Fender Standard Stratocaster

I bought my Standard Strat in 1997 new. All the standard Fender features, 3 single coils, vintage tremola, 21 frets, etc. I love the maple neck on this....it has a very smooth fret board. No case was included with the guitar.

For the price, this guitar is hard to beat. The best starter guitar out there. It has a definite Fender tone and decent playability. You can definitely play all styles from Blues to metal. A good package. Now, I do not mean to say this guitar is even close to an American Fender or a Gibson les Paul...it is not. But as a starter its great and and it does sound good.

I play hard rock through metal - Deep Purple to Van Halen to GNR

For the price...a very pleasant suprise. The materials are not expensive but they are not cheap quality either. This guitar looks good, the finish is good, the fret board is very good...the knobs and tremola are very entry leval but have not failed. I also own a Blackmore Strat which was much more expensive and it could not take the beating this guitar can. So for the price....no complaints. Again, can't be compared to more expensive American built Fenders, Gibsons, Music Man, etc....but for the low proce it is very good.

No issues at all after 8 years. I gave this guitar to my son who is learning the guitar and this baby is as good as new.

For a $300 brand name guitar this thing is great. The best entry leval guitar out there. I played this through my amps: a Fender Stage 25 watt amp, a Line 6 AX2, and a Marshall half stack. It sounds very good...more than what you'd expect. I own a Gibson Les Paul Standard DC, a Custom Carvin 127, and a Peavey EVH Wolfgang....and they of course blow this entry Fender away. But, keep in mind the cost and this guitar is great. I've been playing 10 years and have played lead guitar in a working band. I have never used this on stage but I would not feel uncomfortable if I did. I own Fender Ritchie Blackmore LE Strat that sounds better but can't take the beating this thing can. So bottom line, as an entry level guitar that you can use live this Fender is a great buy....but, don't think it will stand-up to a Gibson les Paul, a Music Man, a EVH Wolfie oran American made Strat.

Made 2001 in mexico. 21 frets. fender call the colour of mine blue agave, i'd call it light blue powder finish. all the standard stuff, three single coils, vintage tremolo bridge, ceramic magnets, five way selector switch etc. nothing to get too excited about. strap locks would have been nice but for the money i suppose i cant complain.
the guy at the shop threw in a strap and a stand which was nice.

sound is very bright, glassy i suppose you call it. unfortunately there is no tone control for the bridge pickup, so there is nothing you can do about that. all the same, the pickups give great definition to each note played, not at all muddy. it sounds fantastic overdriven for that status quo sound, but not what your going to play metal on. two of the positions on the selector are hum cancelling which works great, but i find that as long as your not standing right in front of your computer moniter its not that noisy anyway.

this guitar feels fantastic to play. its my favorite thing about the whole guitar. the neck is basically the same as the neck on an american strat, minus the biconcave truss rod. it is soooo smooth to play. setup was good when i got it, but i set it up myself to take 10-46 instead of the standard 9-42 guage strings. well made guitar, played it loads and the frets havent worn down much and the hardware is nice and shiny. onlt minus is the saddles wear quite quickly. if is wasnt for this id give it a 10

it has yet to give up on me. giged with it a couple of times with no problems at all. i have already mentioned the wear on the saddles

never had to deal with fender

been playing four or so years now. own an epiphone les paul standard plus, a zoom 606II pedal, often used as an on the go tuner, and a boss ds1 distortion(go buy one, its great), all played through a fender stage 100. also have a cheap acoustic.
if this guitar were stolen i would probably buy a fender tele instead, not because this isnt a great guitar, but i like that tele twang. love the overdriven rock n roll sound it makes, and the clear notes, but wish it had less treble. also love the neck

This is a standard stratocaster made in Mexico with the typical three single coil pickups with a black finish.

I have been playing for about five years and am mostly into blues styles. I use a Boss ds-1 distortion pedal plugged into a 25 watt practice amp with reverb. I strive for a Clapton like tone, meaning clean distortion. This guitar is a little noisy when switched to the bridge pickup. It produces the classic strat tones and has a lot of the "quack" sound that is so typical of the strat. The guitar is not very bright sounding and the pickups are a little muddy on all settings. I do not feel as if this is a very good choice as a rythm guiter because it seems to lack punch. On the other hand it makes a pretty good lead guitar because of the wide range of tones it can produce. Honestly if I were going to play this guitar on stage I would probably experiment with some better pickups to see if it would brighten up a little bit.

This guitar had no flaws in fit or finish and was set up perfectly for me right out of the box. Intonation was right on. There was no fret buzz anywhere. The action was just right.

I would see no problem with this guitar as far as reliabilty is concerned. The hardware is high quality and seems durable. I would play this guitar without any qualms and not worry about it falling apart or letting me down in any way.

Never had a problem

I have been playing for five years. I own a tele and an Ibanez Artcore. Have previously owned Hamer and a Les Paul, Yamaha acoustic and various amps. If this guitar was lost I probably would not by another although this has more to do with my evolving playing style than it has to do with the guitar itself. I love the nice action on this guitar but dislike its somewhat flat sound.I really did not compare this with other guitars because I wanted a fender strat and did not want spend the money on an american version.

2003 Hecho En Mexico! It's the standard 21-fret, 3 single-coil Strat fare. Ceramic pickups that sound decent but a bit bright. 3-tone sunburst. Nice profile neck (C modern shape). Ping standard tuners. 6-screw vintage type tremolo bridge. The body is alder, the neck maple with a really light, almost reddish brown rosewood fretboard that looks killer with a mint green pickguard.

I replaced the stock ceramic pups with Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials - they sing.

This guitar is perfectly suitable for blues, blues-rock and country types - which is good, because that's what I play. So far, it's quiet, but then I don't typically have a problem with hum here anyways - perhaps because I live in an apartment and can't really crank it. Oh well. I play it through a guitar modelling processor into an RMS 400D run clean. With the Texas Specials, this thing rocks. The sound is twangy, quacky and bright, but not icepicky. Just right.

Sustains for a century, and plays like buttah. It's pretty slinky, even for the vintage size frets. The setup was totally off when I got it, although it was used. It looked like a 5-year-old broke into Daddy's tool chest and started cranking whatever screw they could find. I did a setup on it after changing the pickguard and pickups, and now it's very sweet. I love the neck profile.

The fretboard is groovy. The frets are filed nicely and there's nothing sharp at all.

Oh, I believe it would do great in a live setting. It's a quality piece of equipment. The finish is polyurethane - hard plastic. It'll outlive me. Although I'd have no problem saying it's a very dependable guitar, gigging without a backup would be like driving a car with no spare. What happens if a tire blows out? What happens if a string breaks?

Never needed to.

I've been playing for about 6 months now. It's a great hobby, and I encourage everyone to try guitar at least once throughout their lives. I also have a Squier Deluxe Strat FMT with Lace Hot Golds.

I do wish it came with 22 frets, but I can always bend up.

My Strat is a 2000 Mexico-built model. 21 frets, 3 single-coil pickups w/ 5-way selector, (I think they switched to Alder in 2000 but it may be poplar), maple neck, rosewood fretboard, purplish-blue finish, tremolo system.

I run the Strat to a Boss GT-3 and either into a blackfaced 1970 Twin or a 1964 bassman head through the Twin speakers (Jensen Special Design reissues). More than anything, tone is what matters for me so to that end here is the most important point: No 2 guitars are quite alike. Having had a 1962 sunburst Strat for 16 years, I new what I wanted out of another Strat. So, I spent all day at the largest music store in Charlotte (Reliable Music - now defunct) trying out only Stratocasters with the only criteria being getting the one with the best tone. I was prepared to spend what it took to get a good instrument, expecting it would be American made. I literally tried every single Strat, but here's the kicker - I did not plug them into an amp - yet! After I tried every one in the store, this purple, Mex Strat is what i eneded up with (not my favorite color). Then and only then did it get an audition through an amp. At the time I thought the pickups were not that great, but hey, I had a great sounding piece of wood! I see a lot of reviews where folks bad mouth the stock pickups so here's my 2 cents: Make sure the pickups are the culprit before you shell out for some new ones. I wrongly assumed my Strat would benefit from a pickup refit so I tried Kinman pickups for 2 years (see my review, even though I have a slightly different opinion now) and then tried Fralin blues pickups for a few months. Now, I am back on the stock Mex pickups. For the variety of music I play, these work better than the 300$ customs! To be fair, the Fralin neck pickup had a hair more character and the stock bridge pup could use a little more mids, but for me they work well enough. I was very surprised when I put the original pickups back in the guitar and got this reaction. Maybe it is because they seem to have a little more output than a vintage pickup. My amp seems to respond better to this higher output. My point is, don't assume anything about where a guitar is made, the pickups, etc., you have to try it out! If the wood sounds good, you can always change the electronics or other parts to suit your needs.

I don't remember how this thing came setup. I always do my own setups. I find that most new guitars straight from the music store are not setup that well.

This is my main guitar and it is totally reliable with a very tough polyester finish. It still looks new, even though I haul it around only in a gig bag. To complete the review, the parts on this guitar are what you would expect for an inexpensive instrument, no frills but they do the job. It stays in tune (you have to have it set up correctly - thats the trick, expecially with the tremolo versions). The pots are getting a little scatchy after 5 years. This is normal for any guitar.

Never called customer support

I have been playing for 40 years, much of it professionally. I have owned old strats, Les Pauls and SG's. Besides the Strat, I currently own a Schecter PT Elite and a Martin D-35. I am over the vintage guitar hype (although I do miss my '62 Strat sometimes, but not enough to spend 16 grand for one). Their are some very fine instruments being made today. The technology just gets better and there is something out there for everyone. This guitar was very well made and well worth the price paid. I would buy another if I needed one. If the color was right and it still sounded the way it does, it would get a 10!

2005 Mexican Standard Stratocaster
21 Frets
Alder Body
Maple Neck and Fretboard
Tremolo Bridge
Non Locking Fender Machine Heads
Jumbo Frets, 25 1/4 Scale Length
... pretty standard

It sounds like a Strat, no other way to put it. With the stock pickups it sounds a little thin, and slightly bright, but for an entery level Strat, it does all you can ask for. I play through a variety of setups including a Line 6 POD, a 1974 Peavey Deuce 212 Combo, and various PA's and the sound remains fairly consistant. You can't get any good distorted sounds with it for chunky rythem riffs, but it handles the bright lead just fine. It sounds like a Strat, so dont expect anything more.

Other than having fret burrs that can get really annoying, i have no complaints with the action, fit and finnish. Everything played the way it was supposed to straight out of the box. I had tightened the Tremolo Springs slightly, but that was all personal preferance.

I havent had it for all too long, but it seems like it is too much of a "Toy". This guitar is strictly for home usage. When it comes to gigging, I can depend on my Les Paul, and PRS 24 Custom.

It comes with a lifetime LIMITED warrenty, which probaly isnt worth the paper its written on, but luckily enough ive never had to deal with Fender.

Ive been playing guitar for nearly 10 years. Over this time I have played and owned a variety of instruments. I wouldnt say there is anything spectaculary about the Mexican Standard Strat except for the price. If it were lost or stolen, I doubt i would buy another one. When i was looking for guitars, i compared it to the Highway 1 Strat, but i chose the Standard because it was 300 Dollars cheaper. Looking back on it i should have ponied up the dough for the Highway 1.

Not sure of the year it was made, but a very nice MIM Strat. Didn't think any Stratocaster made outside of America would sound decent after oning, playing and listening to a couple of those '80's made god awful pieces of flotsam, but I like this, have recorded with it, performed with it. Mine is a five way switch, swapped out the pup's for Seymour Duncan Texas Hots. Standard bridge that seems t be defeloping some burrs as it is consistently breaking strings on me, but I seem to have that issue with most guitars. Not oveloaed with features, kind of the basic five way switching, three pickups, so give this this only a 7.

I play mostly oldies, country, and classic rock, strats are made for that sort of thing. Wouldn't buy a start to play metal, this guitar is no exception, however you can rock out with this thing, Hendrix used one> I am using it with a Tech 21 Sansamp and Carvin power amp, but am ordering a Hot Rod Deluxe. You really have to like the sound of single coils, but I love the sound of this and starts in general.

No problem with this at all , guitar plays like it was made for me, hate to sound like a goofball, but guitars are like puppies, you can tell you found the one you want as soon as you pick it up, this was hte case with mine. Played it next to a deluxe american strat and wondered why someone would pay that much more for one that doesn't seem to sound a whole lot better. This guitar has got to be on eof the all time winners of the "most bang for the buck" award. Plays like a dream, won't break your back or your bank account like , i.e. a Les Paiul Custom.

HAsn't been an issue so far, but the bridge saddles seem to be wearing down and developinng burrs, and the tuners seem to be developing a slight catch to them. Only issue I have.

Never used 'em.

Been playing 30 years, long enough to know good from bad. This is very nice.

I'm not sure the year it was made. I'm guessing between 00-05. 22 frets. Solid top. It is just your average mex. strat.

It suits my music style(everything from lynrd skynrd to cky to nirvana). Im using it through a crush 30r ss amp, not the best but plan on getting some thing better soon. I have fender vintage noiseless pickups in it. Without the new pickups i would rate the guitar about a 7 with the noiseless pick ups i would rate it an 8. But sense the review is on the stock guitar it gets a 7. The stock pickups just dont have enough emph! to them. I cant explain it. It is a good first guitar though.

Everything that was supposed to work when you first get it worked. Nothing misaligned or loose or anything like that. The string choice was poor on there part, but that's a wholenother issue. The action is descent, maybe a little above average.

It is very solid. I bang it around all the time(on accident of course) and it still sounds the same and nothing on it has broken. But i havent really had it that long to know how it will last.

The people i got the guitar from were really nice and helpful. Now the person that i got the pickups from was a real jerk. Never going back there again. But the issue is on the guitar not the pickups.

Ive been playing guitar for about 6 years. I have owned a few guitars and played many more. I would have to say that overall this guitar is versitile. It is descent but i still think you get what you pay for. But if you want a really nice strat i would suggest a suhr or a zion, but those are way more expensive. It's fun to play and I'll probably invest more in it and see how good it can sound.

This was a recent special production run of the Standard Strat model made at Fender's Ensenada, Mexico factory. Features include
? BODY: Alder
? Top: Flame Maple (it's killer)
? NECK: Maple, Modern "C" Shape
? MACHINE HEADS: Fender/Ping Standard Cast/Sealed Tuning Machines
? FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, 9.5" Radius (241 mm)
? NO. OF FRETS: 21 Vintage Style Frets
? PICKUPS: 2 Tex-Mex? Calibrated, Overwound, Single-Coil Strat Pickups (Neck and Middle), 1 Tex-Mex ?Hot Bridge? Single-Coil Strat Pickup (Bridge)
? BRIDGE: Vintage Style Synchronized Tremolo

Controls, chrome hardware and a white pickguard are what you would expect to find on a Made in Mexico Strat.

The flame maple top is stunning and with the brown sunburst finish (darkened body edges) and vintage look tinted neck wood with dark rosewood fretboard it looks like something that belongs on the cover of vintage guitar magazine. They nailed a perfect look with the finish. I decided to put this in with MIM Standard reviews after debate. I know there is a Tex-Mex Strat and a Standard Strat without the upgraded pickups. This guitar has a maple cap on alder which neither of the other two versions have. A very nice padded Fender gig bag was included as well as the nicely done owners manual. If pictures were allowed in the reviews this model would win a beauty contest against most Strats out there both Mexican and USA. Keep the locking nuts, coil tap switches and other gizmos for other guitars. The basic Strat is workhorse that has made it's place in music history. Nothing fancy in the hardware department which is fine with me.

Compared to my American is has a bit more warmth and bite. Sounds like a Strat should. Strats are like paint. You start with clean white and add tint to suit your taste. Too many guitars are dark and poor sounding out of the box. It's hard to reverse the sound and try to clean up something that's had too much color added. I do rock, blues and some country. It will provide the spectrum of colors I need as my mood and style change.

I looked it over hard. If this one is typical of MIM Strats lately I would suggest you only but the American version for investment purposes of some sort. The workmanship is excellent. So much so I'm stunned at this price and I've had lot of six strings pass through my hands in twenty plus years of playing. It puts my American Strat to shame in the finish department. Frets, paint application, fretboard edges... they did it right. Fit of parts is very good. Action is up to the player's preference and with a few tweaks this thing now begs to be played. I was expecting a nice player but nothing great when I ordered it. The QA department at the Ensenada, Mexico plant were doing their job when this thing was built.

It will be around longer than I will. Strat replacement and upgrade parts can be had everywhere. Reliable or Durable is a non-issue here.

Buy from a trusted dealer. They will always be your best support no matter what brand of music equipment you purchase. Other than that I will say Fender's website is among the best out there. You can find lessons, artist biographies and alot more than just product pushing pictures.

Last new guitar I bought was a Washburn Force 3 in the early eighties. It was junk but I was fairly new to playing and didn't know much then. Always bought used through the years after that. More for the money that way. The price on this for what you get told me it was time to get the wallet out. Even at new pricing I would consider this one of my best buys. That Made in Mexico sticker on the headstock is going to shock alot of people around town. This guitar is that good. Thanks Fender Mexico and Harmony Central for giving space to real users to post real reviews not driven by the advertising dollar you see in magazines.

98 fender standard stratocaster made in mexico. Usual strat features like volume, 2 tone controls, 5 way selector, S/S/S pickups. My came in the black finish with maple fretboard ala clapton blackie. The standard trem block was crap so i changed it to a callaham mexican upgrade.. heaps better, better tone and sustain. One thing i must note though was that the neck is fantastic, much better feel than my american standard strat, but than, i reckon i did get one of the better mexican strats around. Pretty lucky as i heard some were pretty crap.

basic strat tones, full fat sounding neck pu, twangy bridge with the usual strat quacks at the 2 and 4 positions. I play rock, blues and jazz with the odd smattering of british indie rock, hopefully i can get something going on there. I run the guitar through a dunlop 535q wah - visual sound jekyll & hyde - eh memory man deluxe - fender champ. Pickups buzz but they are hot, and a little too bright for my taste. Gonna shield the guitar and dump in a set of fralins and see how it goes, also gonna route tone know 2 to the bridge pickup instead. Well, versatile yes, but the pickups dont really cut it.

My mex strat was in really good nick when i got it, action was not bad and fittings was good. One thing though was a poorly filed nut, otherwise, i was impressed with the quality of fitment. But hey, any new guitar no matter how expensive or cheap needs to be set up to suit the player. No physical flaws to speak of. very happy with the factory setup. A couple of mods should make this guitar a killer.

Good to go as a number 1, should last tons of abuse.

Never tried.. though fender should suck pretty bad at this..

Been playing for close to 12 years, wasted the past 3 years not playing and just picking up the pieces now. I have an american standard strat (92), les paul standard (89) and hopefully, a nice MIJ sunburst JV strat (83) very soon. I love beating the hell out of strats.. they are fantastic guitars if you get a good one. My amstad is alright but i am really lusting for a nice jap strat. This mexican one should be fantastic once i mod it a little. Its a nice base for a project and honestly, it feels more right playing this one than either of my other guitars, the cheapness and great playability of this guitar rocks. I picked up an mex strat in a store here in melbourne and it was pretty lame, crap neck, bad feel. The quality control for the mex strats is all over the place and really, it would be better if you tried them out before purchase. I just got lucky coz mine was a gorgeous black finish and i just bid without trying, and did i mention it has a fantastic neck. Pretty good to go with any strat once you dump in some choice parts. Very good value.