Fender Lite Ash Strat

Made in Korea, purchased second-hand at GAK in Brighton (that's the UK, folks) for a relative steal. Features include the usual 2-point tremolo, five-way selector switch, maple neck with birdseye maple fingerboard and those fantastic Seymour Duncan Pickups. Basically standard Strat fare with a nice twist. The body is (obviously) made from Ash. The tuners and string trees are standard 'budget' fare (although they function well and do not require any upgrading). A lovely V-shaped neck which takes a little getting used to, being used to a PRS neck.

All in all, a well-equipped guitar with a couple of minor compromises in the raw hardware category, but with an excellent upgrade in the pickup department that easily cancels this out.

A beautifully versatile guitar. It does what every Strat does and that is, everything well. In the bridge position it has a lovely 'fruity' sound that sounds great with a little reverb, and going further back the tone gradually thins into the brightness of the neck unit. Great for pretty much anything except the heaviest of metal.

The only criticism is a bit of noise from the pickups, which is to be expected with single-coils of this variety. In fact, I was recently playing a Custom Siggery Telecaster, which is a much more expensive guitar and even at the higher end of the spectrum, the single-coils were suffering from some hum. I turned off the nearby television and it went down to a much lower noise floor. Nothing serious unless put through some SERIOUS gain stages and even then it's not an issue once you've started playing.

The sheer quality of the pickups wins this out.

The guitar was set up with a slightly higher action than I'm accustomed to. Twenty minutes with an Allen key sorted this out with no issues. I also fitted some Rotosound Blues prior to the action adjustment and these were an improvement over the installed strings - as it usually is.

Interestingly, this guitar was second-hand, but I suspect it was basically new as the original Fender 'bullet' ended strings were still installed and the plastic protection was still evident on the rear cavity cover.

I also fitted an extra spring to the tremolo unit that I borrowed from my PRS Santana SE. It came with two springs and I'm used to something much more resistant. Not a criticism, just a personal preference.

Overall, whilst the action required some adjustment and the scale length dictates that the tension is naturally a little high even with the gauge 10 strings (I used to play with 12's, I know about string tension!) this guitar is superbly playable and frankly invites you to have a go.

Feels absolutely bulletproof. I have a feeling this would survive nuclear holocaust, although naturally I would not like to be proved otherwise!

Although I'm a relatively inexperienced, I've had my hands on a lot of guitars. Recently I've been playing an 80's Ibanez 'Musician, a Mexican-made Stratocaster, the aforementioned Siggery Telecaster as well as my ubiquitous PRS Santana SE. This guitar compares well with all of them. It has a distinct personality in terms of playability and sound which is all I can ask for in a guitar. An excellent overall package and compared favourably in the shop with a Danelectro Pro '59 (Which I was seriously considering) and a MIM Standard Telecaster (which felt uninspiring in comparison.)

Although I'm not one for buzzwords, I can try and describe this guitar as 'zingy' It feels energising and inspiring to play and the sound is equally enjoyable. If you want a guitar that compares with the high-end MIA Strats and Teles for half the price and is a little different from the standard fare, I can highly recommend this. More than the sum of its parts.

You'll know the business from all the other reviews.

Have had the guitar for about 3 months mow, which is plenty of time to get acquainted and offer comment. Provides a wide rage of sounds, with positions 2 and 4 particularly interesting. I think the bridge pu is too cutting (the treble is outlandish) and could do with being hooked up to the tone pot. Really beefy tone though throughout. Great value.

No problems, although the action was too high. Beautiful guitar, and as for the nech, absolutely beautiful.

Think that a lot of the hardware, whilst adequate, is a bit 'bargain basement'. The tuners, pots, switch, nut and whammy are sub standard and will need replaced at some point. All the important **** i.e. body, neck and pickups are superb.

Although I have been playing for more years than I care to remember this is my first 'premier league' guitar (well almost, had a Mex Tele for a while). Its certainly all I had hoped for and more. Not only are you getting quality, but the price defies belief. Happy bunny!!!!

Nice birdseye V neck on the one I purchased. The neck woods appear like they should have been aged a little better, but overall beautiful features for a guitar in this price range. Some locking tuners and a graphite nut would be a nice addition. The plastic nut is the first thing that has to go. ;)

The natural tone of the guitar is great. It really suits all styles with the right pickups. I am running it through a silver faced twin with a mercury transformer and true bypass pedals and it sounds pretty amazing. I can't comment on the seymour duncans as I changed them to Kinman Woodstocks immidiately. Woodstocks are noiseless and have the best strat tone for sitting in a mix and Hendrix/Stevie Ray impersonations ever, also very versitale.

Guitar was great cosmetically. I wasn't aware of any flaws except for some discoloration in the birdseye on the neck. The setup after a few tweaks and new graphite nut was down below 6 100ths of an inch at the 12th fret and plays great. The stock switch is the crappy plastic box kind and should be replaced with a switchcraft or knock off 5 way.

Seems very solid and definately gig worthy once set up properly. I would never gig without multiple guitars, but if I could take only one I am sure it would do just fine.

Overall this is a great guitar for the money compared to the American strats. Nothing is perfect but most guitars could use a visit to the plec machine these days. I have been playing 26 years and teaching the last 13 and I would not hesitate to pick up one again. I own so many guitars and amps it is borderline ridiculous(tax write off). My biggest complaint really is the hokey fender logo which is placed poorly. If it were lost or stolen I'd take the insurance money and spend a few extra nights in Maui.

Beautifull Clear ash with lacquer finish. Highly figured birdseye maple neck and fretboard made in Korea. After reading a review here I unscrewed the neck pocket and mine says made in Korea so I don't no why there is disparity on production but mines a 2006 and it's Korean made. The body is definetley not swamp ash (way too light) at just over 7 lbs. Beautiful grain on the ash. V shaped neck is very smooth and comfortable. I swaped out the tuners for Fender Chrome locking tuners and replaced the bridge with a fishman acoustic power bridge so I have a split signal to an acoustic and electric amp.

WOW! The Seymore Duncans are great in this guitar, they add a whole new experience to the Fender strat and with the Power bridge volume wired to the middle tone I have an incredible axe. The rear tone is the master tone but the sound of the Seymores' and the fishman together is just fantastic. I use an acoustisonic Jr. and a Traynor CYV 20WR tube amp and I have a very, very unique tone. I love it.

It came with great action and fit and finish on everthing was exemplory right out of the box but the mods I have done have made it even better.

Gigs with no problems whatsoever every weekend but anyone who plays witout a backup has a screw loose or hasen't played out much.

Great guitar and the mods I had done (by a pro) have made it even better. Locking tuners are a must for any giging pro. I am constantly getting complemnts on the sound and everyone (especially other guitarist) wants to try it after the show. The mods wern't cheap but compared to the sound I got from doing them they were wort alot more than what they cost.

Lite ash body (not the lightest guitar though) and birdseye maple neck, 3x SD alnico single coils and a rather cheap tremolo. If you don't use it(tremolo), you'll never notice, but I use it A LOT! Made in Korea, though some people say it's really made in Indonesia by Cort. It doesen't matter-as long as it's a good guitar. The pups are excellent, and the pots are better than Mexican (500k instead of 250k crap). Had mine for about nine months. The guitar looks amazing and the playability doesen't fall behind. Two points off for tremolo and bridge pup. Also the tremolo isn't compatible with an upgrade!

Great for 70's sound. I played an original 70's strat which looked almost exactly like mine disregarding the great 70's headstock. It sounds as good if not better than the 70's original. The pups are great for that vintage sound (think JJ Cale, SRV, Dire Straits etc.). This guitar delivers what it's meant to. The pups are a little noisy with a good bass response, flat mids and trebles full of harmonics. I play mine through a Laney VC30-212, a match made in heaven. I found the bridge pup useless, so I replaced it with a Hot Rails-now I have much more variety.

Factory setup was real crap, it took me almost 2 weeks of adjusting everything to get it set up properly. The truss rod screw was so loose it almost came off when I test played my guitar. Apart from the setup the guitar is made very well, the frets don't have sharp edges, neck is straight, no buzzing or the like. Compared to my old Mexican strat I'd say it's made a little better-add the 10+ pups to that and get the picture. Three points off for setup.

It seems made well enough to give me years of trouble free service-but time will tell, so no opinion here.

No idea, hopefully I won't need them. Ever.

Been playing for 15+ years. Had a Mexican strat w/noiseless pup upgrade, two Squiers (worst guitars ever), Ibanez S540 and still have a Fender 50th deluxe (great guitar), Ibanez AR300 and a few quality acoustics. This guitar has one of the best price/performance ratios. If only the tremolo was a bit better it would get a 10 here. If you want a 70's Strat sound and not spend a fortune-this guitar is your answer. Rock on.

nice polyurethane white color
I like the brass bridge
tuners could use improvement
frets(22) are nice and big
maple neck is nice to look at (mine has birdseyes and flames)

pickups are shitty for metal, so I put a Voodoo '57 bucker in the bridge position, sounds a lot better now

wit the bucker It has enough sound for metal

and a series/parallel switch makes it have nice sounds as well

the sides of the frets don't quite m,atch up to a bernie rico for the string pull effect that some metal guitarists
otherwise nice

seems tough

First thing to say, which nobody mentioned yet before. Nearly
all parts of this guitar were made by Cort (CorTek).

Cort often did a fantastic job for Fender or other Brands, for
example the Squier Pro-Tone Series or the G&L Tribute Series.

My Ash Body in Nature Finish is made of 3 piece. They matched these
pieces so perfekt, that you can only find the breaks in the wood grain with a very critical eye.

The Birds Eye Neck is very beautiful and has a nicely playable V-shape.

My guitar serial states october 2004. The neck says Made in Korea,
as it should.

BUT ...

If I unscrewed my neck from the body, the neckpocket says the body
ist made by Cort in Indonesia (!) not Korea. States august 2004.
IC Aug 2004.

I've found some more people who unscrewed their necks and all bodys
were made in Indonesia.

In my opinion this guitar is made in Indonesia by Cort and only
assembled in Korea.

Cort only uses Swamp Ash for their own Ash bodys and the Ash bodys
for G&L, which they do produce too. So I would say, this body could
be Swamp Ash as well.

But light weight? The whole guitar weights about 3700 gr which are
about 8.2 lbs. I mean this is real heavy for a "leightweight" guitar.

Often it is said here that the tremolo is like the American one with
some lower quality. Nope ... the tremolo is the CFAII-trem which means Cort Full Action II tremolo ... here only the brass sustain block is added.

The whole electrics are made by CorTek which belongs to Cort. Three
500kOhm pots ...

The Tuner are Gotoh Style, but they are the same as on the Squier Standard guitars.

Seymour Duncan put out some very nice pickups for this guitar. If you find the bridge pickup too harsh ... just wire it to the tone-pot of the middle pickup ... cause it isn't wired to any tone-pot.

Nice made guitar, fantastic looking, but Korean seems to be a fake.

Unplugged this guitar is a winner. I've played some guitars at the store ... but only a few (much more expensive) guitars had more vibe and tone from the wood.

The guitar sounds really fantastic. As often said, with more Output than the Amer??can Standards.

The guitar is loud, a bit harsh on the bridge (I like that) and very bluesy on the neck. The positions 2 and 4 are as Strat as they could be. Nice sparkly sound with a bit more low end than other Strats.

I play a Peavey Valveking 212 and this guitar rocks this amp. Very
sparkly and clean an the clean channel with Brightswitch on, smooth
and bluesy in the Leadchannel and loud and full of mids when Gain-Boost on.

I like this combination.

The Finish is without any mistakes. All is clear, no flaws or something.

Setup ... I can't say anything about that, cause I bought this guitar
used.

But in the store ... the necks of the lite ash's had no sharp fret ends or something like that. Seen lots of mexican fender guitars with this problem in the store.

The poly finish on the body is thick, I would say it should stay there for decades of years. The thin satin finish on the neck,
don't know if it is as steady as the body finish.

The original frets are a not so hard, they got some serious marks
within one year. I have to do a fretwork in the next time ... or refret the whole neck with some more stable fretmaterial.

Strap buttons are oversized ... would not expect any problems with them.

I think I don't need a backup for this guitar ... but I would change
the electronic to more stable ones. Had no problems so long, but safe is safe.

never dealed with them ... wiring diagrams are online ... if you need them. But not the partslist ... here it is ... someone on the
FDP-Forum got it by email from Fender:

P/N DESCRIPTION
- 0062473000 TUNERS, 38-11F CR (SET)
- 0072878000 Nut, EG42X3.4 WH, Cort
- 0072874000 Bridge assy, CFAII-CHR, Cort
- 0072805000 Tremolo arm, CFAII - CHR, Cort
- 9280730039 PICKUP, DUNC APS-1N OEM, neck
- 0072885000 P/U, SD, APS-1RWRP Alnico Pro2 Staggered, middle
- 0072886000 P/U, SD, APS-1B Alnico Pro2 - Staggered, bridge
- 0072889000 Control, 2401-D14SL-B500K, vol
- 0072890000 Control, 2401-D14SL-D500K, tone
- 0062393000 SWITCH, 5-WAY 252N Cort
- 0991365000 BLACK TONE/VOL KNOBS STRAT
- 0072892000 Jack, EG2P-CR, chrome, Cort
- 0072893000 Jack plate, NO-2 CR, chrome, strat, Cort
- 0072895000 Pickguard, 000811-1/BK, Lite ash strat
- 0054750000 STRAP BTN 'D' CHR

There are only a few problems ... you won't find any other tremolo that fits this guitar ... the NUT has no standard string spacing too. The graphtech TUSQ Nut Strat Style will not fit ...

Fantastic guitar ... best strat for this price.

Sounds very good, also unplugged. Good features ...

Don't like the complicated thing with spare parts ...

But, overall. I would by it again ;0)

I'll not go over the millions of details, but I got the gloss black version. More details on Fender.com. I immediately upgraded the saddles to graphtech, and strap buttons to strap locks. It's got Seymour Duncan pickups (Alnico II Pro Staggered).

I play contemporary Christian music. For Hillsong stuff, and most Christian music, it's right on the money. The pickups and body/neck wood combination give you a warm, full-frequency response and sound. It's a tiny bit boomy in the bass, but not to a fault. It's got true single coils, so you may get single coil noise / hum, but check your rig. I can plug it right into a '72 Fender Twin Reverb and get no hum in the single coil positions (1,3,5), assuming the amp isn't at 10 on volume. The sound has no "holes" in it, i.e. you get a great sound and response throughout the range of the instrument, and nice bass overtones as well. It has excellent variety of sounds as well, and is very versatile. Maybe you can't play Megadeth with it and sound just like them, but that's not a problem. Through the right amp, this guitar can do anything.

Action from the factory was impeccable: intonation was great, stock 9 strings were good, tremolo was floating, and there were no string buzzes. However, I set up my instruments myself :) This guitar was a "B-Stock" item due to a ding on the back of the guitar, but it's not noticeable, and that got me $200 off the normal sale price. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with this guitar at all.

Reliable as heck. Never had a problem with it. Now, gigging without a backup guitar isn't wise. However, I rarely worry about needing a backup guitar. Everything on this guitar seems to be of sufficient quality that I could play it for life.

Never needed Fender's customer support, but have called them before on other matters, and they've been very helpful.

According to the instructions on this site, "nothing is perfect", hence all 9's. However, I'd rather give it all 10's. The only thing I hate is that single coils hum a bit, but our church isn't the best in terms of how we run cables and wire stuff up, which is the real problem with hum. I get endless compliments on how it looks and sounds. The combination of an excellent neck, body wood, and the best brand of pickups (ahem :), this guitar is a keeper. Highly recommended for any style music where beautiful clean sound is most important (although this guitar can rock too).

You Know them from the other 37 Reviews!

Gave it a 9 because if you're just looking for a good, normal strat, nothing fancy, then this is it! THe only problem is that the tremolo only has 2 springs. Im going to add a third, to keep the guitar in tune wile doing bends.

This strat sounds great. I play mostly blues and classic rock, and this is a PERFECT sound for these styles. This thing can sound like any strat out there, SRV, Mark Knopfler, This thing can do it. I like it because it's versatile. It has a very crisp, bright sound on the bridge pick-up, and a beautiful, not to bright, not too full sound on the neck pickup. Of course, it cant get an extremely rich/full sound, as it has single coils, not humbuckers, but if thats the sound you're looking for, you shouldnt be looking at a strat!

I Play this through a Traynor 40 watt All tube amp. It sounds beautiful, like a match made in heaven. To me, its the way a strat shoud sound. I tried cheaper amps, but i think that this guitar really shines on a nice tube amp, but if thats not an option, don't go with something heavy sounding, like a randall. Try and find a nice fender amp.

This guitar is great for the blues, classic rock, funk, even hard rock. The only thing i wouldnt use it for is metal.

Like every strat, this one hums. But that is what makes the strat sound. Take that away, and you stray from the true strat sound. I won't take points away here either, because its a single coil problem, not a guitar problem.

Gave it 10 because it is EVERYTHING im looking for in terms of sound.

This guitar was set up fairly well at the factory, but the action needed to be raised slightly. When the high frets were bent(aroudn fret 15 on the thin E) it would fret out. After i raised the action a bit, it sounded flawless.

I raised the pickups, but i wont take off any points here, because that was completely personal preference. There was nothing wrong with the way they were set up originally.

The Finish on this guitar is beautiful. It looks better than it does in the pictures. From the pictures, i thought the guitar had to much black on it, but that is not the case. The Black is a very nice complement to the beautiful ash wood. The neck (birdseye maple) is beautiful as well.

There is a black spot in the wood that you probably wouldnt find in the american ones (if the american ones were made in this color) but i personally have no problem with it, as i find it adds character. I have the comfort of knowing that no other strat like it has a spot in the exact same spot, and that makes it my own. The spot is on the inside of one of the cutaways, so it is not obvious at all.

I'l give it an 8 because of the action and the spot, as some people might find it annoying, however it does not bother me at all.

This thing feels solid, feels like an american made strat.
The hardware seems very solid as well.
The finish does not seem like it will wear off
I replaced the strap buttons with dunlop dual-design straplocks, but that is just because i dont trust regular strap buttons. The original buttons seemed very solid.
I would feel perfectly comfortable using this guitar without a backup. This is definatly well build! 10.

Havn't dealt with Fender, so i cannot comment.

I've been playing for a couple years now. If this guitar were stolen or lost, i would definatly get another one. Its a great strat, and is definatly on par with the american ones. I Had the money to buy an american one, but after trying this one, i decided to get this one instead!

Already listed, not going to bother. Needs better tuners. Otherwise, nice features.

The tone fits my playing style perfectly. It is, like many others have said- very bright. I play blues mostly, and it works perfectly for me. Wide variety of sounds from the 5-way selector.

Finish is beautiful. Got the natural finish, it looks awesome. Birdseye maple neck is sweet. Frets are pretty good.

Factory setup is garbage. I mean, really, really bad. Needed a setup immendiatley to be able to play. Also, whatever strings they use are garbage. ugh.

Somehow, R.L. Lee managed to sign an inspection sticker approving this axe literally inches away from a missing screw in the pickguard. Sacrificed my squier to replace the screw.

Overall, if the axe was set up with decent strings, I'd give it an 8. No missing parts, it would get a 9. Was going to give it a 7, but man is it nice looking. Probably the nicest strat i've ever seen.

Solid as a rock. Built really well. Don't knock imports till you try them, much better build quality than American Fenders I played recently.

Was told it would take 4 weeks to get a replacement screw (?!) Are you serious?

For this guitar to be perfect it would need:
Better tuning machines
A setup from the factory (with decent strings)
No missing parts

I like it though. Its nice, definitley a step up from my next electric. If you play blues, i'd give it a shot before stepping up to an American. Hard rock/metal people will be dissapointed. I'd buy it again.