Blade Guitars Texas Standard

Body Wood: North American Alder
Neck Wood: Hard Rock Maple
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Pickups: 3 VS-1 Single Coils
Electronics: VSC-3 - Treble/Bass Boost and Mid Boost
Switching: 3 Position Mini Switch
Color: 3TS
frets: 22 frets

The blade very suits my style (Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Grunge, Funk and Blues).
I use Peavey Bandit 112 (80 Watt)and its an awesome connection between a guitar and a amp!
sounds like Awesome Vintage strat with a boost switch.
if you look for a cheap fender you wont found it in blade.
the blade is diffrent guitar from fender american start (for me its better) so if you want fender you wont found it here.
the clean is a dreamy clean ijust love it in any way of pickup and boost. can sound very acostic!
and in distortion this guitar can play from blues to heavy metal.
i dont pkay with high gain but my amp can go to very high gain so i tried that.
i dont know how good it sound cuz im not so intrested in high gain stuff but its can do it with the right effects and amp.
it will give you all the range of single coil sound dont expect to buy these and it will sound like a gibson.

the action is perfect not too far not too close.
the finish is 2 tone sunburst and its looks awesome! the flamed red is great too but they didnt have it with rosewood~
no flaws got it brand new.

i didnt played live but, when i turned my amp to 5 (i usually play on 1-2) the guitar and the amp sounds AMAZING she sounds great in high volume~
Would you use it on a gig without a backup? yes. i didnt found a guitar yet that satisfied my styles more then that guitar.
and i would buy a straps locks when ill have the mouney~

they were very fine. not like other company that i contact.
i asked for picturs of the guitar in any color that they got they send all that they got (all exept 2).

i play like 8-10 months and i own jackson Bass, soundking 12 watt bass amp and peavey bandit 112 and now the blade :]
if it were stolen or lost i definitely buy the same model same color same fretboard.
what i love about it... ummm the clean is perfect couldnt be better the boost is awesome what i hate i dont hate nothing about that guitar shes not perfect but i dont hate nothing about her.
i compare this guitar runin' on a vox ad30 and amercian fender startocaster (std) with ash body runin' on a Hot Rod Deluxe and the Blade suit my style the best.
if you want to ask me anything abot the guitar you can email me anytime i can send pics of my guitar and sound Demos.

This should be standard but I'll still put it.

Body Wood: North American Alder
Neck Wood: Hard Rock Maple
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Headstock Finish: Natural Gloss
Hardware Finish: Chrome
Tuners: Vintage Style
Tremolo: M-54Vintage Style
Pickguard: Vintage Mint Green
Pickups: 3 VS-1 Single Coils
Electronics: VSC-3 - Treble/Bass Boost and Mid Boost
Switching: 3 Position Mini Switch

I have a band and we play rock, british rock and some punk-rock.
I use (mostly) Marshall VS65 amp with 1x12" Celestion speaker, put my guitar through Jim Dunlop GCB-95 wah and Visual Sound Jekyll&Hyde OD/distortion. Also, experimenting with delay, chorus and phaser from time to time.
Since middle pickup is "reverse wound" you get all humm canceled if you use bridge or neck pickup in combination with middle one. However, if you use them on their own, you get EXTREME noice! I mean, it's not as if you put it through Fuzz but hey, comapred to some Mexican Fenders...it's extremely noisy.
The sound is full but not bright, definitely not. VSC electronics help it in a way but let's be realistic : I am trying to pull out humbucking sound from a single coil :) .
Volume and tone knobs work very well and influence the sound as they should.
When I was buying it, I swear I "felt" I could get this guitar producing the same humbucker sound I had on my Jackson PS-1, even with a large crack on the neck. Boy was I wrong. I have tried this guitar on different amps (Marshall VS65, Marshall JCM800, Vox valvetronics, Fender......), diferent strings (0.09, 0.10, 0.11, Ernie Ball, Fender, Dean Markley...), different pedals (Jekyll&Hyde, Zvex suppaduppa, Boss overdrive, Boss distrotion, turbo-overdrive, tube overdrive....) ...but I didn't get the sound I desired...that's why I give it "only" 7.

Action on the factory settings was too high for my taste. Intonation was more-less OK, pretty close. Pickups were positioned nicely....
However, when I tried to lower the action, it was impossible to get good intonation. G and A strings we ALWAYS flat. I mean, I've been doing these kind of setups for some years so I have some basic knowledge on how to do it. Then, when I returned action to its previous state, I was again able to ge the guitar in intonation...big "minus" for this.

Regarding finish, I must say it's almost flawless. OK, my guitar had a small, very small chip (that's why I got lower price) but apart from that, I can only say perfect. Neck is so smooth that I must say that I have never held a guitar this "nice" in my hands.
However, for me intonation and action are properties which are way way more important than finish I give it 7

I had a situation in which I almost dropped guitar on set due to "unscrewing" of strap buttons. I have tightened them but it just kept unscrewing. I realy don't understand this. Few drops of Loctite solved this problem. Beware of this because it can put you in unpleasent situation and cause dammage.

It shure does look like it would withstand live gigging however, I preffer a backup, mostly because of string breaking.

I had "limited" warranty (whatever this means) for 12 months but never delt with Blade or their distributor in my country.

Buying a electric guitar in Bosnia and Herzegovina is muchmore complex than in Europe or USA. Most of the shops only keep chepaer guitars or some middle-range ones on stock. If you want anything slighly more "serious" you have to order it and pre-pay it without possibility of trying.
I have been playing for 12 years now, and I still own my first guitar (Jackson PS-1). Jackson is beaten and bruised, frets are pretty worn out, neck is broken and holding on a trus-rod, tuners are ready for replacement. But Jackson will still kick ass compared to this Blade (in my music style, ofcourse).
If it were stolen, I would be kinda sad but only for 420 EUR that I have payed for this guitar. I definitely wouldn't miss guitar itself.
I am not person that would buy a guitar and change pickups, I just don't do that.
When I sell thius guitar (I am already selling it) I will probably go for Fender Highway One with HSS pickups or maybe even Gibson SG Standard. I think it is worth to add some bucks (even if it's double) if you'll get guitar that will give you pleasure when you play it. With this Blade, playing for me is torture. We just weren't ment to be together :)

Bought this one because I needed a "strat", but not necessarily a Fender. I'd heard many great things about Blade, the specs looked just right for me, and the price was very friendly, so I decided to just order one, untried. Not a very recommendable thing to do in general, but I've had absolutely no regrets at all!

It looks quite simply classic! My Blade has a flawless 3 - tone sunburst finish. Can't find any faults! The body shape is quite simply an elegant Stratocaster with a few minor differences, notably the shape of the headstock. Nothing wrong here - if you like the look of a strat, this guitar can't dissapoint you.

It has a vintage-style tremolo that seems to work just like it's supposed to, in other words great for subtle wobbles, but Steve Vai diciples should look elsewhere. But with the bone nut and the vintage-style tuners it stays in tune great! I've got other guitars if I feel like divebombing my way back to the 80s ;-)

The flawless neck has 22 frets, and is just a dream to play! The neck of my other guitars feels like logs compared to this! It's like if I took my hands to a tailor, and he made me a guitar neck to fit!

The guitar is configured almost like a standard Fender Stratocaster, with one volume, one tone for the neck pickup and one tone for the middle pickup, and that suits me just fine. In addition, we have the VSC-3 cirquit, that really turns this guitar into... a swiss army knife? Seriously, if you can't tweak a useable sound out of this guitar, you should get your hearing checked!

The VSC-3 is basically an active preamp. Must not be mistakened with active pickups, that's NOT the same thing! It makes this guitar into a tone monster!

The truss rod adjustment is easily accessible. The The body is made from American alder, the neck is hard rock maple. All hardware and electronics are signed Blade. Everything seems to be of high quality!

It's basically a quality tool for the working musician! (Hmmmm, maybe I should be writing sloagans, anyone interested?)

I'm first and foremost a guitar teacher, so basically I need versatility. And that's basically all stratocasters' middle name, but especially this one with the VSC - system!

The guitar feels very light, but in a good way - quality wood is used! Unplugged, the guitar sounds good, like a good strat is supposed to sound, not too spanky, and without any dead spots.

The single coils works just fine! Nice punch and great clean tones, drives a quality tube amp well! Good strat - tones are easy to find. Some might find them a little bit on the "kind" side, but that's what the SSC is there for, and anyway, if you want a particular sound, you have a million choices between different after - marked pickups.

They are far from noiseless, but that's part of the game with single coils. The "in - between" - settings works like they're supposed to, and there are after all many ways of dealing with single-coil noise. Anyway: This is a strat, not a metal machine! But for the latter, get some hot rails, and it should work for that too.

The ace up this guitar's sleeve on the tone side is the VSC. It won' take away the noise (more likely enhance it on some settings), nor make the single coils sound like "real" humbuckers, but other than that, you have a world of sounds under your fingers!!! You can really make it sound like anything!

Didn't find any faults at all, and THAT'S rare! The guitar was in tip top shape! Maybe I was lucky, but seriously, all I had to do was to tune it and it was up and ready to play!

The only thing I didn't like that much was the placement of the mini switch. I use the volume knob a lot, and when I turn it off with my pinkie, it tends to slightly chrash into the mini switch. I mentioned this in an email with a few questions to Blade, and the answer was basically what I expected: They've moved it around over the years and it has ended up where most guitarists seemed to be comfortable with it.

Anyway, that's not a big deal at all, and I'm already starting to get used to it.

Seems solid as a rock! Time will tell (touch wood), but everything seems to be well fitted, tight and of a good quality!

The leaflet that followed was a little on the short side. I haven't tried to contact the internet store where I bought it, but I sent an email to Blade with a few questions and received a reply shortly after that showed that they take their clients very seriously!

I've been playing for 22 years, and I've owned countless guitars: Fenders, Gibsons, Ibanez, Charvel, Carvin, Yamaha, Michael Kelly etc. Some I still have, some are sold, but I honestly can't remember being this pleased with a buy in terms of playability and possibilities!

I didn't get a chance to try it before I bought it, so I read carefully everything I could about it, and checked around and decided to take a shot, and oh my! No regrets! It plays like a dream, sounds great and the VSC gives it many sonic possibilities!

The price is very low considering what you get, and I must say that I'm very tempted to buy another Blade. And if I lost it, I would definently replace it with another!

I really recommend this guitar for anyone looking for a strat who doesn't care that it's not written "Fender" on the headstock and who need flexibility. Even without the VSC it's a great guitar, and if the microphones aren't to your taste, just change them!

I've rarely been this happy with a purchase before! I seriously can't find anything negative with this guitar, nothing objective anyway!

I know this review might seem a bit enthusiastic (I don't work for Blade, nor do I have an endorsment deal), but I know what a good guitar is, and I know what I like, and in that respect I AM very enthusiastic right now - I love this guitar!!!!!!!!

I am giving this a 7 on features because I would of loved to see this model in a honey burst.

My Blade is a candy apple red mint pick guard and aged pickup covers and knobs.
Rosewood neck and mother of pearl inlay dots, only available on the rosewood fret board with medum jumbo frets.

It feels like an original 1963 fender statocaster.
The chrome neck plate is lazer etched with Blade.
the more you use and wear in the tremelo arm it will accually stay in tune.

It has a VSC-3 active boost circuit for the treble,bass and mids.

This guitar is awesome. One of my freinds has an older blade made in switzerland. Mine is made in Japan which is famous for making guitars for Steve Vai and Satriani.

We have spoken and we blieve that the torch has been passed. Blade are now the best guitars in the world.

With the passive boost off you get a 63 stratocaster sound, toggle switch up for the treble and bass boost you get the Burns London marquee sound.
The midrange boost just fattens the sound and makes it so creamy and sustaining it's glorious.

Add a little distortion on either boost setting and it sound like Phil Emmanuels guitar (Australian guitar legend) My favourite guitar player. He happens to play and old Blade too,Primarily.

Basically it is a Blade it doesn't do this guitar justice to compare it to a Fender. after seeking the same quality from fender at an affordable price I don't like the F word much - lol. I am fed up with fender. I wont ever pay $4000.00 for a decent one. when I can pay $1,500 for a Blade and get guitar that blows fender away or $2500.00 and get a hand made Blade cusotm made.

I play everything I like from classical to The Shadows to VanHalen ,Steve Vai, Satriani and Phil Emmanuel and tommy emmanuel. But not chicken pickin' I don't like it or Honky Tonk. -lol

This guitar was perfect right out the box. Never had that from any of my usa strat I used to own.

The action is low Lespaul low. which is great for moving over scales and up and down chords and sweeping arpegio's.

My freind is a blues guitarist and his action is the same however being this low it doesnt cause troubles which is rare.

This guitar is made very solid, I would never gig with out a backup this is just bannanacy, Really what if you break a string. In this case I would have a Burn London Marquee or another Blade of the same model or similar model.

I asked Blade how they feel about the Texas range, they said "These guitars are build for the top guitar player availabe. We just have more expensive models available is some one wants a hand made Blade guitar."

They are easy to contact go the www.Bladeguitars.com then go to the contacts and fill out the enquires form and you will get a response over night. They vae said if there is a crappy sounding blade made its was past all inspection points in switzerland with out being picked up. They will replace it right away. They only like the finest guitars leaving switzerland.

Just make sure to fill out and send the warranty card back to switzerland as soon as you buy the guitar and filled it out.
one year warranty on all parts and cut out the middleman in dealign with all matters by talking to Blade directly.

If this guitar was stolen I would cry, seriously.

I will only buy and play blade guitars and burn marquee guitars.

I would replace it maybe in a sunburst this time.

Don't forget I traded a Steve vai jem for my Blade "It was so so so so... worth it".

Mine is a new 2006/2007 model, olympic white w/ rosewood neck. Normal strat specs plus the vsc-boost. vintage tremolo and vintage non-locking tuners, 22 frets. Alder Body, maple neck.

Really great plus is the vsc-boost, which makes the guitar very versatile, because you can adjust each boost-range (bass, middle, treble) on the rear of the guitar.

What shall I say? It??s a strat and it sounds also like a strat. For me, more powerful and warmer than the original Fenders, but it has enough bite and punch.
Very good is the vsc-boost. You can choose between a mid-boost (toggle-switch down), bypass (middle position) or a bass/treble-boost (up-position). Especially for the bridge-pu in combination with the mid-boost I don??t need any humbucker. In clean settings, the bass/treble-boost gives you a real funky sound.
I play everything from classic-rock, blues, soul to some funky styles, covers and own songs.
For a lot of twang, I use my Blade Tele with Mapleneck, all the other stuff works real good with this nice strat.
I compared it to some Fender-mex (j.Vaughan-model is a real deal, but to less output for my Tele) and Fender Am. Std. Strats. The Americans are really good, but not better than this one.
And for all the American guys: Here in Germany Fender is really expensive (you have to spend a lot more money than in the US), so the Blade is about 400 Euros cheaper than the Fender American Std. Strat. For this, I don??t need the label with the big F.
I also heard better strats, for example G&L USA or Fender Deluxe, but not for the 500 Euros I paid for this guitar.

Came from a dealer which does the setup to my wishes. Almost perfect with 10-46 strings, maybe the action a little bit to low. Real good fretwork, everything was ok.

Seems to be solid as a rock. Maybe the knobs and pu-switch have to be changed in some years. This was the experience with my Blade Tele. But thats not really a problem and not to expensive.

Warranty here in Germany two years plus one year extra from the dealer. Had no need to contact the company, never heard anything negative about it.

8 because I don??t know what could happen if I had to contact them.

Playing for 25 years now, think I??m a serious amateur with a few gigs every year. Own a Blade Delta Classic T2 Telecaster which I modified with a Nashville modification (strat-pu in the middle position). My amp is a Crate V3112 Class-A-Tube-Amp, also using an OKKO TwinSonic Overdrive Pedal (one of the best boutique ODs I ever heard) and a Marshall Regenerator for modulation effects.
I would buy another one again if this was stolen or broken because it??s one of the cheapest possibilities here in Germany to get a wonderful, powerful and well equipped Stratocaster.
In relation to the price a clear 10 for this thing.

Strat body style, alder body, bolt-on maple neck w/ 22 fret rosewood fingerboard, vintage tremolo, standard tuners. Sea-foam green solid lacquer.

Three single coil pickups, Blade's own VS-1 model. Standard 5-way switch plus Vol/Tone/Tone control. Active "VSC" circuit on board that lets you choose between a mid-boost @ 650HZ or a high & bass cut/boost @ 160hz / 6.5 kHZ. Three way mini switch for the VSC (up = high/bass boost; middle = off; down = mid boost).

All in all, a very versatile combination. Would have wished for a different spot to place the VSC mini-switch; I often inadvertedly hit the pickup selector when trying to flip the switch.

Unamplified sound: Zingy, but round with rather a modest bass. Picking closer to the neck pickup / end of the fretboard, the Texas exhibits a beautifully warm & silky sound & lets single notes bloom nicely. Slightly above average sustain for an alder / maple neck strat clone.

Amplification: Hughes & Kettner TriAmp; Mesa Boogie Mark III combo; Roland JC 120 borrowed from a friend; direct to mixer w/ Reussenzehn Daniel D tube booster; direct to board using a BOSS GT-8; Infellifex; Ensoniq DP/4.

Amplified sound: With the stock pups & the VSC off, I'd rate the Blade as a "decent, if generic sounding" strat clone: The pups produce an okay standard strat sound of the 'don't want to hurt anyone" type, i.e. it doesn't have too much bite or punch & lacks a bit in the clarity/presence sector. The VSC circuit, however, alleviates this somewhat - engage the mid-boost & you get thick, humbuckeresque tones that are equally suited for wailing solos of churning rock riffs. Engage the treble/bass boost (8/10 treble, 2/10 bass for me), and you get a good deal more sizzle & whomp outa clean rhythm settings. Backing off the treble & upping the bass on the bridge PU lets you even do a credibly "SlimFast" SG impersonation.

Bottom line - neither bad nor great basic sound that you can tune somehwat by using the VSC circuit clevery, hence the "7" here. Wood sound is very good & IMHO _begs_ for better replacement pickups - I slapped on a set of Kinman Woodstocks & was rewarded with an incredibly juicy, biting & punchy "Strat on steroids" type of sound that easily holds its own with _any_ stock Fender model I've had my hands on. Even when figuring in another 200 or so EUR for good pups, this guitar proved quite a bargain

Finish was flawless (even if the colour should be renamed "Seasick green") with the exception of a ca 3 cm^2 piece of lacquer that had splintered off at the lower front part of the body - my Texas Standard is a display model & was dropped by a customer, so the store sold it at a discount (349 EUR vs 449 original price).

Action & factory fit, no evaluation here - guitar was set up for 009 strings, had it immediately set up for 010 strings & tuned down to Eb.

All in all very well made; the workmanship is on par with guitars that come in at twice its price tag. The trem & tuners aren't the most stable around, but I reckon that at a street price of 400-450 EUR, Sperzels & a Wilkinson trem aren't realistic options.

Only had it for a couple of weeks now, so no experience yet. The two other Blades I own (a R4 from 1991 and a California Standard from 2002), though, have never let me down even though I use 'em extensively live as well in the studio. The R4's VSC did the Fritz after 5 or 6 years & had to be replaced; that's all.

Only experience with Blade's user support was trying to get a replacement VSC for the aforementioned R4, which they shipped to the music store within a week or so _at no cost even though the waranty had expired years ago. Very cool.

Buy again at the 350 EUR bargain price, hehe, any time, heck, I'd prolly take two^^. I'd also buy it again at its list price & with a less eye-sorey colour any time, even though I'm less than excited about the stock pickups. This guitars offers incredible value for money & definitely warrants another 300 EUR or so investment in replacement pups & Sperzel tuners. If you are shopping for a "traditional" strat in the "Fender American standard or cheaper" league, I reckon you'll be hard-pressed to find a significantly better instrument than this baby plus decent pickups that float yer boat.

standard

I play mainly straight forward rock and emo.
I use a fender bandmaster and a tube screamer. That's it.
The sound is a bit fatter than a regular strat allthough I think the single coils are a bit flat. I replaced the bridge SC for a seymour duncan hotrails. I also added a few switches for coilsplit and fase return. I also changed the tuners for schallers after one of them gave up. A guitarrepairshop did a good job by setting it to a comfortable action. Rating out of the box: 7, after upgrade: 9

Out of the box: a terrible action. 'cause of my big hands I like the wide neck and its profile. A guitarrepairshop did a good job by setting it to a comfortable action. Rating out of the box: 5

After a few changes I like the guitar as it is.
I will probably change the pick ups by a descent set (texas specials f.i.). I never gig without backup, but don't need it.
The finish is a bit weary after 7 years of abusing it.

no idea

I have a squier tele (1985) and a gibson les paul (1957) but this guitar is the most comfortable and I like the fattened stratsound.

Body Wood: North American Alder
Neck Wood: Hard Rock Maple
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Headstock Finish: Natural Gloss
Hardware Finish: Chrome
Tuners: Vintage Style
Tremolo: M-54Vintage Style
Pickguard: Vintage Mint Green
Pickups: 3 VS-1 Single Coils
Electronics: VSC-3 - Treble/Bass Boost and
Mid Boost
Switching: 3 Position Mini Switch
Color: Olypic white

I play blues, jazz, fusion, r&b and latin. I play clean mostly and the strat type of clean is most suitable. I looked for fender mex and other more cheap guitars but the blade is defenitly the most versatile en clean sparklin sounding strat in it's price catagory. With the switch on mid boost i don't even mis the humbucker.

very nice strat, i think the best what 350 euro used can buy

Alder body with maple neck/rosewood board. 22 Frets. S/S/S. Made in the East..Japan or more likely Korea. Mine is Lake Placid Blue with a nice after market perloid pick guard. Not sure of age but a couple of years at least, probably older. Pretty much vintage strat spec, has tone control wired for bridge pickup, reverse wound middle pickup, and the rather awesome levinson active boost circuit. Brilliant features for the money.

I have compared this guitar to various strats and for the money, none have come close. I have played various fender mexi-strats and even in the better ones the pickups have sounded thin, anemic and lifeless in comparison. These are the current ones I'm talking about and maybe older ones are better but you definatly pay for the name on the headstock. I have a fender nashville tele and the tex mex pickups arn't close to the quality of the ones on this. At the end of the day I have played USA strats that sound as good or better (not as full, but better defined), but even then there's not much in it (some other users commented that they are as good as their American Standard Strats when A-B'd and I don't find this hard to believe). Plus, they cost almost twice as much as this guitar. The active circuit is great. I use it to boost bass/treble on the bridge pickup for leads, roll off the tone to about 4, and it sounds great - really thick for a single coil. Hum cancelling at pos. 2&4 works really well. For the money I can not ask for more so 10 (but probably about an 8 compared to all Strats at all prices).

Bought Second hand. Frets good, Neck pocket excellent (better than the two fender guitars I own). Slight problem with the 5 way switch as the previous owner had not quite fitted new pickguard correctly. Had to file platic switch tip slightly to get it to move easily to all 5 positions. Finish is good but not as thick as on mexi fenders (I dunno if this is good or bad, personal taste I guess). No real problems as yet, touch wood.

Never had any problems with it as yet. Would definatly rely on it for gigs.

Don't know, but I'm pretty sure levinson are very good.

I have been playing about 18 months and am returning to Uni in the autumn hoping to get more involved in jams/bands etc. I own a variety of stuff: Nashville tele, 80s Korean Squire, 6w fender champ, Spider II 112, some other stuff. If this guitar was lost or stolen I would definatly consider buying it again if I could find one that plays as well and sounds as good. I'm thinking of selling up with alot of my equipment and just putting down the cash for a marshall dsl combo and a gibson les paul/SG. If I do the levinson will be the only thing I'll keep. If there's a better made strat that can be got for #250 or less 2nd hand I'd be very surprised.

strat like guitar, s/s/s active circuit etc.

Really nice sounding guitar. Maybe even better than my usa fender strat! Love the thick bluesy tone.

It looks pretty good, feels solid but you can see it`s a "budget" guitar. Love the vintage looks.

After a few weeks my strings started to break. The whole bridge was already worn out!!! Placed some graphtec saddles which made it better. Then the circuit started to make noise and 2(!)pots were broke! I sold the guitar. It`s a pitty, it`s a great sounding guitar!
I have had my fun with it. If they only had used better parts......

Never dealt with them.

I`ve been playing for about 10 years and owned a lot of guitars:
Musicman, Fender strat`s & teles, valley arts and gibson. The blade sounded great, but it wasn`t reliable to me. I use guitars as a tool, so i need a reliable guitar which is capable of surviving o lot of gigs and playing. This blade wasn`t. Maybe it was just a poor guitar out of the factory????