Fender Strat recommendations

A

amt7565

New member
I am an Ibanez player so not very familiar with the Fender models. I am looking to get a Fender model. What is a decent model you would recommend which is not too expensive but would still be a good model for fast Rock melodies. I want something as cheap as possible which will have good response and attack characterisitics.

Thanks.
 
Get an MIA reissue and put some hot noiseless pickups on it. Then plug it into a Mesa.....

But if you want extra cheap, you can look at the Squires, but I dont know anything about them, other than its a Fender product under the hood.
 
By 'cheap as possible', I did not mean the cheapest! I am sure there are some good strats around there for about $500.00 _$600.00 or so..
 
What kind of music are you wanting to play, that will have a lot to do with the model? Tons of Strats to be choosen from!
 
There's a hundred models and and 1,000 setups and pickups these days.

I guess the Tele or the Strat is the most common.

The Squires and Affinitys are hit and miss, huge quality control swing.
If your lucky its great. The Honey Tele for $169 has 9.9 of 10 ratings...I played one and it was amazing and stood up to the $1300 ones.

I had a Squire Strat for 15years...I still have a Squire Bass that has had zero issues...some pro's play these, so there's the proof you don't need a $2900 guitar to make some money and good tunes.

There's so many issues and factorys I'm almost burnt out, I saw a $69 from Indonesia and they have the new Starcaster by Fenders in WalMart, Target and Best Buy....

MIA seem to be the "new standard". Well built. Mid price. My son just got one.

A Highway 1, is entry in the "US" line...and a American Standard is still a workhorse and my current.

The skys the limit from there as you know.


The mass production factor, I would feel and play one, make sure it works and doesn't have flaws. Even the expensive ones show up with dings, scratches, rust and beer puke on them. Their called Relics. :p
 
COOLCAT said:
There's a hundred models and and 1,000 setups and pickups these days.

I guess the Tele or the Strat is the most common.

The Squires and Affinitys are hit and miss, huge quality control swing.
If your lucky its great. The Honey Tele for $169 has 9.9 of 10 ratings...I played one and it was amazing and stood up to the $1300 ones.

I had a Squire Strat for 15years...I still have a Squire Bass that has had zero issues...some pro's play these, so there's the proof you don't need a $2900 guitar to make some money and good tunes.

There's so many issues and factorys I'm almost burnt out, I saw a $69 from Indonesia and they have the new Starcaster by Fenders in WalMart, Target and Best Buy....

MIA seem to be the "new standard". Well built. Mid price. My son just got one.

A Highway 1, is entry in the "US" line...and a American Standard is still a workhorse and my current.

The skys the limit from there as you know.


The mass production factor, I would feel and play one, make sure it works and doesn't have flaws. Even the expensive ones show up with dings, scratches, rust and beer puke on them. Their called Relics. :p
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I have a luthier friend that does the relic'ing of some of those relics. He talked about using acids and dropping stuff on them to beat them up-I myself couldn't purposely damage a new guitar like that but I guess theres apparently a strong market for them. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :eek:
 
yeah, no doubt its difficult making a authentic replica of a simulated real worn out guitar that was actually worn out by some pro in his young days and now a replication simulated copy of the real thing can be bought at a boutique price.

I used to collect campaign buttons, but getting replicas always was fake and was like a "rip off"....only the original ones had value, the fake replicas were kind of..er...fake?

i don't want to rain on somebodys fun, and Fender doesn't care their Gazillionaire's these days.

hell I guess if thats what the public wants, I'd be selling them for $24,000 too. wow? :confused:

I have some worn out tennis shoes. :cool:


sorry to get off topic... back to the OP here.
 
The Highway One strat is great value, good sounds, same playability as a regular stratocaster, and the hardware seems to be decent enough.
 
32-20-Blues said:
The Highway One strat is great value, good sounds, same playability as a regular stratocaster, and the hardware seems to be decent enough.
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Definetely second that. American made,slimmed down finish but still a damn sight better than squiers.
 
Thanks Fellas- I will go check it out at GC.
By the way is the neck slim or fat? Will it facilitate playing for extended periods without fatigue?
Thanks.,
 
amt7565 said:
Thanks Fellas- I will go check it out at GC.
By the way is the neck slim or fat? Will it facilitate playing for extended periods without fatigue?
Thanks.,
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Those are the ones exactly. You may prefer a maple neck - some find that they have a slicker feel than a rosewood board. The official U.S list price is a thousand dollars, so you should be looking at a street price of maybe two hundred, two-fifty less than that.

The neck is the same profile as that found on an American stratocaster, a modern 'c' shape with a radius of 9.5 inches. I play for hours on one of those with no problems whatsoever.

The only major difference between the highway ones and the standard American strats (apart from the price and the finish) is that the Highway 1 guitars are installed with jumbo frets rather than medium jumbos. This shouldn't be a problem for you; plenty of guitarists find jumbo frets more comfortable. Try one out, they are great guitars for the money.

Best of luck.
 
There is so much to choose from but here it goes. I have three strats custom built by myself and I have different pickups in each. In one I use lindy fralins, another has Jason lollar, and my other one has lace. I would recomend finding an older strat with the combo of blue neck, silver middle, and red bridge. The blue is very chunky and has mids, the red is powerfull for leads or some real nice rythm work. The silver is all around good. I really think if you are playing heavier music, the red with speak to you. Very snarly. plus if you really want any pickup to have a little more punch out of a strat, make the volume pot a 500k not 250k. They will really cut through. Hope this helps. Plus remember there will always be someone out there who disagrees with any of the recomendations from all of us. Use your own ears and remeber not all that glitters is gold. :D
 
Antone_2006 said:
I have a luthier friend that does the relic'ing of some of those relics. He talked about using acids and dropping stuff on them to beat them up-I myself couldn't purposely damage a new guitar like that but I guess theres apparently a strong market for them. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :eek:
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Relicing, bah. Poseurs. MO, of course.
 
amt7565 said:
By 'cheap as possible', I did not mean the cheapest! I am sure there are some good strats around there for about $500.00 _$600.00 or so..
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I would say you are going to have to settle for a HW1. Not a bad guitar if you upgrade the pickups and block off the bridge. The finish is a little hard getting use to but it is a very decent guitar. Who knows if your looking for a really clean thin sound you might even like the picksups. It has a pretty nice neck on it and it is suppose to be american made. All the hardware is MIM stuff though.
 
amt7565 said:
I am an Ibanez player so not very familiar with the Fender models. I am looking to get a Fender model. What is a decent model you would recommend which is not too expensive but would still be a good model for fast Rock melodies. I want something as cheap as possible which will have good response and attack characterisitics.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

My personal recommendation is to go to your local store and find a mexican strat that plays and feels like you like, then gut the electronics and replace with Seymour-Duncans. I personally like the SSL-1's in all three spots, but there are many choices.

I have a bunch of strats and I have never liked the sound of the stock pick ups (exceptions include some 70's strats I have had which had great pickups)

Just my $0.02
 
I've currently got a used MIM Fender Standard Stratocaster on lay-away. Not a real bad one, compared to the ton of new Standards, Deluxes and Americans I'd played the day before. It's already got Sperzel locking tuners on it, and I'll likely upgrade to a better bridge/tremelo system. All I really need to decide, now, is if I want to change out the pickups for 3 Lipsticks, or DiMarzio Blue Velvets (bridge and neck) and a DiMarzio Red Velvet (middle).

Somewhere along the line, I'll be reconstructing my Squier Bullet Special into a baritone Strat. I've already got a bridge position TV Jone PowerTron for it (originally intended for it to be able to keep up with my Fender So Cal Speed Shop Strat), but I'll be adding a neck position TV Jones PowerTron, as soon as I can. I've priced all the parts needed for such a conversion, and when all is said and done, I'll come out somewhere between the price of a Gretsch Electromatic Jet Baritone and a Fender Jaguar Baritone Custom.

Matt
 
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Thanks everyone for your valuable comments.

At GC, I almost got the EJ strat today....but...I found the action a bit too high. I traded my Ibanez JEM and got the Ibanez RGT6E instead. Plays very well.

Is it easy to adjust the action on the EJ, does anyone know? I loved the finish though. And the tone was phenomenal! The HW1 was no match for this guitar it terms of tone.

I might still end up getting the EJ...need some time to think..
Thanks.
 
For around $500, I think you're gonna have to go with either a Highway one strat or a non-us strat. I've heard the mim one's are pretty decent. Or you could go with a used usa one. The fat-strats have humbers in the bridge. Other than that, just go check 'em out and see what one you like.
 
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