Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster Electric Guitar
August 9, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
The Fender Stratocaster is mentioned again and again when you are discussing favorite electric guitars with people. While few people deny that the Strat body shape is about the most comfortable thing going, or that Fender guitars are well made, there is one complaint that is often leveled against the Strat. That complaint is that the three pickups are all single coil pickups. A lot of people desire the flexibility a humbucker would give them.
Single coil pickups give a guitar a good, bright tone. Unfortunately, they also produce a little bit of a static hum because they pick up stray frequencies. A humbucker pickup consists of two coils that are wound opposite of each other. This construction helps to cancel out the stray frequency, and thus the hum is no longer an issue. Hence, these double coil pickups are called “humbuckers.” (They buck the hum.)
Humbucking pickups also produce a darker, warmer tone than the bright, jangly single coil sound. Because of this warmer tone, most rock artists, and many guitarists from other styles of music, prefer humbucking pickups over single coil. Country artists often prefer the regular Stratocaster style guitars with only single coil pickups.
To meet the need of other musicians, however, Fender also makes Stratocasters that have a humbucking pickup at the neck along with the single coil pickups in the middle and bridge positions. These guitars are designated as HSS Stratocasters, with the HSS standing for “humbucker, single-coil, single-coil.” More commonly, these humbucker-equipped Strats are called “fat Strats.” That is because of the “fat” tone available when the humbucker is in use.
Fender makes several series of Stratocaster, such as the American Series, the American Deluxe, and the Highway One varieties. The Standard Series of Fender guitars are the ones that are made in Fender’s Mexican factory instead of in America. These “MIM” (”made in Mexico”) guitars retail for a lot lower prices than the guitars that are made in America. Even so, they retain much of the quality of the higher priced versions. The Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster electric guitar carries a retail price tag of only $571.41-$621.41, which is a far cry from the four digit prices of the American guitars.
Like their more expensive Strat cousins, the Fender Standard HSS Stratocasters come in a wide choice of colors, and you can choose between rosewood and maple for the fingerboard material. Colors available for the body of the guitar include black, Electron Blue, Arctic White, Midnight Wine, Chrome Red, and Brown Sunburst (which is the finish that commands the higher price.)
The Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster electric guitar is a chance to own the most popular guitar style in the world at a reasonable price with a prestigious name on the headstock and a humbucker to boot. What more could you want?
Advantages: Of course, one of the first advantages to any of the Stratocaster family is that it is a downright comfortable guitar to play. The carved, contoured body fits up against you instead of digging into your ribs like some other styles. It is well balanced and you can play it seated, unlike some of the V-shaped guitars or those with heavy necks. And there is the reasonable price on this Mexican made guitar.
But probably the top advantage to playing a fat strat as opposed to other models of guitar out there is the incredible amount of versatility. The humbucker pickup adds a lot of options to the tones you can produce from your guitar, and you are not limited to brighter, jangly single-coil sounds.
All in all, the Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster appears to be a reliable, well made electric guitar for all your needs, whether you are playing gigs or just relaxing at home.
Disadvantages: The tremolo on the Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster electric guitar is pretty bad about throwing the whole guitar out of tune if you use it very much. This is really the case with most tremolos, however. Another complaint that has been made against this guitar is that the neck pickup does not have much volume. Some players don’t like the tone on some of the settings.
Specs:
- Alder body in contoured design with two deep cutaways
- Maple “C” shaped neck
- Choice of rosewood or maple for fingerboard
- 21 medium jumbo frets
- 25.5 inch scale length
- 1 11/16 inches wide at the nut
- Chrome hardware
- Vintage synchronized tremolo with whammy bar
- Thicker bridge block that provides increased sustain and a more stable point of contact with the strings
- Humbucking pickup in the bridge position
- Two single-coil pickups in the middle and neck positions
- 5-position pickup selector switch
- One master volume control knob
- Two tone control knobs
- Comes with a Fender gig bag
Check out this blog for Strat Collectors.
While researching Stratocasters, I ran across this interview with guitarist Theresa Anderson. Let’s hear it for the guitar girls!
More Info / Buy Online: Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster
Digital Wonder: the Fender VG Stratocaster Electric Guitar
August 8, 2007 by Jo Minor · 3 Comments
Digital technology is here to stay, and guitars are feeling the change. The Fender VG Stratocaster electric guitar is one such innovative axe. Technology does not come cheap in this instance, with the VG strat carrying a list price tag of $2,428.56 - $2,478.56, depending on finish. It is available in black or vintage sunburst, with your choice of a rosewood or maple fingerboard.
The story of the Fender Stratocaster has been told and retold. In the early 1950’s, Fender and Gibson, and to a lesser degree, Rickenbacker, were competing to create the most popular solid body electric guitar design. Fender released the Telecaster, which was followed by Gibson’s Les Paul. One complaint waged against both of these guitars is that they were uncomfortable to play, feeling like a slab of wood pressed into your ribs.
Fender got to designing, and came up with the contoured, carved body style they called the Stratocaster. At the time, the name had a futuristic sound, but now that the future is here, the term strat doesn’t mean anything but a guitar. Anyway, the Stratocaster was an instant hit that has been often copied down through the years, and almost every guitar manufacturer has its own twist on the Strat body style.
To develop the Fender VG (”virtual guitar”) Stratocaster, Fender technicians and designers collaborated with the techs and designers from the music tech company, Roland Corporation. The motto for the research, which took 10 years, was “the complex art of keeping it simple.”
Advantages: A major advantage of the Fender VG Stratocaster over other digital modeling guitar gear is that you do not have to be some sort of a tech whiz to figure out how to use it. You merely plug it into an amp with a regular cord. Then you set your control knobs on the kind of sound you want. The digital part of this guitar works on 4 AA batteries. When the batteries are weak or dead, you can set the mode control knob to “normal” and totally bypass the digital circuit. When the digital circuit is in use, it is indicated by a blue light on the front of the guitar.
Another really neat thing is that you can change the tuning of this guitar with just a turn of a knob. You can go to drop D, or even DADGAD tuning, without messing with the tuners at all! That is pretty amazing. The acoustic and 12-string acoustic modes are very authentic, too. The nice thing about not having to change the tuners to change the tuning is that your string tension always feels the same, so you play better.
Also, if you are short of space, but love all things Fender, you will appreciate having a Strat, a Tele, and a fat Strat all rolled into one guitar. One terrifically comfy guitar, I might add. And if you are short of time, too, you can figure it all out in about five minutes. (No having to wade through a two inch thick tech manual to figure out how to use it.)
Disadvantages: The price seems to be a bit too high considering the limitations of this instrument. If you really want to get a lot of variation in sounds, look at the equipment available from Line 6. Their Variax guitars and PODs yield many more options for a lot less money, although they might take some time to get used to. There are other virtual options, too, on the market these days. The Fender VG is a nice guitar, but just seems a little overpriced.
At that price, you should at least be able to get it in a groovy color or something, too, instead of just sunburst or black. (And if you ask me, that blue light is dorky looking. If you want a vintage look or sound, both of which this guitar has, that blue light is going to ruin it. Sorry, but that is my opinion.)
Fender VG Stratocaster Specs:
- Made in America
- Ash body
- Maple neck
- Choice of maple or rosewood fingerboard
- 3 single coil pickups
- 3-ply parchment colored pickguard
- Chrome hardware
- Master volume control knob
- Master tone control knob
- Mode function 5-way rotary selector:
- Choose N for normal and bypass the digital electronics
- Choose S for regular ash bodied Strat
- Choose T for Telecaster sound
- Choose H for dual Humbucker strat
- Choose A for Acoustic sounds.
- Tuning function 6 way rotary selector
- Choose from normal tuning, drop D, baritone,open G chord for slide, 12 string, two others
Review / Buy Online: Fender VG Stratocaster
Other resources:
- Here is a review of the Fender VG Stratocaster electric guitar.
- Check out the Fender VG Strat webpage. If you click on “Media” and have a pretty fast internet connection, you can watch the clever little advertising video that explains the project. You can see it at a music store that deals in Fender guitars, too.
Fender Standard Stratocaster
July 10, 2007 by Jo Minor · 3 Comments
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
