Fender American Standard Natural Ash Stratocaster

I recently bought the 2000 model with a clear gloss finish over an ash body (She's so gorgeous in the buff, I've named her Godiva!). Solid tuners, straplocks, maple neck and fretboard, a genuine skunk stripe, easily adjustable EVERYTHING. . . Plus, Fender has started building American Standards with the new Deltatone pickup/electronics configuration. The bridge pickup is wound hot, and really cuts. The middle pickup has its own tone knob, as does the neck, but the middle tone knob can be disconnected from the wiring layout by a simple click past a built-in detent, essentially simplifying the wiring, and eliminating noise. Great feature. The mid pickup is reverse wound for hum cancelling in the 2 & 4 positions, but even soloed, all three are extremely quiet as it is-I only hear 60 cycle hum when I face my amp and stand 2 feet away or closer.
Don't get me wrong when I say "quiet", because I can get some mighty rude sqwackin' and snarlin' outta this axe. It's not by any means a corpulent humbucker distortion, but it's clear as a bell at any stage of saturation (I'll never get rid of my Les Paul Standard for that very reason-sometimes sweet and muddy is exactly what you need). It has the perfect amount of features for me. I gave it a 6, because 10 was listed as having "Tons of features". Tons I don't need-give me simplicity!

I play rock. By that I mean hard rock, old rock, blues, accoustic rock, ballads, quieter fingerpicked passages, heavily effected tunes, clean jazz chordings, and a general rhythm/lead style throughout, to support my end of a power trio lineup. I use a Crybaby Wah, a Rotovibe, and the old canary yellow Ibanez Flanger, and pipe it all through a 60 Watt, all-tube, Fender Blues DeVille 4x10.
This is not only a superior instrument, it smokes any other Strat I've played. It sounds the way I think a Stratocaster should sound. . . clear, cutting, expressive, with frequency peaks exactly where they should be. The pickups are not as quiet as EMG's or Lace Sensors (Used by Dave Gilmour and Eric Clapton, repectively), but the Deltatone pickups' sound is more HONEST, if you can imagine that.
The Strat is traditionally a trebly guitar, but there is a warmth, a resonance, a personality in ash that you cannot get from any other wood. This is not my first ash-built Fender. . . I owned a swamp ash Lead I about 8 years ago, and stupidly sold it because I wanted a guitar with more than 1 pickup. Big mistake. Tone starts in the life force of a great tree. Your pickups can only bring forth what already exists in your tonewoods. In Godiva, I've got both.

Fender is an awesome company. They do so many things so meticulously well, on such a mass scale, for so many years, how could they be anything other than the best guitar company in the world?
That said, I want to stress that there are NO guitars set-up, strung, or adjusted very well in any music store in the world. Not for me. I like high action, heavy strings, a bit of bow in the neck, and a bridge with absolutely no whammy. I play very hard AND very gently, and I want tone, dammit, with no buzzing or going out of tune! I do think Fender is very consistent in their set-up and intonation of everything that leaves their factory, but they know that longtime players like me are going to tweak it anyway, so they gear everything for the 16-year old kid who gets a stiffee over the guitar with the fastest action and the tremolo bar.
No flaws however! And as I mentioned before, everything on it is easily adjustable.

The one thing I really don't like about my Les Paul, is that dispite the fact that it feels like a ton of bricks around my neck, I'm always cautious with it for fear that I'll break it. You get to feeling like you're playing a piece of art. That's good in that it automatically bestows on its user a powerful feeling of elitist snobbery, but it's bad in that split second nightmare when you feel like you're going to drop it, or a kid grabs it, and the little accountant who lives in your head starts sobbing uncontrollably.
No such problem with a Fender. They are notoriously tough (and replacable). I heard a crash from the living room 2 days after I bought my Strat, and ran in to discover that the guitar hanger it had been perched upon had fallen out of the wall. Just one little ding on the neck, and 2 strings slightly out of tune. That's it. I still thank God it wasn't my Paul.

This is my 12th Fender instrument, if you count not only my guitars and basses, but my amps and the Rhoads piano (Wish I still owned 'em all). Their customer service department has always come through, and my only complaint would be that sometimes, as with any large coorperation, you get put on hold for too long.
Note-I define "too long" as a distinct and persistent crick in the neck.

I love, love, LOVE this guitar! It's so choice, I'm going back in the studio on Sunday to track over some parts that seemed okay until now (My 1st solo album, thank you, thank you). If anyone would like to share a story or a tip, or if you have a question, contact me.

Two piece ash body, maple neck with maple fingerboard, 22 frets. Deltatone pickup system and wiring. The bottom tone control works for the bridge and middle pickups and when at 10 (in a detent), the tone circuit is bypassed. The middle tone knob is standard, and controls the neck pickup. Three single coil pickups. Two point trem system. Included molded case. Pretty typical Fender fare.

This was noted playing through a '68 Bassman head into a Boogie 2x12 cab, a Velocette, and a Dr. Z Carmen Ghia. The guitar stays true to the Strat sound. The pickups seem very weak, and adjusted a little low. I raised them a bit, which helped, but they will still get replaced. Very noisey, lots of hum. The tones from the pickups are nice, it's just weak (doesn't push a tube amp or pedal very well) and noisey.

The two piece body is exceptionally well matched! The only way to even tell it's two pieces is to look at the side at the strap button. Neck fit isn't the best I've ever seen, but it's better than most. The gaps that exist aren't big enough for a playing card. The neck has a very smooth satin finish. Fret work was very good. Overall, the neck felt like an Am. Deluxe neck, except without the abalone dots. Everything worked as it should, with no scratchy pots or switches. Tuners were immediately replaced with Fender branded locking Schallers, so I can't comment on those. BTW, the Fender locking tuners are direct drop in replacements. No drilling of any kind required.

The instrument seems well made. And there are plenty of examples of older Strats that are still in use, even after being abused.

Can't comment, as I've rarely had to deal with them. In addition, most interaction will be with the people you bought it from anyway. There have been a couple emails that I've sent over the years, and they seem to be pretty responsive.

This is my second Strat. I also had a Mexi Std which I gave to my son to play. If you take the time to check out multiple instruments, I think you can get some Fenders that approach Anderson, Grosh, etc. quality. Notice I said approach. The boutiques will still win out in the long run, but then it becomes a question if that 10% is worth the extra bucks. Fender does have it's bad ones though. I originally went to check out a burgundy mist '62 RI, and there was a substantial gap behind the neck in the neck cavity where it joins the body.
Since many people tend to swap out pups anyway, anyone interested in an Am. Dlx may want to check out the Standards. Although you still need to get the tuners and such to match the features, if you find a good one, it'll be cheaper in the long run.

This evaluation maybe is not useful for you. When I saw this guitar I fell in love. 1999 Fender American Standard, natural ash transparent finish. Ash body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, classic sealed tuning machines, Delta Tone control, American Standard tremolo, 22 frets, classic neck scale, radius and frets, Bi-Flex truss rod. The body is formed by three perfect seamless pieces of fine Ash wood. It seem very beautiful, the body transparent lacquer shines strongly and the neck wood is pretty covered by a satin finish. The early Fender logo in the peghead adds a bit of classic taste to this r-e-a-l Stratocaster. I've examined it in every curve, corner, screw, plastic part... all seems perfect even its hard contoured case!

The guitar gives rich classic Stratocaster tone. My main style is hard rock so I uses a Marshall TSL2000 head with a 4x12 Celestion speakerbox. This guitar doesn't gives a high output level but it's enough to get great distorted and fuzzy rock sounds. It really let me play classic sounds like I heard from Blackmoore, Hendrix, Clapton, etc. The clean sounds are pristine and covers a wide range of sound colors playing with the tone and pickup controls. Tied to a Fender TwinReverb this guitar offers clean tones that you must hear to believe. I like to play the guitar without effects but if I use my Boss GT-5 multieffects unit, I obtain pretty sounds. This guitar isn't specially noisy, maybe the tipical hum you can live with. I love it when it sounds like a beast growling if set my Marshall to 10!. Rock and Jazz players could love forever this axe. I say perfect again.

Pickup action seemed to be a bit lower. I raised it and sound got a bit stronger (fine to my rock style). There was a scratchy fret sound in 3rd string that I corrected slightly adjusting the bi-flex truss rod. As I've said the guitar seems perfect wherever you analyze it. I think I didn't get a perfect adjust from store because this guitar had to travel from US to Europe and it also was exposed in the shop under strong illumination. I've lowered string action to adapt this axe to my shred solo technique and it's now a perfect gear to me.

I've owned a 1991 Strat ULTRA. It seemed perfect unless some scratches. Fender instruments and amps are for life. This guitar shows a rock bulletproof aspect and touch. The finish seems very protective, mostly in the neck.

Leturiaga are the shops that offers customer support for Fender in Spain. Sometimes I've send my guitar to them, always performed an good work. But I prefer independent luthiers. This is the land of guitars and there's a lot of dark guitar workshops that give fine solutions for guitars.

I've playing for years using medium quality quitars. When I got my first Lace Sensor based Stratocaster I was like a dream to me because. it sounds great but when finally I discovered this Standard Stratocaster all changed to me. I heard the real Start tone!. If it was stolen or lost... don't talk about this!

1988 American Standard Stratocaster. No frets (I'll explain later). No controls. No neck. Gloss finish with beautiful wood grain.

I just bought the body after my friend snapped the neck off of his American Standard Stratocaster. He was too much of a brand name snob to buy a replacment neck, so I bought the body off of him. I'm a Les Paul/ p-90 kind of guy and never liked Fender much. This changed when I played my buddies Rosewood Telecaster and this swamp-ash Strat. The Strat had the fullest sound I have ever heard come out of a Fender. Clear as a bell and as full as a Les Paul. Weird. I play oldies, so I'm not known for the "Strat" thin glassy sound. This guitar hits that in between sound that is the best of both worlds (Gibson/Fender). I use a 68' Twin Reverb and Hot Rod Deluxe and this guitar likes them both. I put a nice Warmoth neck, EMG pick-ups, so I can't complain about any of those parts. I put a humbucker in the neck position so this guitar is very versitle.

Again, the body was great, I replaced the bridge with a newer American Standard bridge.

Fender? Huh? I know their old amps last forever. Though finish seems thick and really over-protective which may be why it sounds less "chimey" than other strats, but this is why I like it. Will probably take a good hit. I always gig with a back-up. No one pays to see your dumb ass change a string.

Can't email them even if they did post their address.

I've been playing for 16 years. I play in an oldies group (not a classic rock group). I own a 72' Gibson Les Paul with p-90's. If it were stolen I might consider buying another one if it sounded this good.

I purchased my American Standard Natural Ash Strat (hardtail) used, but it appears to be relatively new, around 1996-97 vintage. The guitar has all of the features of an Am. Stand. Strat, but the body is made of natural ash and it is a hardtail (i.e., no tremelo). The fretboard is rosewood. The guitar weighs hardly anything and almost half the weight of my other Strats.

This the most unique sounding Strat I have ever played/heard. The guitar is very loud acoustically and is brighter sounding than alder or poplar wood body Strats. Both chords and leads really sustain. The ash give the guitar a real chiming, bell-like sound to the chords (thing Little Wing). This is the first ash body Strat that I have owned and also the first I have ever played. I love my other Strats, but this one is truly special on its own terms. The standard single pickups sound good, but I think that some other pickups my accentuate the tonal characteristics of the ash body better. For the time being, however, I am going to keep the stock pickups. Overall, I think the ash Strat excells at clean sounds. However, I does sound good distorted or overdriven as well. This guitar is a definite 10, without any hype whatsoever.

The natural ash finish is sort of a light tan with visible wood grains. Although, the body is made up of three pieces of ash, from the front of the guitar, it is virtually impossible to tell it is not one solid piece of wood. The guitar is in spectacular shape all around and did not need any truss rod adjustment or any set-up work.

I have been playing for about 28 years and the Am. Stand. Natural Ash Strat/Hardtail is simply an incredible instrument. Fender did a wonderful job in producing this guitar. I have four other Fender Strats and the Natural Ash is a great addition to my collection, as it provides a very unique sound. I know that these guitars are hard to find, but if you get the chance to try one out, you will be pleasantly suprized. Warning: may produce severe G.A.S. attack!!!!

The other reviews have covered them well enough. Mine has a rosewood fretboard.

With this particular guitar, the styles of music I play are vintage rock, country, classical, smooth jazz, and styles that are more ethereal in nature. DISTORTED TONE: I play it through a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 50 with the amps stock reverb and a Dan-echo for delay. I use the classic gain channel for dirty rhythm playing and a Fuzz Face for lead playing.In this situation, I use the bridge pickup primarily with the tone rolled down to about 5. This provides a nice, thick, singing tone that you normally would'nt expect from a strat single coil. Very reminiscent of Clapton back in the Cream days. CLEAN TONE: I play through 2 Fender Vibrolux Reverbs (w/ Lansing speakers) rigged together in stereo with a t.c. electronics chorus, Lexicon PCM81 reverb, and 2 Chandler delay racks. The clean tone can only be described as celestial. Absolute heaven. Ash bodies are known for having a "bell-like" tone, and this Strat delivers those tones in spades.The tone of this guitar will just take you to another place. My only suggestion would be if they could make this model with a vintage bridge instead of the new, American Standard bridge.

The input jack gets loosened very easily,and I wish the body could've been made out of one single piece of ash as opposed to 3 pieces glued together, but it's a solid, well made guitar.

This is a guitar that's built to last. Very solid construction. Naturally, I'd never gig without a backup guitar because strings breaking is always a variable that you have to contend with.

Haven't had to deal with them, so that's a plus

If this guitar was stolen or busted up, I'd be in serious trouble. I've been a Strat man all my life, and I test drive a whole lot of guitars, looking for certain intangibles in the tone and response of the guitar. I'd stack this up against PRS's finest.

I'm glad someone opened an area for this guitar, its definately a unique Strat! Its available with either maple or rosewood fretboard. I went maple for the ultra in bright glassy strats! I have had mine now for almost a year and I never thought that after 20 years of Les Paul and PRS playing I'd be saying how much I love this Strat! The guitar has all the features of an American Made Standard Strat which I'm sure are well documented elsewhere. One thing worth mentioning though is that I love the satin finish on the neck, it feels great. The guitar comes with a molded case that will fit in places those big ole rectangular things will never go! On the other hand, there's barely room for a chord inside it.

The sound is very bright, and one thing is for sure, this guitar has sustain out the ash! I replaced the original pick-ups with Joe Barden pick-ups and that gave the guitar a little more bottom end without losing the quack or glass, not to mention gaining the quiet! If you can afford it, I highly recommend the Bardens. I have a couple of examples of the sound available at my homepage at http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Studio/6153/ The guitar allows you to be very expressive when playing through a little distortion, with a twist of the pick, you can modulate the tone or squeeze out a harmonic.

The only reason I notched my rating here is that on the back of the guitar, there is one little feature that looks something like a worm hole in the wood. Some will say that adds character, all I can say is at least it is on the back. Otherwise the guitar is flawless, the action is great, the neck is great.

The more I play it, the better it gets.

The scale of the neck, the spacing between the strings, the placement of the knobs, all took getting used to compared to what I was used to, but now it seems this guitar is getting most of the playing time which I think is the ultimate testimony.

After a heavy GAS (Guitar Aquisition Syndrome) attack, I decided to purchase the Fender Swamp Ash strat that I've been drooling over for about a week. This is one gorgeous looking, sounding, and playing guitar. To anyone considering one of these, you'd better get one now. I think that they're semi-limited run and Fender may not be making these much longer - at least not at this price.
-Looks- This is a great looking guitar. Anyone who has ever seen one will probably agree. The body is solid swamp ash and it's available with a rosewood or maple neck. (mine's rosewood, of course). The pickguard is the standard 3-ply white pickguard but would probably look good with pearloid or tortise shell, also.
-Build Quality- Build quality on this particular strat is first rate. Fender used a top-quality piece of swamp ash to make the body and it was obviously cut/routed with precision. The neck joint is very tight - wood on wood. You can't stick a playing card between the neck and the body on this one! I commend Fender for their excellent work on this particular guitar.
-Case- The swamp ash strat includes a Tolex case similar to the Lone Star strat's, but this one has a dark burgundy interior (wine red). The guitar looks gorgeous sitting inside this case.

-Sound- Even though this guitar has the same electronics as the regular American Standard Strat, it sounds quite different. This is obviously due to the excellent resonant properties of swamp ash. The guitar has tons more sustain than a regular strat and has a much sweeter ring to it. Pickup position two (combination bridge and middle) sound almost acoustic! Unplugged, the guitar is much louder than a regular strat.

-Playability- My particular guitar was set up properly from the factory, and hence plays like a strat should play. They even used decent strings on this guitar and I'm not in a hurry to change them. Action is smooth and precise.

Typical Fender Strat. Great for gigging.

-Overall- I purchased this guitar instead of getting the PRS that I've been wanting. I couldn't be happier with my choice. I feel that I have a collector's item here. Since my style is mainly blues/rock, I'll probably be extremely happy with this guitar for a long time. I highly recommend this guitar.