Fender American Standard Strat

This is the first electric guitar i have bought from new and as a beginer i suppose i went a little over budget, but Fender are giving away a free amp with every American made guitar for a while.
Maple neck ............Black..............Almost Gilmore ?

Love the sounds even clean there is a huge variety of tones to play with/

Played it straight out of the case ...........as i said i am a beginer but my guitar teacher has given it the once over and has said he really likes the finish ............i think he covets it ?

Quality of the harware seems top not as for gigging i think i am some way off worrying about that?

Had no cause to contact them. The shop i bought it from ordered me the free amp which took about 2 weeks to come.

As a learner i cant fault it however in time i may swap one of the pick ups for a humbucker

2007 model, sunburst with rosewood neck. standart features. its got all a strat needs except fot locking tunning pegs. i didnt want a model with a humbucker, the balance with the single coils is never great, best have a strat for single coils and a gibson for humbuckers. also i didnt want one with noisless pickups, their sound seemd to ne smaler in frequencies than regular single coils.

the sound of the guitar is good, its a well made guitar if you can adjust it with no buazzing. the original pickups have lots of power for single coils and sound pretty nice. i changed mine to 62 reissue pickups, they sound more fenderish, but dont have the same mass in sound.

awfull.:)

very hard guitar to play. the neck is very big for me, even though my hands arent especialy small. Theres a buzz in almost every string height and neck adjustment. I will have to either sell the guitar or get a wormth neck - fender wont replace a neck unless it is defective. my friend also bought a new start which has a hugh neck. i guess fender made a decision to have their necks fit for basketball players or goliath.

the guitar is well built with no flaws, except for the top of the rosewood on the neck where the finish isnt great, but thats no big deal. it is dependable. i would probably allways gig with a backup.

they arent good, they wont replace the neck for a new one, im stuck with buying a no brand for a replacement.

been playing for over twenty years. had guitrs by fender, gibson and ibanez. i cant think of a replacement for a sstrat, i would suggest being very cautious when buying an american start, watch out for the necks. try maybe finding a used SRV strat maybe, or a second hand strat and get a new neck from warmoth. sadly, even though i wanted it, there doesnt seem to be a way to be a proud original fender owner, i tried it, and got an unplayable guitar.

American Standard 1989. White with maple neck.
How many frets??...enough for me...
First two things: put in texas special pickups (excellent for slide) and jumbo frets (who needs to drag wood when they bend??...).
Excellent guitar, does what it is supposed to.
I bought it in 1990- thanks to SRV and the obsession with sunburst finishes like his #1, price had been knocked down to $350 brand new- it had been picked up so little it had plenty of dust on it.Oddly enough, even though it was the 'wrong color', it still sounded like a strat......
I have not bought a guitar since- the only weakness of this strat is the guy playing it- in this case me....

Great with the texas specials.

changed all the action from the beginning.

you cannot kill this guitar....barely a mark on it after 18 years of playing....

I would buy another tomorrow if I lost it.....

standard american strat made in the usa, olimpic white, 22frets, maple fingerboard, pickguard.. 1 volume 2 tone controls,classic strat input jack, alder body, skunk stripe, schaller tuners, great, great hardshell case, strap, cloth, cable,,,ah, and vibrato bar.. tremolo fender bridge, my strat is made in 2007, ( before the new standard us strat) so you get a great guitar, don't know how the new strat is... i'm giving this a solid gold ten, fender is very great affordable, and gives you your moneys worth,,,sounds great....sweat...... great for blues rock, hey even metal.. why not.....

sound wise, hey standard fender pickups.. don't know the name of the pick ups, just look up 2007 catalog.. hey there ok.. i play through hueghs and kettner edition blue 60 watts, zoom for practice, pod... effects 90% boss... ds1. mt2. dd3. dunlop 535q wah, morley tramonti model. ibanez tone lock chorus. rocktron flanger.. rocktron purple haze pedal.. suites me well... hey a strat is a strat... like neck pick up , fat..nice .. bridge cool medium output... love the guitar.. color is great .. fretboard is great... plays smooth.. low action out of the box, innotation, was 98% accurate, neck...everything...

well, bought it new.. like i said 2007 olimpic white model maple finger board... played it straight out of the box... what else.. keep up the good work...

well if there's very very very old fenders out there.. well it speakes for it self.. this is going to last a life time.... can depend on it for sure.... will gig for sure.. :)

never had to deal with them.. for this guitar, well i had to deal with a jackson for repair under warranty, great support...

well don't let the name fool you, if you want a must have in your guitar collection, or first seriuos purchase, then get a fender it's a must have , it's great to play, fun , and it'll never go out of style.. i've been playing guitar for 16 years.. always had a strat and a gibson... but the strat always has been a keeper...

Link:

http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0117402744

I bought the maple fretboard model because I prefer the sound and feel of maple. The pickups in this thing are average at best. Very noisy and a TON of magnet pull on the strings. Traded them out for 2 Dimarzio Area '61 in the neck and middle and a Dimarzio Solo Pro in the bridge. Although noiseless they sound a ton better than the factory pup's. Play through a PODxt live at church and AC-15 on my spare time at home. The factory pup's are way to noisy to play direct into a PA and I hate having to turn the volume down on my guitar so you cant hear the 60 cycle hum.

The factory setup was mediocre. The action was your typical medium to high strat action which is ok but everbody is going to adjust to taste. Comes factory with .9's which are a bit floppy for me as I play .10's. Came with a floating tremolo which is a tuning nightmare without high quality tuners which are also lousy. So, I "hardtailed" the bridge buy adding a full set of springs and added some locking tuners. The nut slots were cut to small for .10's which cause binding at the nut so if you like a little heavier gauge strings you are going to wan't to take a look at that. I upgraded to a tusq nut which sounds better on the open strings anyways. The more I have this guitar the more I hate 2-point trem's. They are just not as toneful as the 6 screw vintage trems. They lack sustain and hinder your tone IMO. For trem work there is probably none better on a strat because it is very smooth. However, I'm not a trem user so it serves me no justice. The fret work is pretty good considering the price of the guitar. I would prefer a 12" fretboard radius for better bends like on the Eric Johnson strats (which is my next purchase) but the 9 1/2" radius is still good. One thing that is solid is the intonation. After a good setup and a strobostomp later she play's in tune all over the neck. The finish is almost flawless except for inside the control cavity and trem cavity. Didn't expect much detail on that part of the finish anyways.

This guitar is built well. She will stand the test of time without any problems. Upgrade to some Schaller strap locks. Always a very, very, wise decision to have strap locks. I have been playing on it for over a year now and still have not broken a string on it which is awesome since I used to break strings like mad on my old SG.

Fender's customer support is pretty well worthless. My trem arm didn't and still doesn't line up properly on the bridge so I called the customer support and they wanted me to send it to an authorized Fender repair shop which the nearest one to me is about an hour and a half away. Gas $3 a gallon! Forget that! Fender, I love strats and will play them 'till the day I die but your customer support is just a flat out joke!

If she were stolen I would be furious because $1000 on my money just got ripped. I would probably go for a different model strat though. I mentioned the EJ strat earlier which would be what I would try desperately to get. If $$$ are an option then the Standard American Strat is a very solid buy. A couple extra dollars here and there will make her an instrument to be satisfied with for quite a while.

No news and no frills here: everybody knows the american standard strat. If you don't, take a look at www.fender.com.
The only thing worth noticing here is that mine has a maple neck and fingerboard. I wanted the maple fretboard because it sounds a little brighter and looks better too.

I play blues and classic rock. What else do I need other than a good strat?
Great classic "quacky" strat sound. I play it through a hand-made copy of a fender twin reverb with an Ibanez tube screamer and it sounds great! I guess I've finally achieved THE sound!
The single coils are less noisy than I expected. When the tube screamer is on, my leads cut through the mix like a razorblade.
Did I mention the versatility yet? I'm in heaven!

Good factory setting. I only had to lower the bridge PUP a little bit.

Built like a tank. Period.

Didn't need it so far.

I've been playing for 6 years and also own an Epiphone Les Paul Standard with Seymour Duncan pickups (59 and JB), a crappy Squier Tele (my first axe) and a mexican strat. This is the guitar of my dreams and I would definetly buy another one if this was stolen.

1989 American Standard, Black w/white pick guard, maple neck. It came with a hard shell case, strap, allen wrench, polish cloth--22 frets that seem to be perfect for my hands. It has the original three Lace Sensors w/5 position switch, TBX controls, floating bridge. The wood appears to be alder.

This guitar is all I need. I play blues mostly, so I like to use the bridge/middle p/u combo which gives that SRV kind of tone. I use a Marshall with no effects--straight playing--it sounds like a clean vintage guitar. There isn't any noise from the guitar, just a small amount from the tube amp. I really like the rich deep tones produced on the middle pick-up. The bridge pick up with the TBX set below 5 produces a "Ventures" classic Strat sound. The neck pick up is perfect for mellow rock or jazz..sweet. The only dislike I have is too much lacquer on the neck. After nearly 20 years of good use, the lacquer has worn a bit.

It was OK out of the box but after having a professional tech in Tacoma, WA set it up it played nicely. The action was fast but, after substantially increasing string gauge, adding the two remaining tremolo springs and raising the string height, the action is slightly slower. The pickups were adjusted lower from the factory, but I had them adjusted to my particular tastes--primarily to boost midrange--sweet. There is one finish flaw...the lamination of the body has a tell-tale seam joint that stands out like a sore thumb.

The guitar has withstood much live playing..I play very agressively, yet the only the volume control loosens which is a minor issue. The finish is solid..it pretty much looks like new. The strap buttons are not a problem. It is very dependable; yet, the only reason for a backup is occassional string breakage.

Never needed any service or warranty work.

I've been playing for 40 years..I've had three other strats..believe it or not..all were stolen. I've had Les Pauls, SG's..no contest. If this guitar was stolen or lost I would probably buy a 60th Anniverary or an Eric Johnson model. I love the guitar period: it's comfortablr, it sounds and plays great..my favorite feature is the termolo arm..what's a strat w/o that? I live on that thing. I chose this one because I apparently picked an excellent specimen the first time! I liked the lines and good fit & finish..believe me, that guitar isn't plywood!

It has been over 7 years when this guitar was bought, so i don??t know the specs that good, the colour is cream white (just like Hendrix had) and it has fender??s delta-tone pickups.

I have tested multiple guitars, but none of them has been as good as this! I think that this guitar was my first love when i got it at the age of 10. I??m gonna keep it for the rest of my life, even though i??m planning to buy a shred guitar, this is going to be the nr 1. forever. And btw the sound suits for all genres. I have played everything from jazz to metal and this guitar does all of them nicely.

Don??t remember anymore how it was like when i got it:D But when i got better in my playing, I started to realize how easy it was to play. I have adjusted it about once a year, just because i wanted to. It didn??t need that at all.

Have used it in multiple gigs. Never lets me down. I play hard rock with my band, even though i??m buing the new guitar this is the guitar i??m gonna use on the road.

never had to deal with them!!!

Rock solid guitar. Awesome. Classic. It??s sound is so rich. I actually like the fender pickups. I??m gonna keep it that way and not start changing parts in it, they suit for me (have suited me for so long). The emotional value of this guitar is priceless, i would hunt the robbers down and hurt them bad if it was stolen.

3 colour sunburst, one piece alder body,
one piece maple neck (include the fingerboard)

staggered single coil pu, staggered machinehead

delta tone system for middle and bridge pu

two point floating bridge

i can really get a classic strat sound with more output, balance and purity, very great improvement that adding a delta tone system:(the 2nd tone at 10 = bypass)

but it still exist single coil hums, but it's negligible, i like the little hum,

factory setting is horrible, all parts were loosen, neck relief was very concave

i spent a few days to check the parts, and fix the problems.

fortunately, i can fix all myself,

only one problem: there is a lot of unstable harmonics when i play the 6th string on higher frets

i give it 5 because of bad factory setting

i think it's reliable if u don't use the whammy bar

the machine head is special designed for more stable tuning,u have to tune it very carefully,

strap button is extra large, so i don't need a strap lock

for 20 mins gig, I don't think i need a backup,

for more than 1 hours show, backup is a must

don't expect too much after u paid

playing for 7-8 years

i had a lot of strat copies, and they are all user friendly and versatile.

this american strat is the most expensive guitar that i own, the most important thing i have bought is the spirit.

it has modern feel but can still sound classic and vintage,

really great improvement on a strat

come with a hardcase, very collectable

American Standard 1989 3 colour sunburst,rosewood neck.I have read a couple of people saying this year they made plywood guitars,what an idiot,if mine is its embossed with steel cause my guitar is a little heavy compared to 70s strats.

Usual strat sounds,sings if you can make it.The great thing about a strat is the range of tones.

Everything was beautiful from purchase in 1989,neck and frets silky smooth.

I have had this guitar since 89 and not a problem,a few dents on the body,not bad for the plywood its allegedly made of.

no dealings

playing 30 odd years and first review, as I had to answer the plywood remark,if it was stolen I would hunt the thieves down like the dogs that they are.I have so many guitars but always end up coming back to this.Fabulous piece of plywood!!!!!!!

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.

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