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Rating And Reviews: Fender Standard Strat RW

New features include a tinted neck, parchment pickguard and control knobs, and a '70s-style logo.

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"Mexico Standard Strat: VALUE=modest price and excellent build quality and TONE!" submitted December 10, 2011

By a customer from aol.com
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Musical Background: I made a record, played guitar 30 years, studied some classical guitar
Music Style: songwriter, blues/rock, rock and rol, countryl
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Sound: A '9' for sound in this price range (under $500 w. instant rebate!). Pickups are good in all but bridge only position. Get a Lindy Fralin 'baseplate' for $12 and attach it to the bridge pickup. And look up the single jumper wire to solder diagonally across 2 adjacent switch contacts. Now you have the rear tone control for the middle and the bridge as well and you just beefed up the sound of the bridge pickup! total cost: maybe $12-15 dollars! The pickups need to be set with the bass side lower, less so on the bridge pup. For $20 at Guitar Fetish, get the all steel tremolo block that fits (take yours off and measure to get the correct one of 3 models) and kick your tone up several notches. A tremolo block of real steel maks a very noticeable difference! Do all I suggest and you will have a really nice Strat to be proud of and nobody with Mexico like yours will sound near as good! Feature: Versatility is the most useful feature! A Strat is the most versatile of the Fender guitars right AFTER a Telecaster. I feel a Telecaster with a 4-way switch added covers country, blues, rock and roll and it has no tremolo to worry with. Some guys like that stability and simplicity. 5 position switch and add the mod noted above to have tone control over the bridge pickup. Easy and effective and free! Tuners are pretty good, should last you several years and then upgrade to Grover or better still... Gotoh! Chrome is good and finish and general workmanship is very good. The headstock face on mine is gloss, but the neck otherwise is tinted soft satin for a smooth 'dry' feel that I like. It's a great idea and the headstock shines on stage, yet plays smoother. Nice Fender emblazoned padded gig bag with it and an Arctic white body and parchment trem plate and pickguard makes a handsome Strat. Ease of Use: Tip: get a setup guy to lower the nut slots and set the neck relief as well as the intonation. This guitar can be made to play very easy. A rosewood fretboard and a correct setup makes a BIG difference in the action and thus much better tone. Most players will not learn how to do it for themselves, but I got nut slot files, fret end file, and fret polishing abrasive cloth along with a fret shield. My guitars are nearly perfect setup and I let my luthier finish of the final tweaks if needed. Quality: These are really nicely made and look excellent. The Arctic White and parchment guard is fine looking! A great color scheme and well finished in every way. Carefully tighten the hex nuts that hold the tuners on, check the Phillips screws at the strap buttons and get the bridge bottom to float about 1/16" off the guitar top after you settle on string guage. Well set up, these Strats can play really easy with .010-.046 regular lights and SFARZO strings are the best I ever found. These are not second rate guitars, good woods, well made, set up decent but not maximal and need a pro setup guy to make the guitar really sing. See my comments about tremolo block and a bridge pickup baseplate. All guitar geeks know this stuff and it's cheap to do. Value: This particluar model from Mexico is a BIG value with a $50 instant rebate and nice gig bag. Along with the Squier Classic Vibe 50's or 60's Strats, it's one of the best values for all but semi proc players. Manufacturer Support: Rated '8' becasue you need not take a Fender to the company... a decent luthier can do anything needed and you can learn it yourself if you are reasonably handy and understand what you are doing. The Wow Factor: Even if it sounded ho-hum, I would want it because it looks so damn cool in Arctic White and parchment pickguard and a gloss headstock face, yet smooth satin neck otherwise and rosewood board. Nice frets and smooth and pretty good steel in them so they can be made to shine and not rust easily. I have owned an Eric Johnson and for 1/5 the $$, this Mexico Strat is good enough. The EJ is the best of everything; the Standard Mexico is the best value and pocket the $1500 difference! Overall: I may sell my other (A Squier Classic Vibe 50's) Strat and play the Mexico guitar. Rosewood board, good enough pups, stable tremolo, handsome looks and a rather nice feeling neck with good frets. It's got what I want and I can buy what I want, but more money will not get me much more. At some point, I will swap pickups out for Tonerider or Fralins, most likely. But the stock pups are surprisingly 'Stratty' and versatile if you follow my tips above ...
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"Fender Standard Strat" submitted October 1, 2012

By Anthony F in Long Island, NY
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Features
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Musical Background: mostly semi pro some pro background.
Music Style: country/blues
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Overall: After owning many Fenders over my lifetime I am totally impressed with the build quality and fit & finish on my standard strat. Although the stock pickups sound very good as they're hotter and fatter than the US alnico pickups I opted to put in a set of custom shop texas specials giving me one killer strat without big bucks. That said the stock pickups are fine especially for rock.
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