what makes a hwy 1 superior?
well, superior isnt the word of choice.
you know how on some strats you crank up the gain and roll back on the tone in the bridge, it becomes muddy. the hwy 1 doesnt really have that prob.
of course it is not quiet, but less noisy than other standards am,and mim.\
to my ears, you can get great clean strat tones.
in that dept, i give it to the am stds. the texmex coils in the jv are pretty good.
no w if they were cs 69s or tx special.....
those are great pickups imho, cleans r superb...

that and the control of high gain. the alnico III PU'S handle
high gain with out mudding up also the grease bucket circut.
this sustain is out of this world. hard rock/classis rock/jazz
the highway one handles it all. the american standard and the jv strats
do not. the highway one is simply tone and sustain superior over the
american standards and the jv strats. try one you just might like

fender has created a tone monster in the highway one
and they knoe it

_________________
sombody get me a doctor!

Keep your eye out you may catch a sale on them. Seem to have been talk that it may be going the way of the VG.

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Any guitar can be modded to do anything you like. You want grease-bucket in the American Vintage 62? Then mod it. You want to keep the highs up while turning the volume down? Install a treble bleed circuit. You want Strat like tones without the noise of single-coils? Try the Dimarzio Area line of pickups. Stratty as hell. You want to improve sustain? Install a Callaham bridge and block as it's pure rolled cold steel and it greatly improves tone and sustain over a crappy zinc block.

We all have personal favorites of course in the end but you gotta realize that one of the reasons Strats are so damn great is because you can mod the hell out of them. The other reason is they are so incredibly versatile compared to a Les Paul for example which can only do one thing extremely well.

I heard that too from the local fender rep. The 57hotrods on the way out too which is a much better guitar than the HO.

_________________
No no and no

i also herd the same. but it doesnt matter to me because i
have mine. you can also bet if and when this happens the
highway one straocaster will become a real classic and
highly sought after strat and i dont mean in 50 years.
already you can find private owners selling the daphne
blue color highway one (discontinued in january 2008)
for 1,300 usa dollars. and the sellers are getting that
money for them. the highway one is well on its way to
be a classic. its the best $900 you can spend.

_________________
sombody get me a doctor!

It was asked, "why is the H1 better?" the only answer that keeps coming up is the pickups. The Alnico III are great pickups and generally preferred to the TexMex pickups. Pups though, would be the least of my concern.

2 main differences:
The V-neck on the JV is completely different than the C-Neck on the H1.
The JV has the American Vintage bridge as opposed to the import version.

I am a big fan of the V-neck on the JV, so I would buy it and then swap the pickups and still be less than the 900 for H1.

_________________
AmDlx HSS
62 Hot Rod
Luke w/Piezo
Carvin Belair

the highway one has a very fast and smooth C shape neck
tne nitro finish allows the wood to breath and age naturaly
and allows for much better sustain.

_________________
sombody get me a doctor!

for me bruno and most guitarist its
about tone versatility/sustain and feel
the highway one has it all. and lets not forget
the grease bucket tone circut and the reverse
wound middle pick up the highway one has.

_________________
sombody get me a doctor!

None of Fenders modern production guitars are going to be classic's for a long time to come and none are going to go up any 20% in value for no reason. I would hate to see the 57" go away and the Vaughan has been around now for like 10 years I think and seems to be holding its own. I do like the soft V neck on the Vaughan an to me it much faster then the HWY1 because I don't like those JUMBO! frets on the plain Modern c neck it would feel better to me with the medium jumbo. The finish on the necks of both the HWY and the Vaughan are Satin Urethane even the Amer. Stnd. has that type of finish on the back but they do the extra work to gloss the head stock.
Well it's hard to compare the Vaughan to the HWY1 they are very little alike to even compare. In fact there is nothing the same about them.

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Tone = Subjective. Which pups sound better to you may be different that the ones that sound better to me

Versatility/sustain...not the same thing so I'll address them separately.

Versatility - What styles of music is being played? Yes the AIIIs can do gain better, but if someone is not trying to get that tone, does it matter. If they are playing Blues and jazz, maybe some might even prefer the TexMex pups.

Sustain - I don’t believe that just because it has nitro, poly, thin skin...whatever finish it has better sustain. A strat has pickups mounted to a piece of plastic above a hole. The pickups aren't touching the wood, so the body finish is of minimal if any effect. I know I'll get flamed for that...

As far as the GB circuit and reverse wound pups...those are great things. But I can get a preloaded pickguard and put on a cheap guitar and get that too.

Lastly, FEEL: Absolutely!!! This is the huge deciding factor for me. IMO the V-Neck on the JV feels better than the C-Neck on the H1. To you it is the other way around. Guess what??? Neither of us is wrong.

As I said before, for me (and me only) the choice is the JV (with a pup swap)...for you it obviously the H1.

_________________
AmDlx HSS
62 Hot Rod
Luke w/Piezo
Carvin Belair

Nitrocellulose lacquer paints were in fact developed by DuPont in the 1920's specifically NOT to breathe, but to be a sealant against the forces of nature for automotive applications.
It all about thickness of finish and they both are loaded down with filler so the body don't breath because the pores have been filld so that the finish can be applied

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

From what i seen of the H.Ones the nitro is a distant cousin to the traditional nitro finish's at best. Is it sprayed over urethane?

_________________
No no and no

not to breath? CV than i guess fender is full of crap.

_________________
sombody get me a doctor!

How exactly does a guitar breathe? When will it start to produce cuttings?

_________________
No no and no