Fender American Standard Strat

It is a 1986-or 87 with a "EE" serial number. Very unusual for this period. This would be one of the first US built series when Fender was bought back from CBS. Delta tone, bathtub routing , black with maple neck. In fact, I just bought it because it was not expensive but wait for the surprise.

Now, this guitar has had a lot of use; she will have to be refretted to perform to its maximum; I have many guitars, including 2 other stratos (Mexican an american serie). To my biggest astonishment, this one has "the mojo Strat quack tone" that you hear when Hendrix plays clean on Axis bold as love. Much on the bright side without being piercing. She is perfect to get the Sultan of Swing vibe. My other Olympic white US Strat sound dead compare to it. Even my Fulltone Fuzz 69 and 70 sounded much much better with it. What a surprise.

As I said, the frets will have to be replace, but other than this, the setup was perfect. Stays in tune and great intonation. Neck pocket is very tight.

This guitar already went through 20 years and have many more to give.

None required.

I am surprised myself about this purchase. I just acquired it to noodle around and resell it after. It will most likely become my numero uno. I wish everybody this experience. It is quite unique to hear how a stratocaster was designed to sound like. Your amplifier, pedals, effects take a new life. I am not kidding you. I am a schooled musician and started playing in 1967. Up to now, i have had over 60 guitars , mostly Fender's , Guild's and Gibson's. Some of them were quite expensive; well this one was not and will stay with me.

All the common strat features and some unique to the US made standard strat
such as Delta Tone, No Load Tone, Bi Flex truss rod (some other models have these things as well anyway). Just check fender.com for the complete feature list.

My USA standard strat is a 3 tone sunburst with rosewood fingerboard. A classic.
From what I see, it's made of a 2 piece alder body (center split). The tuners have a screw on top of each head to tighten it after tuning (i like this one).

The guitar comes with a hardcase and a fender strap which i wanted for the longest time.

The sound is very warm or bright when switching pickups - very nice indeed.
I hear the bell like harmonics on this thing on a clean amp. very impressive.

Without an AMP, the guitar is very resonant. Try placing your ear against the top of of the upper cut away and strumm - the vibration just travels through you.

On distortion or overdrive, there should be a little bit of time spent for getting the right sound, the right drive and gain setting, after all we're dealing with single coil pickups. The bridge pickup is a high output type, not like the usual such as the one in the MIM 50s strat where the volume drops when switching to the bridge pickup. The American Standard bridge pickup could be your favorite setting, especially when overdriven or distorted.

I had to re-set it (action) up because I changed my string gauge to 10s (D Addario 110s).
There was a buzz on the E A D strings so i had to raise the saddles a bit. I also had to screw the metal plate (where the springs are connected) further down to adjust the height of the bridge to the recommended height. The US standard only has 3 tremolo springs so using a thicker string gauge will really pull the bridge up that's why I had to make this adjustment. I wanted my action to be a bit high but not too high. I'm not in to the shredding thing, I want to hear note for note as powerful as I can.

The finish is superb, shiny, and wood grain is very pleasing to the eyes.

I bet it will last, I mean, it's not the first strat in over 60 years of Fender history.

This is a great guitar, probably the only one you'll ever need. Very well balanced. All the strat comfort and all the strat sound, plus the prestige of course. On it's own (without effects) it sounds really great, so if you don't like the sound after putting on effects, it's probably just your settings. Let's educate ourselves on effects instead.
I'm happy even if I spent more or less a thousand US dollars on this one. I give it a 10.
If you really love playing guitar, or want to be a musician, get atleast one instrument of this calibre in your lifetime.

Mine is a 87 U.S.A American Standard Stratocaster.Made in the Corona Factory in California.3 single coil with 5-way selector switch.The body is 3-piece alder solid wood{non-plywood}contstruction which appears to be the same for any other late 80s U.S.A strats i've played, never seen a plywood one before.Neck is 22 frets with Bi-flexi truss-rod with skunk-stipe and rose wood fret-board.Bridge has 2 mounting bolts wit stainless steel saddles with floating tremelo with whammy-bar.the guitar came wth rectangular black hardcase with pressed Fender U.S.A logo.

The guitar is best suited to a blues sound for me.I play this guitar through a Fender pro 185 and get that clean strat fender sound happening.Sounds great

Have neve had to make any Truss-rod adjustments on this guitar since i bought it 15 years ago.Everything is well fitted and still in working condition

Never let me down once in 15 years

Haven't needed FMI yet

Overall if its that strat sound your after,this guitar is the buiseness.I also own a U.S.A elite strat just love the expressive tone strats produce through fender amps.

American stratocaster made in USA, has 22 frets, solid body, has 1 volume and 2 tone nobs, 3 standard american single coil passive pickups, alder body with a rosewood neck, comes with a trap, molded case, extra cable and cleaning cloth.

I play mostly Metal but I also really enjoy blues, here is the problem with this guitar, great quality guitar but the standard single coil pickups are noisy, I hate the fact that standard pickups are already bad even though I spent over 1200$ on this guitar, I have a Mesa\Boogie rectoverb, these amps are mainly made for hard rock music so its really hard to get a nice bluesy sound with it, these pickups do sound decent if using most fender amps, but I have to say the clean sound is the best bright clean sound I ever heard, you gotta respect Fender for that.

The action was decent, I mean it is a blues guitar so you can't really have low action on it, the store checked the guitar and adjusted it before I took it, the guitar seemed very well built, it better be for 1200$.

I'm certain that this guitar coulld withstand live playing and will last for a lifetime, I replaced the strap buttons to Dunlop strap locks as I do for all my guitars. I would definetly use it without a backup.

The support team is good, I've spoken with better, I was originaly gonna buy another Jackson, I gotta say just because they bought Jackson, they absolutly suck when it comes to providing service for Jackson, and that kinda made me hate their customer support.

I've been playing for about 3 years, I own a Japanese Jackson with EMGS, a Yamaha with Seymour Duncan, Gibson and Dimarzio pickups, I own a Mese\Boogie rectoverb, I don't know If I would buy that guitar again, I checked so many guitars but I found that this would definitly be a guitar that I would always love, I mean I definitly believe that this is the most versitile guitar ever.

2006 American Standard Stratocaster, Three color tobacco, rosewood fingerboard. Everything you need.

That Strat sound... worth every penny. Warm and expressive.

I personally don't use the whammy bar, so the action is a little bit high for me, but the guitar plays itself even so.

So far, it has performed unquestionably, can't comment on service.

See above.

I've been playing for twenty-five years or so, and I've generally only played acoustics; I've had electrics, but nothing like this. This guitar is a true instrument. What you feel is easily conveyed to the solid (rosewood) fretboard. What an experience! I love this guitar and I will never trade or sell it.

2005 Chrome Red, maple neck, USA Fender. I saved all my lunch money for a year so I could finally get a USA Strat. I've wanted one for over twenty years.

This is where the story goes south. This guitar is a pile of crap, tonewise. The pickups are so muddy and lifeless, it's a pain to play. I'm playing thru a '69 Marshall Plexi amp, and I cannot get ANY good tone out of this guitar. For as much as I paid for the guitar, I don't want to have to shell out another 250 bucks for new pickups. Also, this guitar has weird vibrations thruought the instrument. I cannot for the life of me find the source. I've had the guitar totally apart looking for the demon that causes the rattle. Cannot find it. You can 'knock' on the base of the neck, where it bolts to the body, and hear the vibration. this vibration is also evident thru an amp.
I got ripped off, and my heart was totally broken. Fender kicked me in the nuts on this deal.

The guitar is beautiful. Cameron Diaz is beautiful also, until she laughs, if you know what I mean.

I'm sure this is a reliable guitar, but I hope it catches on fire and burns to ashes.

I'm not even gonna try. It's going on Ebay soon, and I'll probably get negative feedback, even though I'm going to lose about $200 in the long run, and toss in a new strap and strap locks.

I've been playing for 25 years. I'm a Marshall guy, and I mainly play a Les Paul, well, now that's all I play. If it were stolen, I'd buy the theif a beer. I'll never buy another Strat.

American Strat, 50th anniversary back plate, 2x tone, reverse wired middle pickup for humbucking option all, all the normal stuff. Bad moulding on the tone and pickup controlls though. Rosewood fret board and normal headstock (not large).

reasonable fender pickups but this guitar has really really bas sustain, don't know why though. I have played other strats in my time but none have had sustain this bad. Maybe its because: no large headstock, two seperate woods in the neck. I tried a boss CS-3 on it and spent hours fiddling with it but I could only get a bit more sustain. There was a lot of hissing in the background from putting the level right up on the pedal. This guitar could do with a mid-boost circuit,its got a pretty whimpy sound, and a feedback sustainer or yngwie malmsteen style, brass nut and all maple neck.

There was a lot to be done on this particular model, I have it set up by a pro, action, pickup height... and i trimmed the whammy bar and made it lower, much better now. Also keeps its tune better.

You know the american series. Pretty solid. My friend's survived hiroshima so I assume its pretty strong.

nope

most strats i'd give a 9/10/11 but this particular one 8

The feature shave been done endlessly -the only thing I'm going to add is that Feneder pickups suck big time -picture Adam Sandler saying "YOU SUCK" and that's how I feel about Fender pickups.Shame on a company with it's resources to build these fine guitars and through in the garbage pickups.
Enough whining -went out and bought a set of Seymour Duncan SSS-L vintage staggered and voula a real Strat was born.

Using it in a Mesa Mark 1x12-straight in -rich full sound with the classic Strat sound .

The original delta pickups "suck"-replaced with the above-well built guitar -nice and light alder-do my own tonations and setup and with the micro tilt neck you can get the string action down real low.Like the way you can adjust each strings individual height-excellent feature.Fenedr still uses good quality CTS pots and good caps.

Just ask Pete Townsend how well these guitars are built-by the time he had those Strats in pieces he pretty well had to be helped offstage.FEneder supplies straplocks now which is an excellent feature.you can only play one guitar at a time .I take a Les Paul Standard along because some songs require a big beefy humbacker sound.

The individual dealers are always offering service but I've never had to take in for anything other than a fret scrape which is normal wear and tear.

Gibson Les Paul -USA tele-AM Lonestar Strat-Godin LG-Godin SDXT-MArtin D40(drool,drool)Feneder USA Strats are still the best bang for your buck-especially used -you can't beat them

Hello.. for those who BUY USED Strats on ebay that's your own fault! If you buy from a dealer and the neck warps or needs shimmed you'd have it fixed or replaced... Heck they wouldn't even sell one to you like that at the dealer! If the guy on ebay didn't take care of it of course you're gonna feel the quality sucks! 2nd, 3rd, 4th hand reviews are crap! At least you admit you got it used so you don't totally tarnish Fender. What's up with this plywood claim on fenders? Some dude said they had plywood fenders in the 80's! I DONT THINK ANYONE HERE IS BUYING A 1980 FENDER!!!!!! Things change even if that's true(plywood). People like you just jabbing on Fender are so annoying. It's like your politians.. all full of crap. :)

they do lack customer support. Go through a local dealer.

My American Strat was made in 99. It is painted Inca Silver with cream perloid pickguard. Rosewood fretboard. Volume and two tone controls. 5 way selector. S/S/S Texas Special P/U

This Guitar fits my musical styles very well since I play mostly blues, Southern rock. and when I'm not, I play in our church worship band. I use a Marshall JCM 900 50 watt w/o reverb. I also use a Fender 40 watt virboking. Both tubed. Pedals used are Boss delay, Boss DS1. I am surprised that this guitar isnt more noisey but it sounds pretty clean. The sound is real brite but doesn't really have as much bite as i thought it would've. I had a choice between an American strat with lace sensors but I chose the Texas Specials. I wish I would've chosen the Lace Sensors. Nevertheless, the specials are ok. I've been using my American Deluxe with noiseless P/U more lately and they seem to have more bite, something I would't have expected since the SRV strat comes with these same type Texas Specials. I don't like that it lacks bite. I might use my deluxe more and trade for an American Tele instead

I dont know how the set up was since i got it used but everything seemed good for my playing. The body seems tight and has a good finish, not to be compared with my American Deluxe Strat. Selector switch keeps falling off.

All strats are made to be played and this one is no exception. If I take care of this guitar it should last long enough for son to get and sell for a better guitar. I would gig with it without a backup and I know I can depend on it.

I've never dealt with them, I've never needed to.

I have been playing for 13 years and I wish I had played the Lace Sensors more before I took the texas specials. I do like it but I have better and i probably try to trade for a tele.