Modern day or 80s/90s usa strat

shaunk26

Thinking of buying a USA strat once I've sold my Mexican strat. Would you recommend a standard from the 80s/90s or more recently from the 2000s onwards?

ICBM

If you're looking at a USA Standard rather than a vintage reissue, get one from the 2000s - 90s ones have the TBX tone control, swimming pool rout, wrong-shaped headstock and usually a block/veneer body. Those things were all fixed in 2000. 80s ones are solid wood, but have all the other features and generally very 'hard' body edge contouring.

There are certainly nice examples of both 80s and 90s ones, but plenty of bad ones as well, and if you're buying blind I wouldn't take the chance - the 2000-onwards ones are more consistently good.

crunchman

Depends which Mexican one you have got, but it might not be much of an upgrade.  The Mexican guitars are very good these days.

Funkfingers

What crunchman said.

Background reading suggests that we are discussing a Classic Seventies Stratocaster. This is a simple enough machine to upgrade.

Right now, I am tweaking my MIM mongrel Stratocaster for Eb duties. It plays as well as my American Strats. Posh pickups improve the sounds. Some of the stock hardware still lets the guitar down.

IMO, the zinc vibrato sustain block has to go. The budget Kluson-alikes would be acceptable with a Floyd Rose double locking vibrato system but not with a non-locking fulcrum type.

 

RaymondLin

After getting mine I am seriously wondering what makes a USA or Custom Shop better, if I chuck in a Mark Foley or Callahan Block in it, perhaps upgrade the tuners, I really can’t see anything I could want better from it. It feels amazing, the frets is really good on it. TGP had me worried about the fret ends sticking out but it’s not the case at all. Previous owner clearly had done some work in it (CS pickups, there was a shim in the neck which didn’t need for my liking, and no frets sticking out). I am curious as to how mine compares. It would be unlikely to find one lighter too.

kentuckyklira

ICBM said:

If you're looking at a USA Standard rather than a vintage reissue, get one from the 2000s - 90s ones have the TBX tone control, swimming pool rout, wrong-shaped headstock and usually a block/veneer body. Those things were all fixed in 2000. 80s ones are solid wood, but have all the other features and generally very 'hard' body edge contouring.

There are certainly nice examples of both 80s and 90s ones, but plenty of bad ones as well, and if you're buying blind I wouldn't take the chance - the 2000-onwards ones are more consistently good.

This!

Plus, I could never get used to the more "modern" tremolo they introduced when the restarted production in the USA after the management buy out in, I think it was 1984.

munckee

RaymondLin said:

After getting mine I am seriously wondering what makes a USA or Custom Shop better, if I chuck in a Mark Foley or Callahan Block in it, perhaps upgrade the tuners, I really can’t see anything I could want better from it. It feels amazing, the frets is really good on it. TGP had me worried about the fret ends sticking out but it’s not the case at all. Previous owner clearly had done some work in it (CS pickups, there was a shim in the neck which didn’t need for my liking, and no frets sticking out). I am curious as to how mine compares. It would be unlikely to find one lighter too.

Once you get to roadworn I think they are a match for pretty much anything up to custom shop level bar maybe the tremolo block.

RaymondLin

munckee said:

RaymondLin said:

After getting mine I am seriously wondering what makes a USA or Custom Shop better, if I chuck in a Mark Foley or Callahan Block in it, perhaps upgrade the tuners, I really can’t see anything I could want better from it. It feels amazing, the frets is really good on it. TGP had me worried about the fret ends sticking out but it’s not the case at all. Previous owner clearly had done some work in it (CS pickups, there was a shim in the neck which didn’t need for my liking, and no frets sticking out). I am curious as to how mine compares. It would be unlikely to find one lighter too.

Once you get to roadworn I think they are a match for pretty much anything up to custom shop level bar maybe the tremolo block.

I am going to keep it as it is for a bit, one thing aesthetically I like to change is the bridge saddles, it think it is far too weathered, to the point that the rust is cutting into the strings. So I might replace those with something less worn. After seeing TPS where Mick’s upgrade journey in his Strat, he had a Callanhan block and saddles then went to Mark Foley after doing some research. I am inclined to go for the Mark Foley saddles and block, it seems to get good reviews. I do think the guitar’s sustain could be better, to me anyway I think my Tele sustains a note longer so a better block should help.

shaunk26

Funkfingers said:

What crunchman said.

Background reading suggests that we are discussing a Classic Seventies Stratocaster. This is a simple enough machine to upgrade.

Right now, I am tweaking my MIM mongrel Stratocaster for Eb duties. It plays as well as my American Strats. Posh pickups improve the sounds. Some of the stock hardware still lets the guitar down.

IMO, the zinc vibrato sustain block has to go. The budget Kluson-alikes would be acceptable with a Floyd Rose double locking vibrato system but not with a non-locking fulcrum type.

 

You are correct. It was a bit if an impulse buy and I couldn't really get used to the U shape neck and radius. Just feels too wide. I'm also browsing some old MIJ strats.

Alexlotl

Mid 90's USA Fender Maple necks can suffer from veneer cracking/flaking around the edges of the fingerboard, which is another reason to avoid that era. My old 90s USA Tele (no longer owned by me) has suffered pretty badly from this. 

adam1990

shaunk26 said:

Thinking of buying a USA strat once I've sold my Mexican strat. Would you recommend a standard from the 80s/90s or more recently from the 2000s onwards?

I have a 2004 USA standard Strat which is a really good guitar but it did need new pickups and the saddles changing to bring a bit more life into it.

If I was looking for another, I would be looking for a 2000's model going cheap enough to allow for pickups and saddles or one of the 2012 - 2017 US standards which had the vintage style saddles and CS Fat 50's pickups.

I would probably buy an 80's or 90's version if it played well but the shape of the headstock don't look quite right to me.