For a 25th B-day present i got a 2008 Fender American Standard Stratocaser in Olympic White. I've always wanted a Stratocaster and now I have one fuck yeah. I remember as a 15 year old hanging out at my friend Derek's house (actually his parents house). And there i saw his dad's late 80s to early 90s dark red Fender Stratocaster with maple fingerboard. Whenever we were over there and his Dad wasn't looking, I'd always play with it. I don't know what it was but i like the way it sounded, the way it felt, and definitely the way it looked. I wanted one. Fast forward ten years and a dozen Frankenstein guitars later, I finally have a proper Stratocaster!
As with most mass produced guitars, I did proper set up after i got the guitar. Things like the string action. It was kinda too low and there was some string buzzing. I like my string action a little high anyways. Also, the neck was straight.. a little too straight, so I set some more relief to the neck. That's one of the features i really dig about the American Standards, the truss rod adjustment is at the headstock instead of at the heal where I would have to remove the pickgaurd and strings to get to it. Last, the nut was kind of muting the B-string and i was loosing a lot of sustain and volume. so all i did was take a steak knife and shaved a little more room on the string slot. Problem solved.
The guitar is really comfortable to play. As usual the neck has rolled edges with a satin back attached to the classic contour body. The new features are very vintage in nature which I really dig. The bridge saddles are no longer the block steel kind but the vintage bent steel type with the Fender name stamped on them. Fender says they did this because it gives a vintage tone which I'm sure it does, but probably also to save money since they can use the same type that are one their re-issues. Production cost or not I like the way the bent steel saddles look and sound. Also the set screws used to set the string action don't stick out as much so they don't dig into hand. One detail they added that strikes my fancy is the vintage style spaghetti logo on the headstock , they even added the "Original Contour Body" decal.
Even though these guitars are great right out of the box, they are great base instrument for modifications and personalization. Under the pickgaurd, you'll see that body is routed in a humbucker/single coil/
humbucker fashion instead of the usual S/S/S. This allows you to add humbuckers without having to cut
into body and devalue your instrument. My plan is to add new single coil pickups either in just the neck
position or all three. The stock pickups sound good but i just want a more classic vintage sound (late 50s early 60s).
I do like the way the Fender 57/62 stratocaster pickups sound, sparkly and warm. I heard them
a American Vintage 57 strat and was like i want these in my guitar. I would of just bought the 57 strat but it
was just out of my price range. Another pickup I'm considering is the seymour duncan SSL-1 or SSl-2.
I have a SSl-2 in a Fender Duo-Sonic, its a mellow but fat sounding pickup very balanced sounding. It has
flat pole pieces maybe that has something to do with it. The SSl-1 is the same but with staggered pole pieces.
Well I don't know what to do. I do know I want vintage sounding pick ups but can't decide which set.
Maybe I should of got the 57 reissue but then again it was a just outta my budget. SO i did the next best thing
and got a american standard to modify. Any suggestions?
Overall cool guitar. Later.
