Fender Big Apple Strat

Just bought a new (1999?) 'Big Apple' American-made strat. Rosewood fretboard, light-green metallic finish, white 'pearloid' pickguard (which I can't wait to swap for a 'mint green' one.) The Duncan humbuckers, V/T/Tone, 5 position switch, etc. and other standard strat features you all know, but I picked this one 'cause it was the only 'hard-tail' strat they had in stock. I 'traded up' from a new American Std. strat I'd had for a few weeks, as I wanted something more versatile tonewise, and with more bottom-end. I love a strat's feel and playability, and it's great 'form follows function' design. One slightly negative aside: Anybody know what the deal is with the bridge pickup not being wide enough to match the string spacing? Seems a bit half-assed to me.

My playing goes from Jazz/funk to hip-hop, blues and just fooling around. Tone and feel (in my dreams) I go from Wes to Jimi. I have to say that this guitar out-does my experience as a musical pro. I'm playing it into my own designs of tube amps, both high-gain and clean, which use both EL-84's and 6L6's, with original Jensen and EV speakers. This guitar sounds great, and I'm puzzled by the couple of reviews here that shitcan it's tone. Are those guys just hard to get along with or what? I do agree about the bridge humbucker though. Alone, it sounds unappealing and flat, not like I'd want to use it much. (Has anyone tried any replacement pickups yet?)

Action was set up well. Pickups adjusted on the low side, but that's OK as I have an industrial-strength fingerstyle. (Let's see...bookmatching? -hmm.. just fine I guess -you mean the paint, right?)
Well, for the price, and considering we're talking about a mass produced instrument, the finish is admirable. The pickups look a bit rough, and as I hinted earlier, the bridge p/u should be 1/8" or so wider. And the 'pearloid' pickguard looks like a relic from Liberace's shithouse. Otherwise, everything is great.

This guitar is built like a brick shithouse.
(If you're wondering, I mean: solid.)
I love the hard tail, and highly recommend it if tone is your top priority. (And non string-breaking, And staying in tune.)

N/A

Warranty? Forget it -I like ripping things apart and fooling with them too much to worry about that.

Been playing guitar 27 years, but not all as a professional. Also own a '59 Guild T-100 thinline hollow-body. I wish there'd been more (hard-tail) strats in the store to choose from, as regards things like neck grain, color, finish, general alignment and setup. If it got lost or stolen, I might think about killing someone, or committing suicide. But, then again, I might just buy another Big Apple strat.
This is an excellent guitar, without the self-concious stylishness of a PRS or snob-appeal of a vintage LP. I love this strat's simple design and tonal potential, Even if you have to experiment with different pickups (as I have done with single coils on other strats) you will most likely end up with a real keeper.

Made in 1999-USA.22 frets,5 way selector switch(for single coil or humbucker sounds),dual humbuckers duncan 59 in the neck and pearly gates plus in the neck. Alder bodyStandard strat fit and finish,non locking tuners, 9.5 radius,medium/jumbo frets and comes with case but try not to get the case with the guitar,try and find a nice used caseor a better deal somewhere else.

I play alot of different styles, country ,blues ,rockabilly ,alternative, etc.This guitar is TOTALLY VERSATILE!
From Chuck Berry to Nirvana! I play through a Fender hot rod deluxe and use only a danelectro delay pedal(really cool for rockabilly).
The humbuckers are great for the lead channels and the 2 and 4(coil taps) positions are great on clean. I do not care for the 1 and 5 positions on clean- but they are great sounding on gain!

Guitar was set-up perfect from the factory, The action is great this guitar is easy to play - very comfortable and fits like a glove.
I bennd the strings quite a bit and it will never go out of tune,
unlike my old epiphone. I have the 3 color sunburst with tortise pickguard and maple neck and this is one fine lookin' guitar!

I've only had it for 10 months but I think it is a pretty solid guitar that would stand up to anything short of Pete Townsend getting a hold of it!This is now my main gigging guitar but I am about to buy a 52 tele RI so I will be using both of them. You need a back-up in case you bresk your strings ,especially those fender bullets!!!

Never dealt with Fender and I hope I don't have to because they seem to get alot of poor reviews.

I have been playing for 12 years, I learned on a Hohner(srat copy)
and than moved to an epiphone semi hollow body, I loved the way the epiphone looked but it does not hold a candle to this Bad Boy.
If it were lost or destroyed by my 2 year old son, I would probably by another one just like it or maybe spend ALOT more and go with a custom strat.I love the look ,the feel, the sound and the versitlityof this guitar. I love Fenders period. Buddy holly, jimi Hendrix , Eric Clapton,Buddy Guy,Jeff Beck,Eric Johnson,Stevie Ray and Jimmy vaughn among thousands of others would agree with me, how can you go
wrong? For under 800 bucks you will be hard pressed to find a guitar that can do what this one does and it's beautiful.Some may argue that srats should have 3 single coil pick-ups and I respect that but you go play one and than play an american standard and you see which one you like better.

This guitar is truly a beast. I got it, admittedly because the specialised custom model i wanted was too expensive, but hey-it's f**king great. it's weird because i usually hate strats but when they come with no trem(whoopee!)and are loaded with two Seymour Duncan custom custom 57's you can't really complain.there's two tone and a vol control as well as the five way blade. it's a little heavier than other strats that i've tried. it's got 22 frets but i only use about 18 so that's grand. the finish i got was a BEAUtiful sparkly silver with crushed white shell.it had a standard hard tail for a strat and was basically a trem block with no arm hole.tuners were f**king ace-the Fender ones that i have on my ever reliable mex tele(NEVER goes out of tune), and the neck felt really good. the frets were medium jumbos and were pretty comfy once i changed the action a little. case was orange. orange FELT.(on the inside)

This is such a versatile bitch.I play funk rock mostly like RATM and stuff but also light jazz and metal and it did everything.all my chums who tried it say it was brill, except from one c*nt who had a PRS.(dick)i put it through my VS230C and it did the marshall gain channel some serious justice.However the chorus turned it into something from another world and seemed to boost the signal too much, which was a pain.it has a monster bottom end with both pickups on and there was plenty of sustain with the bridge pickup. the five way blade meant pickup splitting into single coils was really easy and so on position two(away from the bridge)it sounded like an acoustic.takes a hell of a pounding as well.

action was like phone cable across a road.even though it came with 9's it was still almost impossible to play.with the neck adjusted slightly and tens on, the guitar changed from a chords only pain in the ass to an 80's shredding machine. which was good. the actual build was up to Fender's usually high standards and the only gripe that i've got is that a blind man cut the nut and must have meant it for twine instead of strings.as soon as it went from plastic to graphite the thing never went out. so the factory settings were bascially shit.

it's a beaut. not as invicible as an old tele or an SG-X but pretty solid once you get used to it's slightly lighter weight.i never gig with any more than one guitar so it's proved itself there. i put straplox on but the buttons are pretty big anyway so it won't come off.if the finish comes off, fine, but i don't think it will.

i only had one change, which was the nut, but i dealt with my dealer and not Fender so there you are.

If i had this stolen, it wouldn't be that bad because it wasn't massively expensive but i would grieve it's loss like a brother. when i've got it on it's like an extra arm and it pretty much renders my other guitars obsolete with it's versatility.

in the event, i'll probably only buy one more guitar in my life after this, it's ace.

1998 Fender USA Big Apple Stratocaster. 22 frets, 5 way selector switch, 2 seymour duncan humbucking pickups and tremelo. beautiful Sunburst finish. maple body with rosewood neck. came with case, fender strap and strap locks.

I play this through a zoom 505, jim dunlop wah and a peavey express 112. It suits my playing well, smashing pumpkins sounds good with the humbuckers. A very full sound, plenty of sustain and the sound can be altered easily whether you want a clean bright sound or heavy humbucking sound... the big apple can do it all!

Action was perfect for my playing, don`t forget it can be adjusted easily. It does go out of tune slightly when the tremolo is used, (especially when doing a dive bomb!) whether this because the strings have only just been put on or not i`m not sure.

This guitar is very dependable and i think i could get away without a back up when i play a gig and will be an excellent guitar for live playing the finish lasts but i suppose that depends on how much you use it and how hard you play (i have a lot of scratching above the scratchplate because i have the tendency to thrash at the strings a bit).

never had to deal with them

I have been playing for over a year and a half now, i own a squier strat and have played a standard strat and a les Paul but Big Apple is the one i feel most comfortable with. If Stolen i would hunt after the bastard with an air rifle and shoot the bugger. My favourite feature for this guitar is the overall finish, a sunburst finish and a black scratchplate with splashes of red beautifully blended in.

Shoreline gold Big Apple Strat with a rosewood fretboard, Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbucker in the bridge and a Duncan '59 in the neck position, alder body, pearl white pickguard and backplate, etc.

This guitar is simply fantastic. The pickup configuration is very versatile, but obviously is slanted more towards humbucking sounds than single coil. You can go from a close-to-traditional Strat sound in positions 2 and 4, to a Super Strat/almost Les Paul tone in positions 1, 3 and 5. While the Big Apple has sort of a Gibson-type vibe due to the dual humbuckers, it retains an overall Strat character due to the scale length, body wood, bolt on neck and bridge. The pickup positions are nicely balanced so that if you go from a coil tap to a straight humbucker sound, there is no appreciable change in output. This pickup balance is much better than on the Lone Star Strat, which I also have. While the Big Apple is certainly capable for nice clean tones, the guitar clearly was designed to be used with overdrive/distortion. The Big Apple is ideal for Texas blues, rock and total shred styles of guitar. I purchased the Big Apple because I wanted a two-humbucker, Strat-style guitar, but without any middle pickup. Also, the Big Apple seems designed as a LEAD guitar player's guitar. The Big Apple I bought has an incredibly fast neck and really sings when using overdrive/distortion.

For a used guitar, my Big Apple is in good shape, except for a small ding on the back and the Seymour Duncan name is partially worn off on the neck humbucker. I think that it is very attractive looking guitar. The neck is in great condition and just needed a slight truss rod adjustment, which was done free of charge (including new strings) by the guy I dealt with at Atomic Music. The fact that the same guitar costs close to $900 new at Guitar Center was an obvious incentive to purchase it used.

Fender Strats take a licking and keep on ticking!

I have been playing guitar both pro and just around the house for over 25 years and can honestly state that the Big Apple is a great guitar and a welcome addition to the Strat family. I would definitely buy one again, and in fact am contemplating buying a second Big Apple and selling my Ibanze S series guitar. (Are five Strats too many? -- not in my opinion.) The funny thing is that I readly did not care for the look of the Big Apple when it debuted in 1997. However, the Big Apple Strats with the white shell pickguards look nice with the white humbuckers. In addition, the sound and playability sold me on this guitar big time. I have been looking for a two humbucker guitar for awhile, but cannot get used to Les Pauls, Hamers or PRSs due to the scale length. The Big Apple may not be everyone's cup of tea, and conservative Fender Strat lovers may argue that its not a real Strat, but I think it provides much needed variety in the Strat word. I have two single coil equipped Fender Strats and a Lone Star, so I think I am qualified to render an opinion as to whether the Big Apple is a true Strat -- IT IS! Thank God Strats come in more than one flaver!

Covered well enough in the previous entries. Suffice it to say it's basically an American Standard Strat with dual humbuckers and special switching. The neck humbucker is a Seymour Duncan '59 and the bridge humbucker is a SD Pearly Gates Plus. What the difference is between a Pearly Gates and a Pearly Gates plus is, I have no idea.

Fender marketed this guitar as a humbucker version of a strat with some Texas sizzle to the tone. Personally, I was looking for an Ernie Ball/Music Man Steve Morse model, but they're impossible to find and a tad pricey, also, I was attracted to the special switching system the BA strat has and I've always been a strat man all my life, so this seemed like the logical alternative.I play this strat through a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL50 with a Dan Electro Danecho delay pedal and (for now) the reverb that comes stock on the Marshall.I use this guitar for distorted tones exclusively since the clean tones on this guitar aren't very good. As far as distorted tones, you can get some pretty decent sounds. To me, the bridge pickup sounds very "Satriani-esque".The neck humbucker has alot of beef to it. The neck humbucker can also be coil-tapped, but the tone there doesn't quite deliver like a true single-coil, too much mid-range frequencies. You can also play both humbuckers full-on, but there's very little tonal variation between both humbuckers being played and playing just the bridge humbucker. This is due to the way the pickups were wired at the factory (I don't know if they're wired in series or in parallel). The Seymour Duncan pickups that come stock on this guitar are a bit buzzy-sounding for my tastes.I prefer a smoother sounding distortion that you can find in DiMarzios.I'm thinking about trying a DiMarzio PAF in the neck and a DiMarzio PAF Pro in the bridge, while maintaining the switching system and see how that works.

Very playable guitar, as all strats are. Well constructed. For those thinking about buying a new model Fender Strat, pay particular attention to the neck heel joint (where the neck is bolted on to the body). Make sure that puppy fits solidly.

Built to last.

N/A

Well made guitar, in keeping with Fender's reputation, but I'm kinda put off that this guitar doesn't quite fulfill the tremendous potential that it has. If it were stolen, I'd probably try a Gibson Les Paul or ES-335, or a Paul Reed Smith.

I have a '97 Big Apple strat. Shoreline gold (more like silver) finish,1 piece satin finish maple neck (thin and fast), alder body, 22 medium jumbo frets and 2 humbuckers (duncan '59 neck and duncan pearly gates plus bridge). It has an american standard bridge, saddles, tuners, and strap buttons. Special 5-way switching (for the 'buckers), white pearloid pickguard, 9.5 inch neck radius, fender/schaller american standard tuners, and came w/ a black tolex case.

The sounds that come from this strat are good for many folks, but bad for my taste. I consider my playing to be on the experimental/ instrumental side. (think eric johnson, satriani, vai, and SRV in one. weird huh). My main amp is a fender twin, the newer, 3 channel, non vibrato one (versitile and simply awesome). I use no external effects, player, guitar, and amp only. This guitar from the factory just isn't a good idea. I mean humbuckers in a strat,come on. Then why did I buy it? 2 words, compulsive and compulsive. This is a quiet guitar for the most part,it can get a halfway decent dark jazz tone out of it, but other than that,only shrilly, hi-fi,unnatural sounds exist. The bridge pickup is quite bad clean,again unnatural. The only plus is the sustain w/ distortion. The neck pickup is good for some jazz but overall just too muddy.

The action was great, super low and no buzzing. Though very trivial, pickups were set quite low and one of the tone knobs was quite loose. Both easy fixes.Also, the dot inlays had too much epoxy in them, resulting in brown rings around most of the inlays. My biggest gripe would be the frets. Extremely flat and the ends were not filed properly, playing it was a bit of a chore.The neck joint was super tight.

I must give this guitar credit, it is built like a tank, as most strats are. The tuners aren't the best, the finish is very good and durable. I would, and do, depend on this guitar 110% now (i have made some mods that i will mention later).

I now love this guitar w/ its mods, a local luthier refretted it w/ jumbo frets,installed locking tuners, repaired the inlays, gave it a neck shave(now only tung oil on bare maple), put in 3 lindy fralen single coil pickups (highly recommended if you can find them and want to shell out about $250 for the set), new mint pickguard,graph tech saddles, and new pots and 5-way switch. This was a $650 job but well worth it. Before this the guitar was just not a players' strat, kind of just a novelty item that fender came up w/ and which I bought. Had I not made these mods this axe would have been collecting dust or have been sold. Initially a 5, the best things being aesthetics, durability, and the decent jazz tones available. Worst things being the overall tones and the fretwork. It is now a 10+ and basically the only guitar I play.

Mine is a 1998 model from Fender's "Hot Rodded American" series of Strats. 22 frets, small headstock with retro spaghetti logo, rosewood fingerboard, two Duncan humbuckers ('59 in the neck position, Pearly Gates Plus in the bridge), global volume, and tone controls for each pickup. Came with Schaller hardware (although I immediately replaced the strap buttons with Dunlops) and an American Standard tremolo bridge. This guitar is particularly striking because of its orange finish. I've not seen another like it, and according to Fender's website, it's not a stock color for this model (I'm not even sure it's a stock color period). It's pretty close to the middle color in Fender's three-color sunburst, and it looks great with the brown-shell pickguard and white pickups and knobs. The finish is also transparent, revealing some cool wood-grain patterns. It's not easy to find a unique-looking Strat, but this one definitely fits the bill. I give it a 10 for its looks and the fact that it's got 'buckers instead of single coils (a la the Strats used by Glenn Tipton and Dave Murray, the latter having once been owned by Paul Kossoff).

My style is primarily from the Brian Robertson/Gary Moore school of high gain tones and melodic leads. I've found typical Strats to be unusable for this approach, but because this one's got humbuckers it's got more than enough balls to drive my Soldano and Marshall heads. It cleans up quite nicely when you back off the volume, and the 2 and 4 positions on the pickup selector provide some usable single-coil tones by tapping the humbuckers. Switching from one of the in-between settings to a full-on humbucker gives a significant volume boost that comes in handy in certain situations. It's also nice to have a tone control for the bridge pickup, something you won't find in most other Strats. The overall sound is exactly how I like it--full, powerful and especially rich when I add a hint of chorus from my Danelectro Cool Cat.

I actually grabbed this guitar to demo a Mashall head, and it was so perfect that I ended up buying both (and got an amazing deal by doing so--thanks, Sean!). Everything about this axe was (and so far still is) pristine. This combined with the unique finish has me convinced that Fender (and probably Gibson, too) ships their schwag instruments to the Guitar Centers of the world and saves their best stuff for the smaller, higher-end shops like the one that sold me this beauty. And believe me, having worked at GC (show me a guitar player in Chicago who hasn't worked there at some point), Fender is certainly capable of churning out canoe paddles. This one, thankfully, isn't one of those. Definitely one of the best Fenders I've seen.

Although this guitar demands to be treated with care because it's so beautiful, it is a Fender, which means it can no doubt withstand most degrees of physical punishment. Since I don't break a lot of strings, I would definitely consider this to be the desert-island guitar in my arsenal. If I absolutely, positively could only bring one instrument to a gig, this would be it. Haven't recorded with it yet, but I'd be surprised if it could outdo my Hamer Studio Archtop in that regard, just because the Hamer's on par with a PRS in terms of quality and sound. The Fender, however, is the only guitar I own that's capable of single-coil tones, making it the most versatile, so it's certainly conceivable that I might track with it in the future.

The level of customer support is probably nil from a huge conglomerate like Fender, but it's not really a concern of mine anyway. In fact, it's not even something I consider when buying a guitar. Having worked at Guitar Center and seeing what happens to instruments that are shipped out for warranty work and how long it can take for the work to get done, there's no way in hell i'd go that route if I had a problem. Forking out a few bucks to a reliable local repair guy is a much safer and more practical way to go.

My first real electric was a '70s Strat, red with a black pickguard. I ended up trading it for a Kramer Focus; a dumb decision in retrospect but driven by the fact that even then I had an affinity for humbucking pickups. Before I bought this axe I considered refurbishing my Kramer ZX30H (a cheapo for sure, but actually pretty good-sounding once I added Duncan pickups) with a refinish and a shell pickguard. This Strat came straight from the factory almost exactly how I wanted the Kramer to end up (actually better, because the Fender isn't made of plywood and lacks a hockey-stick headstock--and it came with Duncans, which I have in all my guitars). Buying it was a no-brainer, especially considering the price I got and the fact that it's not a cookie-cutter Strat. This guitar is definitely my new workhorse; I absolutely love it. My faith in Fender that was stolen from me during my stint at Guitar Center has been restored. Praise Jesus!

1992 or so, variation on big apple strat, had unique set -up blue and gold lace sensor in neck position, gold and red lace sensprs in bridge position. Included three way standard swith but each lace sensor, humbucker had its own mini swith, so thios instrument had about as many combinations of lace sensors as you could ever imagine. Unfoirtunately most of them were mediocre. Instrumet came with rosewood neck, I changed it to maple neck. Sunburst finish, I also swapped over the floyd rose bridge from my strat plus deluxe, to make a truly unique instrument.

As noted, except for a fee setting, e.g. neck god with bridge gold or with bridge gold and red, the sound was not relly great, to muddied up and no real strat i nthere anywhere.

excellent, great feel, playability and look. came with pickup covers and knobs black. I changed knobs to white to blen d with white perloid pickguard. Best look would also include white pickup covers..

Seemed fine.

N/A since I tore this one apart and put it back together on my own.

playing for 30 years.would not recommend this instrument as strat but it was fun - an experiment.

My Big Apple strat is (I believe) a '98 model, possibly '97. I don't think Fender has been making them for more than a few years. It is USA made, 22 frets, rosewood fingerboard, black body. It has the Seymour Duncan "Pearly Gates" in the bridge and SD "59" in the neck position. Both pickups are passive. It has all standard tuners and a standard Fender tremolo (not a Floyd).

This guitar is excellent for any style of music. Personally I play music that requires A LOT of power and thickness. Stuff along the lines of Filter and Tool. I am playing my Big Apple with all the parts it came with and it sounds great! The only thing I did was have it professionally setup and I had the bridge "butted" so that the tremolo can't move (I don't use tremolo anyway). Butting the bridge makes it stay in tune much better and it's much easier for me to play. The sound of the pickups is really nice and full. The only thing I wish is that the Pearly Gates (Bridge) had a little more bite to it. It's nice and fat, it just needs a little more crunch. What I do really like is that the sound stays consistent at different levels of volume. I play typically at really high volume (100+ dB) and the guitar doesn't get all noisy and/or trebbly. A lot of that has to do with my rig (Mesa Simul 395 Power amp with a Marshall JMP-1 preamp). The JMP-1 by the way, is in my opinion the best preamp available. I have no dislikes for this guitar, it's been great.

I had the guitar setup after buying it, but that was my own choice, not a necessity. I just like for the intonation to be set right and I had to have the bridge butted. None of that was manditory before being able to play it though. My guitar is finished in gloss black and it looks great. It's really smooth and glossy. I can't see any flaws in it at all. The neck is smooth. It's all good to me.

I have had no problems with this guitar at all. I've been jamming with it and I've never even broken a string (and I play DAMN HARD). I'm sure if you threw it off a building you would have problems, but under normal circumstances I don't see having any problems with it at all. I almost always play without backup and I never even worry about it.

I've been playing for 10 years. I own 2 Big Apple Strats and a few Les Paul Customs. I would definately buy this guitar again if it were stolen, lost, broken, whatever... What I really like about it is that I can get a big full Les Paul type sound without having to strap on a 200lb. guitar :) The only thing I wish it had was a little higher output pickup in the bridge. Other than that I love it.