I have owned 'cheesy' strats in the past when I started learning the guitar back in '86. *However, I have never bought a strat forthright. *I veered straight into the Ibanez arena and never looked back. *From my first RG, to my JS, JEM's, UV's and ultimately my custom 7 string in the vein of ibanez influences....

Sooo....lately I have been in a real 'old school' vibe listening to Tommy Bolin, King Crimson, Howlin' Wolf, Lonnie Brooks, Jimmy Vaughan, early Genesis....yaddy yaddy ya.

There is something about that particular tone that has driven my own search for tone...something that admittedly I haven't been able to 'nail' outright when playing...the kind of bite that only a 'strat' specific setup could give....I've come close with my JS's thanks to the coil tap..but listen back to the strat's of yesteryear and admire a very specific quality about them...

so every chance I get I try out a strat. *i like to partake a few hours in various music shops in Chicago and close around to find 'the one' that my hands accept and the tone that justifies the purchase....well that search ended this past saturday.

after about a zillion strats (which don't flame me if you're strat lover but...every single new one i tried sucks eggs royally bad bad bad fender company build and work)

I found a '87 strat American Standar with an incredible neck, roswewood board, nice color (metallic blue), and in near mint shape....it's tone just flew right out...I can't describe it..but it nailed the bluesy tone in my head for so long INSTANTLY. *The funny part was while I was in the store several other customers came in looking for that same one I was playing with cash in hand ready to buy (they apparently had tried it out during the week)....well...I chuckled and apologized in the same breath and bought it. *

Now...this lands into the 'particularly' funny category in that I have always silently detested Fender for mass producing a lot of schlock and I'm not talking about their squiers or mexican made strats..but even their signature lines are badly built. *It's almost as if quality control doesn't exist in Corona, California. *An american standard nowadays costs just under 900 bucks from most retailers. *I tried them ALL out. Not a single friggn' strat went untouched in my quest for the 'one'. *What also fueled me was an old Ibanez article about how Vai did the same thing and stumbled upon a Mexican strat that just blew him away...so I was guided by the same pretense. *All the american standards just sucked the big one. *I mean I couldn't tell you how many badly 'from the factory' setup strats had badly rounded frets, bad maple necks, ugly rosewood boards....and this is the 'new american' standard.

Well...a pretty blue one caught my eye. *The guy in the store (Guitar Works Evanston, IL) said that someone traded it in recently...it was practically flawless...and something clued me in...it was particularly heavy for a strat...unfortunately the salesguy didn't know much about it other than they set it up and compared the serial and date stamps from inside the neck and body and determined it was a standard american strat from 1987. *It was setup with 10-46 the I luv my guitars set up with. *I plugged it in and I got everyone in the store's attention...i mean it just 'oooooooozzed' strat tone of what you would define it to be. *It was nuts...the salesguy was like..can I play that? *Every other person came up and asked are the pickups different...and according to the shop guy there...everything is 'standard' on it.

It sang so easily (the action is scaringly low and even and NO BUZZ). *So i bought it for $550 clams!!! Oh and get this..the neck is a beautiful yellowish maple with hints of birdseye and quilt!!!!

I have been playing this guitar nonstop in Eric Johnson mode for the past 72 hours straight.....

I feel like I hit a very special musical nirvana in discovering this beautiful tone.

have I lost it...did i miss something years ago..don't get me wrong i won't abandon ibanez...but damnn....
the tone is to die for....for a strat..the way it should be..the way i heard it, the way i have always felt a strat should play like...is now mine.

I have lost it haven't I?

Well ocngrats on the guitar as i fel;t the same way when i found my guitar of choice this past summer. Anyway i am not a huge strat fan because i love Ibanez way too much. i do have a custom strat here that happens to be my stepdads but what the hey he never plays it.
May ur new guitar lead you on a path to greatness.

I hear ya

I too have a thing for strats. It won't go away until I buy one. However I'm unimpressed with Fender. I'm waiting to hear on what colours the new shipment of Blades Texas classis's will be available.

Although I've been told that a Lake placid Blue with maple board is in the shipment aged parts etc.

I've got other guitars that I'll play more often sure, but there's something about strats.

Have fun with your other new toy.

P *

I know what you mean, Fender's Quality Control really sucks. There's such a huge variance in quality of their instruments it's appalling. I once played a "Custom Shop" scalloped Ritchie Blackmore model (Long and McQuade, downtown Calgary) that had the frets so far off center, around the 15th fret, they were right in the middle of the scallops! That's right, you couldn't fret them no matter how hard you tried. Just BRUTAL.

On the other hand, while I have played probably ~50 strats in my life, there are a few really good ones. I'm still in love with mine, a '96 50th Anniversary Plus Edition. The action on it is lower than I would have guessed possible without having any buzz. It came right out of the box with the perfect setup, the action on it is way lower than my 7VWH with countless hours of tweaking. The fretboard is maple, and the neck is turning a lovely butter colour now. The pearloid pickguard is also starting to age, and it's just a little paler than the neck. Tonewise.. It has lace sensors Maybe some day I'll swap them for Lindy Fralins, but there's a magic about this guitar I'm just so afraid of messing up, I don't want to play with it too much. Nowadays, I keep it in Gaelic tuning underneath my bed in a case, and I play it for about 2 hours every day before I go to sleep.

There's just a magic about certain strats; a vibe. Not many have it, but they're worth searching for.

I have lost it haven't I?
[/quote]

Na...sounds like you FOUND it. *Great to hear about the strat. *They're kinda growing on me too...they take some getting used to for an Ibanez addict. *I agree with Kremlin, primo player strats are not common.
Greg

I like that strat "pluck" a lot. *I thought my SC620 in single coil mode did OK. *But the H-S-S radius I got did much better - closer to ideal pickup placement. *But then I got a Yamaha that REALLY does it. *Alder, with pickguard over holes probably makes a difference. *I bet a true S-S-S would be better yet (Yamaha's H-S-H), but I'm not giving up my 'buckers. *

It needn't be a "real" strat, but the closer the construction is to one, the closer the sound...

I can tell you, that it took about 30 secs from the moment i saw my beloved "satch-strat" till i owned it.. *This particular instrument sounds so gr8 that it can never be replaced. It is some special magic about the strats. Thats why i gotta get me at least one more later on. Trust me, i will know witch one, the moment i se her

I owned that same guitar - gunmetal blue - bought it new in '84 and did alot of learning on it. *It was a wonderfully forgiving, fabulous machine. *I sold it in St. Louis in '93 to pay for new baby furniture. *I just haven't been the same since. *I've looked around and picked up a few new strats, but I'm sorry - they're just not the same - they suck.

Congrats! ** DONT SELL IT - NO MATTER WHAT *

- Chris

Lange:

No worries, I won't sell it.. she's a real keeper (yeah like the other oomph number of guitars I own! ha!).

I checked out the neck pocket last night and compared with serial number and all and it coincides with the 1984-1987 production run of the American Standard series. *The body does not have a date and the neck has 1986 stamped on it. *The serial number is a low E4 with 5 digits so it also corresponds to that particular production period. *From what I have researched it was shortly after CBS sold the Fender company....

You're all right...there is something genuine about the strat tone that defines a little of what we all like to listen to. *I've just been annoyed that I could go into a Guitar Center and pickup a JEM and 9/10 it plays wonderfully and is setup wonderfully and sounds great right off the bat the way Ibanez and Vai intended the audience to expect. *I picked up a flame top/rosewood neck/noiseless pickups and abalone fret markered TOP OF THE LINE strat (it was going for $2200). The frets weren't finished!!!! *You bent the B string from the 12th fret and you can hear and feel where the string caught on grooves in the fret!!!! It was sickening!!!

But I knew that it was a matter of constantly trying them out til ya found 'the one'.

Thankfully mine was very unassuming. *It was like as if it were waiting for me...I also feel it was fate cuz it was blue...
my favorite color and the color of the last 4 guitars I bought!

Listen to thee my son.....

For once thy came a being by the name of strat...the path to find thee was long and treacherus...but thee have stuck to thy challenge and discovered the holy grail of strat-dom.

Play it loud and play it proud for it is a hallowed beast....

Live long my strat totin' knight.

I have owned no less than five Fender Strats, and spent a torturous amount of time "playing them all" to find the last one, only to sell it when I got my Parker NiteFly NFV3 (three singles), 'cause it was there I found that tone...

...but where ever you find it, it's a wonderful thing

Play on! :thumbsup:

I hear you all.

The one that did it for me was a black plus (dunno the year, but she was quite new at the time)
Had 3 sensors, blue in the neck, gold in the mid and red at the bridge.

Played it for many years through a twin reverb and it was god-like tone, that's the good thing about older amps, your picking controls the dynamics, very subtle, unlike most newer tube amps they don't seem to respond aswell.

Anyway, she was a beaut. She was my first "real" guitar, the one I really learnt to play on
I miss her sometimes, had to sell her to pay the rent/debts (along with the amp)
I've had 2 other strats since then, but neither I've been as happy with.

enjoy.

Steve

Ha! *Talk about friggin' revelation...my chums were over past the Thanksgiving holidays..and they all know that when they want to try out a guitar, effects, amps...they usually take their test trips over at my house!!

I've always been known, (to those that know me), as a pointy head Jap/Ibanez tone freak. *I have owned/own nothing BUT Ibanez....even the only bass I own is an Ibanez bass!!!

I had quietly convinced myself that my specific tone (ala the tone you hear in your head) was hidden in my favorite guitars...the JS to be exact. *I love the Hum Hum configuration for both quiet pickup sound to screeching dynamics that humbuckers can give you and then the coil tap to do the bluesy strat sound.....

well anyway...my chums came over and laughed that I had a strat in the playing room. *they all (4 of 'em) picked it up and played...and every single friend agreed...it's just 'tonally' perfect. *The build, the setup, everything about 'this' particular strat really nails some serious tone. *Now they want one!!!

I agree with all those who have stated it already....i never thought I'd find the tone I really really really really love in such a strange find.

it's refreshing and slightly deadly...(as I'm a little strat happy now!!)

I'm a little sad (or rather dissapointed in myself) that I haven't given this strat avenue a chance before. *

Live and learn..(and spend a lot to do it dabnabbit!)

Personally, Strats have the best clean tone! I just love them. I played four of them over the years and currently own two (a Plus and an '86 American Standard).

My #1 axe is 'Cream', a '96 Plus. This photo shows her with my new love 'Angel', a 7VWH. (My apologies for the poor quality.)

-Bill

The "magic strat" I spoke of a little higher up is the same as yours but in black.. and it has some gold stamp doodad on the back of the headstock. Great instruments you got there