[Otis '71]

....was it in '65 that cbs bought out fender?...and what are your fav years?...i notice the 2 most visiable vintage reissues in strats are the '57 and '62.

 

[Robert1950]

I believe that the decline was slow and didn't happen until the 70s, hitting bottom around '79 with the guitars. I don't think it was as bad with the amps, there appeared to be very little change in the amps from 68-81, then Rivera came along and put them on steroids.

 

[SCREEM]

my uncle has a 68 strat, It sucks goes out of tune all the time and it squeels like a pig on high gain, no sustain to speak of. he wont let me set it up to be a player, its worth too much.

I may be biased but the current deluxe or jeff beck strats, are the finest playing and sounding stock strats ever.

 

[ajcoholic]

I bought a 73 strat - I am not a Strat guy but I wanted one for a change from my usual HB equpiied guitars, and I wanted one around my birthdate year (1970). The one I got was alder, with a maple neck. Originally three colour burst. Very beat up, I restored it to its original beauty (but left the well worn neck) and put in a set of Fralin vintage - hots. Its a great guitar, although the neck pocket looks like it was routed with a dull bit just slightly oversize.. it has excellent playability and sounds great. The neck feels exactly like my 52' reissue Tele.

I dont know too much about vintage strats but mine is pretty decent.

AJC

 

[Yerffej]

I bought a 73 strat - I am not a Strat guy but I wanted one for a change from my usual HB equpiied guitars, and I wanted one around my birthdate year (1970). The one I got was alder, with a maple neck. Originally three colour burst. Very beat up, I restored it to its original beauty (but left the well worn neck) and put in a set of Fralin vintage - hots. Its a great guitar, although the neck pocket looks like it was routed with a dull bit just slightly oversize.. it has excellent playability and sounds great. The neck feels exactly like my 52' reissue Tele.

I dont know too much about vintage strats but mine is pretty decent.

AJC

they just make them with fairly loose tolerances so you can swap necks without problems

 

[ajcoholic]

they just make them with fairly loose tolerances so you can swap necks without problems

Funny! Its got about 1/16" inch side to side clearance. But, even with the 3 bolt neck it doesnt shift at all side to side. Plays great though.

AJC

 

[Spikezone]

Actually, my favourite Strat is my (oops!) 1997 G&L Legacy. I think it would be rough to find a lot of Strats that measure up to the consistent great quality of the G&L's. Hope I don't come off sounding like some kind of a snob, but they're just great guitars, built the way Mr. Fender would have made them had he retained the mother company.
-Mikey

 

[Accept2]

Im not much of a Fender Strat fan, but my favorite are the ones from the late 80s/early 90s. It was aperiod where you could get very different types of Strats...........

 

[Robert1950]

Actually, my favourite Strat is my (oops!) 1997 G&L Legacy. I think it would be rough to find a lot of Strats that measure up to the consistent great quality of the G&L's. Hope I don't come off sounding like some kind of a snob, but they're just great guitars, built the way Mr. Fender would have made them had he retained the mother company.
-Mikey

I tried out a dozen and a half strats for the hell of it a few months ago. Then I came across a used G&L Legacy at Songbirdmusic in Toronto. Great Googley Moogley! Finest single coil I've ever tired. No money to buy it at the time.

 

[cohenj]

Re: fav strat

I've got a midnight blue 1991 american strat. I swapped out the stock pickups for the Fender Noiseless and tweaked the pots and caps, but otherwise its stock. I can't really complain about it. It intones perfectly, stays in tune for weeks, works well for most of the material that I do.

I'd love to put together a custom strat one of these days.

Jeff

 

[overdriver]

Mid 65 I think is when CBS bought Fender but IMO the guitars did not really start to go down hill untill mid 72 or 73 when ever the three bolt thing and flat pole pieces came on them. As with any guitar manufacture good and bad examples of product are found in all years of production.

 

[peter benn]

There's a number of great books on this (Minhinnett & Young, etc.) but you may be looking for a key fact or two...

Cloth wires disappeared in 1968 and nitro finishes in 1969?

 

[fraser]

all the fenders had good and bad years-
i played a 68 for 12 years or so exclusively-
i got japanese reissues when i needed disposable ones-
none matched the original, but i think thats the way it was tweaked -
strats were all good until they started adding frets n fukkin with the radius n shit in the eighties- lace sensors? lol

 

[zontar]

From everything I've read, it seems to have been gradual.

And, as others have pointed out--there were still good Fenders in this time, and ones not so good pre-CBS.

So blanket statements aren't helpful. (Even that one in a way.)

My Mustang is a 78, and a very nice guitar. But other Fenders from that time weren't so good. And a friend of mine had a mid 70's silverface Deluxe Reverb that sounded great. (But from what I've heard the Deluxes took longer to go downhill.)

So there's good & bad.