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I'm yet to see 50's furniture appreciate like Strats do.
It is a hardtail and is one of the heaviest guitars Ive ever held. Les Paul or otherwise. It is stupid heavy, but sounds absolutely amazing. It is actually NOT Strat sounding, but a mix of a Les Paul and Tele to my ears. Go figure...
I've played some great Custom Shops, some average ones too. Another mate has a cracking Mexican, which has been set up superbly. I love, as most of you know, some of the Masterbuilt stuff. Mine is simply yards above anything Ive played...I'll have to pitch it against @Gassage beauty...
The MB is on the right here, along with a CS '56 on the left, I owned which was stunning. Now owned and thankfully loved by @nickb_boy ;
http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q493/Warren3333/Masterbuilt Strat 63/GS1.jpg
http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q493/Warren3333/Masterbuilt Strat 63/P1040151.jpg
I know DG has one or two CS models and I dare say guys like that come and go with 'touring' set-ups - my point was that most of those guys no longer tour and work with 'vintage Strats' - Those that still owned or own Vintage models have had various custom work carried out on them to 'enrich the performance', so they are not as was
I know a year or so ago M Landau was over and played his CS model exclussively
We all no some old guitars are good but many aren't
I sold maybe 2 years ago a Strat - original 64 neck and body - stripped to bare wood - All Fat boys guitar parts throughout on hardware and scratchplate - amalfitano pickups - refret - bloomin awesome to play + top notch tonal quality - So a large part of the guitar was not original so what value do you put it out for - sold it within 1 day for £2K
That 75 Strat on my site at the moment plays well etc - but not original - players grade and less than £1600 so effectively CS money
I think it gets harder to justify over 3K and certainly over 6K for most of us when CS and MB are so good
I've owned something in excess of twenty CS Strats and I have never played a CS that was less than a damned good guitar. If you want one that will keep its value well, go for a vintage correct one.
On on top of those I have owned probably another 30 Fender Strats and a couple of Tokais (early 80s). God knows how many I have played but this has all been distilled down to....
My my three main Strats are a CS 60 reissue (the best Strat I have ever played, team built or not), a 1962 body refin (poly) with a replacement scratchplate, replacement volume pot and a rewound bridge pickup which is probably the second best Strat I've ever played - it's not valuable enough to be truly scared of gigging, and a FSR American Standard with a solid rosewood neck - considering its cost this one represented superb value for money and you don't see many about - maybe one that will appreciate.
The one one that got away was a 1972 with a destroyed finish and brass parts which I slowly put back to all original (apart from the paint). This was a tremendous guitar but the guy who sold it to me wanted to buy it back and he's been a proper mate over the years so.... but it didconvince me that early 70s Strats can be extremely good.
My two preCBS sound a world apart- the sunbust slab sustains for days and is a powerhouse- the Sonic Blue is more lightweight stratty (round lam? Maybe something to do with it.
I hated the DG strat - the neck wasn't right at all for me. Too narrow.
Now, a strat is a relatively simple guitar. But people make mistakes in what they THINK sounds good.
Here's some common stuff-
"I want a really thin neck and a low action" - next day "This thing sounds really dead and lightweight.
Strats need a good sized neck and a medium action.
"I want super powerful pickups" Really? So, those other two you are not using- how much do you think they're preventing the string from vibrating? Low-medium output on resonant wood sound amazing and are the way forward. It's no coincidence the low output 69-71 pups are so reveared. Buy something else if you wanna shred. High output pickups stop a strat resonanting like a strat should.
"When I put a 2-post on it doesn't sound the same" Course not- a vintage trem touches the body with a big surface area- more resonance.
I could whitter on about the crap talked about strats for hours.
But the point I wanted to make- I made a partsa for 150 quid with some EMG's. It was fantastic. Great tone, great resonance- simply cos I stuck to the Strat recipe, which works.
So, most strats are decent as long as you don't mess around with the original formula and try to make them something they're not.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
My biggest issue is
Vintage = good; which is bollocks.
The truth is vintage = variance and a minefield of viewing through rose tinted specs.
When I decided to blow a load on the 1960, I played probably 20 preCBS strats. 5 were awful- like shocking; some were average, some very good, but 3 or 4 were utterly sublime and the one I bought feels like part of my body when I play it. (penis extn) The best ones are untouchable, but that does not mean the lesser ones are any better than a good AVRI/CS.
One thing I do believe is that old well cared for strats have had so many set ups that things like intonation etc should be spot on. All the flaws should have been ironed out.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
I'd also say that having played 99% of the CS Strats in Coda recently... there is a lot of variation. There were no 'bad' ones, but some suited me better than others.
As far as "old is better" goes... I had a '65 Strat in Sonic Blue at one point. I spent everything I didn't have in the world to buy it and it was... OK. It sounded alright and played alright but it never gave me 'the fizz' (to use James May's metaphor). I realised I was playing an early 90s USA Standard far more than the '65 and so I sold it... nothing 'wrong' with it, just nothing 'great' about it.
The 1958 pic of the factory (I think that's the 3rd one he had) made me remember this- right in Fullerton there was a machine shop who did presswork and light metalwork called Race and Olmsted.
Their impact on the guitar world is huge, yet we've never heard of them. Leo was big mates with the owners and anything he wanted protoyping, he'd toddle off and ask them to make it, usually from pressed sheet steel.
They made virtually all of the amp chassis for the old amps and the control plates too.
Forrest White cited them as the single biggest influence on Leo's design thinking cos if they couldn't make it, he'd redesign it.
Little things that make such a difference to a tele, jag, strat etc can be put down to the proximity of R+O to Fender HQ and the fact Leo liked the the people there.
So here's a list off the top of my head of things they co-designed, made or prototyped for Leo:
Tele Bridge
The backs to Kluson tuners prototype
String trees
Strap Buttons
Tele Bridge ferrules
Tele Control plates
Strats- whole bridge and trem assempby and , most importantly, saddles.
jags/Jazzers- trem, bridge, Jag control plated
COvers on Fender bass pups
Tele pick up covers.
Their contribution to the Fender range and sound is huge and yet they're unknown.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
That just about sums it up - the variation is not about a build quality or negative issues - it is just about the one that speaks back to you - Some are more spanky - some more mellow - some with a higher acoustic pitch and some lower - fatter necks etc etc - subtle but effective variations
Another point on 'vintage' strats etc is dating (lets assume the guitar is otherwise legit). The neck plate numbers are actually the least accurate method and can easily be a year out either way. Fender used to keep neck plates in a big wooden box and pull these out at random! Neck dates are much more reliable (plus matching original hardware, p/up dates etc).
It is not uncommon to find the variance you suggest. THe neck and body of my 60 are 3 months apart- the neck is younger. The srl number (44434) is early 60.
EDIT: one of the most stunning strats I've played in ages is a Greco copy! It was superb!!!!
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
I started out with nothing..... but I've still got most of it left (Seasick Steve) - just noticed your footer as well @Voxman - I love that line
The biggest surprise is the MiM Roadworn '50s I recently got. It could be my perfect Strat and is light years better than any of the many US Standard/Deluxe/Artist Strats I have had. We are in a golden age of quality at the moment. It isn't always about how much it cost.
Anyone seen a neck like that before?
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
This one is 8k I think. It's the Hendrix thing. Angel are OK too pricewise.
http://www.angelmusicguitars.com/Vintage_Guitar/202/1969_Fender_Stratocaster_maple_cap_neck.html
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.