Fender Standard Stratocaster

if people tell you that you can't replace the pickups, they are dead wrong. this is just a bad urban myth. the pickups are the same shape and size as any pickup you would replace them with. this guitar was completely rebuilt by me. this frankenstein rebuild included new pickups (gfs I28, premium overwound alinco's), new volume and tone potentiometers, new sprague orange drop capacitor, brand new wiring and a new switch. buy one of these and hotrod it, and you can laugh at people who pay over $1000 for the same tone and less output.

stock sounded okay, but i wanted the warmth of real alnico pickups and the high output needed to drive the amp and pedals i prefer to use. stock, the mim's pickups rate about 6.0k-6.5k output. this is a little hotter than the american standard, but not what i need for my style. now, i am running 9.0, 9.2 & 9.4k neck, mid and bridge. i have to dial it down to 5 to stop overdriving my amp. perfect for myself.

when i bought this guitar, it had been spending the last 10 years in a gigbag in some closet. i am lefthanded and the guitar isn't. so, i had to completely set it up and it now works beautifully. there was a big ding on the side of the guitar that i covered with black nail polish.

come on, this is a real strat with real fender parts. it isn't an SX, or some other cheaply made, horrible sounding guitar.

warranty? it was in a closet for ten years and it's used.

i bought this guitar super cheap ($75.00) by running an ad on craigslist and running into someone who offered it to me at this price. of course, i jumped on it when i got the offer. i would have been an @sshole, if i offered $75, but i am not an idiot. i don't know this would happen every day, but it is worth a try. for about $150, i bought what was a very good starter guitar and turned it into a great guitar. again, the pickups in the mim fender strats are the same size and shape as any other fender strat pickup and it is just an urban myth that fender routes the bodies so you can't upgrade them. these are great guitars. buy one and you won't be sorry.

1999 Mexican Standard Strat, 21 frets, maple neck/fretboard.

I play mainly blues, and I must say that this guitar can hack it. I don't know what it is, but my guitar sounds exceptional on almost every amp. The bridge pickup is a little too twangy for me though.

The action is great, the pickups needed to be raised a wee bit, and as far as I could tell there were no superficial flaws. Outside of that, everything works great.

One of the saddles on the bridge looks like its about to fall off, but besides that, it's an amazingly solid guitar. I can't remember how many times I've dropped it, and so far I have one slight ding.

Never needed customer support.

I'd still go with an American Strat. On the flip side, my guitar plays as well as any American Strat, and it costs about $500 less. I have played other Mexican Strats that have been subpar, and I do believe that I just happened to get a really good one. I do not intend on buying another electric guitar for a while. I've bought two more acoustics and a resonator, and still haven't had or wanted to replace my strat.

-95' MIM fat strat special
-21 frets
-Volume knob, Tone knob, and a humbucker switch in the position of the normal second tone knob.
-H/S/S
-Maple neck, Alder body
-Black body, black pickguard with white lining.
-Gorgeous (Her name is Black Beauty)

I can get the signature fender stratocaster blues twang, and the fat gibson distortion in the same guitar. The strat special implies that instead of a second tone knob, I have a humbucker switch which changes the bridge humbucker to either a single coil or to be used as a humbucker pickup. I use a Marshall Valvestate amp to mimic more expensive tube amps, but with three channels, I can get gnarly distortion as well. I also use a boss gt-6 multi-effects pedal to get signature amp sounds and loads of effect combos.

The standard strat pick-ups sound perfect, although was thinking about trying some texas specials for the neck and middle positions to get a more vintage blues sound. The standard humbucker in the bridge position isn't quite hot enough for metal, but sounds just fine for rock...it is a strat.

Dropped it a few times chipping off some of the black finish, but she maintained her sound and playability. Built Fender tough.

The Fender is super versatile, and not to mention it's damn good looking. One can't go wrong. Save yourself $400 and get a mexi-strat...then if you like, use the money you saved to get upgrades (pickups, harware, etc.) I just wish mine had some vintage gold hardware to accent the black body.

My Stratocaster was made in mexico.2000, it has the usual number of frets and a normal amount on controls.The colour was white but has gone cream due to its age. It has a really nice maple Neck/Fretboard.

This guitar sounds absolutly amazing. I have played a Gibson Les Paul SG Standard, and the Strat (in my opinion) sounds sooo much better. This guitar sound so good and would suit most types of music.

Its Great??

This guitar seems sturdy when playing so i guess its very reliable.

Such an amazing guitar, you should buy it if you are looking for a fantastic sounding guitar without the use of any effects. Brilliant and much better value for sound than an SG.

My strat is a 2003 model made in Mexico. It has 20 frets. A solid top. there are two tone knobs and one volume just like any other strat with a 5 - way switch. I have a three single coil pickups. They are speed bullet pickups. I have a standard strat bridge with Graph Tech String Saver saddles.

It suits the blues and rock that i play. I am more of a heavy metal but i sometimes play a little blues. I use a danelectro compressor, fab tone, and chorus with a dunlop wah. There is a little noise but not enoght to really recognize. Amazing tone like no other. I can use many distorted sound and recieve plenty of feedback. I like the the whole body style.

In my opinion the factory setup this guitar very poorly. I had to raise the pickups at least a quarter of an inch. The bridge was fine but i dont like how the saddles are 1mm to small. The guitar was fine with everything else.

This strat can withstand any type of playing. I put my own cutom touch to it so it will last. The finish seems to be staying. I am going to buy strap locks because the buttons i have now allow the strap to slip off and i dont like that. This guitar is durable and i like it. I always bring a backup on a gig but i would trust to take just that one.

The company has been very nice and thay arent looking to rip me off like the other companies were. I have never tried to get it repaired. I have a lifetime warranty on my strat.

I have been playing for 6 years and i am 16. I own an Ibanez GAX 70, and an Alvarez acoustic. For pedals, i own a danelectro chorus, fab tone and compressor, and i also have a dunlop wah pedal. I own two amps. A KMD and a 50 watt Gorilla. I also own a 25 foot fender cable with little fender pedal cables and a couple radioshack 15 foot cables. I would prolly go into a little mental state of my own if i ever lost it or had my strat stolen. I love how it makes a sound like no other guitar. But i hate the weight. But i guess in all heavy guitars you will find the weight. I like the body style. I wish i had marshall stack amps and i wish i had an american made strat.

2002 model, made in Mexico. 21 frets, the body is alder or poplar..something like that. 2 tone and 1 volume knob. O.K. tuners, brindge, pick-ups, etc.

This was my first electric guitar and when I first got it I thought "Oh, what a great guitar!" But the longer that I had it the more and more dissatisfied I was with it. It was too "middle of the road". Not exceptional in any way....BUT that is the great thing about these little guys. You can add so much to them you can make them what you want. I bought a set of the Texas Special Pick-ups. Huge sound difference. Put on new tuners and saddles were upgraded. The next thing that I know, other than the body and neck (which were fine to begin with), I am playing a completely different guitar than I had in the first place. Make no mistake about it...this is an entry level guitar, and it is suited perfectly for that. Because it isn't great sonically it forces you to dick around with the tone and volume knobs and experiment with your amp and playing technique with your fretting hand. You damn sure can't rely on this thing to play itself for you and sound good. I recently purchased a Gibson '61 Reissue SG and after playing this Strat for awhile it makes you sound a lot better than you really are. But as good as that SG is I will continue to play my Strat because it is a good guitar. Between the pickups and other mods that were made to the guitar it is pretty much an old style Texas Special Strat. Don't think that this is a bad guitar because it's not. I would never get rid of this thing. Sounds great with only about $250 invested in it after the original purchase price. And the sound that $250 got me actually sounded more like $1000.

everything was what you would expect. I wasn't jumping up and down happy with the setup but I wasn't kicking myself either. Easy playing guitar. The finish on these things is tough as a damn billy goat. Unfortunatly that comes at a price and that is a somewhat "plastic" appearance which from about day 3 of having that guitar always kinda bugged me. Neck is pretty snug in the body cavity. You can't fold a piece of paper in half and get it to slide between the neck and body. Like I said "pretty snug". And another thing that I have noticed that just irks the piss out of me is that the maple headstocks on about 3/4 of these guitars looks like they have been bleached. AGHH! I think from spending so much time playing in smoke filled garages and rooms mine has actually tinted itself and looks almost like it has been stained. But just notice that if your buying one. It's purely cosmetic but to me it just screams "I am one step above a Squier!". And if any of you actually buy a Squier then you get what you deserve. Just spend the extra money.

aside from the input jack wearing out from being played so much there has been no problems at all with this thing. I have played it in temperatures from 10 degrees in Idaho (yes garage playing sucks in the Northwest during the winter) where it was so cold you couldn't even tell if you were touching the fretboard to 110 in Texas where it was so hot you were sweating so much that you couldn't brace your hand on the guitar because of slippage and havent had the least bit of next tweak or fretboard twist at all.

never had to deal with them. I have heard good and bad from friends.

Like I said before I am so glad that I got this guitar because I have grown to learn how to "shape" my tone because of the capability that this guitar offers. Without it I would just be another one of those guys that NEEDS a $1500 guitar to sound good. And let me tell you from a guy who has a high end guitar, I would put my little Strat up against a helluva lot of guys who think they are the $%^& becuase they bought "a name". If you learn to play and understand what makes things sound like what they sound like you'll be okay. And I feel that this guitar is great for developing that. Don't think that buying a $400 dollar Standard Strat means that you can't sound good. Simply not true. It may not be as easy to find a tone that suits you but if you keep playing around with the tone knobs and your amp, you;ll find what you're looking for. THEN you go buy a high end guitar and watch people say "Damn, that guy can strait play his ass off!" And another thing,...and I think that every musician does this......don't read all these reviews and base your decision on what other people said. You don't know if the guy's review your reading even knows what he is talking about. He could suck or not know what good tone is and here you are reading everything that he has to say and basing a decision on an idiots opinion. Anyways, if this thing were stolen I would probably get another but it wouldn't be the same. This one kinda has senitimental value in that I learned so much with it. I matured musically with this thing. When my son starts playing he will, like it or not, have a Standard Strat as his first electric guitar. That's how much I recommend this thing.

Brand new updated Fender Stratocaster MIM. Undated with noiseless pick ups (actually are quiet) and jumbo frets. Chrome red with maple finderboard. Typical Stratocaster.

Surprise. The PU's sound very good in all positions. Sounds like a strat. Quiet as well. IN fact the PU's are quite nice. Good clean side and with some distortion you can get that blues sound with out going overboard.

The guitar needed to be set up. I had the tremelo blocked off and the action reset and it was good to go. The finish and construction had no flaws at all. I looked it over with a microscope and just could not find anything wrong.

Too soon to say but I bought a MIM Telecaster last year and I've had no trouble with that. Solid guitar.

none with fender. However the store where I do business with takes very good care of their customers....

Excellent guitar. They're not all the same. Try a bunch before you buy. A good one is worth it's weight in (whatever it is you value).

2005 model, purchased new, made in Mexico, 21 frets, typical strat equipment, etc ...

The thing actually sounds okay (typical generic strat sound) but I'll probably get one of those pre-wired pick guard assemblies with Lace Sensors in it eventually. I bought this guiatr because I didn't want to bastardize one of my Les Pauls with a Roland GK-3 pickup. These pickups mount very well on strats and the strat being a servicable instrument makes using a guitar synth practical. A lot of folks use the crappiest guiatr they can find for synth, I dunno why.

I bought this guitar new from an excellent shop in Manhattan. Of course, like a lot of new guitars it needed a setup. The owner wouldn't let the guitar out the door without a killer setup, and he mounted the GK-3 pickup on it for me and did a killer job of it. The finish is fine (typical sunburst like on a zillion other strats). I lowered the middle pickup all the way down as far as it would go cuz it gets in my way otherwise.

I haven't had this guiatr long enough to know how rugged it is.

I have been playing for nearly 30 years. I own 2 Les Pauls, an ES-335, a Lucille, several amps, and a Vox ToneLab. If the thing was lost ro stolen, I'd probably replace it with a Roland-Ready strat.

Just a plain and simple standard stratocaster the way it's meant to be with all the features you'd expect from a strat, nothing more, nothing less: 21 frets, alder body, 3 single coils, maple neck & fretboard, vintage frets, 1x volume 2x tone, midnight wine finish

made in mexico/2005

This strat suits almost every style of music except metal, gothic etc. of course ;-) it delivers a nice vintage sound (bright with bite, screaming as a strat should be in the bridge position, sweet and warm in the neck position) , played trough a fender tweed amp it compares even with much higher priced guitars;
as i realised this guitar reacts in a very dynamic and intense way to the style it's played! i like the sound very much and it fits my needs (playing hendrix, vines, the strokes, franz ferdinand, chili peppers) perfectly.

A hint from my experience: i tried every standard strat in the shop and some classic models too and i must say that there was a big difference between all the standard strats, generally they all sounded alright (i'd give them a 7-8), some (especially the ones with darker colors such as black and midnight wine) had an outstanding sound. I ended up deciding between a black and a midnight wine colored (both seemed fantastic to me), i even compared them to some classic models because i thought that the ones with alnico v magnet must sound better but those standard ones i picked (featuring ceramic magnets) made the game with ease!

So if you plan on buying a standard strat compare them carefully to find the best quality choice!!!

the guitar was set up in a good way but i changed the string gauge from 0.09 to 0.10-0.46 and lowerd the strings and also the tremolo bridge to suit my needs.

A hint from a guy from the local fender company: heavier string gauges increase the sound of the stratocaster dramatically. the higher tension makes the strat work even better. i tried this on my standard strat and must say: this is DEFINITELY right!!!!!

the standard strat is definitely built to last! the quality is just fine!

didn't need some

I'm playing for more than 20 years and i've had quite a few guitars (lots of ibanez rg series, john petrucci model during my hard rock days) and compared to my older strat and those ibanez i was quite surprised by its quality so i'll give it a very good 9!

Unsure of the year, but Mexican made....for those who didn't know, Mexican has an MN in the front of the serial number. 21 Frets, mine is a cream white, 5 pickup selector. I replaced the pickups in it with Seymour Dunxan Antiquities, beautful sounding guitar now. Stock pickups were fine, but the Seymour Texas Hots are the stuff, particularly if you are into the Henry Garza/SRV/Eric Johnson sound, but hey pickups are another review. I never had the tuning issues, but since I am not one to do a lot of pitch bending with the Tremolo bar, adjusted it to be flush with the body. Never had a tuning problem, and if the nut is imperfect as another reviewer has stated, I've not noticed and am not noticing it now. A workhorse strat, if you want a collectible, but something else. I did have a problem with the bridge wearing down (by that point, and I bought this used, I had already been gigging steady with it two years) to the point where burrs where breaking strings on me left and right , That was the only problem I've had with it.

Using it with a Hot Rod Deluxe amp. Nice combo. WIth the texas hots I'd give it at least a 9. As stock, an 8, but my frame of reference for being a ten would be an all stock '57.

Excellent, lowered the bridge this being my preference.

Does great live. The bridge still moves slighty when breaking a string, making changing a string with the tremolo a pain in the neck. Have had this issue with every guitar I've owned with a floating tremolo. Again getting it as slat as possible against the body seems t have solved that problem, mostly but not completely.

Never called them.

Been playing about thirty years. Have owned American Made strats in the past, if there is a difference it is minute. I have heard the pickups are different ten what they put in the American Strats. I have also heard that they bore some of the Mexicans out differently so you can't upgrade the pickups, and that this was intentionally done to make the American more appealing. However, I upgraded my pickups without having to have it rebored. The Lowdown - the only problem I have had was with the string breakge that I had mentioned, the tremolo issue when breakig a string (although as I said, I have the same proble with all tremolos), and if you want to get picky, the SD Antiquiies sound so much better then the stock, although played those out plenty - up until the last year. In My opinion, given the price you can get for these, the ABOSLUTE most bang for the buck workhorse guitar out there. Love it still after 5 years of owning it (and did I say I bought it used?).