Fender Deluxe Super Strat Electric Guitar > Reviews (1)

The Fender Stratocaster is synonymous with all the guitar greats, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Mark Knopfler, Dave Gilmour, Lazza123. Lazza123? Yes that's right Lazza123 has played guitar for more years than he cares to remember, and has a really nice black Fender Stratocaster, which is whipped out on every occasion possible

~~~ What is it ~~~

A Fender Stratocaster is an electric guitar, with great curves, and great looks. Even if you know nothing about guitars, you will have seen many of them, either at gigs, or on TV.

~~~ A bit of History ~~~

In the 1940's, a guy called Leo Fender (from California) had a radio workshop, he (apparently) made the world's very first instrumentamplifiers with built-in tone controls. Leo wanted to make better guitars. With his knowledge of existing technologies, he knew he could improve on the designs of the day, which was hollowed body acoustic guitars, with some form of microphone inside, he did! In 1951, he introduced the Broadcaster, the prototype solid-body guitar that would eventually become the legendary Telecaster®. The Tele®, as it became affectionately known, was the first solid-body electric Spanish-style guitar ever to go into commercial production. Soon to follow the Tele were the revolutionary Precision Bass® guitar in 1951, and the Stratocaster® in 1954.

So quite a pedigree I think!

~~~ Where do you get them ~~~

Any good music shop will generally stock Fender guitars, yes you can get them on-line, but I've always found when buying guitars you really need to be touchy feely, I can pick up 3 identical guitars in a shop, one plays like a dream, the other two don't suit me at all. Also the staff in music shops are generally musicians, and they generally know what they are talking about, you explain what you want to play, they know the kind of instrument you want! If you want to do Metalica, maybe a Strat isn't the thing for you, Blues it is a must! They understand that you want to try loads of different guitars.

~~~ How much are they ~~~

This is the million Dollar question. Depending on where it was built, and how old, will depend on the price you pay. For instance vintage Fender Stratocasters can go for £1,000's, Fender Custom shop Strats go for a couple of thousand, standard US Strats can be had for £6-800, whereas Mexican imports can be had for around £3-400

~~~ What are they like ~~~

The Fender I have is black with chrome scratch plates. The body is made from Alder and the neck is maple with a rosewood fingerboard. You can get them in a wide range of colours and woods, you can even get distressed ones!

So starting at the pointy end:-

The head (no not a nautical term for toilet) this is where the strings end up, they are connected to machine heads, which you turn to tune the guitar. The head has the unmistakable Fender shape, copied by so many other companies. The machine heads are really easy to turn, they do not slip, and I have found that minimal tuning is required. I can play for a couple of hours, and only have to check the tuning now and again, which is good, as I am quite a heavy player (not heavy in the heavy metal sense, but I do give the strings a fair old clobbering when I get going!

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The neck - this has 22 frets, the frets (metal bars running at right angles to the neck) are really easy to play on, they are not sharp on the edges, they are dressed really well, as I mentioned earlier, the neck is maple with rosewood, it feels great, just fits my podgy paw nicely. You can get many different neck styles, so it important to pick one that suits you.

The body - this is when the strings are anchored, and where the intonation is set up (the relative tuning along the whole of the neck), the relative length of the string can be adjusted on the "bridge" also the "action" - the height of the strings. The bridge also houses the "tremelo arm" this is effectively a bit of metal sticking out of the bridge, which when pressed allows the strings to slacken, giving a sort of woow woow sound. On some guitars, excessive use of the tremolo can cause the strings to go out of tune quite substantially; I have never found this to be the case on my Strat.

Also on the body are the pick ups, these devices pick up the vibration of the strings, and transform into an electrical signal, which is picked up by the amplifier, and hey presto loud noise!
There are three pick ups on my Strat, these are controlled from one volume knob, and two tone knobs, assisted ably by a master five position selector switch, which basically allows various combinations of pickup to be switched in to create various tones, from a twangy sort of Shadows sound to a really deep Texas Blues kind of sound. The switch settings are
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Middle Pickup
Position 3. Middle Pickup
Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup
Position 5. Neck Pickup
The controls are very responsive, and you can get quite fine adjustment on the sound coming out of the guitar.

~~~ How do they play? ~~~

I find the Strat really easy to play, the tone is second to none, the type of playing I do, requires lots of bending the strings, and vibrato. The action is so easy, that it is virtually impossible not to play well and sound good.
The guitar is not too heavy (I'm not too sure of the exact weight), but I find that I can have it hanging round my neck for two or three hours with no problems.

I play my Strat through a Fender amplifier, if I leave the amp on a fairly inert setting, I find that I can get a wide variety of tones, due to the fact you can select various tone from the selector switch.
The sustain is great, so you can hold a note for quite a long time before the pitch starts to decay.

As with all things, warm up before getting stuck in, do a few scales, a few chord changes, you'll find that you will get better results in the end.

~~~ Looking after it ~~~

As with all musical instruments, you do need to look after them. You can get many specialised cleaning products to keep your guitar in tip top condition. Although (and I'm sure the purists will crucify for this, I actually use Ecover cream cleaner on mine, brings the shine out on the body a treat, for the neck I use a product called "neck oil"
Another thing to remember is to regularly change the strings, as dirt and grime from your fingers can cause the tone to deaden, also the more you bend and stretch the strings, the less they seem to respond.

There are many makes of string on the market, I tend to use "Rotosound 009"

Also it does pay to get a professional to set your guitar up. I have been lucky, as the shop I buy my guitars from always gets them set up prior to putting them on display, but every so often it is worth giving it the once over.

Also I would recommend getting a guitar stand, rather than lean it against the wall (as I did in my picture of it!!)

If anyone wants to learn guitar, I would recommend getting a Fender Stratocaster, the tone is excellent, the tuning is exact, it makes you sound good, it looks good, and more importantly it is very easy to play.

I have found with a lot of cheaper copy type guitars, that they don't play very easily, maybe the strings are too far away from the fretboard (the bit where you hold the strings to change notes) you is a strain on your fingers. This generally puts lots of people off of playing guitar!

Go on buy one and stick with it. They make all the difference.

Thanks for reading this

Larry