Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:35 am
I own two American Standard strats and I love both of them !
The white '03 strat was the first one I got - it was originally a sunburst '03 American Strat and I had it imported as almost-new guitar in '03 for about 900$ (very good deal back then) with gracious help of my parents - it was my first nice instrument (I was 16 at the time) and I've put many, many miles on it Since I used to play it every day and took it everywhere with me for about 5 years, it is pretty worn right now - the poly finish is so thin, you can almost scape it off with a pick. The white overlay is a sticker foil job over the original sunburst, it holds amazingly well, as opposed to the pickguard, which got yellowed pretty fast (probably because of lots of smoky bars it went through with me). I swapped the saddles for graphteks early on to reduce string breakage and got roller nut installed, apart from these mods and couple of fret recrowns and changed volume pots, it is still bone stock. It is certainly one of my best guitars - I am so used to it, it feels almost like extension of myself when I'm playing it. This thing is a standard I judge other guitars to. It went with me through every band, every recording session I got hired to and it appears on every of my recordings. I don't take it outside too much these days because my Mustang and Jazzmaster both fit better in our current sound, but I still continue to play it during the sessions.
You can see some of the wear on the picture below. Most of the finish on the lower bout of the body is gone by now.
The other one is a '95 american standard - you may have noticed that it is left handed I bought this guitar basically by accident. Local ad for this thing had no picture of it, it just said something in a tune of "90s Fender Strat, black, no pickups, case included, 200 euros". I went to meet the seller quickly and upon opening the case I have realized, it is left handed but being huge Hendrix fan, I was always tempted to try this reversed configuration - right strung left handed guitar. At first, I was worried that the guitar was nicked from somebody, but the guy I bought it from just got it really cheap himself, gave the pickups to friend of his and wanted to get rid of it quickly without profit - so that's the way I ended up with it. I put some pickups I found around the house - SBS noiseless in neck and middle positions (pretty decent noiseless pickups from slovakia) and Dimarzio Fast Track to the bridge at first, but I hated it (you can see it in the first picture) - it got swapped for some ancient Bill Lawrence noiseless single soon afterwards. The BL bridge pickup is amazing - it has a baseplate on it and it makes this thing sound almost like a tele. Other than that, I think that the black strat isn't as good as the white one soundwise - it is somewhat more shrill and thinner sounding compared to the other strat, but it suits my band perfectly - it just does have that garage vibe to it somehow, even with these noiseless pickups. I was pretty amazed how good these pickups sound with various fuzzes I'm using - I can threw it against pretty much everything and it sounds just the way it should.
One thing that always intrigued me about these two guitars is the difference in finish - '95 has thick, poly, plasticky feeling finish and has "swimming pool" route under the pickguard, but '03 has thin, almost nitro-like poly finish that comes of easily. My '72 Jazzmaster is definitely on the thicker side finish wise, but it isn't as heavy coated as the '95 black strat.
Another difference is the way they sound down tuned - '03 strat sounds good even in drop A, but I can't tune the '95 strat down below standard, because it wouldn't sound right.
I like to use the reverse strat for practicing, because it makes playing any other guitar easy I am very used to it right now, but it took me about a month to get used to position of volume pot and pickup switch. I had to have the tone controls removed, because they were always in a way of my picking hand and I also moved the volume control in a place of a neck tone pot - this way, I can rest my palm as I'm used to without worries of turning the volume down. It's funny to watch other people try to play it, because nobody seems to have a clue what to do with it
The white '03 strat was the first one I got - it was originally a sunburst '03 American Strat and I had it imported as almost-new guitar in '03 for about 900$ (very good deal back then) with gracious help of my parents - it was my first nice instrument (I was 16 at the time) and I've put many, many miles on it Since I used to play it every day and took it everywhere with me for about 5 years, it is pretty worn right now - the poly finish is so thin, you can almost scape it off with a pick. The white overlay is a sticker foil job over the original sunburst, it holds amazingly well, as opposed to the pickguard, which got yellowed pretty fast (probably because of lots of smoky bars it went through with me). I swapped the saddles for graphteks early on to reduce string breakage and got roller nut installed, apart from these mods and couple of fret recrowns and changed volume pots, it is still bone stock. It is certainly one of my best guitars - I am so used to it, it feels almost like extension of myself when I'm playing it. This thing is a standard I judge other guitars to. It went with me through every band, every recording session I got hired to and it appears on every of my recordings. I don't take it outside too much these days because my Mustang and Jazzmaster both fit better in our current sound, but I still continue to play it during the sessions.
You can see some of the wear on the picture below. Most of the finish on the lower bout of the body is gone by now.
The other one is a '95 american standard - you may have noticed that it is left handed I bought this guitar basically by accident. Local ad for this thing had no picture of it, it just said something in a tune of "90s Fender Strat, black, no pickups, case included, 200 euros". I went to meet the seller quickly and upon opening the case I have realized, it is left handed but being huge Hendrix fan, I was always tempted to try this reversed configuration - right strung left handed guitar. At first, I was worried that the guitar was nicked from somebody, but the guy I bought it from just got it really cheap himself, gave the pickups to friend of his and wanted to get rid of it quickly without profit - so that's the way I ended up with it. I put some pickups I found around the house - SBS noiseless in neck and middle positions (pretty decent noiseless pickups from slovakia) and Dimarzio Fast Track to the bridge at first, but I hated it (you can see it in the first picture) - it got swapped for some ancient Bill Lawrence noiseless single soon afterwards. The BL bridge pickup is amazing - it has a baseplate on it and it makes this thing sound almost like a tele. Other than that, I think that the black strat isn't as good as the white one soundwise - it is somewhat more shrill and thinner sounding compared to the other strat, but it suits my band perfectly - it just does have that garage vibe to it somehow, even with these noiseless pickups. I was pretty amazed how good these pickups sound with various fuzzes I'm using - I can threw it against pretty much everything and it sounds just the way it should.
One thing that always intrigued me about these two guitars is the difference in finish - '95 has thick, poly, plasticky feeling finish and has "swimming pool" route under the pickguard, but '03 has thin, almost nitro-like poly finish that comes of easily. My '72 Jazzmaster is definitely on the thicker side finish wise, but it isn't as heavy coated as the '95 black strat.
Another difference is the way they sound down tuned - '03 strat sounds good even in drop A, but I can't tune the '95 strat down below standard, because it wouldn't sound right.
I like to use the reverse strat for practicing, because it makes playing any other guitar easy I am very used to it right now, but it took me about a month to get used to position of volume pot and pickup switch. I had to have the tone controls removed, because they were always in a way of my picking hand and I also moved the volume control in a place of a neck tone pot - this way, I can rest my palm as I'm used to without worries of turning the volume down. It's funny to watch other people try to play it, because nobody seems to have a clue what to do with it