Fender '57 Reissue Stratocaster

This guitar was made in the US, it has 21 frets, and it has a beautiful maple fretboard. This guitar has vintage pickups, that sound pretty good. My guitar has a nice color, you can see the wood through it, but it's kind of cream. It has a tremolo and the tuners are vintage tuners. It has the strat body of course, because it is a Fender Vintage 1957 Reissue. It is about 2 years old, I bought it 2 years ago brand new. The neck is very thing and the frets are small, which I like a lot. It doesn't have that many features, but what guitar has many features?

This guitar fits my music style perfectly. I play mostly heavy metal, hard rock, and I often play Metallica and Korn. This guitar sounds good for only one purpose in metal, the clean sounds, the nice warm clean sounds that it brings is really nice. Also, this guitar has a lot of sustain, the pickups are pretty hot. This guitar makes you want to shred your brains off, everytime I hold it I have to shred. It is an extremely comfortable guitar, especially the fretboard. I use this guitar with my JBL PA system at home. I use it through a POD, sounds pretty good. This guitar surely has a full sound. This guitar can sound from shreddy Yngwie Malmsteen style, to Metallica's ONE (the beginning). I like this guitar a lot, but as you know, no guitar is perfect. But it feels good, plays good, sounds good, what else do you want in a guitar?

When I first bought this guitar, I brought it home and it sounded horrible. It was buzzing like crazy, it sounded fine at the store, but once I hooked it up at home, the nightmare comes. The action was very very high, which pissed me off because I like my actin low. Also, when I brought it home I realized my tremolo bridge was messed up. Except for those problems, my guitar didn't have any physical flaws. I took it back from where I got it, and they supposately fixed it. They said they can't fix the tremolo and the put the action low a bit.

This guitar will withstand live playing because it is made really well and it is a really good quality guitar. The hardware seems like it will last forever. The strap button are kind of small, but it has a good hold onto my strap, it has never failed me. I can depend on this guitar fully, except I tend to break strings often, it's just me. I would use this as my backup, because my main guitar is a PRS and a Gibson Les Paul.

Ok this is the part that sucks. As you know, I took my guitar back to the shop I bought it from. They weren't helpful at all and I got really pissed, they simple said "we don't have the tools to fix it". I tried calling Fender, but guess what? They don't have a phone number, I looked everywhere. It is suppost to be under waranty, but how can it get fixed by Fender if I can't even find Fender's phone number?

I've been playing for about 3 years.The other gears that I own are:
-Gibson Les Paul 25/50th Anniversary
-Paul Reed Smith CE 24
-Fender American Telecaster
-Acoustic Ovation
I compared this to my other guitars. But, I like all of them, they all have their good parts and bad parts. The flaw I found in this guitar is that it's a pain in the ass to palm mute it, something bad for metal players. Other than that, it rules. If you want a guitar that you can palm-mute easily and play crazy metal, but a PRS.

Mine's a Mexican 57 Reissue that i picked up used. I knew i had to get it as soon as i saw it. Surf Green and I've installed a red tortise shell pickup to give it a unique look, i didn't like the flimsy white pickup it came with. Aged knobs and pick up switch. I like fenders two because they're small, light models with a superior sound and durability. This guitar is the embodiment of that. Also came with a cool, retro hard-shell case to protect it.

I play punk-influenced rock. For my distorted sound, i was never really satisfied with the mexican single coils: they were tinny, lacked a punch and were noisey as hell. I did replace the bridge pick up with a Dimarzio fast track 2. The mexican single coils on the clean setting get a solid sound, so i use the middle position for that.

I bought this used so there were some adjusting/realignment that had to be done on the bridge, but i've had that fixed. Compared to other fenders i've played the action is a little tight, but not so much. I'm so used to it and it's so minute, its not a big deal at all.

As a used guitar it had a few scratches and chips, and i've added a few more myself. I once even dropped it and threw out the nut, but after I adjusted it sounded perfect. This guitar also holds tune really well. I've a week and a half without having to tune it. The only reason i bring a back up guitar to gigs is for broken strings. I've never had to be concerned about any of the electronics, or durability.

Never had to deal with it.

the biggest "problem" with this guitar was the mexican pickups (which don't have a good reputation anyway), and i love to customize my instrument anyway. Those who want a great pickup sound/configuration right out of the box may want to test this instrument out first to see if they're satisfied with it. But it is a fender, which kind of speaks for it sefl. I use this as my main guitar and I love it to death. I plan on playing it for the rest of my life.

You know the features, 3 single coils, one piece "V" shaped maple neck and fingerboard, wammy bar, one master volume and 2 tone controls.

I've played and owned a number of strats. Started with a 1974 none trem model - blonde with rosewood 'board. Really skinny neck ("c" shape) and super low action wich I strung with a set of 8's. No wonder it sounded weedy. Also had a strat plus with lace sensors, but it didnt sound authentic to me. The 57 reissue, mines a blonde one, has that wonderful bell like neck pick up tone. That sound alone made me buy this guitar. Sounds just like Gilmour. Or Jimi, or Robin or SRV. Bags of bass n treble and loads of sustain. Ane even the bridge pick up kicks ass.
Play through an Orange Ad15, 12" speaker, revalved with Harma valves and a Boss GT5 that I may well ditch soon. It aint good enough for the guitar and amp. Was ok with my squire and Laney LC15. Want to get me a Deja Vibe 2 from Fulltone.

So solid and stable compared with other strat variants I've played. Neck joint is rock solid. To quote Keith Richards. "This aint no toy". Action perhaps a little high, but it makes for better sustain, less choking and facilitates digging in. It all adds to the vibe. The trem works fine, but does send it out of tune.. can't have everything. I cant work out how Dave Gilmour keeps his in tune.

Built like a tank.

Never had a problem that delaer couldnt fix, and no problems with this one. I have a rpo tech set it up every cuple of years or so.

A rock and roll icon and rightly so. It's also the best piece of furniture / art in my house. Just begs to be gazed upon.

my strat has a maple neck, three single coils, and a two tone sunburst - a '57 reissue, like Buddy Holly and so fourth. I think it's considered a V - neck. It has less frets then an american standard, maybe 21 frets. A classic strat from the old days. the tuners are the old style where you stick in the string from the top. Very small frets, neck kinda' fat.

i play start style on this guitar - funk, hendrix, so fourth. if I want to play stuff like Iron Maiden I pick up one of my other guitars which have a humbucker. This guitar has a vintage sound - you go threw the pickup positions and you recognize sounds from different records. It has all the vintage sounds the old strats made.

The pickups on this guitar have a nice tone but are weak. However, hte guitar has a serious sustain, don't ask me where it gets it from. one day i'll change pickups then see what will happen, 'cos now i can only see the potential of this guitar - it's not good enough with the original pickups, but i'll give it a high grade 'cos pickups can be changed.

I bought the guitar used, so the factory setup doesn't aply here. the guitar is made perfectly, no gap between the neck or body or whatever.

The thing i noticed the most about this guitar is that it's a little hard to play. possibly because of the small frets, and the fat neck. you cannot realy play fast on tiny frets as on jumbo. However, with the great sustain and your fingers barely moving on the neck you're imagining that your as closest to David Gilmour as possible - every note gets attention. It feels sticky, but that's maybe what this guitar is about. Accepting that, the guitar gets a 8. BUT because of the limitation, i couldn't imagine having this as my only guitar.

one problem however is that the truss rod on the guitar donesn't do it's work completly. even when completly loose, the neck still needs relief. I guess I'll change to 10's, but that shouldn't be a condition for the guitar to have a good setup. as it is right now, the low E string is creating a bad buzz.

The guitar seems to be totaly reliable.

never had to deal with them. maybe i should mention here that I rarely met a guitar repairman who realy knows how to adjust a strat - maybe it's only my bad luck. I've decided to always buy a new guitar from now on.

The guitar is great for what it is - an old stlye strat. Small frets mean slower playing and more difficulties, but that's the beast. Mine has some problems, but i played others that were great. The Japanease did a great job with this guit. Again, i would not like this to be my only strat.

Ny 57 Fender srat is japanese and was made sometime in the June of 1989. It has the two tones and a volume, it came with 5-way selector but i swapped it for a American 5-way selector. The finish is two tone tabbacco sunburst and the wood grain gives a tiger stripe effect on the back. The neck is Maple with 21 frets. I think the body is basswood. The tunners are Kluson like, the guitar stays in tune even though I use tremolo a lot. It came with nothing, i suppose if anything came with it brand new they kept cause i brought it second hand.

It sounds as near to the Buddy Holly sound as I want, they are full sounding even though its through a home use amp, i suppose you can get what ever sound you want out of it but i use mainly a clean sound, maybe with a bit of reverb, or i use a distorted sound. I cant find anything to not like about the sound.

I Have set the guitar to how i like it, the finish on it was alright had a few chips on it, because i used to like things to be perfect i had it relaquered, but i found it was pointless because of me using it all the time many of the marks have returned. The other thing i had done was a refret.

I Have had the guitar since 2001 and it has not let me down, everything stayed tight after neary 13 years. I can rely on this guitar, but if i ever went to a gig i would still take my other strat incase the strings brake. Before having the guitar relaquered the laquer seemed thin because when i put my capo on it lifted the laquer.

Never needed any

I have played since the march of 2001 and had my srat in the june of that yaer, i have a peavy acoustic, a squire strat and a American Deluxe Strat. If my giutar was stolen, after a mager brake down i would have a american vintage 57 strat. I think personly compares to my american deluxe i think it sound more aless the same and th build quality is very high. I am glad i have this guitar because i think the wood grain on it is better than any other 57 reissues i've seen.

I have 3 of these guitars 5 (I love them). They were all made back in 1982 in the USA Fullerton Original Factory. One is a gorgeous blond nitro lacquer finish which has become yellowish with age. And the 2 others are 2-tone SunBurst. The blond one has the highly sought after original red bobbin pickups. The 2 others have original black PUs. Body is alder on all guitars. Everything is 100% original on all of them.
I'll give them a 10 cause I do not need more than the features found on a vintage Strat.

I own several "real" '50s and '60s Strats and Teles from 40+ years of playing and collecting guitars. These early Fullerton babies have the sound and vibe. Exactly like the originals!! I would never sell those. I don't have to worry about finding another one were they lost or stollen. That's why I bought 3 when I could still find them easily. They are just great guitars, period.

I bought them used 19 years ago and had them prof. set up. The finish on all 3 of them is very thin nitro lacquer like the originals and has aged beautifuly as well.

What you would expect from a vintage Strat. Rock Solid.

Never had to deal with it.

I've been playing for 40+ years and play mostly the blues.
The only thing I wished was better on these early RIs is the head shape and body contour around the arm rest.
But when I play and hear the sound, I forget that!!!
The neck of these guitars is so sweet!!!

US made in 2002. Maple neck with a nice V-shape. White Blonde Nitrocellulose finish on a fairly light weight Ash body. Tweed case, ashtray bridge cover, strap and cable included a la 1957. The strap, cable and bridge cover I just put away for safekeeping-no need for them really-nice little additions though.

I play power-pop and alt.country, I use this Strat when I need more tonal variety in a particular song than what I can get from my '52 Tele reissue. I use this with a Vox AC30 and Tech 21 Trademark 60.
Noisey? a bit, but it is supposed to be as authentic to a 50's Strat as possible right? I find the noise level ok for my taste.
Might be the Ash body combined with the finish, but this Strat sounds great even unplugged.

Set-up was fine, though I did change the .009-.042 strings to a .010-.046 set (store must have put them on-Fender puts .010's on at the factory as far as I know. Added an extra spring to the 3 on there and loosened the claw a bit-bridge still flush with body.
There is a very small piece of finish missing on the lower part of the cutaway, the dealer took an extra $50 off for that. Pretty hard to notice.This particular store (chain) seems to have tendency to get it's guitars damaged in small ways by their cleintele.

I hope the finish wears down!...eventually. I have no use for the types of "thick skin" Poly finishes that Fender has used since they did away with Nitro on their standard instruments.
I'd say I could depend on this Strat. Would gig without a backup as far as I can depend on the electronics etc.

Haven't had to deal with Fender

Been playing for a little over 20 years. Would replace this straight away if I had to-would go for the White Blonde again-worth the extra $ to get the Ash body-not knocking Alder-just a personal preference.
What I like most about this Strat is how comfortable it is and (most of all) the sweet airy sound, especially plugged straight into my Vox AC30 or maybe with a little compression or overdrive from a Rangemaster Treble/Full Range Booster.
I did compare this with the '57 Reissue in Sunburst (Alder body). This just sounded better to my ears with a reissue Fender Twin in the store set for a clean tone. Unless you always use lots of processing I would recommend making sure the guitar you choose sounds killer with a clean amp setting-for my money that will make for a better sound no matter what you do with the tone, effects or overdriven amp wise.

It's black , chipped and came with a seriously worn maple neck. The guitar had been negelected by previous owners. I suppose the seller needed money for his habit. I rescued it for $300.00 which included tweed case. The frets were worn as well as a lot of the finish on the neck. The guitar was made in 1990.

I replaced the pickups with DiMarzio Virtual Vintage, Blues and Heavy Blues on the neck, middle and bridge. The neck was replaced with a 62 rosewood genuine Fender replacement. I replaced the tuners with Sperzel locking, the bridge with a Wilkinson and had a wilkinson Roller Nut installed.

Once it was set up and prts replaced , it was brought back from the dead.

Excellent now!

Never dealt with Fender

I will not take any amount of money for it and one of the jerks at Guitar Center wanted me to sell it to him in the worst way..Never!

You'll have to pry iy out of my cold, dead fingers!

A 1990 U.S 57 Reissue, 21 frets, original neck and middle pickup, I changed the bridge one for a 70's strat ( for a bit fatter tone),
us dollar 450.00 second hand(a bargain) Serial no V035638
I believe the 'V' designates american made.
It came with a tweed case

The sound is that typical bell sound on the bridge, a thinner sound than my les paul, I like the sound so much , I hardley use any effects, just some reverb and distortion , I am using a Laney TF200 tube fusion amp, its good for most stuff(except slide- a bit thin for that). This is a guitar that you can get lost in playing, I love just sitting down and messing around for hours . I travelled US and Canada for two years with a practice amp- it is all you need to enjoy it.

The only mods I have done - graphite string savers( mainly for sustain and a smoother sound) on the bridge and a 70's strat pickup , the setup is as per the factory( or the shop I bought it from), no problems with the quality, it has a great nitrocellulose paint job(lime green)

I don't gig with this guitar( I don't want it beaten up or stolen), It does chip if you hit or drop it, I changed the strap setup for a lockable type, I Have had this guitar for 13 years and no problems so far, so I don't worry about a backup.

I bought it in the states in 1990 and I live in australia, I bought it second hand from Norm's rare guitars.

I have been playing for about 30 years, I also own a les paul copy(now my slide guitar) a ibanez blazer, a amena classical, laney tf200 amp. If it was stolen - I probaly couldn't afford to replace it(in Australia they are very expensive)This is my favourite guitar (and best sounding), I travelled around LA at the time and played all the reissues in the shops and this one was the best sounding one( not to mention the cheapest) go on sound alone if you are buying one, the other things can usually be fixed later.

This guitar was made in 1989 (V044469). I have to tell you that I tried out at least a dozen '57 reissues before I found one that "spoke to me". Features were standard Strat, no need to rehash what a real Strat is. After trying out all the reissues the store had to offer and was dissatisfied the salesman said he had one in the basement that I might like to try. He was put off by its color, Daphne Blue. This just a bit darker than Sonic Blue and was a color I was not turned off to.
The guitar had its switch knob missing and the trem bar was missing as well.
This guitar sounded like a real Strat! Bell like tone, clear and clean. It just had that real Strat tone. You know that spank that spells Strat all over.
I had to have it!
It was missing some dubious accesories like the strap but it did have the ashtray cover.
This one was a good one!

How does it sound???? Like a Strat!!
Spanky yet warm.
I have played only one other Strat that sounded better and that was a '64 that I played trough a real refurbished '65 Deluxe.
If you have never played the real thing then you have no idea how great a simple guitar can sound through a simple amp.

I have refretted this baby with jumbo frets to make bending a bit easier. I play mostly blues so this makes some sense. I also did a rewiring job on the pickups. Check this out!!!
Using a three position switch..... The first knob is a master volume, the second is a master tone for all pickups including the bridge pickup!
The last knob is a volume knob for the middle pickup! I know you don't get this implication at all.
In the first position I can get the neck pickup alone or the neck and middle with the last knob turned up. Think about that! You can blend that pickup in.
In the second position I can get the neck and bridge pickup together or all three together! All the while setting the tone knob how I want in any combination.
In the last position I can get the middle and bridge together or the bridge alone... again with the tone knob available. Yes the tone available for the bridge alone as well!!

All this with a three position switch! The only thing you lose is the middle pickup alone... and who uses that!

Plays like a dream right out of the box. But like anything as personal as your right arm it needs to be tweaked.
I know a guy who does not play that well and bought a reissue and he loves it. It is a nice guitar but I would need to change some things before I would use it. This is not a bad thing. It is so easy to customize a strat that that is one of the reasons for it's enduring quality.

Wow! I have abused this plank and it just keeps coming back for more.

Never needed it.

Been playing for 40 years and have owned a Les Paul Custom, '68 SG, Telecaster, Ibanez pointy guitar, and many others... played even more.
I would definately buy another if this was stolen. After I had a nervous breakdown! Try a bunch of them till you find your voice.