tone which allowed me to put a condo in 0.1mf handle and in 0047 bridge which allows me to have a more versatile guitar.

Another good idea is the other two small condos to limit the distortion sound if you lower the volume.

Otherwise, all positions were nice pickups or positions inter simple (yet much better with my kit micro Kinman)

OVERALL OPINION

Used for 3 years I kept the wood, but what stuff! Overall I think that my guitar is much better than most of us home and even the deluxe because since I've tried guitars ....

Damage to the radius that I can find a small, 12 "would have been better to avoid the interrupted at Fort Bend. But it's on all strata have the same problem.

Good value for money but once changed everything, the price is more that of departure, 100 euros easel, 80 lifts, 280 mic, 30 condos euros, 5 euros for shielding (it's luxury).

For a total cost of 1000 euros, I will ever be the same because it allowed me to spread the costs and choose everything because I know that even with a standard, I will certainly change the parts. the best plan would be to buy a hand and do the same as me ....

to see: https://fr.audiofanzine.com/guitare-sc/fender/highway-one-stratocaster-2006-2011/forums/t.368729,up-grade-your-up-grade-highway-one.html