I recall reading an article back when Eddie Van Halen was playing  Steinberger with a Trans Trem.  At the time Steinberger was making bodies from a proprietary graphite/ carbon fiber mix.  He said the tone response was excellent because the material was consistent all the way through.  Some wood bodies, regardless the wood type, would have dead spots which would attenuate resonant frequencies.

I recall seeing an article in Guitar Player about Fender making a '57 Stratocaster out of a Lucite slab for salesmen to take on sales trips and conventions.  Volkswagen had an ad featuring an X-ray of a Beetle, and Fender followed suit with an ad featuring amps being X-rayed to show their internals.  The Lucite guitar was intended to show the customer what's under the skin of a Fender guitar.  They only produced one, because it took 4 years to build and it weighed 18 pounds!  I imagine the most labor was in polishing it.

Guess Fender should have talked to BC Rich about that whole lucite thing. They made a butt load of em.

Everyone needs an electric. Short scale is wicked good. I don't know how long you have been playing but if you have some years behind you build your own. You will end up with a better playing and sounding guitar than all the CNC builders will give you at their premium prices.

But........................

What your really need is this.

PLAY THE GUITAR YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT.  Not just one “like” it—-THE Guitar.

We had a delightful experience with a guitar broker yesterday. This guy specializes in vintage stuff. He was ready with some amazing gear, amps (a fender twin reverb) and pedals for us and we had a blast going through some of his stuff-some of it VERY ESOTERIC. (An aluminum bodied guitar?) I went in believing with 99% certainty was going to walk out with a G&L ASAT……
I was wrong.

My wife was looking around and while I was playing something and asked him; “now that you’ve heard my husband play-what about this one?”  He smiled and took it out of the rack. “This is a very good choice-one of my favorites”.
It was nothing like what I went in looking for. In fact to Fender aficionados this was a shit choice…. But when I plugged in and begin to play….oh my!  Within the very first couple of notes this guitar had our attention. It had a feel that was very different—-a mass-a weight-a balance-a presence-that was really different from any other Strat I had ever picked up. The neck was perfect for me….maple over maple.  
And it was a hard tail.
What I had in my hands was a 79 all original collector owned sunburst Strat.
The case had the original fender strap, a couple packages of original strings, and some picks from the store where it was originally purchased 45 years ago.

Fender fanatics will say this may be one of the worst years to buy a strat but in reality it’s perfect for me. There actually is a flaw in the finish where someone touched it as it was being coated with too much clear poly. They will say that the quality isn’t what it was 15 years previous-and they might be right-but this guitar is a perfect time capsule of who we were as a nation. Jimmy Carter was President. Our country was depressed and feeling like crap about itself. I was a young Marine at Camp Pendleton during a time that Marine historians regard as one of the lowest points of morale in Marine Corps history. This guitar may reflect all of that.
Nevertheless-THIS particular guitar feels and sounds great-even with its flaws.

I’m going to learn how to play it and I’m blessed to have a wife who gets it and me at this point in life.

Pics coming.

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Very nice!!! I love my 75. I know why people don’t like the CBS era Fenders but I have two and they’re both absolutely amazing guitars.

Wow! "Time capsule" is right.
I'm glad you found something that spoke to you. Enjoy!

Great looking strat and certainly a piece of history. Is that a 7.5 inch radius neck? 7.5 is my favorite.

Mine is only 24 years old. 9.5 in radius neck. Wish it was 7.5

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Oops I misread lol.

I’ll measure it tonight when I get a couple minutes. I brought my neck gages to do that and just played it.

Nice Strat.  I have become accustomed to see the pre-CBS headstocks.  The larger headstocks have their own appeal.

75’s didn’t have the 5 position switch did they?

No, 3 position. I think 76 was the change to 5 position.

Mine was a one owner. Came with a bunch of original case candy and minty too like yours. All original.

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I cant explain that video, there's a few thing that point to it being bullshit.  Most importantly personal experience.  I have two B.C. Rich Mockingbirds with Gibson Classic '57's in them, One is acrylic, one has a mahogany body, they sound totally different.  If guitar manufacturers could make their guitars out of balsa wood, they would.

They are going for a little more now…
Add a zero.

Are guitars a good investment?  Maybe not these ones but some are.

Yes they can be and these are an investment. They are still “reasonably” affordable and becoming more collectible every year.

Also that’s the original receipt from the 70’s. I wish I had only paid $300 lol.

Very nice, I lucked into a '73 handtail Strat with a 4 bolt conversion about 16 years ago for $275 from a pawn shop.

Besides the 4 bolt conversion, some black paint in the pickup cavities, 5 way switch, and added aluminum foil on the pickguard it is original, Olympic White finish and all. 7lbs 2.3oz.



Sorry for the terrible picture and mess, I am finishing some surround sound wiring so there are wires and cable management shit everywhere. 😐

In my experience a vintage Fender is always a good investment.

70's Fenders are getting their love too.

Love it, the original American Series were great Strats.

Damn, that is sweet.

Telecaster is a great guitar but I like the strat more. Telecaster really shines for doing steel guitar bends and chicken pickin, nothing else really sounds like it. I like blues, though, and Hendrix, Clapton, SRV, Beck etc. style rock and nothing does that better than a strat imo, plus it has the best tremolo design ever invented for cool sounds. Tele can play blues too though, I find it a little stiffer and limited, but some of my favorite blues players played them,  Muddy Waters, Roy Buchanan, Albert Collins, and Tab Benoit. Roy and Tab use the volume and tone controls on the tele as cool effects, like a wah sound, and they just plug straight in the amps, no pedals necessary. If you like BB King, Albert King, etc. style blues and Billy Gibbons, Jimmy Page, etc. stuff and southern rock, get a Gibson es-335, les paul, sg, flying v etc.

When I was guitar shopping 1-2 years ago, the PRS SE hollow body models were all made in China.  Every other SE model was from Cort, in Indonesia.

The other day i was watching partscaster builds on Youtube, and saw someone making a "Nashville" Tele.  They routed out the body to accept a third pickup in the middle position and switched the selector switch to a 5 position Strat type.

I think the telecaster is one of the best all around electrics you can get. Very versatile and they play great.

Neck radius is 7.25 which surprises me even more-Humm?
You’ve got a pretty good eye for neck radius based solely on a pic!  

Be careful using the tremolo... I've never had good luck with the two pivot screw bridges on alder bodies.

I never use the tremelo. I don't even have a tremelo bar.

In fact I have it very tight. I might have even blocked it, I can't remember. I have 3 other strats ( inexepensive ones) and I know I have some of them blocked.

Earlier in this thread someone suggested new guys buying electric guitars avoid buying guitars with a tremolo because….issues.

I thought that was good advice and bought a hard tail.

I want to eventually get a hard tail but all three of my Strats have tremolos. I think Fender makes one of the best trem systems out there. I couldn't tell you what wood my Strats are but I have both the 5 screw and 2 bolt versions and have never had an issue but I don’t heavily play them either. I just deck the trem out and it works and tunes perfectly fine.

Tele's are great, and don't get nearly the respect they deserve IMHO.  Kinda surprised to see so much love for them here.

Hell it’s the first electric guitar type I ever seen! I absolutely love Telecasters and have three of them. Here’s my 1975 Custom. It’s as heavy as my non weight relieved Les Paul’s.

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My '93 American Standard; bought new.
Mine was decked, no tremolo use and strung with 11s.
I'm not saying this is the norm; but far from a unique occurence.

I am not as much of a wizard as you may think.
During that time period, most strats made by Fender had a 7.5 in neck radius. Apparently not all but most, I have read some of the custom ordered guitars had a different neck radius.

But I do have the 2000 American Standard with 9.5, an inexpensive  Strat made by Hohner ( Rockwood LX90 )  with 7.5, and 2 x Starcaster Strats made by Fender with 12.

The neck radius can be seen just by looking at it, although it is subtle between the 9.5 and the 7.5, the 12s stand out as very flat looking.

I much prefer the 7.5 neck. Someday maybe I can find a really nice 7.5 for not a bunch of money. I like the 7.5 so much I spent over 20 hours rounding the fretboard edges and frets ends of the Rockwood LX90 by Hohner inexpensive start and replacing the electronics with a populated pickguard from a Fender Squire Affinity that I picked up from a local musician that swapped it out with a much better pickup suite.

I play that guitar a lot because it sits in the media room on a stage stand and I just grap it to play bcause it doesn't have a case and is joy to play. Crazy since I have a grand total of $65 in it and about 12 days of sweat.

The 9.5 is still good to play, but the 12s I really do not like. It is harder for me to move up and down the fret board for some reason.

I really would like to get a 7.5 Vintage strat. I keep looking for one I can refurbish and bring back to life, since I enjoy working on electric guitars, but most people tend to take care of their vintage strats for some weird reason and want real money for them

The Fender® American Vintage II series have 7.25 inch radius necks, so maybe I will get on of those. Also been thinking of making a solid oiled walnut or mahogany strat with a 7.25 neck and putting a label on it that says MachCaster

I thought the traditional radius was 7.25", not 7.5".

The typical list of "standard" fretboard radii normally consists of 7.25", 9.5", 10", 12", 14", 16", and 20".

yeah typo, sorry.

I got it correct on the last line of my post....7.5...7.25 whatever it takes.

"Like"...

JFC ARFCOM; just buy a template.

I’ve got a set of gages from Stew Mac.
They are handy.

The understring ones? They're very handy for helping dialing in saddle height adjustment.

If country is your thing, what about a 335 type? Gibsons are nice but pricey. Gretsch makes some sweet hollow bodies. The Epiphones are really nice these days as well. No experience with the PRS holliws. Country isn't my thing but a couple of my friends flip between country, rockabilly, and a little bit of Foo and the 335 is the go to for its versatility.

ETA: I should have waited til I got to the second page and saw this turned into a Strat thread. Grats on the new guitar!

Thanks.
Guitars are like golf clubs, guns, and any other tool. The right tool for the right job. A hollow body electric is on the wish list with Dusenburg leading that group. (That means I’ll end up with a Gretch Country Gentleman).

I received an education on pedals and effects yesterday.

Yes, those ones, although I have yet to use them as height gauges.

I've been playing electric guitars for 30+ years.  The one thing I can tell you for sure......is that you need to go by a few guitar stores, play on as many guitars as you can find, and see what you like.    When one hits you, and sounds and feels amazing, that's the one for you.

i've never been into flashy guitars, but for some reason I like the looks of the Gretsch White Falcon.  It's like the Cadillac of semi-hollow bodies.

I saw that.  Wild that someone put one on an acoustic!

Okay, so here is a simple way to actually test the affect(s) of "tone wood" on an electric guitar sound.

Build a robot that frets and strums guitar.

Record that robot playing a series of different guitars with identical pickups and circuits through the same amplifier, in the same room, under the same conditions.

Phase align and then null test the results.

That will prove without a doubt that different woods affect amplified guitar sound.

Personally I don't think we need to build a swimming pool to test if this particular boulder will float.

If you think the wood is so important that you can actually pick out guitars based on that alone, then you could have won yourself a guitar.

I can’t stand that guy, so I went looking and watched several videos. Most I came across were pretty poorly done. Some videos showed a difference and some didn’t. But… this video has me about convinced.



ETA: Thanks to Mach for providing this video earlier in the thread.