I took myself down to Richtone Music in Sheffield, with a clear mind of not knowing what I wanted. I had one aim; to play as many guitars as possible and buy my favourite. This is what I came home with:
This is the only picture I have at the minute.
It's a 2011 Fender American Standard Stratocaster. When I have read the specs on these guitars I didn't think I'd like it, and so it was one of the last guitars I tried. I mainly tried Teles and Strats, with a few Gibsons thrown in too; I have all the offset/shortscale guitars I want right now, and was looking for something a little different.
I played it through a Fender DeVille 212 III (I have the older model, silver face DeVille 212), just clean, no effects at all apart from the reverb on the amp set at 2. The cleans on this guitar are just magnificent, especially in the quacky positions (bridge and middle, neck and middle).
The main thing that made me think I wouldn't like this guitar were the 'modern' jumbo frets, and the way Fender described the neck; 'a modern C-shape', as all my other guitars have vintage style, small frets. But when I started playing this thing, it felt right.
The neck is a satin feel on the back, really smooth with little to no friction at all, and the fingerboard is gloss maple. I thought ebony was the nicest fingerboard wood, but this maple board is so slick feeling, and lovely looking, its quickly taking over.
An addition which I appreciate on this modern strat is the the 2nd tone control is for both middle and bridge pickup, rather than just middle. It is also endented at the full on, and at around 6, allowing for the treble cut off and bass cut off separate, and with the position at the 5/6 endentation, it eliminates all the tone control from the circuit, so it's as if it is wired straight to the output jack. This is my favourite setting for this tone control.
I think I've waffled on long enough now, time to play it some more!!
Jack
