getting free strat - wanted some info from some experts

[philpereira]

So I got to talk to my old college roommate from Boston yesterday and he's in the process of moving. He's had a fender standard for a while and he doesn't play it anymore, so he said he'd give to me for free. I've played it before and it's a nice guitar (doesn't match my les paul, but i like strats and wanted a different sound in my collection). I just wanted to see if anyone could give me more info on it in case it would be something I'd want to upgrade in the future. From the serial number, i saw that it's mexican and built in 1995/96. Are the pickups on this model good? Anything about this model I should look into changing to improve tone/tuning? I'm pretty excited to have another guitar, it'll be my 3rd in my now growing collection.

 

[Hard2Hear]

If its a MIM Standard there a few constants about it.

The pickups are ceramic magnet pickups, versus the Alnico on MIM Deluxe models, and on USA models. They're cheaper, but some people like the sound of them better. They are high output and aren't as bright, generally, as Alnico pickups are. Ive had a ceramic magnet equppped MIM for 10 years and only recently put Texas Specials in it. If you take the pickups out, you'll see there are 2 magnet bars underneath the pickups.

The bridge spacing (and pickup pole spacing) is narrower than deluxes and USA models by 1/8". You have to keep this in min when thinking about bridge replacement, because most vintage style tremelo units will not fit because the 6 screw holes do not line up.

The tuners are a covered, not actualy sealed, type. They seem to work fine for most people. They aren't terribly smooth, but they're not bad about slipping eitherr.

Play it for a while. MIM Strats sound like Strats, too. I find some of their necks from the mid 90's are slim and very comfortable to play on. Thats why I have kept my 94 MIM. The neck is faster than any other Fender I have been able to find. It feels more like an Ibanez neck.

H2H

 

[philpereira]

thanks for the info. i'll have to keep this in mind should i ever choose to upgrade, but i think i'll like it as is. i used to jam on it a lot when we'd just hang out in his room, so i've had some good experience with it. it did play similarly to my washburn kc70v i had at the time, so that's a good thing. i sort of imagine doing like pearl jam and using the les paul and strat on my recordings (that's the one band i can think of that uses both types simultaneously). and since i got my vox ad30vt a week ago, i've got a variety of different tones at my disposal

 

[ggunn]

thanks for the info. i'll have to keep this in mind should i ever choose to upgrade, but i think i'll like it as is. i used to jam on it a lot when we'd just hang out in his room, so i've had some good experience with it. it did play similarly to my washburn kc70v i had at the time, so that's a good thing. i sort of imagine doing like pearl jam and using the les paul and strat on my recordings (that's the one band i can think of that uses both types simultaneously). and since i got my vox ad30vt a week ago, i've got a variety of different tones at my disposal

Dating myself, I know, but Wishbone Ash's guitarists used a Gibson humbucker (flying vee) and a Strat.