This review is from: American Special 115700306 Stratocaster HSS Electric Guitar (Black)Let me preface this by saying.....aside from the Texas Special pickups....THIS IS ESSENTIALLY A HIGHWAY ONE WITH POLY COATING!!!!!! Fender's not-so-clever marketing nonsense!That's not a bad thing....I LOVE Highway One's!This is not saying I don't like these guitars.....I do....I own one of the American Specials....and 8 (!!!??!!) Highway One Stratocaster HSS's.Here's my complaint. The pickups and the tuners totally S-U-C-K!!!!!Fender's Atomic humbucker is weak, toneless, and ball-less!The Texas Specials are O-K......but you STILL have that inherent 60 cycle hum that has been a thorn in the side of Strat players from day ONE!! Noiseless single coil pickups....(there are PLENTY of really EXCELLENT ones out there)...are the answer!All is not lost. This is one well built, good looking, toneful piece of wood!Unfortunately I had to sink another $300.00 into the guitar in pickups, tuners, and saddles to get where it is actually PLAYABLE to me!By all means...buy this guitar! But if you're like me....and you want a bit MORE out of your guitar....meaning.. NOISELESS performance and a excellent humbucker sound....you'll have to put a couple of dollars more into it!Get one.....and 'do it up' YOUR way...with YOUR choice of premium pickups and such....you'll have a GREAT guitar!!...
This review is from: American Special 115700306 Stratocaster HSS Electric Guitar (Black)No, this guitar is not for everyone. For you to LOVE this guitar...You have to love the sound of Texas Special Pickups. You have to love a good, solid and bold humbucker. You have to love the greasebucket tone circuit.You have to love super high quality construction quality.You have to love the best sounding sustain on any strat. (any that I have played off the shelf with no mods.)The quality of the Am Special that I bought is amazing to me. Not only does the finish look perfect, but the neck absolutely feels perfect, no sharp fret ends. The neck is as snug in the neck pocket as you can get. I could not fit the edge of a razor in between the neck and body on either side if I tried.I'm sure that you already have some experience with the Texas Special pickups. They have a hot vocal midrange with tons of character for blues and rock. The surprise to me was how much I love the Atomic Humbucker. This Fender humbucker has a bold and solid sound. In the #2 position on the 5 way switch, it sounds great with the middle pickup. Overdriven it sounds crunchy with a lot of tone, but not overly trebly like some humbuckers. I personally think it sounds amazing for lead tones and for some great classic rock. It sounds great with heavy blues, rock and classic rock. The biggest surprise on this guitar was the crazy amount of sustain that it gives. I played tons of US strats looking for my favorite, and I still have yet to hear a strat that sustains like this guitar. And the tone that it sustains with is really a pleasing quality tone. This guitar simply sings. The satin neck is a comfortable c-shaped neck. It has a pretty low profile but still feels substantial in your hand. The jumbo frets don't require a lot of pressure. They say that bends are easier on the jumbo frets, and when I tuned this guitar a half step flat, the bends are comfortable and super easy. It feels exactly like I want it to. The greasebucket tone control is definitely pretty cool. I like having a tone control for the humbucker. But you sacrifice having one for the middle pickup. The greasebucket allows you to roll off the tone and still hear the pickup clearly without having the lows take over. This is exactly what it does. This is great news for anyone like me who likes to take a little treble off of the humbucker while playing some of the heavier rhythm parts, and then crank the treble for the lead parts. It's almost like having two humbuckers on the guitar. On a les paul, I might use the neck pickups for some rhythm stuff because rolling the tone off of the bridge pickup causes it to be muddy and boxy. On the Am Special, you can roll off the tone, have a really great rhythm sound and then just crank it for your lead. Like shifting your guitar into high gear. I picked my guitar out of about a dozen other American Specials in the city. I tried a bunch, and picked the best one. I can say without a doubt that if the price was the same, this guitar had a more pleasing tone and features for me and my style of playing than any other Strat that I tried American Standard, Vintage and Deluxe Strats, and I'd rather have this American Special. I gladly would have paid $500 more for a better guitar, but none of those others fit me better, felt better and NONE of them sustained better than this guitar. I hesitate to simply say that it is a great value, not because it isn't. But I personally think that there a $500 Mexican Standard Strat is a good value. This American Spec...
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