StRanger7032 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Holy crap! I think I have actually found a playable, fully functional USA Fender Strat. I have documented my long and frustrating journey to find a good American Strat on this forum for a couple years now. I've had three so far; two that were so bad that they could not be set up to be even marginally playable, and another that had the frets pull out of the rosewood fretboard two years after it left the factory. I finally found a USA G&L Legacy hardtail that filled my Strat niche. Its a great guitar, but I still really wanted the genuine article. The pickups in the G&L never sounded good, so I bought a Fender Custom Shop Fat 50's pickup set with all the pots and electronics out of an American Standard Strat and put that in the G&L. It sounded much better. Then, a few weeks ago, I started looking at the electronics that came out of the G&L thinking I might sell them. A few things looked weird. After some research, I discovered that someone had messed around in there and screwed things up. G&L uses a weird wiring harness in the Legacy, and someone had put a 250K pot where a 1Meg pot should have been. That would explain why it sounded bad. I replaced all the pots and wires in the G&L harness, opting for a traditional Fender arrangement with 3 250K pots instead of G&L's weird arrangement. Everything went back in the G&L and it sounded great again with the original pickups. Now what to do with the Fender harness? After poking around online, I found an American Standard body, neck, and hardware on sale at The Stratosphere. For those who aren't familiar with them, they sell new guitars piece by piece to people that don't need a whole guitar for their project. It came in Thursday and I slapped everything together. I did a careful setup and gave it a try. I immediately noticed way less fret buzz than the last two really bad ones I've had. There was some buzz, but its all but gone after some fine tuning of the setup. I think I've actually got a keeper on my 4th try! I'm going to give it a few weeks to make sure before putting the G&L up for sale, but it looks good so far... Might just have to keep the G&L too. It seems to be a rare configuration with the hardtail and the tinted maple 1950's style deep V neck. Decisions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 That's a gorgeous Srat but what your telling me is not to go out and buy any great looking Strat. I've never owned one before or a Tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StRanger7032 Posted October 23, 2016 Author Share Posted October 23, 2016 That's a gorgeous Srat but what your telling me is not to go out and buy any great looking Strat. I've never owned one before or a Tell. Your results may vary...many forum members have had no issues with Fenders. I've had bad luck, but I love them enough to keep trying. There is a known fault with Fender necks that results in the fretboard sloping upward where the neck attaches to the body. This causes the 19th-21st frets to be higher than the rest, which makes it impossible to get the string action low without having major fret buzz. The frets need to be leveled to compensate for the slope. This comes straight from a professional luthier who has built guitars for a big name company and is highly respected (not me). He tells people to budget an extra $120 for a fret leveling into the price of any new Fender electric. My 2013 Tele and this 2016 Strat do not seem to have this relatively common fault, thankfully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Interesting. I've always Loved the look of the Srats, just look gorgeous to me but the Telecasters seem to be ugly to me. If I ever decide to buy one it would be the Strat, not the tell. Does the problem exist because of the bolt on neck? I've always wondered about all that string pressure and just a short neck bolted on to the body. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 I think most of us fender owners have never experienced this problem.. But I'm glad you got one that's working out for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StRanger7032 Posted October 23, 2016 Author Share Posted October 23, 2016 Interesting. I've always Loved the look of the Srats, just look gorgeous to me but the Telecasters seem to be ugly to me. If I ever decide to buy one it would be the Strat, not the tell. Does the problem exist because of the bolt on neck? I've always wondered about all that string pressure and just a short neck bolted on to the body. I think its a manufacturing issue. According to my luthier, Fender is well aware of it, but chooses to keep doing things the old fashioned way. The neck is straight before it goes on the body, but the new forces that come into play from the neck being bolted onto another piece of wood with 4 screws causes some movement in the neck which leads to the slope issue. I thought Teles were ugly too until I found mine. The color and the pickguard make it look like a Gibson SG, which is probably why I like it so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 I think its a manufacturing issue. According to my luthier, Fender is well aware of it, but chooses to keep doing things the old fashioned way. The neck is straight before it goes on the body, but the new forces that come into play from the neck being bolted onto another piece of wood with 4 screws causes some movement in the neck which leads to the slope issue. I thought Teles were ugly too until I found mine. The color and the pickguard make it look like a Gibson SG, which is probably why I like it so much. Seems convinient that a luthier would suggest that the most common guitar in the world needs his work to be playable.. Not trying to be argumentative but logic seems to dictate that this is some kind of isolated incident Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quapman Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Does the problem exist because of the bolt on neck? No. I think as dub mentioned it's a one off. I have walked into the dealer here over the years and have pulled dozens off the wall that play just fine. And the set up is included. I bought my MIM strat of the wall, took it home, did a couple minor tweaks and it plays great! No trouble finding a great playing strat round here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 No trouble finding a great playing strat round here. Here either. However, there are a lot of set up variables in Strats, especially if they have the micro-tilt adjustment in the heel pocket. A Les Paul only has truss rod, nut slots, bridge height, and fret height as set up variables. A Strat may have additionally the micro tilt heel adjustment and the tremolo springtension as variables. When a Strat is a little off, setting it up can be therefore be a challenge to the uninitiated - especially if the goal is very low action. And yes I have leveled the higher frets on a few, so the problem can happen. In fact I just did this yesterday for someone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glp2012 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 No complaints here about any Fender's. Really, they are easy to set up and you can just about change out any Fender neck / body / pickup / etc... combination you want. It's like the Frankenstein of guitars - hence the name Frankenstrat. I just finished building a P-Bass from internet parts...no fret buzz, no problems. Every part came from a different suppliers on eBay. Just about the same with any other guitar I have pieced together with Fender parts. Oh, and recently I bought a Squire Vintage Modified bass. Same thing...set it up and play. No problems, no fret buzz. Maybe I've just had good luck. As a aside, I really like the Vintage Modified series from Squire - especially the bass line. Solid and cheap for "that Indonesian junk that's goin' round." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookieman15061 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Sure they exist I own 3 of 'em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NHTom Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 They definitely exist...................many good ones out there and some great ones too!!! NHTom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 I have owned dozens of strats in my life, and gigged all of them. I only don't have them because something better came along or it just moved out on a trade. I've never canned a strat, dozens, because it couldn't be set up. I've been to the chaotic, crazy, nutzo factory too, and I'm surprised they can do anything there, but the stuff on the floor was just as good as anything I've ever owned. I'm glad you found something that works, but I have to say that your problems with strats has been unique. rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StRanger7032 Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 I'm glad you found something that works, but I have to say that your problems with strats has been unique. rct This one's a keeper, finally. I fine tuned the setup and intonated it today. Here's my record of Fenders, good and bad: 1. 2013 American Standard Strat: Massive fret buzz on the G string regardless of trying every reasonable combination of neck relief and string height. Returned to Guitar Center. 2. 2013 American Deluxe HSS Strat: Frets began pulling up from the (rosewood) fretboard in 2015. Required major work by luthier to repair. Never played perfect even after the work. Sold for a huge loss. 3. 2011 American Standard Tele: Needed major fret leveling even though it had hardly been played. Sold. 4. 2013 American Standard Tele: Perfect-still own it and probably will forever. 5. 2015 American Standard Strat: Major fret buzz on all strings despite being meticulously set up to Fender's own measurements. No combination of neck relief and string height could make it playable. Returned. 6. 2013 Fender Japan 1966 Jazz Bass Reissue: Beautifully made instrument. Played like a dream. Sold only because I didn't need that much money tied up in a bass that's only a secondary instrument for me. 7. 2016 Standard Jazz Bass: Great bass for the money. No issues at all. 8. 2016 American Standard Strat: Setup was a bit tricky but plays great with little to no fret buzz after getting it precisely dialed in. Neck relief: .006" (very straight). String action: 1/16" treble, 9/128" bass. Tremolo: lightly decked (3 springs). It needs this exact setup to play with low action and no fret buzz, but at least it CAN be setup! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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