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Post subject: How does the early 60's strats differ from todays strats
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:59 am
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I am going ot ask the ultimate in potentially dumb questions, but this has been bugging me for some time now. Never having played or first hand seen played a true early 60's strat (not a reissue), how does the sound differ from that of a current strat, electronics (i.e. pedals, etc...) notwithstanding. Assuming both are played out of the same tube amp, what is the difference?

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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 9:57 am
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Some of the differences are wood selection, pickups, and manufacturing processes. Much more guitar building is done by machine nowadays, and tolerences are closer. Back in the 1960's, many steps in the guitar building process were done by hand. Types of finish, electronics used etc. have changed also.


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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 4:23 pm
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Some people say that original guitars back then were great guitars for that time but the ones made now are way better because of the experience adquired throughout all that time of guitar manufacturing :)


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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 9:45 am
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Synkronized wrote:
Some people say that original guitars back then were great guitars for that time but the ones made now are way better because of the experience adquired throughout all that time of guitar manufacturing :)


There's so many different features and improvements to what some people may say that Fender offers now. I do admit that Fender is a very innovative guitar company that actually has ideas and features incorporated in today's Fender that we actually like! That can't be said so much for Gibson as they have been criticized by players for their Robot self tuning guitars ( I personally think they're neat and different). A few Gibson players have shunned their new circuit board features where pickups, toggle control, tone/volume pots/resistors, and input jack are all plugged into the board. It's difficult when you want to change pickups as you'd have to replace the whole thing with new pots and resistors.


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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 9:50 am
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Check out this web site to learn about the features of vintage guitars

http://www.provide.net/~cfh/fender.html

It will not address sound differences, those are very subjective. Subject to great argument, that is.

The placebo effect is very real to the patient!

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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 9:52 am
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They are worth a lot more :lol:

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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 9:57 am
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asg wrote:
They are worth a lot more :lol:


Yes, and that makes me happy.

However, when I have had friends (guitar colleagues) come over to try out the various Strats and pickup combinations I own, they always choose a 1964 as the best sounding. It does have a sweet set of pickups.

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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 10:14 am
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What a great post! I dig vintage equipment as much as the next guy, but it seems to me that everytime a change is introduced it is implemented to improve the equipment, right? A great example of this would be the change from the six point bridge to the two point fulcrum bridge on strats. If materials are equal, modern equipment should be superior to vintage, which makes me wonder why people would pay so much for reissues or particularly for relics? Why would you pay more for an inferior instrument that isn't the genuine article?

I think a large part of what makes vintage peices of equipment so appealing is that they were more handmade, which led to more variance between instruments, which translates to personality. Fortunately for Fender, people remember the great ones, not the average or mediocre ones. I wonder how many average or mediocre guitars SRV, Clapton, Beck, etc... went through until they found that one that had just the right tone, aka variance from the norm? However, the pick-ups used on the reissues and relics are available for purchase, why not save the money and just put a set of custom shop pickups in your guitar? Personally, I am very happy with my stock pickups though.

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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 10:54 am
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There were more lemons than now as the building criterias were more "relax"

But if you have a chance to own a good one, nothing can match.
Nothing detrimental to the great guitars one can buy in 2008.


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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 1:44 pm
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alainlafrance wrote:
There were more lemons than now as the building criterias were more "relax"

But if you have a chance to own a good one, nothing can match.
Nothing detrimental to the great guitars one can buy in 2008.


Here's what interests me: The quality problems of '50s and '60s Strats are deemed "charming" while the quality problems of other eras aren't.

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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 2:10 pm
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Give it some time and those other eras, 70's and early 80's will become collectible as well. There are only so many pre-CBS axes to go around.

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