Encore Vintage Standard Strat

It's very quirky Strat. There's no serial number or country of origin tag but I don't doubt the age and country mentioned in other reviews. Mine has a nice translucent red finish on an alder(?) body - good weight anyway. The neck is Fender correct construction, rosewood fretboard on maple with no unnecessary skunk stripe. The maple has a good rippled grain to it. Put these together with the 2-ply pearloid scratchplate and you have a guitar which has a bit of character unlike cheap Strat copies.
Grover deluxe vintage style tuners (very similar to 133s), AGi Don Lace pickups and a Wilkinson USA two point floating trem bridge. I bought the guitar unseen purely because of the hardware spec knowing that even if it was unplayable I would make my money back selling the parts. I needn't have worried.

It is well into classic Strat country soundwise. A lot like standard alnicos but with a bit more top (not that grating treble you get from cheap pickups). There's less background hum than normal pickups and you get proper vintage "in between" sounds which are fuller because the mid pickup is not RW/RP. I won't be changing the PU's unlike the Squiers and Mex Strats I've owned. The tone controls are the same as they use with most cheap guitars which roll off treble very gently until you get down to 3-4. That's fine for taming crap ceramic pickups but could do with being more progressive on this guitar. Still useable though.

The action is mid-low. 2mm on the top E and 2.5 on the bottom E measured at the 17th fret. That's great for a guitar of this price. I bought this 2nd hand from someone who knew nothing about guitars and it's 17 years old but the neck relief, intonation and action were adjusted perfectly. The only manufacturing fault is that the one of the trem claw screws was inserted at a skewed angle and that's it. I would have doubted the bridge construction because you can only adjust the bottom three and top three string lengths together and the string height is adjusted by the bridge posts but the intonation and action are spot on so I'll shut up.

No rust, nothing loose, no cracking in the finish, no crackly electrics after 17 years. I'm guessing it is sound :)

N/A

I've been playing in bands and for fun for decades. I've had about 30 different kinds of guitars, good and bad. I love Strats but after owning a Tokai I would never ever pay the price premium for a Fender US Strat.
This Encore is a great quirky little guitar for the price . Take advantage of the herd mentality and snobbery of guitarists and bag one cheap. You won't regret it. I base my overall rating on buying a good condition one for less than ??100 - if you can find one. If you get it for under ??50 it's an 11.

Lovely, lovely neck.

My one is one of the ones with a bridge humbucker. The electronics seem to be unbranded but still sound lovely.

When I got it, it had a kind of shiny gold finish, althought there were scratches and marks all over it. The gold was not to my liking so I've striped it back to its wood and varnished it. I must say that now, it's beautiful.

For ??10 this is an absolutely briliand guitar, even though i had to spend ??20 on a new bridge. (mine was broken)

In reponse to the orginal review!! i have the same guitar! mine cost 20 quid at a boot fair some years ago! i have bought other guitars but sold them as nothing compares to the encore!! mine was made in india on the 2nd of march 1991 so i belive it was near then end of this golden era!! my mates 3 grand prs cant sound like my encore. mines got a standard looking vibrato unit, sadly, with no arm so i have inserter alder shimmin the back as a temporary trem block. the hole for the arm is simply massive and i havent found a replacement. i have put in a reverse polarit brige pickup for out of phase bridge\middle selection and its just glassy transparent heaven!!

i have put in a reverse polarit brige pickup for out of phase bridge\middle selection and its just glassy transparent heaven!!
these things, even stock can hold there own but i think with some cobolt noiseless this would be unreal!!

its amazingly built!! its quite a 'relic' and has seen the lights of a hundred smokey gigs!!

seeing as its nearly 17 and has seen bootfairs, gigs and a lot of hard objects ( by the looks of it) its still in great shape and even if one day the body falls apart, i will put the neck on a new body and this guitar will always be around!!

i was 2 years old when this was made!!

best guitar ever, simply has so much character and it great.

Standard strat configuration but with Don lace AGI pickups, solid alder body mine is ONE PIECE !!! usa wilkinson trem, rosewood board,translucent red finish, enclosed grover type machine heads

Fantastic sound , better than my mates USA strat plus )think clapton , cray etc. amazing tones I use it with a sessionette 75 and extension cab containing 12" green back celestion superb sound

excellent neck,pickups,board,finish, screws on trem a little fragile

Gig it every weekend and its a solid axe. a bit on the heavy side but a wide strap copes with it.

dont know never had to deal with them

Ive been playing 25 yrs and own 21 guitars, inc strats,les paul gold top,teles,rickenbacker,tokai, squire JV, and this is stands up to them all !! a HUGELY UNDERATED GUITAR if you can find one buy it . to get a one piece solid body would cost custom shop prices these were about 250 and now seconhand you can find them for between 50 to 100 quid. bargain of a lifetime
DONT BE PUT OFF BY THE NAME THIS IS A QUALITY GUITAR AND BETTER THAN MOST STRATS

This review is in response to Tony`s below.In the late eighties early nineties Encores(or at least some of them)were made in India.The strats were little short of phenomenal with heavy alder bodies and necks that were just short of a U profile with a thick rosewood fingerboard and chunky frets and the truss adjuster at the body end of the neck.The weak point on these guitars was the pickups.Change these and you have a great strat.(Mine has three seymour duncan vintage staggered)
John Hornby Skewes,who then marketed encore must have realized the quality of these guitars and decided to upgrade the hardware.Owing to the wide interests JHS has it was able to add 1.Don Lace Sensors 2.Grover Deluxe Machines 3.A wilkinson Trem(although it is is a slightly cheaper version with the string length only adjustable to the E,A,D and G,B,E as two set blocks,even so the intonation is excellent)4.Some stunning finishes,the three I know of are a ringer for the SRV signature strat,a beautifully laquered natural finish and a black with a gaudy silvery scratch plate(that I have along with my standard encore copy)These guitars retailed around the #250 mark and outspec`d any guitar anywhere for the price.The sad part of the story is not a lot were sold.Encore stopped production in India and now only produce budget guitars which while great to learn on are no comparison to the beautiful instruments made in India.

The DonLace pickups are very refined,equal string volume with a beautiful inbetween tone(Chic,Robert Cray)definitely along the lines of a strat plus.

The nut on these guitars is particularly well cut.I like a high action but I`m sure it could be set very low.

I`ve gigged these guitars without any problems.

Long gone.

If you see one of these guitars about you`ll know it`s quality as soon as you pick it up.If you`re a strat player chances are you`ll have to have it.The reason I play these guitars in preference to Fender standard USA strats is the neck which is the thickest most comfortable strat neck I`ve played.The model I`ve been talking about is the Custom Deluxe.The standard is also excellent with a pickup upgrade.There`s also a version about with a humbucker at the bridge.
You won`t miss a custom deluxe if you see one but you`ll only know the Indian standard by picking it up and playing it.Superb,woefully underated guitar.I`ve seen these go for #50.(Yes it was me who bought it.)One last point,I believe the factory in India was where fender produced their Sunn Range of copies.I have a Sunn mustang bass that has an identical paint job to my encore standard strat.The Bass is truly second to none.

The following is completely true.
Encore guitars are cheap rubbish right?


Well, the one that I've just bought is not. It is an Encore Vintage Standard. It is in 10/10 condition and apparently has not been modified. It is based on a Strat - but - read the following....

The pickups are white Don Lace AGi - sound really good and according to the Lace website they are considering re-introducing them, because customers want them. The tremelo is a Wilkinson USA unit - looks expensive, not the usual pressed steel rubbish fitted to Strats and their copies. The machine heads are Grover Delux. The scratch plate is a white pearloid 3 ply. The guitar is very heavy, so I guess it is mahogany, or something similar. It is solid wood, not ply (I looked). There is no truss rod cover,or any sign of an adjuster, so I guess it must be under the scratch plate. This guitar not only looks quality - apart from the name, it also has an excellent sound. I use it through a Vibro Champ, clean or with a Boss DS1 distortion pedal. It is the best Strat or copy that I have ever played.
The body is lemony-cream - sort of a banana milkshake colour.

Can anyone tell me anything about this model? Age? Cost when new? Where made?

E.Mail me if you have any further info: supplyteacher@yahoo.com

PS. I have been playing 30+ years and now teach guitar.