MIM Strats:Best Bang for your Buck (Fender Stratocasters in general)

Member Name: Thunderbird3000

Product:	Fender Stratocasters in general
Date:	28/02/03 (10911 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wide range of sounds from stock pickups, Excellent construction, Stays in tune nicely

Disadvantages: Output Jack loosening problem, slight paint chipping where neck meets body, Poor re-sale value

When I was trying to choose my first guitar, my task was made somewhat easier in that my flat mate owned the model of guitar I was most seriously considering: a Fender MIM (made in Mexico) Stratocaster, officially known by Fender as the Standard Stratocaster.

I realise this category is Fender Stratocasters in General, and in this review I am going to concentrate on the Standard Strat, as I have not played with the more expensive American Series Strats, and the only other type of Strat I have used was a Squier and since they are not made by Fender I don't feel that it is particularly relevant, however having been in the situation of buying my first guitar I am aware of the problems of deciding whether a real Strat is worth the price premium over a Squier and whether an American Series Strat is worth the £400 extra etc etc, so I will try to throw in a few comparisons by way of background.

The Fender American Series Strat is the more expensive brother to the Standard Strat, weighing in at £829.95 as opposed to £389.95 for the Standard. So where does your extra money go? Well the materials used in the construction of the American Series are of higher quality, the wood used for the body on the American Series is alder as opposed to the poplar of the Standards. Also the pickups are considered to be better sounding(I cannot vouch for this personally) Do these factors make it a superior instrument? Well probably to a degree, but not, I would argue to the tune that the £400 price difference would lead you to suggest. Try playing both a Standard and American Series and see if you can tell a difference, playing acoustically first, as a well constructed guitar should sound good without amplification(this is a good test of the neck quality, as the pickups are removed from the equation)

Beware! the Standard Strats have one less fret(21) as opposed to the American Series which have 22. For the majority of guitarists this is not a factor that wil
l m
ake or break their decision either way, but be aware of this before you buy.

The Standard Strat is equipped with 3 single coil pickups, which produce a wide range of beautiful tones that cannot be beaten at this price-point. With the neck pickup selected you can replicate some really fat blues tones, switching to the bridge pickup you have a screaming lead sound, great for soloing. Encapsulating blues, rock, jazz, classical, there is something for everyone here. Single coil pickups do of course suffer from what has been kindly dubbed "60 cycle hum" Many Fender enthusiasts look upon this feature with some degree of fondness, as it is this hum that characterizes the unmistakably unique bright single-coil sound of the Stratocaster.

While this is not a fault of the guitar as such(many guitars utilize single-coil pickups) it may still put off some potential buyers. Basically when selecting the pickups in position 1,3 & 5 you may pick up some humming, that depending on the severity of the problem may cause you great irritation and detract from your playing. It is not so much of a problem in the "inbetween" pickup positions(2&4), and fortunately the potential for it to negatively affect your playing can be reduced by simple actions such as identifying possible offending objects which may be causing interference, computer monitors I have found are the worst offenders! Also try to make sure your guitar is not to close to the amp.

If you really can not live with the 60 cycle hum, then you should look at guitars with humbucking pickups, these roughly speaking are 2 single coil pickups angled along side each other which cancel out each others hum. However humbucking guitars are characterized by their "heavier" sound, and are used a lot for rock music, a possible humbucking price equivalent would be the Epiphone Les Paul. Another alternative would be to look for a Strat with Lace-sensor or noiseless pickups, but
such instruments tend to be very expensive and the tone they produce can sometimes be quite different from the traditional single-coil pickups.

Stratocasters also boast the erroneously titled tremolo system(also sometimes called Whammy Bar) absent on other guitars such as the Gibson Les Paul. It is a misnomer in that tremolo is in fact a fluctuation in volume, as opposed to the function of the whammy bar which is in fact causes a fluctuation in pitch and strictly speaking should be categorized as vibrato. The whammy bar is looked upon as something of a novelty nowadays, made famous by guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen, but used lightly you can create some nice vibrato effects. Heavy use of the whammy bar will cause the strings to go out of tune, but this is to be expected on most guitars, and as long as you don't go to OTT in your Hendrix impersonations you should be fine. The tuning pegs on the Standard Strats are pretty good, they are quite sensitive compared to my acoustic, but I suppose this is a good thing. Generally I can play for about a week before I feel the need to retune.

You can get Maplewood or rosewood necks on these Strats, Maple is the lighter coloured type and is typically considered to be harder on your fingers and as such gives a "brighter" tone. Maplewood is the darker type and is usually softer to play on and gives a less bright tone. Of course this is an oversimplification so try both and let yourself be the judge. My own Strat has a white body, with Maplewood neck (Think Hendrix at Woodstock) and it sounds good to me.

Often when you first buy a guitar the first thing you are advised to do is to change the strings. Well the Standard Strat comes equipped as standard with Fender Bullet strings(.9mm gauge) I love these strings, I have tried other brands such as D'addarrio and always came back to the Bullets. If you do not like the strings then you can always change them, so don&
#39;t worry about this too much.

Of course there are downsides to everything, here are some problem I have encountered with Standard Stratocasters: the output jack becoming loose. This does not affect the sound in any way, but it does make a rattling noise when you plug in your guitar cable, and if you move the cable even slightly the jack wobbles. This defect may be partly due to the fact that sometimes the cable starts to tug at it if you move about too much, however I would still categorize it as a defect even if it is relatively easy to fix. By way of comparison this has also happened to my flat mates Standard Strat, so it is quite possibly a common problem with this model.

In regards to the paintwork I have found it to be excellent all round, except where the neck meets the body of the guitar, here slight cracking of the paintwork is evident. This is to do with the way the neck is "bolted on" which over time puts pressure on the body and causes the paint to start cracking. This is not as terrible as it sounds, it is really hard to notice unless you are specifically looking for it and it is not visible from the front, when I say "cracking" it really is tiny. However I have owned this instrument for less than six months so this is not a particularly good omen.

Also beware that Standard Strats do not have great re-sale value, like the American Series Strats do. This is to be expected considering the difference in price between the 2 models. But bear in mind that if you wish to sell it sometime down the line you are likely not get a lot of money for it. Still in my opinion this is an instrument most will definitely want to keep!

All Mexican Strats are made equal but some made more equal than others! As with all guitars, beware that even within one range of guitars by a manufacturer there will be some subtle differences in tone and construction between individual instruments. So if you are extremely u
nlucky then you could end up with a below-par instrument, although in fairness
I think Fender's quality control is better than most. A piece of advice: bring a friend who plays guitar or someone who knows about guitars when you go to audition your instrument to lessen the chance of this occurring.

If you are a beginner then the Standard Strat will probably suit your initial needs and much much more. Is the Standard Strat worth the premium over a Squier Strat? In my opinion a resounding Yes! Regardless of what your friend may have told you Squiers are not Fenders, and as such bear only a token resemblance to it's bigger Fender brother(s) Now I am not saying Squiers are bad guitars, because they are not, there are many famous guitarists who's guitar of choice are Squires(Arthur Lee, Prince...)but if you can afford the extra £100 or so then trust me, in my opinion you will not regret it. As always audition yourself and let your ears be the judge.

So to sum it all up, the Fender Standard Strat is, in my opinion too good to be categorised as being purely a beginners guitar. One of my friends who is a guitar buff and has played for over 10 years and amassed a large collection of guitars, maintains his favourite is a 1997 Standard Strat with replaced pickups, this in a collection containing many more expensive guitars, including a Fender American Series Strat and a Gibson Les Paul. The Standard Strat is an excellently constructed, excellent sounding guitar for the money(between £300 & £400) and if it is your first guitar, then consider yourself lucky. So buy one just so when someone asks you what guitar you own you can proudly say: a Fender Stratocaster.
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Other guitars you should be aware of in this price category, which are held in high regard: the Yamaha Pacifica, Epiphone Les Paul, Cort G-250 and the Fender Standard Telecaster(more limited tone)

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