Fender American Traditional Stratocaster

mine was built in 1999 in USA, some reviews mentioned there are some Jap-pieces in.
It has 21 frets and had SSH PUs first.
Like almost all Owners I replaced PUs - in fact I replaced the complete electronics. Its now SSS with USA parts and Hot Fender Noiseless PUs.
Very smooth neck but frets are a little too soft.
Rating after mods: 9

Formerly no bad, but no really good sound. Not like I expected from a USA Fender.
After the mods (Fender Noiseless PU, new electrics, tremolo blocking) brilliant sound with rich sustain.
I play rock, this guitar sounds perfect with and without distortion.
But this is no Metal-Axe.
Rating after mods: 9

Factory setup was good.

Rock solid - hey, it's a strat!

never dealt with them and probably will not.

I love this guitar and will never sell it.
It became my baby after I did the mods.

If it was stolen I would have to go and buy a new Fender strat.

Rating after mods: 10

Made in USA, year 1999. Poplar body. Thin maple neck with 21 frets and rosewood fingerboard. Thin sounding bridge and thin sounding ceramic pickups in S/S/S configuration and not the best electronics but still worth the money. This really is one of the cheapest USA Strats ever.

First sounded very thin but when I replaced the pickups to Duncans and bridge to real American Vintage Synchronized Tremolo, it became one of the best guitars I've ever played. Poplar body is not a bad thing at all, just a bit different from alder. I think poplar is very good with clean sound, but lacks with heavy distortion. I still have to give the rating with stock parts :(

With only little modifications it would be 9!

This is where it shines. The neck is very good and it's just comfortable to play. Many have said, that my Am. Trad. is one of the the best Strats they've ever played without knowing how cheap it is. Set-up at the factory was great and finish was great considering the cheap price.

Electronics started to make crackling noises pretty soon. Otherwise everything has gone well. And it has seen some accidents too.. Very durable.

I don't know if this statement belongs here or not.. But I really can't understand why Fender would make "Made in USA"- Strat with that kind of pickups and bridge. If those had been replaced with just a bit better ones, the price would have been what..? 50 dollars more? SO? Now I feel like there had been some cheating going on. I bet some buyers thought, that they were purchasing a pure American Strat, and later noticed that there was some Chinese Squier too.. So Fender did't play fair game here. But Fender still is my favorite guitar manufacturer :)

I have seen many guitars over the years and this is one of the best. I also have an excellent EJ Strat and Gibson Les Paul Custom '57 RI and still I want to keep this American Traditional one of my main guitars. After little modifications, every little thing in this guitar is very good. It was very cheap, so with new pickups and bridge I got a very good guitar and still the price was very reasonable.

1999 usa made, bought in england. 21 frets alder body artic white, tortoise shell scratch plate(changed to black)factory pups maple neck

i play rock , funk , heavy...im using with hr deluxe and goldentone amps with varioue fx...the original pups were a little crappy, i think they were mexican..i now have dimarzio, blue velvet, red velvet and a chopper in the back and i got a re fret with 6550 wire and a repacement bone nut, plus i got them to anchor the bridge hard up against the body and the little baby sounds awesome!oh and i put a push-pull switch in to get the 7 pickup sounds too.and replaced the plastic nobs with chrome ones!!

pretty poorly set up from factory

with the changes made this guitar has gone from pretty average too f.....g great! my no1 for sure

no supprt asked for

Arctic white - near vintage wite, HSS, poplar body, maple/rosewood neck, stock pickups.

I play rock (Brian Adams/Keith Scott), blues (Muddy Waters, ZZ Top), country (Shania Twain) and contemporary gospel music (Hillsongs, Michel W. Smith). I use some boss effects (OD3 overdrive, CS2 compressor sustainer), and an old mesa/boogie studio .22 amp.
It's a cheap stratocaster with vintage sound. I have heard better and worse strats, the sound quality is 10 with this price, and 8 compared to any kind of strats, so I give 9. Sometimes more expensive strats have worse sounds...

I always have backup, no problems in last 3 years.

I love this strat. Perhaps one day I will buy an old relic strat, but I will keep it for backup forever.
You can make everything with it, comfortable playing, vintage sound. Use a real amp (I have a mesa), and you won't get problems...
I've been playing since my childhood (now I'm 28), I have a H1 Mex Tele, an Explorer (Gibson), a Furch dreadnought acoustic, I love my guitars, I love good sound, sound is everything to me :)

My little one was born in 1999. Made In Usa. The frets are changed to big bass style. It's black, but resprayed with very thin nitrocellulose laquer for the cleaner tone and I want to overrusing soon, because I like so much the battered stratocaster. The wood is maybe poplar or alder, I don't know. The neck is one piece maple with rosewood fingerboard. The original tremolo was a piece of sh*t, so I changed. It's now a 2-point American Standard tremolo system.
It's now a good guitar.

The sound is great, dirty, warm, mellow. I use only tube amp. It's the best ever. I have a '63 reissue Fender Vibroverb, and a '68 Fender Vibratone Leslie. The pedals are: Ibanez TS9 and TS10, Crybaby Wah, Fuzz Face and Octavia. This is the ultimate Stevie Ray Vaughan sound. I like so much!

The original setup was not too good. The electric parts (pots, selector switch) are awful, I'll change them. The tremolo was a cheap non-vintage thing.

It was brand new, I bought it in 2000. I play on this Strat so much. I love it! It was a cheap guitar with bad parts, but after the repairs and updates it's now a very nice guitar. I never sell it.

Made in Usa... As all of us would already know. There are 21 frets, and I think that the neck is fantastic. Pick-ups though, bloody crap I have to say. I am trying to save up some money to replace my pick-ups to fender 'noiseless' ones. Neck wood is made of 1 piece maple wood which i really like. Bridge is not very good, could do a bit of change to this guitar and could sound better then the custom shops I reckon. No hard or fender case with this guitar.

My style is based on rock and fast action. I like to play yngiwe malmsteen songs... ( Arpeggios from Hell). Anyways, I am using this guitar with a Marshall RG30 - not that good. However, I dont think I get good, long, cruncy, sustain out of the picks that came with the guitar. The pickups cant handle too much distortion... eg. I put my amp on the overdrive channel and use a boss Ds-2 distortion pedal on turbo. The sound is terrible I am telling you. But without the the tubo and with a touch less distortion, this guitar sounds great!!

My guitar was set up 'Crap' in the factory. Well this guitar could do with a bit of change and it will be fantastic. Change of neckplate, new tremolo bridge system, strings, nails (they were quite rusty) and the 'PICK-UPS'!!! The pickups 'Hummm' with distortion just like the bhuddist monks! It really annoys you, I hope you people get what I mean. Other than that its quite okay... not much is it??

I played for over 5 years with this guitar and it is really solid and reliable. A true USA fender. It would probably last a life time if you take a good care of it. I would gig but with the 'Crappy' pickups on these guitars, your 'humming' noise will sound probably louder than what your playing.

The warranty was a year i think. But i had no problems with the guitar for 5 years...

I've been playing about 6 or 7 years now. I own a RG Ibanez guitar. This fender is much better than it. I wish I could have asked for another set of pick-ups before buying this guitar. If this guitar was stolen/lost then I probably wouldnt buy this guitar. BUT I just love the feel of the neck. The neck is the only thing I love about this guitar. I hate the - you can probably guess now... the 'pick-ups'!!! I chose this guitar cos it was cheap as chips for a usa stratocaster. Overall, a good solid guitar...

1991 model, black, 21 frets, maple neck/scale, Fender/Schaller tuners, poplar body, ceramic pickups in S/S/S configuration, 3-ply pickguard (the back cover was 1-ply), very cheap 6-screws bridge. Came without hardshell case.

Those ceramic pickups are awful, very bright and thin. The poplar body was not resonant enough and the bridge rattled a lot. Played great (the neck and tuners are very good), but sounds like shit.

Cosmetically it was fine, but it had some fret buzz from the factory when new and intonating using heavier strings were impossible due to the cheap bridge.

Had no problems with it.

These guitars are just for deceiving those who want an American Fender. The neck and tuners are fine, but the rest of the guitar is just useless. These guitars should be discountinued.

1999 model Made in USA, 21 frets, maple neck/fretboard, 5way selector, S/S/S pickup configuration but the body is routed S/S/H,poplar body,stock ceramic pups, olympic white color, vintage type trem but different from standard starts looks the same in squire strats, tuners are the same from american standards, no case included

the pups are very decent and is much louder compared to other strats. i replaced the bridge pickup with a duncan custom humbucker because the stock bridge is very bright and is not very good when it comes to distortion.The in between positions has the strat quack and it quacks better than my dads american standard. with the humbucker installed this strat is very versatile and can do any kind of genre from jazz-metal.. i might replaced the two single coils though when i have the money.

The store when i bought the guitar made the setup so i can't comment the factory setup, i adjusted pickups higher though.. the hardware is not very durable because it rusted when it was only 6 months old and the paint of my strat changed from olympic white to almost vintage yellow.. also i changed the intonation when i changed my string gauged from .09 to .10

This guitar can withstand live playing if you only take care of it and don't abuse it. maybe the paint may fade but that's ok because i like a faded strat.. maybe i will just change the tremolo because i goes out of tune more often than the american standard.. the strap buttons are ok.. i would gig without a backup because this is my only guitar and i wont bring the other strat because it is my dads.

Never dealed with fender..

Been playing 3 years.. i also own a peavey bandit and a marshall vs65r(sucks) If it would be stolen i can't buy this model because it has been discontinued and i would rather buy a Lonestar strat.. i love its neck because it has many flame figures. i choose this one over the mexican strats because it has better feel and quality. i wish it had better hardware espescially the tremolo..

It was made probably in 1999 or 2000, according to the serial number. It's made in USA. It's got 21 vintage style frets. Has 1 volume control, 2 tones, 5-way selector, three single coil pickups (standard-ceramic magnets). neck is maple, rosewood fingerboard and body probably poplar or alder. It's a blue agave strat, with a vintage style synchronized tremolo. Fender/Ping Standard Cast/Sealed Tuning Machines. It came with two allen keys in a fender box.

I play mostly blues and rock. some hard rock also. It's very versatile, and you can play a lot of styles with it. I use a studio pro II transtube by peavey, and with the vintage it sounds great. With distortion is just incredible. The bass notes sound gorgeous. Must be aware of statics in places with neon lights or white lights.

Great action....the fingerboard is smooth and the guitar almost plays itself. pickups nice, but it depends on the sounds you want to get. A bit higher you'll get more bright sounds, and more vibration.

For live playing it's just great. Don't know if the hardware will last much, but the guitar itself seems solid and well-made. Perhaps i'll stay with it my entire life.

Haven't talked with them. Post CBS fender seems serious.

I've playing for 7 months and it's suited all my needs. Perform live and it's a semi-professional guitar. with some adjustments, it can sound like a pro.

I dont know if i'd buy it again, maybe would try with a american standard strat. I'd wish a better hardware, but it's great anyway.

It's just a basic stratocaster, like all stratocasters. Give it a 10 because a strat is just a strat, a floyd rose or something is never standard on a strat so the basic features are all you get.

The original elements sounded very poorly, and not like a stratocaster at all. I replaced them by Lace Sensors an thinking about replacing then again bij Dimarzio HS3 of YJM elements.

I bought this guitar second hand from a good friend. He bought it 2 years earlier new and after a half year he got it the neck torque-twisted. No service from the dealer so he had the frets adjusted by an amature, a very poor job indeed. I bought this guitar as a piece of junk and had it modified by Rikkers in Groningen (Netherlands), now it plays like a rocket with an extremely low action.

Since the neck twisted while he kept the guitar in a climatized room i give this guitar a 1. A twisting neck makes the guitar useless and a very expensive factor.

Mailed them very often, never got a reply. Called them, and the guy could not even tell me if i could buy a new neck for my guitar (even the local dealer could order me a new neck!!!, but is was as expensive a new strat)

Been playing for 8 years, after the mods this guitar is great but before it was a useless piece of junk.