I just bought myself another Fender Stratocaster. I guess I feel a connection with the strat being born the same year in 1954. I got an American FMT Deluxe with S1 switching and ebony fretboard with medium jumbo frets and abalone inlays and of course a maple top on an alder body. It has 2 Samarium Cobalt Noiseless single poles plus a humbucking bridge pickup. Plus it also has a roller nut for minimal string friction. It really is a beautiful guitar and got a great deal on it from ebay. I have already used it on a couple of gigs now. A great sounding guitar that provides classic strat sounds but can still give up a sound that is closer to a Les Paul.

Here is a marketing picture of the same model with the tobacco sunburst finish.



Boy I just love guitars. But only other guitar players can really understand the passion.


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 02-22-2008).]

SWEET!

Always partial to Strats. Early, for me, it was the Ventures. Bands I played in played every Ventures tune, and that was before they started playing Mosrites. The early sound was Strat all the way!

Then, I played surf music out of Victorville and San Bernadino. The "uniform" was a Strat painted the same color as the bass (P bass), a blond bassman head and twin tilt-back cabinets with 12's and a separate blond reverb sitting WAY OFF the stage on a thick pillow. Still have my original 59 stock Strat and 59 Bassman...both cherry, since I switched to a Guild Starfire for Surf about a year later.

This one is neat! The tremolo set-up and roller will actually do a lot to keep it in tune. Like ebony fredboards a lot more than maple. The humbucker will make the sound fat when it needs to be. Not sure about the wiring-how do the two knobs work?

I got a couple of new guitars, too. Got a Les Paul double-cutaway with P-90's...great sounding, dirty little blues axe...and a Ministar. Diki posted a link to NAMM oddities, and the Ministar manufacturer was one of them. It's basically a stick with a P-90...maple neck. Problem is, this is the worst production instrument I have ever purchased. It is imported and the intonnation is so bad that it is out on the first fret, back in at the octive. The nut is mounted incorrectly, with 1 mm between the low E side and the incorrectly cut neck. The thing is unplayable. The P-90 has no height adjustment mechanism. That is a big disappointment, since I was looking for a guitar to play with my B-3 which I could leave strapped on for mid-tune solos. They are also making a 'jazz" instrument - neck humbucker and piezo - and fretless bass. Don't think either one will be playable.

A shame that someone produces such a piece of crap.

I'd buy a guitar like the one you have. It looks GREAT!

Enjoy, and thanks for letting me know!


Russ

[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 02-22-2008).]

I also like how they did away with the plastic scratch guard so as not to cover up the maple top and just set the pickups directly into the body.

The two knobs are a single voume and tone for all 3 pickups. But the volume has a switch on the top that can be pressed ( S1 Fender call the system ) that then changes the wiring of the pickups and the 5 way selector then becomes 5 new settings where the coils are run in series and parallel ie the single coils are paired to work together like the 2 coils in a humbucking pickup.

Here is a pdf from Fender that shows the different pickup configurations. http://www.synthzone.com/misc/

As it is just adding some wiring options it is a wonder Fender didn't think of doing this years ago.

So were you able to return the Ministar?? It sounds like a nightmare. Well a nice idea but awful implementation. But the Les Paul with the P90s sounds very sweet. I bet that has nice gritty bite to it. Where did you find that?

Got the LP at the Guitar Center on Monday. I'm the "adopted grandpa" of a couple of kids...8 and 12...who are sons of a cook at a restaurant I work. The missed their real grandpa in Mexico, so "I'm IT"!

They got an SG and a Yamaha piano with accessories for Christmas (they take lessons on Wednesday) and we go "toy shopping" several times a month.

I emailed the Ministar folks last weeek but haven't heard from them. Don't really expect
much from those guys. got the charge on my card, though, no problem!

Enjoy the Strat. The other newer toy is a Flying V (faded) that I bought in January. I just got it back after the guy that paints our restored cars put a candy gold-top finish on it...SWEET!

Russ