squier standard gets returned

Some bad news. The Standard had to be returned as the neck did not bow back properly and continued to have some significant fret buzz. That, and the neck just felt thick in the wrong kind of way for my hands. Can't really explain it any better than that.

I'll be sticking with the Bullet Strat I already have.

After returning the Standard, I decided to do a major cleaning on the Bullet, which involved taking off the pick guard. I confirmed that the body color has in fact darkened a few shades, which just goes to show that polyurethane coated bodies do change color over time.

While at Guitar Center I tried out a few guitars, but before I get into that, a few words about the Bullet.

I find it absolutely incredible that the second-to-lowest cost Squier (the only guitar lower in price in the lineup is the Mini) proves time and time again to be best playing, most-trouble-free, best-character guitar they have. I've gone through several Squiers since buying my Bullet in 2010 and they simply don't stack up to how great the Bullet is. The non-gloss neck feels right, the frets feel right, it all just feels right. And while the Bullet pickups are admittedly a bit on the weak side, it does have character. Add on a booster pedal and you've got yourself one seriously amazing sound.

That being said, I tried out a few other guitars when I went to return the Standard to Guitar Center.

I tried a maple-board (yes, they actually had one) Affinity Strat in a sunburst finish. This particular one wasn't good. Pickup tone was bland and lifeless, the neck had an odd feel to it that I really can't describe other than "doesn't feel right", and there were some seriously weird tuning issues with it no matter how much I stretched the strings (which I must have done at least 10 times just noodling around with it). Fit and finish were fine, no sharp fret edges or anything like that. But like I said, just a "blah" guitar.

A few weeks back when I played a Squier Affinity Telecaster on the other hand, that guitar was just fine front to back, and sounded good too. Can't explain why that is, but it is.

Another guitar I tried was a black-on-black Squier Bullet Telecaster HS, as in humbucker in the bridge and single-coil in the neck. Played fine and felt good, but that humbucker was so dead sounding. With pickup replacements, it would have been great. Also, I'll give credit that the switchgear and knobs were perfect on it.

Finally, I tried a Squier Cabronita Telecaster. Yep, the brand new model. Black with maple board. Pickup tone is really, really good. Sparkly, spanky, and even with the lack of a tone control, it's just a damned good-sounding guitar. However there's only one rather huge problem with it. It has a gloss neck coating which made it feel like total plastic. Were it not for that gloss coating, the guitar would be perfect. Yes, I mean that. If I knew how to refinish a neck, I probably would have bought the guitar and done a satin urethane coating on it. But being I don't know how to do such things, I gave it a miss.

Anyway, the Standard didn't work. But I did learn that alnico magnet pickups are f--king awesome. I won't be replacing the pickups in my Bullet because I like the character of the guitar too much to mess with it.

However, if I get another Bullet Strat (which I might), I may specifically mod that into a "Super Squier" of sorts. Not really a hard thing to do if you know what parts and upgrades to get - which I do. :)

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squier standard stratocaster arrives

The used Squier Standard Stratocaster in Metallic Black I ordered arrived today.

Do I like it? I'm not sure just yet, and you'll understand why in a moment.

The condition of the guitar is quite good. On a few minor tiny scratches here and there. The metallic black is actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be, as it has just enough metal flake in it to hide scratches, but from a distance it does not sparkle, and that's a good thing because I don't like sparkly finishes on guitars.

Electronics all work but the pots are stiff. The turning motion is fine, but you do have to put effort into it. It reminds me of the 4-knob layout on a Telecaster Custom I played a few months back as that had stiff knobs on it too.

The neck had obviously never been set up right and needed three 1/8th tightening turns on the truss rod because it had a rather large bow to it. It's a little buzzy at the moment but I'm sure it will settle properly over the next day or so. If it doesn't, I'll have to take it back. But I'm confident the neck will get back its proper shape.

Tuners are good, nut is cut a little bit off and sticks out on the edges slightly (Mexican Strats are usually the same way so no surprise there), but I can work with it assuming the neck bends back proper. And if I find the nut sticking out a little really bothers me, it's easy enough to shave down gently with a file. No big deal.

The most noticeable thing about this Strat is its sound. Very, very glassy. I believe this is because the pickup poles are identical to the pole positions on an American Standard. A low-mounted treble E, totally sunk in B, high G, high D, low-mounted A and low-mounted bass E. That's the vintage pole positioning setup, and that's exactly what the Squier Standard has.

The alnico pickup magnets along with the pole positioning gives the Squier some serious vintage-style voicing to it.

Is this pole positioning on the Mexican Standard? No. The Mexican Standard does a "smooth arc" with its pickup pole positions.

Does this mean the Squier Standard is actually voiced more like an American model than the Mexican Standard is? Yes. Funny how things work like that.

Where the vintage-style pole positioning matters most is in the "quack" 2 and 4 pickup selector positions. The Squier Standard has total vintage Strat voicing, no question about it.

And yeah, that means the 1, 3 and 5 positions are very "spanky", which is what vintage Strat voicing is supposed to sound like.

In other words, no need to replace pickups at all. When most Strat guys go to do a pickup upgrade, they usually go for the alnico magnet pickups. Not necessary in the Squier Standard since it already has them in stock form.

Concerning intonation, yes the guitar was able to be intonated properly. The only string that was out was the treble E, but a few quick turns of the saddle screw fixed that easily.

The pick guard is actually not white but rather something called "parchment". I knew this before buying it and wasn't sure if I was going to like the look of that or not. I find I do like it because a stark white pick guard on a black guitar is just has way too much contrast even with the one-piece maple neck.

The build year, in case you're wondering, is 2007. I did not know this before buying it. All that I knew of the guitar was from a blurry photo in the original listing. The fact it's an '07 does not bother me, because in all honesty, the guitar is barely used. Also, it's an Indonesian build and not Chinese.

I only had three surprises with this guitar.

First, I was a bit surprised to find out this guitar has a slim-style zinc tremolo block and not the full block. It's not that I use the tremolo at all so it's not a big deal, but on a model labeled "Standard", I did expect a full-size block.

Second, I discovered there were only two tremolo claw springs and not the standard three. The guy who traded it in probably just forgot to put back the third one. I was okay with this since I have two spares and used one of them so I could do my preferred chicken foot spring configuration.

I could tell the two existing springs were original because they have a hint of tarnishing on them, which is par for the course for a guitar that's six years old where the springs are never touched.

The third thing is a pleasant surprise. This is the first two-point tremolo system that I've actually been able to set correct and get proper intonation on. And yeah, this takes a bit of explanation.

Generally speaking, I do not like two-point Fender Strat bridges because I am never able to get the strings set up where they don't buzz and have no intonation issues at the bridge saddle.

Older style six-screw bridges are for all intents and purposes "bulletproof", meaning when you "deck" the bridge by tightening the tremolo claw screws on the back so the bridge doesn't move and use block saddles for extra string height on the top side (which for me I need with a decked bridge), that's a Strat setup that gives you good string tension, no buzz (or very little), and when you set your intonation, it stays set unless you do some major change like switch string gauges or something like that.

On the Squier Standard, its two-point bridge works like it's supposed to. I'm actually quite amazed at this. It is decked, has its intonation set and, well, it actually works. This is the first time out of all my years playing both Fender and Squier Strats that I've been able to get a two-point set up to do what I wanted it to do.

Why does this particular one work? It could be those great full-block saddles, or maybe the smaller tremolo block has something to do with it, or maybe the fact the bridge is a foreign build (meaning slightly different measurements). I'm just not sure. All I know is that it works, and I'm happy about that.

Something I read on Fender's own web site is that the Standard is supposed to have a slim neck, so I expected something, well.. slim. As I discovered, it's actually thicker than the Bullet Strat neck. This either means the Bullet neck is a "super slim", or the Standard's neck is not as thin as Fender says it is. It's not a big deal but I feel it's worth mentioning.

Lastly, at least for the moment, I'm going to talk about the look of the guitar.

Being this guitar is six years old, its maple board is not super-light colored but rather slightly yellowed from age. The Standard has no neck tinting on it whatsoever, which I consider a good thing. But the one I have in particular has the 'bonus', if you will, of being six years old and having a slight natural yellowing to it instead of it being fake.

This is the second big-headstock Squier I've owned. The first was the Vintage Modified Stratocaster, which of course has the tinted neck and glossy-glossy coating all over the headstock and back of the neck, while the Standard is just regular non-gloss polyurethane.

The way the Standard has its headstock shape and logo done is 99% correct. The only part of it that's not correct is the little "Standard Series" at the end. But fortunately that can be scratched off easily. If I keep the guitar, I may scratch that part of the logo off.

Why does the Standard with the one-piece maple neck nail it so good when it comes to the headstock look? It's because the Squier logo is unapologetically large, in gold with black outline, the "STRATOCASTER" is also unapologetically large and in charge, but what adds to the look at the tuners with the nuts on top and the two string trees. This "fills the area" of the headstock and doesn't make it look like just a big unfinished hunk of wood on the end of the neck. Everything about it (with except of that little "Standard Series" crapola) is spot-on.

The three-ply parchment color guitar with the powder coated (or what appear to be powder coated) non-shiny bridge saddles with black screws make for a very classy-looking Strat. And it works very well in metallic black. A lot better than I thought it would.

I consider the Squier Standard with the one-piece maple neck to be a very classy-looking axe. And it certainly has the hardware to sound as good as it looks.

Should the neck bow back proper, this could be my new favorite guitar very quickly.

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Why are electric guitars with maple fretboards so hard to come by?

Being that a Squier Standard Stratocaster will be in my possession soon, I've been doing some research on the guitar. Reading articles, watching YouTube videos and so on.

As far as certain Squier guitar models go, the Standard and Deluxe models with the maple fretboard are some of the most difficult to find in a guitar store and they do not stay in stock long. More on that in a moment.

Are there too many rosewood-fretboard Squier guitars?

There are too many rosewood-board guitars in general. Walk into any guitar store and count the number of new maple-board guitars vs. rosewood-board and you'll always find more rosewood-board. It didn't used to be that way, but it is now.

For example, when is the last time you saw a new Affinity Strat with a maple board? Probably not for some time. If you want one new, you're pretty much forced to buy it online.

Out of all guitar brands, Fender and Squier produce the most maple-board guitars. The fact that new maple-board Squier electrics have barely any presence in guitar stores right now is just odd since maple fretboards are for all intents and purposes "a Fender thing".

Does Squier only make a just a few maple-board guitars? Actually, no. They make several, including the recently reintroduced Squier '51 and the brand new Cabronita Telecaster. The problem is that most guitar stores either don't stock them or order so few that they sell out too fast before you even have a chance to try them out.

Did guitar stores stock more maple-board guitars before? Yes. If a large guitar store had, say, 100 new guitars on display, about 20 or 30 of them would be maple-board. But now you'd be lucky to find 10. And of those 10, maybe only 2 of those new axes are under the $300 price tag.

Tip: When scoping for a maple-board in the guitar store, go to the used area first. At least over there you'll find more than just 2 choices you can actually afford.

My "first love" with Strats was with the all-maple neck

Back in my mid-teens when I first started playing guitar, I only knew Strats by maple fretboards (mainly because of Eric Clapton) and not rosewood. The maple versions always seemed to look better whenever I saw them in a guitar store.

Fast-forward to 2010. I found out Squier had an "Arctic White" (which is actually banana yellow) on a cheap Bullet model with the rosewood board, and that reminded me of the Ritchie Blackmore Strat look which is a yellow-ish body with rosewood board, black knobs and black pickups, so I bought a Bullet. Mine is similar to the Blackmore look except I didn't do the black pickup thing and am fine with them being white.

Fast-forward to present. For the past several weeks (if not months by this point) I have been getting the urge to get a maple-board guitar. It started when I was thinking about getting an Affinity Telecaster and tried one out. Something about that new maple fretboard just felt really, really good. Then I got the '71 repro decal and that really got me interested in getting one, so I started shopping around for a replacement one-piece maple neck for my '93 USA Strat since its existing neck is wrecked. Then after that I found the best option to get the most for my money was to just buy a Squier Standard Stratocaster, and now I'm just playing the waiting game until the guitar arrives.

I find myself actually getting excited about this because this will be the first ever electric with a maple board that I've bought myself. My previous two maple-board guitars that I still own, the '89 Squier II and the '93 Fender, were both bought by my late father. All the guitars I've personally bought up to this point have all been rosewood-board. Every one of them.

I truly hope the Squier Standard works out well for me, and yes I will be sure to write about it no matter what happens, good or bad.

Reasons why new electrics with maple fretboards are tough to come by

There are other companies besides Fender/Squier that make guitars with maple fretboards on them (Kramer Pacer Classic comes to mind), however your selection is really slim. Why? Because most guitar companies simply don't produce that many maple-board electrics.

You will notice more often than not that maple-board guitars by companies other than Fender/Squier are for "premium" models only. For example, want an LTD with a maple fretboard? You're going to pay a lot for it.

For shredder/metal style guitars, it's actually cheaper and easier just to buy a used Squier Standard or Fender Mexican Standard Strat, gut the electronics and replace with pickups/switching of your liking, and outright replace the neck with a warmoth.com custom order. You can order a 24-fret Strat replacement neck with a 10"-to-16" compound radius, "Wizard" back contour for lightning-fast action, 6150 jumbo fret wire for effortless soloing and a clear nitro finish for great feel. That will run you a little over $300 just for the neck. Worth it? Yes, considering the complete build will be around $700 or so (you can shave off a few hundred more if you get the Squier body instead of the Fender), and that's $500 less than buying one of those "premium" guitars. True, 700 bucks is lot to spend, but it's steal for a pro-grade shredder/metal guitar when you piece it together yourself like that.

For every other type of music, you go Squier or Fender to get a maple-board guitar at the best possible price - if you can actually find one in a guitar store.

Maybe someday another guitar company will come along and blow everyone away with a good, solid electric with a maple fretboard that will genuinely challenge Fender and/or Squier. But I don't see that happening any time soon.

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squier standard stratocaster on the way

As you know, I recently acquired a 1971-style Fender Stratocaster waterslide decal, "WITH SYNCHRONIZED TREMOLO" and all.

Since receiving it, I've been searching around for a suitable neck to put it on. I've basically searched everywhere. Everywhere online, that is. eBay, other online retailers... I even looked at Mighty-Mite as they are licensed to use Fender designs.

Well, here's the problem I ran into. Actually, there are a few of them.

My original '93 Fender USA Strat has a one-piece maple neck, so I wanted a neck like that to fit my USA body, with the difference being I wanted a large CBS-era headstock since I have a '71-style decal in my possession.

You would not believe how difficult it is to find a complete (keyword there) one-piece maple neck that uses a modern "C" shape with medium jumbo frets that will fit a USA standard Stratocaster body for a decent price.

The "licensed" way...

...will cost you a bundle even before tax and shipping. Yes, you can get a brand new logo-less CBS replica Strat neck, but where the price jumps is if you add in a nut and a finish. Without nut and finish, price is somewhat low. Add in a nut, cost gets added in. Add in a clear satin nitro (which is in fact the lowest-priced neck finish), more cost gets tacked on.

I couldn't justify spending the base price + tax + shipping just for a neck.

The eBay way...

...depends on what seller you buy from. What you get might be great or might not because it's luck of the draw. It's also next to impossible to find a one-piece maple neck with the CBS headstock that has modern measurements.

Modern is this: C shape (a.k.a. "slim oval"), medium jumbo frets, 9.5-inch fretboard radius. That's it. Sounds simple enough, but wow is it tough to get for a price that's right.

You can find small-headstock Fender and Squier necks as a one-piece maple that match these measurements all day long. No problem. But go into big-headstock territory, and getting what you want becomes more difficult.

A few examples of necks that don't cut it, or just can't be found:

• "70s reissue" is NOT a modern C shape but a big, fat U shape. So that's out.
• American Special does not use medium jumbo but rather the larger jumbo frets. And I don't like those. Can't use that.
• Squier Affinity one-piece maple necks do not fit the USA body properly and have a skinny nut of 1.60-inch instead of Squier and Fender Mexico 1.65-inch or the American 1.685-inch.
• Squier Standard Stratocaster one-piece maple necks do match the standard requirements and are basically identical to Fender Mexico necks, but are impossible to find on eBay. You'll find the rosewood version, sure, but not the one-piece maple.

You can take a neck with a 1.65-inch nut width and the strings will match up even on a body and bridge designed for 1.685-inch, because that's only 0.035ths of an inch (or .89mm) difference. So for those wondering if you can take a Mexican neck and slap it on an American body, the answer is yes, you can. And the neck pocket will usually have a nice, snug fit. The only shims required would probably be nothing more than two business card's width. Maybe just one.

My problem is that there are no CBS-style Mexico one-piece maple necks with the big headstock available right now (at the time of this writing) for a decent price. Two brand new models, the Deluxe Lone Star and Deluxe Roadhouse, do in fact have those necks. But since they're brand new, nobody has started parting them out on eBay yet, so you can't buy one individually. Not yet, anyway.

So... where do we go from here?

Now I'm at the point where I'm thinking to myself, "It would probably be cheaper and easier just to buy an entire Squier Standard guitar rather than just the neck."

I headed over to the used listings at Guitar Center and did a search for Squier, not expecting much. But, as luck would have it, there was a Squier Standard Stratocaster in Metallic Black with the one-piece maple neck.

And yep, I bought it. No, I don't have the guitar yet. It's in Pittsburgh at the moment and will be shipped out to Tampa where I will pick it up in a week or so.

I paid about 24% off the new price, all told (tax + shipping included, and cheaper than a new Affinity with tax included). And yeah it is the best price going. On eBay, there was only ONE GUY selling one for less, but it was a "no returns" sale, so that was out.

If you just said to yourself, "Shoulda bought it off Craigslist...", there is nobody selling a Standard model with the one-piece maple neck locally. Yes, I looked.

Guitar Center is basically the only place right now where I can buy this very specific guitar used from anywhere in their network, try it, and if I don't like it I can return it for a full refund. I made damned sure to ask this while on the phone with them. And they said yep, if I don't like it I can return for a refund. I'm assuming I get at least 14 to 30 days to try it out, which is more than enough time to decide if I like it or not.

In addition, I also specifically instructed them to inspect the guitar once it arrives at the store. I specifically do in-store pickup because they check they guitar on arrival, and if it arrives broken, I can get the refund without ever having to go to the store.

Supposedly, the Squier Strat I bought is "4-out-of-5 star" rated by GC, meaning the only thing wrong with it should be a few finish scratches. That's fine since it's used. But if there are any major issues with it, nope, I'll take the refund.

Why a Squier Standard?

A Squier Standard Stratocaster is the absolute closest thing measurement-wise to an American Standard model without it being American.

What I mean by that is this:

• 22-fret neck with 9.5-inch radius and medium jumbo frets
• Through-the-post tuners with nut on top (the good kind)
• 2-point tremolo system
• 3-ply white-black-white pick guard
• Full-size body (as far as I know)

Remember, the Mexican Standard is a 21-fret and not 22. So the Squier Standard matches more towards the American model for that reason. Yes, one fret does make that much of a difference. I personally prefer 21-fret, but 22-fret is what my USA came with originally and I was trying to match that as closely as possible.

Now the idea I had here was to - assuming I like the guitar enough to keep it - take off the neck, attach to my USA Fender and see if it fits right. If it does, sand off the logo, apply the Fender '71-style logo and that's that. Done deal. After that I just part out what's left on eBay.

But here's the funny part. I might like this guitar enough to use it as-is, look and all.

The Squier Standard is one of those "sleeper" guitars that actually has some premium hardware in it.

• Pickups: Not the standard cheap stuff. All pickups have alnico magnets.
• Metal hardware: Real-deal chrome all around.
• Tuners: True die-cast and very smooth-operating that hold tune well.
• Saddles: Proper full-block saddles, similar to the American Deluxe model, which are actually far superior compared to those absolute piece-of-crap bent steel saddles.

Squier Standard has pro-grade Strat saddles that will always outperform those craptastic bent steel pieces of garbage. Maybe they don't "look vintage", but they sure do work better. Once your string heights are set, you'll love the fact the strings will stay put and will not slide all over the place. Even if a bent steel saddle has a notch for the string to sit in, sorry, but that's just not good enough. It's gotta be full-block or don't even bother. Also, you get way more height adjustment with full-block compared to bent steel and there is never any threat of a saddle height screw falling out during adjustment.

The Squier Standard Stratocaster is in fact good enough to be used as-is without modifying it at all.

For a while now I've been wanting an electric with a one-piece maple neck on it that I can play regularly. While I do already have a guitar with a one-piece maple neck (my Squier II Stratocaster), that's my first guitar and I purposely don't play it just to preserve it since it has sentimental value to me.

I did entertain the idea of buying an Squier Affinity Telecaster to get a guitar with a one-piece maple neck on it (and did try one out). I also tried out a Squier Jazzmaster just because it's so different from the kind of guitars I usually play (it's a great guitar, by the way).

Ultimately, I gave the Tele and the Jazz a miss because at the end of the day I'm a Strat guy. Yep, I admit it. True, I own a Les Paul, but no matter what guitar I own, I always go back to Strats. The kind I like, that is...

...and once I got the '71-repro decal, that's where I got the idea to "rebuild" my USA Strat. But hey, who knows? The Squier Standard might be good enough as-is.

I've absolutely no idea if I'll like the used Squier Standard Stratocaster in Metallic Black or not. But I'll find out soon enough.

Why I don't like black guitars, and why I bought this black guitar

Yes, the guitar is black. And yes, I've said many times I don't like black guitars. However, the difference with the Squier Standard's version of black is that it's black metallic, meaning there are little reflective flakes in the paint. I'll explain why that's important in a moment.

Why do black guitars suck?

Because no other finish will show every single freakin' scratch faster than gloss black will (and most black guitars are gloss black).

The reason gloss black shows scratches so quickly is because there's nothing to hide them. Even the tiniest hairline scratch will stick out like a sore thumb on gloss black.

Oh sure, you could keep a polish cloth in your case or gig bag and keep rubbing those tiny hairline scratches out caused by your hands or pick. But as you keep doing that, spots were you rub out scratches the most get dulled, meaning everything else will be nice and shiny except those areas where you keep rubbing scratches out.

The solution to this problem? There is none. All gloss black guitars do it.

There are certain black finishes that don't do this however.

• Metallic black: Metal flakes in the paint mask hairline scratches well.
• Flat black: It's flat, so it does not reflect scratches.
• "Transparent" black: Actually more of a gray, hides hairlines scratches well.
• "Worn black": Similar to flat black, except it's not flat but rather has a dulled-on-purpose finish. Hides scratches well.
• "Burst" black: Similar to transparent and again more of a gray-ish thing. I call them "ghost" finishes. Does show scratches, but not too bad. An example of a burst black is the Parker PDF100, and you'll understand why I call it a ghost finish once you see it.

Metallic, out of all other black finishes you could get, hides scratches best. Why? Because the metallic flakes are the best at hiding scratches since they are in fact more reflective than the actual scratches are.

The only way a scratch gets noticed on metallic black is if the scratches are deep and obvious. Otherwise, the flakes mask hairlines scratches easily.

So anyway... assuming the guitar doesn't arrived wrecked into Tampa, I'll give my report on it once it's in my possession.

And if it's good enough to be used as-is, I will use it that way and won't sand off the logo or anything like that. If that's how it is to be, I'll just keep the guitar, enjoy it, and get a neck for my USA Strat another day.

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the impossible logo

I received a waterslide decal in the mail recently. Yes, it is the impossible logo, as in my absolute favorite Fender Stratocaster logo of all time, the early-1970s "swoop" STRATOCASTER lettering in combination with the "swooped" WITH SYNCHRONIZED TREMOLO beneath it.

Did I pay for this? Nope. I was having a phone conversation with a professional luthier I know, we got to talking about Stratocasters, I mentioned my favorite Strat logo treatment, and he just happened to have one (a few, actually), so he mailed it to me. I'm not saying who the guy is because I don't want to get him in trouble.

When I get the money, I plan on using the logo on a reproduction CBS-style replacement neck for the busted one on my 1993 USA Standard Stratocaster (the '93 neck has a popped truss rod). So to anyone who thinks I'm going to slap on a logo and sell the guitar, you can be rest assured that will not happen as I will only be using the decal for personal use only.

I called the early-1970s waterslide decal the "impossible logo" because there is only one Strat model made by Fender right now that has it, and that's the Yngwie Malmsteen Strat. Unfortunately, that Strat comes with a dopey scalloped fretboard, and I have zero interest in that.

You might think, "Well, okay. What about the Classic Series '70s Stratocaster?" A fine choice, but it does not have WITH SYNCHRONIZED TREMOLO on the logo.

Yes, I am very, very particular about this. :)

Now on top of that, the '70s Strat has that huge U-shape neck on it, which I don't really like (U is a really thick neck shape). I prefer the modern C-shape.

Basically put, I'm forced to go with a repro logo just to get what I want, as Fender does not make any Strat that has the early-1970s logo treatment I like except for the Malmsteen Strat which I don't like because of the dopey scalloped fretboard.

My Strat will never be a true '71, nor is it meant to be

I am absolutely not looking to recreate a '71 Stratocaster, because in all honesty, I can't. Well, not without paying a ton of money for it.

Fender collectors know that in the CBS era when the big swoop logo with the tremolo wording was used, "F tuners" were used along with F spacing.

What does that mean? It means you can buy F tuners right now, but they will not fit a modern Strat neck because the spacing between the holes is different. And being that you generally cannot get a CBS repro Strat neck with F spacing, you either have to order a neck with no pegboard holes precut and drill them yourself, or have a luthier do it. Not cheap.

What's an "F tuner" exactly? Think of it as a Kluson-style tuner but with two major differences other than the spacing. The rear covers have trapezoid-shaped plates (meaning not square or rectangular) and the tuner buttons are somewhat squared off, similar to modern Fender tuners (meaning not oval-shaped).

Anyone can slap on an early-70s logo on a pegboard, but without the F tuners and F spacing, if you see Kluson-style or modern tall posts, that's a dead giveaway it's a fake.

For my repro neck, I'm not even going to try to hide the fact it's not a '71, especially considering the body is Midnight Blue, a color not even offered in '71. I plan on installing vintage-style tuners on it because I've no interest in having F spaced holes just to get those specific F tuners (which in all honesty aren't that great at all).

I also have no interest in having '71 electronics, which at the time was only a 3-way blade and not 5-way.

All I wanted was a modernized Strat with the old early-70s logo. Now I have the logo. When I have the cash for it, I'll get the Warmoth neck.

Why do any of this?

The '93 USA Strat I have was an 18th birthday present from my father. And even though by the time I'm done with the guitar the only original components will be the body, bridge system, pick guard, rear cover plates and original "football" output jack, that's fine. The guitar will be functional again with the electronics I want and the look I want.

No part of this guitar other than the logo will even come close to a '71. And that's fine. It'll just be my USA Strat, the way I want it. And that's what matters. My dad passed away a while back and I know he would not want me to throw out something I could otherwise repair and make usable again, so the guitar will be rebuilt and made functional again. And it'll be awesome when it's done.

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