NGD - Boring American Special Stratocaster

skinfreak

Boring. No swanky finish. No amazing features. Just a boring sodding Strat. With LOVELY FAT JUICY JUMBO FRETS...

Ever since I was a wee lad, I wanted a white American Strat. An Olympic White one. No the sterile Arctic White. Or mundane Polar White. But Olympic White. The one that will go a delicious creamy colour as it ages. With a maple fretboard.

Only later did I take a liking to the utterly distasteful 70's head stock and more recently exposure to the rotten filth of jumbo frets on my DGT. Oh and it needed single coils. I am spoilt with humbuckers coming out of my ears with my PRSs...

But now that I spent a bit too much on a custom built PRS Tremonti, I realised the dream of the white luscious Strat was getting further away. Until my wife had a pang of guilt for allowing me to have my 40th birthday present 9 months early. For you see, I would not have anything to open up on the impending day and would be filled with desolation and grief...

And so the conversation of the Strat came up again. THE DREAM WAS ALIVE!!! Or was it? 

No. Fender Those Sods decided to ditch the American Special line and replace them with the Performer line. And with hideous colours. Firstly the dumbass Arctic White has a black pick guard. Penny looks like cat vomit. Lake Placid Blue clearly not Olympic White. Honey Burst....well that's alright I suppose. But the benefit of being an older model was #pricecuts! And I managed to pick her up from GuitarGuitar for £729. I was happy with that. And here she is in all her glory on the illustrious Wall of Axes:


What a lovely guitar. Play-ability is great. I haven't had a modern C neck and I am really enjoying it. The only down side? I'm not convinced by the bridge pickup. I will leave it settle a bit but maybe, just maybe I am a bridge humbucker sort of chap... But the neck and middle are wonderful. We shall see...

fretmeister

Lovely! Best colour for a strat.

Bridge Pickup - Rewire it so a tone control is for bridge only. That way you can darken it a bit. Makes loads of difference.

skunkwerx

Niceeee. I love my american special tele. The strats come with the texas special pickups and grease bucket tone control too don't they? 

skinfreak

skunkwerx said:

Niceeee. I love my american special tele. The strats come with the texas special pickups and grease bucket tone control too don't they? 

Yep. Like them lots. Apart form the bridge. But it may grow on me... ;-)

dindude

Love that, one of the best colour combos on a Strat and agree the newer Performers look hideous, what were they thinking. 

And Strats - so ubiquitous and so easy to take for granted because of this - but every time I play one of my other guitars I’m pretty much counting the minutes until I get back on the Strat.

Universal8

That looks so nice. Enjoy.

tony99

Tasty that mate. Remember Noel Gallagher having a pop at white strats when Jay Zee was pictured mucking about with one for some reason or another...."who the fuck plays a white strat?" he said


....er Jimi Hendrix maybe

BRISTOL86

Very nice. Loved my American Special 

skunkwerx

skinfreak said:

skunkwerx said:

Niceeee. I love my american special tele. The strats come with the texas special pickups and grease bucket tone control too don't they? 

Yep. Like them lots. Apart form the bridge. But it may grow on me... ;-)

It grew on me.. though I feel it does lack a little of the classic tele twang, but the upside is it seems to gain up very well, and I often use all the gain... 

JerkMoans

Wonderful 

All hail the Illustrious Wall of Axes \m/

Alnico

That should have Texas Special pickups in it and I think, but I'm not 100% sure, that comes from factory with Tone control 2 wired to the bridge so that the middle pickup is open with no tone control.

A baseplate will improve the bridge pickup immensely.

It's a very quick and easy job to do or have done.

I love that model and all its features, especially the jumbo frets.

HNGD.

skinfreak

Alnico said:

That should have Texas Special pickups in it and I think, but I'm not 100% sure, that comes from factory with Tone control 2 wired to the bridge so that the middle pickup is open with no tone control.

Spot on. Tone 2 does the Bridge but so far has not helped much. Tone 1 for the neck has little use at this point either - its great on 10!

Not seen a base plate mod for a single coil but I will look into it for sure - thanks!

Alnico

skinfreak said:

Alnico said:

That should have Texas Special pickups in it and I think, but I'm not 100% sure, that comes from factory with Tone control 2 wired to the bridge so that the middle pickup is open with no tone control.

Spot on. Tone 2 does the Bridge but so far has not helped much. Tone 1 for the neck has little use at this point either - its great on 10!

Not seen a base plate mod for a single coil but I will look into it for sure - thanks!

It's very simple.

It's usually self adhesive to the base of the pickup and one single earth wire goes to the Volume pot (I think - I"m not a wiring expert but it's definitely just one ground wire) and that's it.

JD.

Baseplate is usually about £10 ish.
 @TheGuitarWeasel is Ash who owns and runs Oil City Pickups and he sold me my last one.

I'd start there.

DrJazzTap

The American specials are great guitars. Congrats

skinfreak

Cheers. Interestingly I just googled and found this:

http://www.tdpri.com/threads/really-wanting-an-american-special-tele.332270/
i
Seems like there are "American Special Texas Specials" and "Custom Shop Texas Specials"  - the ones on the Am Spec don't have a base plate where the custom shop ones should have a copper one. I wonder whether they are the same pickup but just omitted the base plate as a cost cutting exercise? 

skinfreak

Cheers. Interestingly I just googled and found this:

http://www.tdpri.com/threads/really-wanting-an-american-special-tele.332270/
i
Seems like there are "American Special Texas Specials" and "Custom Shop Texas Specials"  - the ones on the Am Spec don't have a base plate where the custom shop ones should have a copper one. I wonder whether they are the same pickup but just omitted the base plate as a cost cutting exercise? 

gordiji

It's not boring especially being unreliced & having a large headstock Happy NGD

skunkwerx

skinfreak said:

Cheers. Interestingly I just googled and found this:

http://www.tdpri.com/threads/really-wanting-an-american-special-tele.332270/
i
Seems like there are "American Special Texas Specials" and "Custom Shop Texas Specials"  - the ones on the Am Spec don't have a base plate where the custom shop ones should have a copper one. I wonder whether they are the same pickup but just omitted the base plate as a cost cutting exercise? 

I also wondered this. 

It was a while ago I searched on it but I thought I'd read they are all one and the same. 

Though it wouldnt surprise me if they wasnt.. 

jeztone2

I really like the Am Specials. I’ve played a few and they have all been really useable guitars.