Stratocaster appreciation thread

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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Kinx
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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by Kinx » Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:35 am

I own two American Standard strats and I love both of them !
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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.
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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 :D 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.
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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 :D 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 :D
Check out my band, The Atavists ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG-HZtrljMg

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Arthon
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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by Arthon » Thu Mar 15, 2018 12:15 pm

My second, and first proper guitar, was a MIM Strat (the first one was an unplayable cheap Yamaha). So, I learned guitar on a Strat. Strat always seems natural for me. It’s not my prefered Fender model in term of sound (I prefer Jazzy and Teles), but it’s maybe the more confortable guitar for me, or at least, the more convenient.

I modified so many thing on my first Strat. I even tried to refinish it and, since I didnt have the knowledge and the skills to do a proper job, I did a shit job. At the end, nothing was original except the neck and the trem. When I had the cash to buy my AVRI Jazzmaster, I trade the guitar. Since then, I often miss a good Stratocaster but I always had other priorities (1 piece maple Neck JM, Telecaster, Es-175, ect).

Two weeks ago, on a whim, my friend and I decided to go buy to CS Strats. We tried many Strats in the shop and we choose both a ’56 Mary Kaye reissue. I seem to really like the ash/1 piece maple neck combo! I choose the NOS, he choose the relic. Mine is one year older, have a 7,25 radius, vintage fret and a Tortoise pickguard. I am not sure about the Tortoise pickguard, I might change it to a white one for the proper Mary Kaye look.
Here are my 3 Fender CS. As you can see, I really like 1 piece maple neck on Fender!

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Last edited by Arthon on Wed Mar 28, 2018 9:17 am, edited 4 times in total.
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(sorry for the spelling, I speak french)

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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by BlixaFan » Sun Mar 18, 2018 8:39 am

i got my first strat in 1996, and all of my formative guitar years were spent playing it. it was your usual black strat, white pickguard, rosewood. nothing fancy.
over the years, i started getting into different guitars, acquired more of them, and the 96 strat kind of got left behind.
fast forward to 2018 where I sort of impulsively started a little project after watching Van Halen rip around on stage in THIS
I've always sort of wanted a metal/shred guitar, but never wanted to spend a lot of money because I knew I wouldn't play some shred guitar all the time. so i gave my first strat a new life by getting a new pickguard and throwing a humbucker in :D

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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by ThePearDream » Sun Mar 18, 2018 2:53 pm

I thought it was about time I posted up my strats.
The first three all have neck on/off switches and have tone controls for neck and bridge, with the middle wide open.
For me, this setup is really useful. The bridge pickups really benefit from a tone control, rolling it down to 7-8 makes them much more useable. Having the middle without any filter gives a nice boost type option. One of my favorite tones is neck/middle with the neck tone rolled down to 5 - this gets rid of some of the quack and gives you a good sound for arpeggios or finger picking. And, of course, the neck/bridge combo is just killer.

First, my #1. Chunky mid-80s MIJ neck, MIM OTM body, CV50s pickups.
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CV60s BMM with Rose Mariposa A3 pickups.
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Squier VM CFM body, CV60s neck & pickups.
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Refinished & naturally reliced Samick Abilene body, Squier neck of unknown provenance, pickups from the CFM body, neck on/off switch and push/pull coil tap.
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rumfoord
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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by rumfoord » Mon Mar 19, 2018 2:40 pm

Here's mine!

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This is my 1983/4ish MIJ SQ serial Squier Strat. I picked it up used, but I think the pickups are original given the rest of the wiring under the original (black plastic) pickguard. Some pickups from this time period are ceramic, but these are the plastic bobbin alnico pickups. Besides the pickups, this new black anodized aluminum pickguard has new CTS pots, a switchcraft jack, a super switch, and these are vintage knobs / switchtip from ebay (I could not resist it when I found one of my favorite knob styles engraved with 'SQ'). The bridge is a Super-Vee Blade Runner---that one with a spring steel plate instead of a knife edge. Not pictured is a rosewood trem cavity cover.

The bridge pickup has a copper plated steel baseplate installed. The inside is shielded with copper tape. And the pickup wiring is basically just to swap the neck and middle, so I have

position..
1: bridge only
2: neck+bridge
3: neck only
4: neck+middle
5: middle only

The middle pickup is my favorite, so I like having it in an easier position to switch to. The second tone knob is connected to the middle and bridge, and the first tone knob is the neck only.

I changed a bunch of things at once, so I can't be positive about all the interactions...but the baseplate on the pickup seems great. At least: whatever's happening with the baseplate, aluminum pickguard, and bridge tone knob took the bridge pickup from something I wasn't very fond of to something I love. I love the neck and middle, but I'd been considering getting a new bridge pickup (not anymore).

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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by mcjt » Thu Mar 22, 2018 10:38 am

Yes, I think so. they have that gold interior and metal trim on the edge.
My 1967 Gibson EB3 bass (30" scale) lives in an Ibanez guitar case.
MatthewK wrote:
Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:32 am
mcjt wrote:
Fri Feb 23, 2018 11:47 am
hey cool! An old Ibanez case! I have one like that too!
Is that what it is? I put my Jazzmaster in it because it was a bit large for the Strat ... great case!

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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by leokula » Fri Mar 23, 2018 11:55 am

MKR wrote:
Fri Feb 23, 2018 11:15 am
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This guitar is banging! Made me miss my old blue strat :(
Jaguar > Jazzmaster :)

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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by paulnewman » Tue Mar 27, 2018 3:22 pm

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Here's my Classic Series 60's strat which, I believe, was refinished in this beautiful orange color at some point. I'm not 100% certain of that, but according to the serial number on the neck it's a CS 60's strat in Burgundy Mist, which it clearly is not. I've scoured the internet trying to find out what this color is and can't find any info (the closest official color match I've found is from the American Elite series Fender put out a couple years ago, which was called Autumn Blaze, but the body definitely isn't the same due to those having a different neck plate design). Also, it's got some awesome checking going on, which leads me to believe it's a nitro finish, which definitely wasn't stock on this model.

Either way, it's a rad color and a real ripper, and although I don't consider myself a strat man, I do enjoy cranking this thing up.

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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by DesmondWafers » Wed Mar 28, 2018 8:29 pm

Has anyone rewired to a three way switch? I recently picked up a 50's reissue strat and I kind of like the idea of removing the middle positions because they're awful. The best part is that I can do it under the guise of being vintage correct, rather than an irrational hatred of the 2 and 4 positions! :fp:

Or, perhaps it would be smarter to wire the 2 and 4 positions to something that I would actually use, like a neck+bridge position similar to a tele. So reveal your strat wiring secrets to someone who has finally gotten over their hatred of strats.

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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by marqueemoon » Wed Mar 28, 2018 8:50 pm

I got to play a decently set up Strat through one of the recent 68 Princeton Reverbs at Guitar Center of all places recently. I was surprised at how nice the trem was. I was able to get a nice subtle warble out of it. Usually Strat trems are too on/off for me.

I haven't messed with my own Strat's trem because the guitar didn't come with an arm. Probably time to do something about that.

matthew a

Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by matthew a » Sun Apr 01, 2018 10:40 am

MKR wrote:
Fri Feb 23, 2018 11:15 am
My new 1980s Squier stratocaster:
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What colour is this? It's amazing :-*

matthew a

Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by matthew a » Sun Apr 01, 2018 10:45 am

Picked up my 80s Squier - really impressed with it. Neck is great, and I quite like the sound. Never had a strat before, so don't really have much to compare it to- just sounds like a nice difference between my JM & Squier CV Tele. It's a bit beaten up, but I quite like that.

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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by MKR » Mon Apr 02, 2018 5:35 am

matthew a wrote:
Sun Apr 01, 2018 10:40 am

What colour is this? It's amazing :-*
thanks. it's lake placid blue. This is an 80s korean made squier. definitely brighter than the typical fender LPB shade. i have since put on a mint pickguard that i'm digging. (by the way it is a full thickness body, the lighting in the photo makes it looks weirdly thin.)

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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by PF_Flyer » Sun Apr 08, 2018 4:29 pm

2008 Road Worn 60's 3-TSB

2011 American Standard 3-TSB

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Re: Stratocaster appreciation thread

Post by BlixaFan » Sun Apr 08, 2018 4:54 pm

does this girl count? she's my third. (technically 4th strat, as i used to own a white one too)
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