Fender American Standard Stratocaster

I have a 2002 Fender American Series Standard Strat with 22 medium jumbo fretts. Equiped with the normal controls 1 volume, 2 tone, and a 5 way selector. It is a S/S/S set up with a hot noiseless bridge pickup and the middle and neck pickup are the stardart strat pickups. FThe body is adler and it is Hot Rod Red. The bridge is a American 2-Point Synchronized Tremolo with Stainless Steel Saddles. It came with a molded case a strap and a few other goodies.

My playing style is a 70's rock style and it suites my needs for a guitar well. The wide range of tones produced is amazing and I enjoy the tones that are produced. It has decent sustane and has a great over all sound. The pick ups are a bit noisey except for the bridge which is "noiseless".

The guitar had an excelent set-up from the factory. The action was low and their was no frett buzz. The intonation was also perfect. The fit and finish was excellent their were no flaws with the guitar at all.

Reliability this is a guitar that you can play live with, without problems. Over all its a solid guitar that I have never had problems with. The only minor concern is fret wear and ive had this guitar for a little over a year with heavy use and the fretts are wearing more than I would like them to.

I have never delt with fender Customer Support so i feel that I can not rate this area.

I have only been playing for a little over a year but I have playd piano for 15 years, sax for 12 and now im starting guitar. So far my guitar playing abilitis are great for some one only playing for ar year. So far I have the Strat which i reviewed, a Martin Hd-28, a Traynor amp, a Jekyll and Hyde overdrive, a phase 90, and a boss wah pedal.

Mine is a 2003 Fender Standard Stratocaster, made in U.S.A. It has a solid alder body, 22 medium jumbo frets, 3 standard American single coils with 1 volume control and 2 tone controls, 5-way switch, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, Polyurethane Finish, american 2-point bridge, standard American tuners. Hardcase included.

I play rock and metal mainly, and this axe can handle it no problem (11's). Sounds better clean than distorted. The pickups give a pretty good definition of the notes. The only problem I have with the pickups is that they are way too noisey. I know these are true-single coils but players shouldn't have to put up with this. Position 2 & 4 gives the typical 'twang' sound and it sounds wonderful.

Craftmanship on these guitars are excellent. I can't really say anything about the action on these Strats because I use 11's and stock Stratocasters never come with 11's from the factory. One thing to mention is that the frets on my Strat worn out fairly quickly considering that I've only had it for 6 months. Finish on the guitar was very nice (3-tone sunburst).

Never had a problem with it, but I'll probably have a backup if I was playing live just in case. As mentioned before, frets worn down quickly given the amount of time I've played it. Besides that, everything is fairly solid.

No problems with it so far so no comments here.

I've been playing guitar for 6 years, I have another American Standard Strat and an American deluxe, a classical and acoustic guitar, Squier Jagmaster and a Contemp. Strat. Just a friendly reminder, I've read few reviews here saying how crapy or bad these guitars sound. Tone comes from your fingers, not how well the electronics are. Electronics only absort the sound but it's really your finders that produce the tone. The American Standard Strat is a good product but not anything mind blowing. If you are looking for the ultimate Strat within budget, try the American Deluxe model, you won't be disappointed. I'm rating this a 7 because of the hum that it produces. Fender should make their noiseless pickups stock on these axes. As for Deluxe, somthing from the custom shop would be nice.

Minha guitarra e o modelo 3-color sunburst com 3 single coil, 1997.
Corpo em alder, escala rosewood.

Eu toco metal, rock e hard rock. O som dessa guitarra e maravilhoso mas para metal eu sinto um pouco de falta do peso de um humbucker. A captac?o tem bastante ruido, mas e o que se espera de singles.

Eu comprei ela usada mas em perfeito estado visual. O acabamento sunburst das Fender e simplesmente maravilhoso. Posso sentar numa cadeira e ficar olhando pra essa guitarra no suporte por horas...
E uma guitarra muito versatil.

Como eu disse, e muito versatil e pode ser usada perfeitamente ao vivo. Mas para tocar um metal pesado voce pode precisar troca-la por uma les paul com humbuckers.

A Fender do Brasil responde rapido mas, eles as vezes n?o sabem informar alguns detalhes de seus produtos.

Toco ha 15 anos. Uso Les Paul ha uns 10 e agora finalmente comprei uma Fender! Vou cuidar muito bem dela...

Basic '84 American Standard Strat - aquired new
Arctic white, maple neck, all standard appointments.

Is there a greater range or more distinctive sound from any other guitar? I aquired it hoping that it would sound like a Strat and it does. (I'd be willing to bet that even Les Paul has one of these puppies hidden in a closet somewhere).
I usually use it through a Fender Stage 112SE amp and can get about as much "chunk" out of it as you'd get with a Les Paul and a Marshall tube amp. (I'll give partial credit to this great little amp. It has unbelievable bottom end for solid state, an unusually warm 'fat' sound and tons of headroom and more "small/medium venue, recording, or weekend jam capacity" than my '70's silverface 4x10 Super Reverb had, and is it ever loud!!!).This axe just sounds great through anything I've tried, but for some reason a Fender guitar always seems to sound better through a Fender amp.

It was probably set up by the dealer and was perfect for me. I usually take it in to my local guitar tech once a year just to have it tweaked, but I rarely have to do anything else with it. I'd do it myself but he really does a nicer job and usually for the cost of a new set of strings. Fretwork was flawless and the neck has a perfect bow. No fret-buzz but one slight dead-spot at the 15th to 17th fret with a full-tone bend up on the three bottom strings. I've only noticed this lately and attribute it to a particularly cold winter and dry atmosphere in the house. In other words, "mea culpa" and nothing that a little spring weather, a decent humidifier or a tweak or two wouldn't fix easily.
One teeny-tiny 1/4" inch-long hairline crack right through the finish right at the neck joint on the upper body when new, that probably wouldn't be noticeable if it weren't white. The finish is otherwise eye-candy. When it was brand-new it looked a little stark and the only way you could determine where the guitar body ended and the pickguard started was where the screws and black line in the tri-lam pickguard were. It has now developed a beautiful warm 'buttery' patina and a sort of three-dimensional quality to it that is very difficult to describe. Sort of like buttermilk as opposed to skim milk. The neck and headstock have 'darkened' accordingly making for one very fine looking piece of wall art, even if you didn't play.

This instrument has been 'babied' a little, but has always been up to the task over the past eighteen years and I really don't know what more to expect. Needless to say I'm not really expecting it to break down or fall apart any time soon.
No major repairs or adjustments ever.
No Corrosion anywhere.
Stays in tune even with moderate trem use and have never broken a string on stock saddles.
No body wear marks anywhere, even at the bevel edges !

Fortunately no support necessary for this axe.
This would be a good thing because IMHO 'Fender' and 'Customer Support' are the example used in the dictionary for 'oxymoron'.
For an example of dealing with the Fender technical department see the review of my 'American Standard Telecaster' on this site.
I think that the legal purchase of Leo and Georges' brainchild is what separates the current regime from plagiarists.
It is to be noted that;
1)The lions share of Fender C.S. reviews on this website are "NA" and some scored high even though no C.S. was ever required. Hey Jasper!! Maybe it's a great axe but how could you score it a ten for customer service and then say "but I never had to deal with them" The balance speak for themselves.
2)Fender guitars, seemingly more than any other make, are exponentially more valuable the older they get (with the exception of some obscene prices that are being paid for old Gibsons, particularly '50s Les Pauls with highly figured tops and contigent values that are driven only by upward-bias values as rare pieces of art, as opposed to the Fenders that are actually being played).Simply stated, the new ones are good but the old ones were great????
So don't buy a Fender guitar predicated on anything remotely resembling customer support, even if it is due to a flaw that should easily have been picked up at the factory prior to shipment. However if you, or someone you can trust, are capable of effecting repairs (in the case of my Tele, elaborate) then you will never be disappointed with a USA Strat.
Also, I have tried to get some info on this particular instrument as it has an 'E4' serial # which would suggest that it was built in '84 and may actually be a 'Smith' Strat (four bolt neck and four knobs)There is some ambiguity on my part about this. This was a transitional period for Fender as there were no Strats built in the USA in '85 and the difference to me is about two hundred bucks in terms of resale value. But Fender's website doesn't seem to have a 'contact us' e-mail address and any links that they do list that I thought might be able to help me out with this info haven't bothered to reply either. Probably because they'd have to get that info directly from Fender based on the serial# and are having the same problem I am.
I guess it's fairly apparent that I have a bug up my ass with Fender's customer service but I think that it's justified as they have offered me absolutely no help with anything. It pisses me off that the only players that Fender seems to give a shit about are the ones that are getting all of their gear for free and have some of the best techs in the business on a retainer anyway. Meanwhile some pimply faced teenage suburbanite has just blown his vast summer lawn-mowing income on a shiny new Fender and wound up with a shiny new lemon that he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting fixed unless he mows a few hundred more lawns......
Their 'Limited Lifetime Warranty' would be better described as "Discretionary Lifetime Warranty" "All Products Guaranteed for the Life of the Product".

In forty years I have owned a lot of different instruments of all genres and price ranges but this is my particular favorite.
I owned an original '58 Tele that I purchased for $195.00 CDN in '68 and a buddy of mine has an original Broadcaster ('50-51) that were/are both amazing but apart from these two, I don't think I've ever run across a more playable axe.
I've played a whack of Gibsons but, except for a one-of-a-kind Standard SG that my buddy bought new in '69, I really don't care for them. I'm not a 'Fenderighteous Gibson Hater' or anything, I just find Fenders more 'Player Friendly' and a little more versatile. I swapped a pretty good instrument that has more than tripled in value, even over the Strat, and I have never regretted it except that, for the current price of the Epiphone that I swapped, I could buy a couple of more Strats.
I usually hook this one up with a Jim Dunlop 'Cry Baby', a Boss Hi-band Flanger and DOD Stereo Phaser and run the whole she-bang through a particularly wonderful Boss RRV 10 digital reverb half-rackmount unit.
If it were ever stolen I guess I'd buy a PRS Custom 22 or 24 because it would probably take too long to find another Strat of it's vintage that was in the same condition and I would never buy another new Fender under any circumstances. At least I know that the PRS would appreciate in value regardless of it's initial cost.
The one feature that I really wish it had was a manufacturer that gave a shit about the end user. EVERY end user !!!!
Having said all of this, I guess the resale value isn't that important anyway because I plan to be buried with this one.
My overall rating represents an average of all of the caregories that I've rated and if not for the Customer Service would have rated a '9' instead of a '7'

2001, 22 fret, MIA Standard, solid, Delta pickup setup, standard wiring, passive, alder (to be discussed), new bridge style with trem, non-locking Sperzels, TKL case, modified C neck. Case made the difference in improving rating.
I must admit, the "Daphne Blue" is the UGLIEST paint I've ever seen on a guitar body. Color of my ex' lingerie.

"Delta Tone?" Huh? What the heck is that? Fender should just give up entirely on pickup manufacture. And body manufacture. Just sell necks. They've ruined the Strat, "Custom" to bottom. The guy before me here had the right idea. Dead sound, no resonance, noise, sub-par electronics. Whenever I see or hear a factory or "Custom Shop," produced Strat, there's only 1/3 a guitar.

All I salvaged from the original mess guitar was the complete neck and tuner pegs, strap buttons, both back plates, and bridge TOP. The rest was trashed. Even the trem arm, block, pups, springs, all screws, and claw. The neck is beautiful, well finished, fast, low action with a legal logo, to Fender's credit, which was all I wanted.

To create a beautiful sounding, looking, and durable stringed instrument, you need excellent materials, careful workmanship, and an "idea." The idea is what the final result will sound like. Sorry, it's not on any web site, catalog, or store, at least in one piece. So you have to research; go back and to the old and new stuff, look and listen, compare, and figure out what YOU want. Then be careful. Also, durability = good case and solid stand, no gig bag. They are a part of the guitar. Answers to HC template questions are all,"Yes."

I do my own, and giving you some things to research. I got these substitute parts: SWAMP ASH body; cold-rolled steel rectangular trem block (both like original), Dimarzio Blues, Heavy Blues pups, modified (sorry, too detailed for here); more insulated wiring; 500 ohm mini pots audio taper; .2 cap; '64 style stainless steel trem arm; SS claw and springs; Core-Tek Ibanez-style encased 5-way switch; 3 ply custom pickguard; ball end strings, because block was honed at string feed to accept more pliable ball ends (to alternately raise trem arm to get non-flatted, full cycle tremolo). Bri Colle wood glue on every screw. Sounds exactly like a 1956 without the hum.
Many people, myself past included, decide to change this, that, pups, whatever, but most likely it won't be EXACTLY what you want. There's the "idea." In other words, this instrument is complete. Taking Strats apart can be risky.
Also, alder is plywood. That's okay, if you want to go to Home Depot to buy a guitar. Yeah, you can get strings, too. Look in the electrical section. Nineteen things you WILL need there are six WOOD screws for the neck and trem claw, eleven for the pickguard, not machine screws, which torque much tighter without stripping or cracking the wood. And two top-quality Phillips head screwdrivers, not cheapos. One to delete- their old cut-up credit cards make great picks!

I play into a Marshall AVT 50, Boss ME-50, accompanied by a Yamaha DGX-300 Portable Grand synth through the Marshall. Also have an ESP LTD EX351D with modified Duncan Invaders.
Yes, I spent over $600 just for a Fender neck and minor parts. That's what it takes, until they make guitars WE want. The critical part is the neck pocket, making it super tight and aligned exactly, and beveled correctly in the Swamp Ash neck pocket. This is the key to beautiful, resonant sound, not pups. And the guitar is rock solid, reat action, and stays in tune, no string breakage.
This is my child, and lost or stolen, look on a milk carton.

This is a 2001, natural finish, rosewood fretboard, American Standard Stratocaster. The body is made of ash, and it's fitted with the factory standard 3x single coil pickups. The finish is fantastic. The lacquer looks about a foot thick, with the wood beautiful & well protected behind it. Having always dreamt about a natural wood strat this has proved to be worth the wait.

I bought this guitar to replace a 1987 Japanese strat, which I had modified by fitting a double humbucking pickup at the bridge position, for sound boosting & increased sustain. By comparison the American strat sound is very thin and my Laney World Series 80 amplifier did nothing to improve this. I have recently purchased a small, modern Vox amp, and I find the sound to be greatly improved, even though I now get more pickup noise than before. The classic strat variety is still there though, offering more range than any other type of guitar I've ever played.

Having read some of the other reviews of this guitar I would seem to have been a very lucky man. The finish and set up of this guitar is amazing. From the first moment I picked it up in the showroom I was in love! With the action set extremely low the strings almost seemed to hug the neck but without a single buzz. Inevitably the guitar began to rattle a little after a couple of months use, but after a somewhat expensive re-set by the retailer it was back to it's best and now 3 years on is still playing as wonderfully as ever.

When I was looking for this guitar I considered the Mexican 70's style version, but when I saw it in the flesh the quality of the bridge & trem, looking more like they came off some cheap copy, was a major factor in helping me decide which one to go for. The tuners adjust really well & hold the tune, the trem returns to exactly where it should, and the overall finish of each component is as good as should be expected from a top end Fender guitar. I have only gigged this once but would happily gig with only this guitar as I have yet to break a string on it, and I only use 009's!

Comes with a limited lifetime warranty which I've thankfully not had to test...yet!

I have been playing guitar now for over 21 years. I have mostly used Laney amps, althoug I now have a small Vox which I'm very pleased with. My other guitars are an Epiphone acoustic, which I have rescued from the scrapafter it's neck was broken. and a Samick copy of a Martin 000 series. I have also had long term access to a Gibson Les Paul, a 335 in Cherry, and a Musicman Sabre - via a good friend with more dosh than me! If I lost this guitar I would cry for weeks as I've never owned one like it and I am still blown away by how great it is to play every time I pick it up.

its a strat.......

a strat is a solid base to build a super-guitar. i stuck a duncan jb junior at bridge with a coil split and a red lace sensor at neck. The initial noise of the delta tone pickups became unbearable whilst recording but thats no longer a problem. sounds great. the maple neck conjures up extreme sustain through my fender stage 100 dsp amp. fantastic for singing leads, dont waste money on any mexican or korean crap. get either a fender or a gibson, its worth saving for if ur not quite there.

nice low action. intonation has never been a problem. i find that i very rarely snap strings on this guitar no matter how much i play and bend(often too high). fantastic flawless finish, nice tight neck joint, unlike the gibson finish this will last.

dont gig without a backup because a snapped string could be fatal. very dependable, never a problem with it yet and ive had it for 2 years. im 17 and have been playing 6 years very seriously. like i said the stock pickups are noisy but by no means crap, they give off fantastic singing tone and the in-between positions are fantastic for jangly clean almost acoustic sounding rhythm.

i dont know about fender but the shop were fantastic, great price and next day delivery. i cant say fairer than that.

if lost or stolen id have to buy another strat, thought perhaps a different model for a pleasant change. just a great guitar, but always try before u buy.

1996 American Standard Stratocaster. Rosewood fretboard, and the other standard stuff. Came with case, which is really beat up now. I give a five because it's the middle of the road, standard american strat. nothing fancy.

When I was 16 I got this guitar because I loved Jimi Hendrix. I didn't know how to play the thing. Now I have a slightly better idea. I use it with a Fender Princeton 112 plus, and have since I got it. I like blues and jazz, rock, and sometimes attempt to play in those genres as well. I use the neck pickup, and the tone rolled all the way back. For blues, I like the sound. For jazz, it just doesn't cut it if you are trying to sound traditional. This should be obvious. If your only experience of what a strat sounds like is from Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, etc. etc. then you should probably not buy one. You will never sound like any of them. I recommending playing one before you buy it. I give it a 7 because it is better sounding than a lot of guitars I have heard and played, but not quite the sound I am looking for.

Oh, and one problem I've had is that the intonation of the low E is off. I can't adjust it using the bridge alone. All the other strings are fine.

I don't remember the factory set-up. It is set up very nicely and I absolutely love the action and feel on this guitar. Because I learned on this thing, I am very comfortable with it. For something that seems cheaply assembled (bolt on neck) it plays very well. Compared to something that is not cheaply assembled it also plays very well.

Fit is great. Like I said, I am very comfortable with it. I like the way it sits in my lap and contours to my body. I mostly play sitting down. Sometimes I lay and play with it. Sometimes I sleep next to it.

The guitar can be frisky if you fall asleep next to it. I recommend putting it in its case at night.

This thing takes a beating.

never dealt with them.

playing about 7.45 years off and on.

I have a washburn HB-35 which I am selling on ebay right now (1-23-03).

I wish I had asked if I could get a bag of chips with the guitar.

If it were stolen or lost, I would cry and call my mommy.

I love the action and fit of the guitar. I don't like the tone so much. My favor feature is the freboard. Without it, the frets would have no place to live.

I chose this guitar because I wanted to be Jimi Hendrix.

I'd also to share my thoughts on religion: don't subscribe to one. It will eat your mind.

My strat was a Fender American standard 2001 model. It had pretty good features with tone and volume adjustments and floating bridge.

I bought this guitar after owning a mexican strat and was not happy. In fact I bought it before playing it and found the sound a lot less warm and sparkly than the mex strat. In fact it was way too thin sounding in the bridge pickup. The neck pickup was good, with a lot of mid and bass but too noisy. If you think this is just what you get with single coils it shouldn't be -thats why they invented stacked single coil pickups as should have been fitted to this. Mex strats have a hotter output as they have vintage pickups and I much prefered this but had already sold this unfortunately.
The overall sound from the American strat was too metallic and thin. It didn't really communicate the feeling of what I was trying to play. It sounded a lot better once I bought a vintage valve amp but the sound was still too thin.
Come on people be critical and honest here!! Don't just rate it 10 as soon as you've got it.

The action was poor at best. I have heard American fender no longer individually setup their guitars before they leave the factory and they vary enormously. Hence you can get great ones and piss poor ones. Unfortunately mine was poor. I put up with too high string action, pickups set too high and incorrect truss rod relief for about a year before adjusting it. I lowered the pickups as they sounded to distorted and twangy when set high, which improved the sound clarity slightly but it was still very poor from the bridge pickup, too thin and metallic.

The guitar was very reliable in live situations and playing at home. The quality of the hardware seemed very good so in this area things are ok. Also the paint polymer covering seemed quite good.

No experience.

Had this guitar been stolen I would have used the insurance money to buy a mexican strat. I have since sold this guitar. Perhaps I was just unlucky but my American strat was very poor.

I give the features a 5, because there really aren't that many features. That's part of the Strat's allure. They're simple, easy and sound great if you like the Strat sound. I don't think a whole bunch of features are necessary anyway. Its beauty lies in its simplicity.

If like the Strat sound, it's perfect. Stevie, Jimi, Clapton...it's that sort of sound. I play it through a Fender Twin with nothing else except MAYBE a Tube Screamer. In my opinion, one of the best clean sounds ever. Fender through a Fender...perfect.

This is kind of a gray area. I live in the midwest and mine was shipped from California so I'm guessing the climate change has a lot to do with the action and such. The Strat does have a bi-flex truss rod and adjustable saddles so anyone can pretty much set the guitar to his/her liking.

It's a Strat...you can smack 'em, whack 'em, drop 'em, whatever, Strats are tough.

Never dealt with Fender.

You can't go wrong with a Strat, period.