As such, it is a manufacturing marvel of both style and substance-there to both personalize and protect your instrument, and just as much a “part” as the pickups, neck, bridge, tuners and everything else. It gives the instrument a big part of its character and its soul, which, in turn, is a part of what you do and who you are.īy its color, its pattern and its condition-pristine, battered or somewhere in between-the finish is a defining element of your instrument and your musical identity. It’s says you’re state-of-art or old-school classic or cutting edge. It says your style is flamboyant or that it’s laid-back. The rejuvenated pickups and the associated Greasebucket tone controls breathe more modern life, giving what would have already been an extensive tonal pallet even more colours to play with.Ĭonstruction concerns aside, the big frets, thin nitro finish and no-nonsense approach make this guitar extremely alluring.A guitar’s look is a major part of the statement that guitarists make to the world about themselves. Many 'upgrades' dictate gold-plated hardware, fancy inlays and colours. Remember that the entire system remains passive yet, because Greasebucket doesn't overload the bass end and muffle the tone, it seems as if there's almost a mid-range hike.Ĭleanly all five settings sparkle like a frosty lawn, with positions two and four, although unavoidably quieter than the solo'd pickups, sounding both smooth and rich and showing why Strats are so much fun to begin with!Īside from purely aesthetic changes like the logo font, most of these Highway One upgrades are all about sound and performance, even the bigger Strat head is designed to add more mass. Performing a similar action with the neck pickup and employing tone control two, proceedings range from a nicely mellow yet vibrant sound to an almost classic Clapton-esque ooze. Roll tone control one back to around seven and the edges of the sound round off to give an almost Gibson SG-style honk that's perfect for old school-style finger snaps and half-chords.
2001 fender highway one stratocaster full#
With tone one up full the bridge pickup, unsurprisingly, is brash, in your face and great fun to play with. There's little doubt that the influence of the Greasebucket circuit is best experienced with quite a fat overdrive tone - not unlike that of ZZ Top in effect. Time to opt for a Rivera Clubster 45 and set to work. SoundsĪ conundrum with reviewing such iconic guitars is exactly what to plug into, let alone what to play. This problem is certainly irritating and hopefully this is an isolated incident. The Strat's bridge is just off-centre sufficiently to stop you from being able to get the vibrato arm in place without using excessive force. Niggles? Well, there are a couple of shoddy points. The guitar features a single-piece neck of a lightly flecked maple and both come with a padded Fender Deluxe gigbag. The cast and sealed tuners are made by the far eastern Ping hardware factory. The vibrato block has been changed from zinc to more vintage-accurate steel and the string spacing at the bridge is slightly narrower - with the bigger frets and smoother playability, it's clear Fender didn't want us slipping off the edges.Įlsewhere everything remains within the ballparks that made the 1950s originals of these designs so compelling. The Strat's middle pickup is also reverse-wound with reverse polarity, so positions two and four on the five-way pickup selector should be devoid of hum pickup. The Strat's neck and bridge pickups (there's no tone control on the middle pickup) benefit from their own greased-up tone pots.Īny electricians among you will appreciate the information that each Greasebucket tone control wiring includes two ceramic disk capacitors alongside a 4.7k ohm metal film resistor. I actually named it myself after the can of used bacon grease that used to sit on our stove at home when I was a kid." So now you know! Replacing the vintage-style single-coils are what Fender describes as Hot Strat single-coils that are all based around an Alnico III magnet foundation, a mid-strength magnet that should provide a slightly enhanced, hotter performance when compared to an Alnico II.Īdditionally, the guitar offers Fender's increasingly popular Greasebucket tone circuit that was developed in the Custom Shop as a way of rolling off the high-end without the usual low-end woomph of a standard passive tone control circuit.ĭidn't this have something to do with a certain Billy Gibbons? "We designed with him in mind," states Fender's Mike Eldred, "and he was the testing guy.
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