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(More customer reviews)Clapton, Hendrix, Vaughn, Malmsteen & Johnson All Play Strats For a Reason
Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen, Eric Johnson, Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore. A who's-who of some of the greatest guitarists of all time chose the Fender Stratocaster as their primary "axe." There's a reason for that: Stratocasters ROCK. Light, fast, comfortable, expressive, and forgiving, its a compelling guitar. Plus, as characterized by the name, this baby is made in America. Corona, CA to be precise. That makes a big difference. Go to a store and pick up the various Fender Stratocasters. One of the differentiators between the models isn't just features, its where its made. A Mexican or Japanese Stratocaster will not play as well as the American made version. I'm not being xenophobic. Give it a try, test it out, you'll find a dramatic playability difference between the models sourced from different countries. One could attribute the variability to "bad quality control," or perhaps the pride the US workers have from producing an icon of rock really shows in the finished product. Beyond the build-quality, models from different countries use different materials for the components and for the finish. The neck of an American and a Mexican Strat' are the same, but they are finished with a different coating. You can feel the difference, and in my opinion, the US version feels much better.
The Strat' not only looks good, but that shapely, sculpted body is so much nicer to play with than the body of that other American legend, the Les Paul. No sharp edges to dig into your ribs. Other differences are: the Strat' has three pick-ups for more flexibility than the standard two humbuckers of the 'Paul; and of course the Strat' comes standard with a whammy-bar (tremolo), which is unavailable from the Gibson factory for the Les Paul.
The neck and fretboard are maple. Boy does that make a difference. All my guitars had rosewood fretboards before I got my Strat', and rosewood remains the most popular wood for fretboards. Despite its popularity, rosewood can be very inconsistent. Run your nail across rosewood fretboards on different guitars and you'll see what I mean. Plus, your average rosewood fretboard is slow. I'm slow enough, when I play a guitar with a rosewood fretboard, sound barely emerges at all! The maple neck on these Stratocasters is wonderful. Its easy to maintain, but more importantly is that its FAST. Play it long enough and it'll look the top of your desk from high-school, but it'll still be FAST.
For anybody considering an American Standard, I would suggest they consider an upgrade, if possible, to the American Deluxe HSS. Then you got all the goodies: Locking strap. Three pick-ups that are now switchable singe-coil/humbucker for a total of 10 different pick-up combinations, right from the Fender factory. No after-market guitar tech digging into the guts of your "pride & joy" to install after-market pick-ups, which aren't inexpensive either. You also get the floating tremolo bridge the way it was meant to be: combined with a ball-bearing roller nut and locking tuning keys. It is truly a beautiful thing to experience. This tremolo setup gets you that stuff Floyd Rose invented his tremolo for (dive-bombs with a return to tune), except its better than a Floyd Rose. Anybody who has adjusted the intonation on a guitar equipped with a Floyd Rose tremolo can attest to how remarkably inane it is. It's so difficult, and so slow, and decent results are so difficult to obtain I can hardly fathom how good old Floyd thought the design of the tremolo was acceptable given the steps required just to tune the guitar. None of those problems with the Fender whammy. Intonation is easy to adjust, quick, and spot-on accurate, well, as accurate as intonation settings ever are, and far better than the "nudge and pray" of the Floyd whammy.
I've been playing guitar for over 25 years. I've only had my American Deluxe HSS Stratocaster for a few years now, but I love it. Every time I try another guitar, even those costing much more than my Strat', the playability pales in comparison. Given Gibson's manufacturing issues, I don't think there's a finer American-made guitar than the Fender Stratocaster out there.
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