My 2004 Fender Lite Ash Stratocaster
Yes, I finally got my dream guitar! After playing this guitar
once a year ago, then a lot recently in a music store. I mainly
wanted it for the neck, the comfort and feel of it. Also, it has
my favorite brand of pickups in it (but pickups I wasn't accustomed
to). The black version is so beautiful and will do good in church
without attracting too much attention (i.e. it's not shiny, not red,
etc). This site is just a quick one-off, but there will be sound
clips coming soon, as well as other recommendations! As usual,
click the icon below to see the full (BIG!) version!
Sound clips!
I now have sound clips available of this guitar! They were recorded thanks to my friend and his Boss Micro BR.23 March 2007
I decided to actually comment about this guitar. Yeah, it's been a while coming. This guitar is awesome for almost everything I've had to do. Sure, it won't rip your face off when playing metal, but it's got an excellent clean tone that works well with almost every effect you can use. It's definitely my main guitar.Recommended upgrades would be locking tuners, a graphite or Earvana string nut, Graphtech saddles, and Schaller strap locks.
2 April 2007
I decided to comment about the build quality and other things today. First, if the guitar was introduced in 2004 according to Fender (i.e. built that year), it's been 3 years and the electronics and tuners on thie guitar are still working great!I read comments online that a Stratocaster won't sustain very well. As of writing this, in my experience, a Fender Stratocaster with a floating bridge will have good sustain if set up properly. If you lower the action and make it a shred guitar, it won't have as good a sustain as if you set it up per Fender's instructions. Setting it up exactly like the Fender Owner's Manual says, the saddles are a bit high, or look like they are, but the guitar sustains well and isn't too difficult to play. However, if you're looking to buy a guitar on sustain qualities alone, you should buy a guitar that's massive, with a set neck and fixed bridge.
As for the vibrato arm, definitely use Fender's official part, or an exact replica. Theirs is of much a higher quality than the generic replacement arms.
Fender is very helpful, as I did research and found a set of stock Showmaster-like locking tuners for my Lite Ash Strat using their help line. I'll definitely swap over to their locking tuners, as this will help tuning stability during heavy vibrato-tail usage.
Credits
Earvana, Graphtech, Schaller, Stratocaster, Showmaster, Boss, HCT, and Fender are registered trademarks of their respective companies. Seymour Duncan and the stylized "S" logo are all registered trademarks of Seymour Duncan Pickups, with which I am not affiliated.