Fender American Standard Strat

Late 80s American Standard Strats feature plywood bodies. Mine has a alder veneer over a plywood body. The sunburst finish is great as masking this perversity.

sounds like a plywood guitar

poor fret work from the factory. the first neck warped in under a year and had to get a replacemnt. the second was okay from then on.

plywood is not very durable because when my guitar came off the strap and hit the floor it broke into a lot of pieces.

disgusting. the American Standard should be renamed the Corporate Standard. the usual histories of Fender all claim that the company really got its act together in 1988 well, in my opinion, plywood bodies do not sound like getting it together to me.

Beware: late 80s fender guitars have plywood bodies.

A mid 1980s stratocaster finished in fiesta red, rosewood fingerboard standard single coil pickups and tremelo bridge.This model has the TBX electrics and a five way selector switch, controls are master volume a tone control for the neck pickup and a master tone for the whole guitar. The guitar is quite heavy for a strat and the neck is the fattest I have ever played on any fender. The tuners are stamped f and are of good quality. This is a four bolt neck with the microtilt facility.This isnt my first strat I used to own from new, a silver 25th anniversary maple necked model.

I play everything and own lots of different guitars so I dont expect to get humbucker or P90 tones out of this instrument. I bought it because I wanted strat like tones. I dont use any pedals just the guitar and some amps, like a boogie a musicman and a hiwatt. The guitar isnt to noisy well its no worse than my P90 LP,and when the switch is in the two pickup mode its very quiet. This guitar sounds good on only one setting the neck pickup, all the others sound synthetic and lifeless. Close your eyes and this could be any one of thousands of run of the mill strat like clones, sound wise its no better than a cheap copy. And thats not just my opinion but of lots of people who have heard it some of them music shop staff. I think eventually I will replace all the pickups for some better quality single coils.

OK hands up all those of you who have bought a guitar off ebay because of the pretty pictures? Yeah Ok hands down me included. When this guitar arrived by mail there was a big dent just beloww the jacksocket, if it was there or not before shipping who knows. The strings were so old and greased up they snapped when I turned the tuners to remove them. The guitar must have been stored in a garage or something, because the pickups and bridge had lots of rust on them. The bridge allen screws had seized up in the saddles, and I stripped the sockets inside three of the screws trying to get them out. The neck needs to be shimed because the action is still to high even after dropping the whole bridge and every string saddle. The frets are not to bad for a twenty year old guitar. But here is my personal favorite, some fool had lined up all the bridge saddles to exactly the same string lenth. So they all sat in a neat straight line, so the intonation was waaaaaay out this guitar must have been untuneable as well as unplayable.

Strat construction is legendary these are very tough guitars, if you have seen footage of guitar heros smashing them up it takes a lot of effort. The finish on this guitar was good it had some surface scratches but nothing through to the wood, ( with the exeption of the big dent near the jacksocket ) and the neck has not lost much varnish. This guitars big problem was tuning stability, string bending was a nightmare after a few seconds the whole guitar would be out of tune. When I looked at the back of the guitar I noticed it was fitted with three springs, so I added two more and problem solved. I dont use the tremelo facility, even if the guitar had a tremelo arm which it didnt. Even though the guitar is two decades old the electrics are still in good shape.

Yes I have had dealings with fender on the rare occassions I managed to get them to pick up the phone. No warranty on this antique.

I have been playing off and on for 35 years, I have owned most of the major manufactureres guitars at one time. Burns epiphone fender gibson vox and yamaha to name just a few. I had been out bid on a few strats previously, its a shame I didnt get beat on this one. If it was lost or stolen I would start hunting for n replacement strat, because I dont beleive any other guitar gives the same tones. I just love the look and feel of the stratocaster, the two pickup combinations are to die for with that hollow matalic twang that no other guitar can match. One thing though twenty five years ago I had the chance while working in a music shop to test two strats side by side. An early seventys three switch model and a 1980 five way switch model. The difference was incredable the early seventys three way sounded totaly diffrent when jammed between pickups!! Good strats sound wonderfull but bad ones are just so tragic. The thing I love the tone, but why do you have to wade through truck loads before you find a good one?

2003 USA Strat maple neck, Olympic White, heavy sucker, probably Alder for body wood. Every Strat I've played has been a totaly different instrument in the way it sounds and plays. It took me almost 2 years of playing stratocasters to find one that I liked, and I had fun and loved every minute of those 2 years.

The delta American standard pickups sound great. They bring along all of the nastiness and harmonics only a single coil strat can give when going thru a volume booster then into my Peavey Delta. I tried the deluxe noiseless, and they're too sterile for me. Jammed with a guy who had a 65 strat and afterwards he was very interested to know what year my strat was (nuff said?) Warning!!!! these pickups are not for everyone. If you must shred or plug into a stack, you are missing the point, and the unique sounds only this guitar can get.

I must say that to get a really good strat, you probably need to play a lot of them. Some play good but sound awful. Some sound great and play like crap. It's not as bad as the Gibson situation where you might find one good Les Paul out of 200, but it pays to play a lot of them before buying.

Something happened in the production of American Strats in the last couple of years. It seems that quality and playability have taken a giant leap forward. This thing rings acousticly when unplugged which I attribute to the flawless neck joint. Only complaint so far is that this is a very heavy guitar. I've tried the custom shop stuff and Johnny, I aint impressed. If you can't do it with this standard American, you aint doin it.

No reason to have a backup with this animal.

I solve my own problems, even if it costs me some money. I do not use warranties, or send my guitar away for repairs. Too many unknowns. Fender is a big company and I'm sure I don't mean shit to them.

Playing over 20 years and this one is better than my 72 by a wide margin. If stolen I would go on another 2 year search for the ideal Strat and have fun doing it. Only wish fender would go back to the 7.5" radius so it would feel more like a baseball bat.

My Strat is a 2001, Sonic Blue with a rosewood board and a block trem tailpiece. Strictly stock throughout.

I play blues, ragtime and celtic stuff, both with a flatpick and fingerstyle. My amp is a '73 Deluxe Reverb.
The Strat/Deluxe combination is like Bloomfield and Butterfield, tuna fish and mayonnaise, hot dogs and mustard, summer days and cold beer...you get the picture, they go together perfectly. The sounds? This is a Strat, not a knock-off of one. Since it's a Strat, it naturally makes some of the primal sounds that originally defined the sonic pallette of the solid body electric guitar...about the only sounds that are as genuine and defining come from Teles and tweeds, and from the Les Paul/Marshall mixture. This is the real deal in sound, and limited only by my skills and imagination.

I bought this guitar used, so hoo nose about factory setup? Felt fine from our first kiss, anyhow. Near as I can tell, the build quality is very good, with no noticeable problems and excellent attention to detail in the body or electronics. I'm giving it a "9" only because I can't vouch for how it came set up from Fender.

This thing is the proverbial brick relief station. I wish most stuff being sold these days was built as solidly and well as my Strat. My first Strat gave zero problems for twenty years, and I was an idiot to sell it. This one's just as good. Should go the distance.

No idea here. Used guitar, no warranty.

I've been playing guitar since the late 1960's. I've owned old Les Pauls, Hagstroms, a Guild Starfire, a Kappa 12-string, a paisley Tele, an older Strat, a Mosrite Ventures model, a couple of ESD-335's and a 340, US-made Epis, and a wide variety of upper-echelon acoustics by Collings, Santa Cruz, Martin, Froggy Bottom, Bourgeios, Tippin and Taylor. Amps have included blackface Super, Vibrolux Reverb, Princeton Reverb, Ampeg Reverbrocket, Acoustic 370, Mesa Boogie 50 Cal, and probably some others I've forgotten about.
Over the years I've played for money, for love and (much of the time) just for the hell of it. Some nights I'm untouchable, and some nights I can hardly play a C chord.

I'd buy this guitar again in a minute if I ever lost it. I was stupid to sell my first Strat. Why? Well...because it's a Strat. This isn't some disco ball, this is the heart of the matter. A Strat is what you get when you ask a little kid to draw a picture of an electric guitar: try it and see. This is the guitar that was good enough for Buddy Holly, Jimi, Stevie Ray, Clapton and a whole raft of other guys who play better than I do. Who am I to second guess Buddy Holly, for Christ's sake?

Owning a Strat is like owning a piece of the rock. Perfect. A Strat isn't even really a guitar, it's a solution to a series of problems. Do what Leo Fender did...ask yourself how to position a fingerboard correctly for a player to use when he's standing in front of an audience. Ask how to make it hang there, just right, so he can reach where he needs to. Then figure out how to weight it so it stays balanced. Think about how to put a body on it, massive enough to allow the strings decent resonance but not too heavy, and contoured so it's not digging into the player's rib cage. Figure out where the player's right hand needs to sit, and how his arm needs to hang so it won't cramp up or be uncomfortable. Contour the guitar body to suit. Then think about where the pickups need to go in order to give the player a wide choice of tonalities, and where the controls need to sit so the right hand can get at them quickly and easily, but placed so they won't be in the way. Then figure out where you need to put the strap so the whole assembly stays put in relation to the player's body. Better put a kind of horn up top so the strap pin's where it needs to be, right? Now give some thought to where the tuners should go so they're easy to adjust and accessible. Think the same way about the bridge and saddle.

Solve all the above problems and you've pretty much re-invented the Strat. That's why, after all these years, there are still so many Strats being sold and so many copies being made. The concept of the Strat is a master class in ergonomics, and Leo Fender's ticket to immortality.

I've played lots of stuff, and some of those guitars knocked me right out. I still miss my '60's gold-top Les Paul and blond 340. Sexier than hell. Yet if I can only own one electric, it'll always be a Strat.

Nope, I don't wish it had anything that it doesn't already have. It doesn't need anything...perfect just the way it is. Lots of people have created ugly little monsters by screwing around with the basic perfection of the Strat. Look, if God had wanted Strats to have on-board computers and extra pickups, he'd have had Leo put 'em on there.

Somebody ought to write a love song to this guitar. Maybe I'll do that sometime.

Black ash body maple neck
made in 87( Itook the neck off)
Hated the thin sounding stock pickups put in EMG SAs
2 point trem
put on sperzel tuners ( I'm lazy about string changes ) to keep it in tune too!

this guitar is my girl freind !
I have played EVERY STLE OF MUSIC with itand it has always passed the test I use a tube screamer wah and a twin 12 amp
the ash body singsssssss for ever

finish is startin to show bumps ( hey it was new in 87)
the only original peices are the body and neck
every thing else has been played to desath

I have one big problem !
the trem posts are starting to bend
I don't use 13 s i use 10's so
it must be age

learned to fix most of it myself
except nuts (thanks to Bob)
most things are easy to update
thanks Leo F

I would seek a new american standard if this was lost stolen or sold bay my wife LOL

just a standerd strat made in mexico with 21 frets solid top with a mapel fret bored and a crappy standerd tremlo

this thing sounds killer for just a regular mexico made strat
has a great sound i think the 3 singel coil pick ups are awsome
very good for all diffrent kinds of music from beck to clapton,beatles,zeppelin,stones,james gang,skynyrd,cream,and harder stuff like metallica and sabbath its just a killer soundin guitar

nothing was really wrong with it excepth the tremlos a pice of junk if you try and use it for like halen or steve via it comes out of tune very easyly

its a very solid guitar
uhh i havent had any flaws with it but once agein it comes out of tune easy if you use the whammy bar too much if you dont use it its a killer guitar
uhh i really have no need for a back up guitar

uhh havent had to deal with them yet and i hope i dont

over all its a great guitar
sounds awsome
plays awsome
ripps hard
really no other guitar needed if you have a strat
best guitar i have ever bought

and if any one has any idea on how to fix the tremlo please e-mail me

2002 American Std strat. alder body maple neck rosewood fretboard. SSS style. I gave features a 5 because of the lack of knobs but don't be fooled this guitar is one of the most versatile guitars i've ever played.

I play classic rock, blues, funk, psychedelic. the guitar can a bit too bright but that's not really a problem only if it's in the wrong hands. The people who said they are replacing the single coils for a humbucker are really wasting the strat single coil sound. its unique and if you didn't want the sound then why get a strat in the first place? Does most sounds excellent but doesn't work well with those playing metal or just using distortion. My fuzz loves the strat.

The finish looked crappy the pickups didn't seem screwed on right. maybe it was just mine. The pickups can buzz but i don't really find that to be a problem. Also, the intonation was incorrect. so i had fix all that stuff.

yes. rock solid.

never had to deal with fender.

This is a great value guitar no wonder players like Hendrix, Clapton, and Jeff Beck uses these guitars. I've been playing strats and Gibson SG's for 15 years. Both are great guitars. I'm using this strat with an original dallas arbiter fuzzface, fulltone deja vibe 2, fulltone octafuzz, original vox wah, and an electro harmonix memory man through a marshall superlead. sounds great to me.

*Made in the USA*Original Contour body stratocaster*Floating, fulcrum style tremolo tailpiece*Jumbo frets, Maple fretboard

Over all, the features on this model make it a big step up from a Mexican strat. (Which I've been using a while)

The tone is nice when you setup properly. I find that if I select the neck & middle pickups, and turn my tone knobs up high I get a nice warm humbucking sound.
The middle pickup is still a little noisy by itself though.
For stuff like Skynyrd & Clapton it works great.

Factory setup was pretty good but, it still wasn't as low or even as I got it. Making adjustments was easy though.
The woodworking on the body was flawless! A beautiful top.

I must admit I haven't road tested this guitar yet. So I can't say how durable it is. THe hardware appears to be a lot more rugged than anything else I've used. Finish is beautiful. The strap buttons are slightly larger than my Mexican strat. I doubt I'd use it on a gig without a backup though.

I've never dealt with Fender's Customer Support. So I have no idea how good or bad it is.

I've been playing guitar for about 5 or 6 years now. I would definitely replace it if anything should happen to it. I love the tone and quality of it. I don't like the fact that Fender didn't put a locking temolo in it! The maple neck w/ rounded edges is great. Compared to a Gibson Casino, & a Gibson SG the American Strat still has the competition beat(for now). I wish it had the S-1 switching.

It's all been mentioned already, so I'll skip this one. Mine has a 3-tone sunburst finish with a maple neck. The rolled edges on the neck give it the broken in feel that I like.

I play lead guitar in our church Praise and Worship band. I had been using a guitar that was equipped with humbuckers, but our band has 2 other guitarists (acoustic rhythm and an electric rhythm player)and my
leads didn't really cut through that mix well. Since I have been using the strat, no more problems with that! I really love the sound of the neck pickup on this guitar! It has just the right amount of bass/treble response for my liking.

This strat was setup perfectly for my tastes, but I had to try out a few before I found this one.

I just bought this guitar, so time will tell. I have owned other strats before, but never kept any of them for very long. This is
by far the best (and most expensive) strat I've ever owned. I think it's a keeper.....

Never had to use them.

I have been playing since I was 13 and I'm 40 now. I have owned alot of gear in that span of time, but now that I'm getting older I can appreciate the "less is more" way of thinking! I play this strat through a Yamaha DG100 2x12 amp. It has all the effects I need; tape delay, chorus, and tremolo built right in. Other than the effects that are already built into my amp, I use a Boss GE-7 graphic EQ in the effects loop of the Yamaha, but only as boost for solos. I also use a Morley Bad Horsie wah-wah pedal on occasion. That's about it.
If this guitar came up to missing, I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

You know the drill here. Made in US. 3 single coils. Yadda, yadda, yadda. New Delta Tone control.

It sounds wonderful like I'd expect an American Strat to sound. I played the Highway 1 and Jimmie Vaughan Strats side by side with the American, and it blew them away. I wanted a guitar that sounded like Strat should, and it really does. Nice and clean. Not heavy and griding. Crank in some distortion or overdrive, and it cuts through nicely without muddying up. Rock, country, blues. It hits them all. It's not nearly as noisy as I thought it would be either. I've never been a fan of single-coils, but the guitar is not really noisy.

Just about perfect. I had the store set it up with 10s to replace the whimpy 9s that Fender puts on them. Finish is beautiful (Chrome Red!). The fretboard and frets are perfect. The hardware is chrome/stainess and plastic. Beware: The Delta Tone pot has a detent in it. It will seem like it sticks a bit right as you approach 10, but that's by design.

Heavy finish should last though just about anything. Thousands of pros use them live all over the world. I'm sure it will survive my trips back and forth to church and work choir gigs.

No idea.

You will be pleased. Don't bother with the Highway 1 series. It's nice, but the American is simply better. Better tone, much better fit and finish (especially the bodies). It's the real deal.