Fender Highway 1 Strat

This is the upgrade model with large 70s headstock, steel block trem instead of zinc, jumbo frets, "grease bucket" tone pots, hot pups, mid pup RWRP.

This is totally subjective but I really like the sound. More authoritative and ballsy than my other strats. It sustains forever. The pups are not quite as chimey as traditionalists would like but I prefer darker than brighter. The pups are far more dynamic with more harmonic overtones than my new American Standard strat. It behaves very well during high gain and really driving the tubes. It also sounds really good clean.

OK this was a surprise. Everything on this guitar was excellent with the exception of a popping noise when going to the #2 position and that the trem arm doesn't mount/fit as smoothly as my other strats that have the modern trems. These are annouyances but only minor and easily fixed. These rosewood fretboard is not as dark as the more expensive strats. The shop where I got it must have strung it with 10s which is what I prefer and the action was just right for me. Stays in tune really well. The huge frets are strange to me but I find that I play this guitar the most now.

I am sure the hardware will last. The strap buttons seem to be a lighter metal. The finish well - I convinced myself it is for the acoustical properties of the instrument that wins out in this case because it is not durable although it does look nice.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I have been trying to learn how to play for way too long (35 yrs). For the money this is a good instrument. But I cannot stand the fact that it did not come with a hardshell case. Gig bags should be outlawed. I wish the trem arm mounted smoother - its like the threads are a little galled and its either in there too tight or too loose but it works. The jury is still out on the jumbo frets. If it were lost or stolen? Well I was looking for one when I found this one and I really enjoy this one. I hate ratings because they don't mean a thing. It does annoy me that I have to go to the shop and leave it for the tech to fix the popping in the pup selector when I could be using that time to do something like, maybe, play my guitar?

Well, features on a strat? Alder body, maple neck and a rosewood board. To me thats how a strat should be(maple boards are nice to)

Heres the thing. This is a decent guitar but it needs some work.
- The stock pickups seemed dull and lifeless ie unstratty. I changed those for some John Suhr V60lp:s (best singelcoils on the planet) wich made an enormous improvment.
- The crappy zink bridge-block is somewhat of a tone-killer and i would suggest to anyone to get a callaham steel block (60$) as soon as possible since it breaths new life into most strats.
- this is a personal thing but I really like sperzel locking tuners. To me they sound better than the klusons but alot of guys will tell you the opposite.
After these uppgrades you??ve got yourself a killer strat.

I don??t remember it beeing to bad but I always set my guitars up myself.
I kinda dig the finnish. Alot of guys hate it. The thing is that i??m not sentimental about guitars (unless my first one) and a bit of battery only looks cool if you ask me.

So far so good.

mailed fender once about an amp and they did??nt get back to me and from what i??ve heard it??s basically impossible to get hold of someone at fender.

Once "modded" its GREAT

Highway One (upgrade) model.

As the price indicates, the features on this guitar are somewhere between the standard stratocaster and the american standard stratocaster. They also have some vintage characteristics like a 70's style headstock and decal.

What initially attracted me to the Highway one, was the nitrocellulose lacquer finish, which, supposedly, allows the tonewood of the body to breath and resonate better.

In an effort to help alleviate hum, the middle pickup is reverse wound. Fender also claims all three pick ups are a little hotter than the previous version of the highway one.

Overall, lots of nice features for this guitar. I think fender is clearly trying to make this more than just a stripped-down version of the american stratocaster. It has it's own vibe, and some unique features.

Here's the catch, at least it was for me.

I use a fender blues junior amp, which I really like.

I didn't find the pick ups very noisy at all. Although, I have to admit, I don't have a problem with a little hum from my pick ups. After all, isn't that part of what single coils do?

The problem I had with these pick ups was that they were very lifeless to me. No quack, no glassy tones, no traditional strat tones whatsoever, especially in positions two and four. The pickups sounded terribly thin.

The store I went to had three highway one strats in stock, and I played every one. I had the same issues with every one of them.

On the other hand, I felt that the american strats and even a standard (MIM) I tried had more bite and sounded significantly better than these.

Maybe this particular music stosre does a particularly poor job (or no job at all) setting up their guitars. The neck pocket joints were not tight on any of these. The neck felt unfinished, and the nitro finish, instead of looking vintage, just looked cheap to me. Other strats like the Eric Johnson strat has a nitrocellulose finish, which look great, but these did not, in my opinion.

Maybe part of the problem is quality control on Fender's part, maybe the store, maybe it's me.

Needless to say, I did not buy this guitar. I can say that the sound and build definciences, notwithstanding, I thought this guitar felt cheap and quite fragile.

No idea, but from what I've heard, good luck.

I was extremely dissappointed with this guitar. A few days later I played two G&L tribute series guitars, and they really impressed me. They were three times the guitar for half the price of one of the highway ones.

If you're on a budget, and don't have to have a Fender, I'd look into them. Better finishes, the same pick ups and bridges as the top of the line G&L models, and all for half the price of a highway one!

In the end, I shelled out the extra money (say hello credit card and goodbye happy marriage!) and invested in an American Deluxe strat. For only three hundred dollars more, I feel I got a much better guitar. Better pick ups with traditional strat tones, a beautiful finish and a great feeling neck.

Of course, I don't have the vintage features or the nitro finish. If you must have these features and can't afford to go up to the custom shop level, my advice is to pick up this guitar and be prepared to invest another $300-400 in upgrades and guitar tech fees. You'll need it.

Its a bog standard strat with a great finish, smooth neck, pretty decent s/s/s pick-ups and vintage hardware. Mine is nice and light too.

This is a very clear, clean and rather powerful guitar. It is hard to hide sloppy playing on a good strat. I mainly play rock with some funk and blues edge and I always wander back to Strats for use on stage. I usually use just the neck or bridge pups into a Hartman bc108 fuzz, Fulltone FD2 Mosfet, Boss DD-3 and into either a Silverface Vibrolux Reverb or a Sovtek Mig-50 on a Marshall 2x12.

Everything was setup fairly well from the factory and played beautifully out of the box. I absolutely love the feel and look of the finish and the neck. After a few days of good playing I found 2 frets not leveled correctly that buzzed. I was not that upset and was contemplating not returning it because I just liked it so much when the middle pickup conked out. Between this episode and a Jaguar that had strings not grounded properly has made me wonder if Fender America is getting sloppy. I have a mexican Strat I love and have no problems with, but i have not been impressed by Fender's USA department.

As i mentioned, 2 frets were not leveled correctly and the middle pickup died after only a week. Everything else performs and feels excellent.

Always been good in the past and i will see about this Strat very soon.

This is a beautiful guitar and superb value for what it is, although it seems more like the 60's when you had to sort through a pile of gear to get a winner. These are not as cookie cutter as you would expect and each one had its own personality. Mine just had 2 flaws which should not have made it past quality control to a customer.

It's a Strat. Very familiar features for anyone who knows the Strat: 3 single-coil pickups, Volume/Tone/Tone, Wilkinson trem bridge, standard non-locking tuners and a Tusq (imitation bone) nut. You could call it an American-made Mexi, but it's really closer to a vintage reproduction with some modern touches, as if Fender were still making their standard guitars the same way as in the '60s. The biggest visual change is the satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish which was standard through the classic Strat years. The hardware is kind of a hybrid; the bridge is very Mexi-ish with stamped saddles and tailpiece, with a pretty hefty Wilkinson trem underneath. The neck hardware though is very American; the string trees are molded rather than stamped, and the tuning machines, though not vintage-style, are very good; no slop or binding, and far smoother than a Mexi's. The neck itself is semi-gloss; not a true thin satin finish that feels like bare wood, but not a highly-polished gloss finish like on some Fenders. Pickups are Alnico, but Alnico-3 rather than the true vintage Alnico-5.

One feature that players familiar with Mexi and American strats is that the pickups are true vintage configuration, with a middle pickup that is NOT RW/RP, so neck/mid and mid/bridge are not hum-cancelling as you're probably used to. This is something to be aware of, as I hadn't realized this in the store. This is not difficult to change if you like to tinker, and if you shield the control cavity properly (as I did) noise is drastically reduced. The body cavity is routed for HSS, so you can throw a humbucker in the bridge for a "Fat Strat" look and sound. All in all, a very versatile instrument as Strats tend to be.

The guitar came strung with 9-42s, which were very light for my tastes; I restrung it with 10-46s and the playability improved and the sound got tighter and beefier. The sound is VERY vintage; the nitro finish gives a woodier tone and a lot of body resonance (this thing can almost be played as an acoustic, and I'm not saying that glibly). Perfect for all your '60s idols from Clapton to SRV and everything in between. The bridge is a bit thin; again it's the vintage voicing, where more modern bridge pickups, even "classics", are slightly overwound. Very twangy (heaps of "Strat Quack") and it screams when overdriven. Neck, Neck/Mid, and Mid are all very beefy clean or driven; the mid pickup adds a lot of sparkle to the tone that works excellently either way in any of the middle 3 positions. I actually can't decide if I think it'd be better to have the middle pickup the way it is now or Rw/Rp, which would allow the noiseless combos but remove some of the middle pickup's sparkle. Noise notwithstanding, the sound of this guitar is excellent, and if you don't mind a noise gate, it'll give you everything you want when overdriven.

Here's where the downside of owning a trem-equipped Strat becomes very apparent. I've never had a trem-equipped axe before, and though I "knew" the issues it would give me in tuning, intonation and action, it was still a shock going through it. This guitar is very fiddly, and because the trem both increases the amount of vibration of the string and takes tension off of the neck, fretbuzz is a problem I'm still fighting when I play fingerstyle. The light-gauge strings don't bow the neck at all, so even with the truss rod completely slack I couldn't get even the slightest neck relief. Restringing it with 10s gave it a little relief, but required a slight adjustment of the trem to counterbalance it. Tuning this thing is a nightmare compared to a non-trem guitar; it currently takes me three passes to get the thing in tune after restringing or if one string is way off, because adjusting one string can have a significant change on the tension of the rest due to the trem.

All that said, fit and finish on this guitar is wonderful. No finish flaws in the nitro other than slight shop-wear (I wasn't the first to have played this guitar in the store). And, now that I have the lightly heavier strings, and have adjusted the neck and trem, the action is beautiful. It intonates perfectly (though the saddles are in rather odd positions compared to, say, how an LP's floating bridge might be), and the trem stays in tune when you dive-bomb and do other extreme trem moves. Neither the nut not the string trees bind strings, so other than the trem messing with string tensions, it's easy to tune a string exactly to pitch. The entire guitar is put together magnificently. I'm giving it a 7 for the setup hell, but you minimize this by keeping one string gauge (I'll probably use 10-46s on this for a LOOOONG time) and only ever changing one string at a time. Once it's tuned and the neck, trem and strings have all found their balance of tension, it stays in tune quite well and retunes very easily.

The nitro finish is thinner than poly, so a good knock will probably show through to the wood where poly would just be dented. If you use this guitar hard it will start looking like a vintage axe after a few years, and the finish will probably wear throuh after a few years of steady gigging, but it'll play like the day you bought it through the entire thing, and probably sound better for it. I have actually not replaced the strap buttons with locks yet, as I normally do before anything else; with a decent strap (this one has two layers of leather) the strap does not come off easily. I would still recommend straplocks though. Just as a general rule I bring a backup instrument to gigs, if for no other reason than when you break a string, it's easier to pick up the spare and tune it up than install a new string mid-set. Other than that I'd definitely depend on this axe; it's solidly constucted and should last many many years.

Never dealt with Fender; I do most of my own work on my guitars, and if there's something I can't solve I just take it to a local luthier.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this guitar. I've not been playing guitar very long, maybe a year now, but I've played bass for over 6 years, and so I know what I want in quality, playability, and sound, and this axe has them all. I compared it to Mexi Strats and found that though the Mexi has its own great character, this axe had better tone. Against Americans, I felt that this sounded better for what turned out to be just over half the cost. And of course it's blown ny clone I compared it to completely out of the water. This is THE strat; it's a faithful remake of the class of Strat that countless stars used to get to the top. And it can be had for under $600.

all the features of the highway one strat have been adequately described already.

I've been playing a strat since '74. wanted a good strat to play at gigs so i could leav2 my '72 home, where its safe.
i played blues and southern rock, thru a Marshall half stack. very very happy with this guitar. it isn't any noisier than any other strat with standard single pickups. the stock pickups sounded ok, but i put Fender custom shop Fat 50's pickups in , and like them very much. initially i didn't like the bridge saddles, but i've only broken 3 strings on this guitar in 2 1/2 years of hard playing...
i like the clear finish, i like that it doesn't have locking this and floating that, or active electronics. its a good, plain 'ol strat. it's just snobbery to look at this as anything other then a nice guitar. you don't have to pay 2 or 3 grand for a guitar. some guys do that for bragging rights.

was set up well from the factory, tho i did raise the action a bit, so you have more string to grab hold of
you always tweak it to your personal tastes
as already stated, i prefer this finish over the heavier finishes...
and the medium jumbo frets are what i prefer. thats what i alsways refretted my '72 with

everything is road worthy aboutt his guitar. i really do love it. i do use this on gigs without a back up, because i can yank on the straings all day without them breaking. my other guitar i keep tuned to open tunings for slide. my red highway one strat, with maple neck is my workhorse guitar. the thinner finish does wear thru faster, but come on people, who doesn't like that? a worn beat up looking strat. some guys pay extra for that look... gimme a break.

never needed to

I've been playing for 34 years, i own a 1972 strat , which i've had since '74, this highway 1 strat, a schecter tele, martin 12 string, and takamine acoustic/electric. assorted effects and Marshall amp, and peavey combo amp.
very happy with this guitar. i plan to buy another one, just cuz i like it so much. i love the finish, the feel of the neck, stays in tune, doesn't break strings, i love the fact that it has a standard bridge, no floating fulcrum crap. no locking tuners... just a regular strat. i chose it because it had all these basic features, it was a good guitar for the $$.

Features are fine for a strat. Not sure why they didn't reverse-wind the middle pickup.

This is good sounding guitar. Has a lot of the throaty, spanky, bell-like character a strat should have. Not as nice as the Deluxe with noiseless picups, though.

This rates a little below sound for me. I tried three of these guitars at Guitar Center, and none were smooth playing. The fretwork felt rough, and maybe the setups weren't so great.

I only tried three of these strats, all on the same day, and didn't buy one because when I tried the Deluxe strat I felt there was no comparison. The Deluxe I bought plays and sounds significantly better to me than any of the the Highway 1s I tried out. I guess it should since it costs more, too. But I found myself disagreeing with the salesperson's comment that it was "the same guitar" except for the finish, which made it more affordable. Definitely don't believe that.

Basically a cheap American Stratocaster which represents the entry-level for USA made ones. Mine is a 2002, Cocoa trans nitrocellulose finish severely abused by the preceeding owner, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, 22 medium jumbo frets, 3 single coil pick-ups, 1 volume and two tone knobs wired the classic Strat way except for the mid p.u. which isn't reverse wound and polarized so that pos. 2&4 are not hum-cancelling (more a vintage choice, quite unusual on modern Strats). Anyway these are the features anyone could expect from a Stratocaster. Comes with a gig bag (certainly not a luxury item, but comfortable and useful anyway). It's all that I need.

The sound is amazing for the buck! The very thin (someone said "poor") laquer finish lets the body's wood (a very well matched 2-pieces alder) resonate even unplugged and this results in a very good sustain and a brilliant tone. The pick-ups are not that holy grail, but they sound good and articulate once you properly set their height. They're authentic single coil and that's what they sound like: bright, a little thin in the bridge pos especially when highly overdriven, but more than adequate for what they're meant to deal with (I mean Blues, Texas Boogie, Southern Rock, Classic Rock).
They are a little bit noisy, as any other single-coil, but this shouldn't be an issue as in Studio for recording you can get rid of it with a good gate and when playing live THAT noise is way lower than the crowd will ever produce ;).
Anyway, if you want your strat to be hum-free, you can swap the PU's and get Kinman's (I have a set of Woodstock 69 Regular on my main Strat and they're fantastic!).
The mid P.U. being not reverse wound and with the same polarity as bridge and neck ones make pos. 2&4 sound more clear than on modern Strats, I dare to say this adds a little vintage flavor to the sound.
I'm completely satisfied with it, though this will of course be my second guitar.
Just one more little remark: you can read 1,000,000+ reviews, but the quality of sound dipends on whose ear is listening; and, most of all, sound is in your fingers and YOU are supposed to make your guitar play!

I bought mine 2nd-hand, and I think the hands that played it were really heavy!!!! Anyway, the thin finish will relic pretty soon even if you take care of your guitar as it was a baby, but I think this can make it even more charming and most of all it's the main thing that make it sound well.
The neck is fine, with a good radius and a fine choice of woods but the frets...AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!! It seems like Marty Feldman himself has fretted the board: frets' height and alignement are as randomic as the teeth in a 90 years old man's mouth!
I had it re-fretted by a luthier and now it's fabulous!

All Fenders are built to last and are not scared about (ab)using (think about Hendrix or SRV!) and, except for the finish, I believe this one will be dependable as any other even much more expensive strat.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing for 30+ years, a decade across late 80's and 90's as a pro in more Blues and Southern Rock bands than I can remember.
I owned lots gear, many Gibson's (2 SG's, LP's Std and custom, ES 335, 175 and 347 stereo) Fender's (many Strats, various Teles) Yamaha and Ibanez semiacoustics; mainly Marshall amps until 1999, then Engl and now two Fender Blues Jr MIM (wonderful amps!!!). My actual rig is: strat or tele > Marshall BB2 overdrive (occasionally substituted by a TS9) > Fender Blues Jr. I play now to satisfy my passion and gig mainly for charity purposes through Catholic Churches and occasinally in small clubs with other ex-pro's.
This guitar was bought to be my "stage mule" but its character is gonna let it win some more, I guess. All in all, a good Strat at a reasonable price. I suggest, where possible, to buy it used: you won't be disappointed about what you payed for!

Features as described very well already. The tremelo block is also an upgrade from my previous HWY 1.

The new pickups are a big improvement. Advertised to give a more modern sound, but I think they capture the vintage sound better than the previous pickups. No top end harshness at all, nice rich sound when overdriven as well.

Overall, the quality was excellent. The set up was excellent and the intonation was spot on. The fret work was very nice. My only complaint is that the string tees were not mounted where the tee is perpendicular to the nut. Since they have a alignment stud, you can't rotate them. It makes the strings screach when you are tuning, but amazingly enough, the guitar stays in tune extremely well. This very issue caused me to trade my last HWY 1 since the G string would not stay in tune due to the string tee alignemnt.

The finish is extremely thin so expect it to wear pretty fast especially since it is nitro. I normally change the tuners and bridge on these to locking tuners and a Callaham bridge, but it stays in tune so well, I'm going to leave it alone.

I have four strats and have owned many more. This is an excellent value in a strat that sounds great and is fun to play. I think it is much better than the previous HWY 1 offerings. It's a nice alternative to the American Standard and the addition of the jumbo frets with the new pickups actually make it a better buy in my opinion. However, a $700 guitar should come with a decent case, not a gig bag. Come on Fender, not everyone likes the relic look, and a nice hard case will actually make the nitro last longer.

This is the new 2006 upgrade Highway one. Thin nitrocelluose finish, large 70s headstock, JUMBO frets, vintage tremolo, alnico III pickups S/S/S/, alder original contour, rosewood fingerboard. I give it a 10 for having all the features that are important to ME.

This guitar sounds great. I play mostly Blues and Rock. I am using it through a Zvex Nano head with occasional Fuzz and Pickup Booster. Pickups are a little noisy, but not as bad as my American Series was. I think I will actually keep these pickups, something I have never done before. I had Kinmans in my American Series that I traded in for the Highway One, so far I do not miss them. The sounds the guitar makes are pure Fender, which sound great when overdriven. So far I like the Greasebucket Tones Control. There is nothing about the sound that I do not like.

The guitar seemed to be set-up well from the factory, but I put 10s on it as soon as I got home and did my own setup. I added two springs and tightened the claw screws to lock the bridge and of course had to adjust the truss rod to compensate for the heavier strings. No surprise that the intonaions was way off after the new strings. String height was perfect and bridge radius was spot on, no adjustments here. Just a couple flaws from the factory. The rosewood has 2 light gouges at about the 19th fret that appears to have been caused when the guitar was fretted at the factory. These run across the fret but do not hurt anything. No problem. The second flaw is in the finish. Looks like some dust got under the finish in a couple places, but I do not mind at all. Not noticeable unless you really look. I am completely happy with the quality of the build. The frets are well dressed and there is no problematic string buzz to speak of.

This guitar seems more durable to me than my American Series. The hardware is rugged and should stand up well. The finish is very thin, but hey... its NITROCELLUOSE. I don't expect the finish to handle abuse very well and will love every minute of it :)

I have no opinion on customer support.

I have been playing for 25 years. I have owned mostly Strats and this one is my favorite of all time. If it was lost or stolen I would find and punish the thief severely. I love everything about this guitar. My favorite feature is the jumbo frets. Bending strings is effortless. I also really like the Nitro finish. The Highway One (upgrade) is a no-nonsense tone machine. Easy playability and built like a tank.