Fender Standard Stratocaster
July 10, 2007 by Jo Minor
Electric guitar players seem to divide into two broad camps - the fans of the Gibsons and the fans of the Fenders. The Fender players, more often than not, flock to the Stratocaster in it’s many incarnations. The new Fender Standard Stratocaster is a version of the familiar guitar which is hand made in Mexico and retails for only $571.41. It’s available in a bunch of colors, and your choice of a rosewood or maple fretboard.
Colors include the popular brown sunburst (which costs $50 more than the other colors), along with Black, Electron Blue, Arctic White, Midnight Wine, and bright Chrome Red, all with the familiar large white pickguard.
The history of the Fender Stratocaster goes back to the early 50’s. The solid body electric guitar was becoming popular with jazz musicians, and the new phenomenon known as rock and roll was budding. Fender and Gibson were the two leading guitar manufacturers, and both had come out with a solid body electric. Gibson had the Les Paul and Fender had the Telecaster.
In that musical climate, Leo Fender began to experiment with the shape of the Telecaster to create a truly cutting edge design. A couple of complaints had been made against the currently available electric guitars. One was that they cut into the ribs. Another was the weight. Fender’s new design had a body with deep cutaways which provided lighter weight. It also had a carved body that would fit more comfortably against the player’s body than previous designs had.
This new design had something else, too. It had a modernistic, good-looking flair that eventually led to it becoming about the most popular electric guitar ever. It was named the “Stratocaster” because a number of modern inventions (at the time) were “Strato-” somethings. The term evoked images of air travel and the technological miracles of the future.
The timing for this new guitar design couldn’t have been better. The youth of the hour were exploring new rebellious sounds in music, and the Strat was expressive and loud. The guitar was adopted by the young fellows known as the Beatles in the early 60’s, and the rest is history.
The Strat has been through some variations in features, but the basic body design has remained a beloved constant. When the Fender company opened its factory in Mexico, a new, less costly version of the familiar solid body electric guitar became available. Now guitarists can have the Strat sound and quality at a lower price.
Advantages: The price is an obvious magnet to buying this guitar, considering that it is a real Fender Strat but costs much less than most of them. The Fender Standard Stratocaster is not heavy and is carved to conform to the body nicely. It stays in tune nicely, and even has pretty good stock strings. The three pickups give you a lot of options in style and sound.
Reviewer after reviewer say that this Mexican made Strat is as good or better than the Strats that cost twice as much. It is “very giggable.” Especially if you only need the Strat sound for some of your songs, it doesn’t make sense to buy a guitar with a much higher price when this one will do everything the expensive ones do.
Disadvantages: It is always best if you can try out the electric guitar you are interested in before you buy it. Guitar players seem to fall into two major groups - those who like the Fender Strat with its single coil pickups, and those who like the Gibson designs, like the Les Paul, with its humbucking pickups. The single coil pickups of the Strat tend to pick up stray frequencies, creating a hum. At the same time, these pickups produce a great tone for certain styles of music. Those who dabble in country rock often prefer the more twangy tone of a Fender Strat over the lowered hum of the humbuckers.
A specific complaint that has been made against the Fender Standard Stratocaster is that the tremelo springs might need to be replaced or upgraded before anything else wears out.
Specs:
- Select alder body
- Polyester finish
- 3-ply white pickguard
- Bolt on maple neck
- Modern C shaped neck with satin polyurethane finish
- Choice of rosewood or maple for the fretboard
- 9.5 inch radius
- 21 medium jumbo frets
- 25.5 inch scale
- 1.650 inches (42 mm.) nut width
- Chrome hardware
- 3 Standard single coil Strat pickups with ceramic magnets
- 1 Master volume control
- 2 Tone controls
- 5-position blade switch for choosing pickups
- Fender Ping Standard Cast/Sealed tuning machines
- Thick bridge block
- Vintage-style synchronized tremolo whammy bar
- Fender Super Bullets nickel plated steel strings in .009 to .042)
- Comes with a Fender gig bag
Related sites:
- Here’s a link to an article describing the new Fender Standard line guitars.
- Want to read some interesting trivia about the history of the Fender Strat? This article contains some little known information.
Buy Cheap Online: Fender Standard Stratocaster
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