http://www.cnn.com/2004/S...index.html

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (AP) -- The year 1954 was full of pop culture benchmarks. Elvis Presley recorded his first single, the Miss America pageant was televised for the first time, Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for "The Old Man and the Sea."

And in a small factory in Fullerton, California, an inventor named Leo Fender created his Stratocaster.

If the general public overlooked that last milestone, musicians do not. In fact, for many it's a pivotal event.

"Who knows how many different designs they've used to imitate and top it and nobody's come close," says Nils Lofgren, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. "It's definitely as beautifully crafted an instrument that you'll ever find and I'm very, very grateful for all Leo went through to create it."

God Bless Leo Fender

While this mentions the Strat, what would funk be about the Telecaster.

Happy 20th Stratocaster, RIP Jimi

Here's my main axe:



Beyond the obvious reasons, this guitar was perfect for me because I play left-handed upside down. I took the original pickguard and pickup ass'y out (shown here) and replaced it with a new pickguard loaded with Duncan LiveWires. Works for me.

The Strat is quite a piece of work.
All hail Leo Fender.

theAudience said:

Do you play with the pickup selector spring in or out? Hendrix and Stevie Ray yanked the spring out. I tried it, I love it. It makes switching between pickups a whole lot easier, and you dont go flipping the knob off into the crowd as often.

I only wish I could GET to the spring on the tele. I hate that selector switch.

otan,

"Do you play with the pickup selector spring in or out? Hendrix and Stevie Ray yanked the spring out. I tried it, I love it. It makes switching between pickups a whole lot easier, and you dont go flipping the knob off into the crowd as often."

Never heard of that. I solved the knob ejection problem with a tiny spot-o-glue.
What does it "feel" like without the spring?

t_A

Sorry about the double post.
I deleted the text but I don't know how to delete the entire post.

Newbie stuff
[This message was edited Thu Mar 4 12:52:22 2004 by theAudience]

theAudience said:

Changing pickups is a LOT easier - just a flip of the finger between strums, but you need to be a frequent pickup-changer to start with, or else the rust/dust will screw up the switcher. If you just play in the neck position all the time, then don't do it. I made this mistake with a strat a long time ago. Nothing HORRIBLE happens, it just gets scratchy and you'll need to flip between the positions for a few minutes to clear it up.

also - you can knock the pickup selection from one location to the next one down (neck to out of phase neck/mid position for example) if you move around/strum a lot... but that only happens every so often - not a frequent thing.

But I really do prefer it. Whenever I sit in with someone and they don't have the spring removed, it's like going back to riding a bike with training wheels.

Just thought I'd mention it since I see you're doing the Jimi left-handed guitar strung right handed thing - a big hendrix fan from the looks of it - not many folks know about the missing spring thing, which is a surprise since it is a huge change to the guitar. (just not a visual one)

Thanks for the info.

So you Strat experts, I'd like some info on my own Strat. I just found out that the Japanese 60's reissue that I have is kind of a hot commodity. The folks on Ebay are bidding away on them and the Japanese pickups for them, too. I have the black with the aged mint green pickguard/pickups. I believe that I bought it in the mid to late 90's. Any info that you can dig up is appreciated. Thanks.

artist08 said:

I can definitely respond to your question about the mid/late 90's strat with the black and aged mint green pickguard/pickups that's getting all the ebay attention. I know absolutely diddley. Any other questions?

I'll tell you what I know about strats. Mine is the bomb. I know nothing about it - year, make, model? It's a strat with pickups and a whammo. And no spring in the pickup selector. Oh and it's maroon/purple with a mother of toilet seat pickguard.

Not being a dick on this one - just - I know about the guitar itself, but I don't bother myself with knowing which year they went back to decent whammy system, or what pickups are in what model. And I'll tell you why. Fender is so busy re-inventing their wheel - there's what, 20 different versions of a STRAT hanging up at guitar center. And why? So you'll go jiggly-nuts crazy to buy one of each. No thanks. I want the same one Hendrix and SRV used - off the shelf, regular old soup and nuts strat. Keep the reheated coil tap pickups and the active pickups - I mean - they're awesome, don't get me wrong, just saying - the easier the tool is, the easier it is to beat up on.
[This message was edited Fri Mar 5 7:10:21 2004 by otan]