The subtleties of a good Fender Strat - the specs and your preferences - Guitar Discussions on theFretBoard (2024)

• Caffeine_Vampire Frets: 3480

  April 2020

  Nitro finish but naturally worn over 20 years plus use.

  Stainless steel frets.
  Maple neck & board.
  ’57 V neck.
  Swamp ash body.

  Vintage sounding pups but with a hot bridge.

  Heavy flat wounds
  Vintage style tuners.

  'Vot eva happened to the Transylvanian Tvist?'

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• RandallFlagg Frets: 14003

  April 2020

  Caffeine_Vampire said:

  Nitro finish but naturally worn over 20 years plus use.

  Stainless steel frets.
  Maple neck & board.
  ’57 V neck.
  Swamp ash body.

  Vintage sounding pups but with a hot bridge.

  Heavy flat wounds
  Vintage style tuners.

  Yep, vintage slot tuners for me as well.

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• gringopig Frets: 2648

  April 2020 edited July 2020

  .

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• MattFGBI Frets: 1602

  April 2020

  ‘69 big headstock.

  RW board
  modern thick C neck, sealed but no finish.
  9.5 to 12 radius
  6100 frets
  black journeyman finish
  shell guard
  black plastic
  HSS, Ancho singles and a zebra Shawbucker.
  Top mount Floyd

  This is not an official response.

  contactemea@fender.com

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  See Also

  New Vintage V65 Jazzmaster-ish guitar - Guitar Discussions on theFretBoard

• Caffeine_Vampire Frets: 3480

  April 2020

  Got to admit, I do like the 10 way Freeway switch I installed in mine.

  'Vot eva happened to the Transylvanian Tvist?'

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• Boromedic Frets: 4993

  April 2020

  After playing and owning a few Fender Strats my perfect spec turned out to be......
  

  

  The yard is nothing but a fence, the sun just hurts my eyes...

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• skippy76 Frets: 619

  April 2020

  There’s s something about the slab board Brazilian rose wood neck on my 1961 Pre CBS strat that has set the standard for me.

  It has what I’d call a medium profile neck so nothing super chunky or really slim and the back of it has 60 years playwear so has most of the lacquer worn down.

  I’ll get some pics up
  

  Other key features for me:

  Weather checked nitro body

  Great neck pickup tone

  Vintage Spec Klusons

  The “right” mint celluloid/nitrate guard...

  Oh and a blocked trem

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• guitargeek62 Frets: 4215

  April 2020

  If I was ordering a(nother) Fender CS it’d be something fairly straightforward:

  10/56 flat-sawn maple neck
  Rosewood slab-board, MOP inlays
  Jumbo frets, 12” radius
  Slimmer headstock (ala EJ sig.) and staggered locking Hipshot open-gear tuners
  2-pc alder body, lightweight, heavy contours + heel contour
  Journeyman-relic, 3-tone target-burst
  SSS config, with:
  N: Fat 50
  M: Custom 69
  B: Texas Special
  5-way switch and bridge p’up wired to second tone pot (middle wide-open)
  6-screw vintage trem, floating

  Simple!

  That said, if I was to spend CS money on a strat again any time soon, I’d probably just buy a Silver Sky.

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• Philly_Q Frets: 23533

  April 2020

  '70s headstock
  Bullet truss rod adjuster
  One piece quartersawn maple neck and fingerboard
  '54 U profile
  9.5" radius
  6100 frets (ideally stainless)
  Cutaway neck plate
  Swamp ash body (selected for light weight)
  Hardtail bridge
  Ancho Poblano pickups
  Journeyman relic finish

  Pretty much what I actually bought, in other words, except they don't offer stainless frets and I didn't think to go for the more modern neck plate and slightly reduced heel. If I got another one I also might go HSS and have 22 frets rather than 21.

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• tone1 Frets: 5199

  April 2020

  Strats for me have to have 6 screw bridge, vintage tuners, lightly relic’d in nitro, 9.5 radius unless setup without choking on a 7.25...middle pickup wide open, tone on bridge pickup, retains brightness on volume roll off, I’m not too fussed on neck profile, 5 way switch, I prefer the look of maple boards but have a rosewood....White with tortoise guard or Sunburst and mint green guard. Trem just floating so when dropping to Eflat it goes flat to body...
  

  http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/59137/tone1#latest

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• Brize Frets: 5640

  April 2020

  Any Strat that doesn't have those dreadful tall 6105 frets that the Custom Shop seem to favour.

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• merlin Frets: 6820

  April 2020 edited April 2020

  Hardtail. The rest is negotiable. As long as it's an EBMM Albert Lee SSS. Did I say hardtail?

  feedback here

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• gazrichards Frets: 691

  April 2020

  Mine would be
  maple neck and board.

  Truss rod adjuster dual at the body
  hss and hardtail or switch to go between series/parallel
  1 vol 1 tone
  jack input moved to side of body
  probably jumbo frets
  modern saddles
  neck shape not overly bothered (you get used to stuff pretty quick)
  did I mention I don’t like strats!!!

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• jeztone2 Frets: 2160

  April 2020 edited April 2020

  I think I’d want a 62 reissue with a punchier bridge pickup. A 10” radius and 6100 fretwire. Open minded about the trem. But I’d want a classic candy nitro finish.

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• robgilmo Frets: 3683

  April 2020

  A Tele, Strats are for puss*es. So, open a beer and play some Skynyrd on a Tele, like a real man.

  A Deuce , a Tele and a cup of tea.

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• RandallFlagg Frets: 14003

  April 2020 edited April 2020

  I'll add quarter sawn neck, checking on the nitro finish, 5 springs and decked 6 screw vintage trem, 9.5” radius and a tweed case!

  I don't see so many 54-59 maple neck relic Custom Shops for sale in the UK dealers lately, it's more 60s rosewood boards.

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• richardhomer Frets: 24865

  April 2020

  Surprised at the number of people stating maple boards (I agree incidentally - I have a CS 56 Relic).

  Until SRV came along, pretty much every major Strat player seemed to prefer maple (Erics Clapton & Johnson, Knopfler, Gilmour, Richard Thompson for example - though some have used both). IIRC, Mark @guitars4you once posted that rosewood board CS Strats massively outsold maple (I can’t remember the ratio - but it was significant).

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• robgilmo Frets: 3683

  April 2020

  I have to admit, I only really like RW on a Les Paul. Strats and Teles should be Maple.

  A Deuce , a Tele and a cup of tea.

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• TTBZ Frets: 2941

  April 2020

  Not a huge strat guy but I'm coming round to the idea of persevering with one. I prefer the look and feel of a maple board. 6 screw bridge seems better to me for some reason, as someone who never uses a trem it appears more sturdy. Hardtail better in theory but might feel too stiff. Ideally I'd want something with HSH routing so I could have a separate HH pickguard to swap between that and SSS.

  The main one for me is I really love the soft V profile on a strat, but not 7.25" radius or vintage frets. Think there was a Classic Player a while back that had soft V, med jumbo frets and 9.25" radius - would like to have a go on that. Parts guitar would be the more obvious route but crap resale if I don't get on with it as has been the case in the past.

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• Fifty9 Frets: 492

  April 2020 edited April 2020

  I’m the other way. Rw strat, Maple tele. Spec same as @guitargeek62. Oh and ;;

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