Bigjay a neck can not make you play faster then your fingers let you but it can cause you to play slower.

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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

My final word is that it is an exceptional instrument. Does everything they said it would- ''A no frills workhorse for the working musician''.

Knocking this guitar does nothing except show ignorance as a guitar player. It is a hell of a lot closer to a real Strat's look and tone with it's 6 point bridge and proper single coil alnico pickups than any American Standard with their noiseless pickups and all the other bells and whistles that everyone seems to be so obsessed with.

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Custom Shop '59 Strat with John Cruz Master Design Pickups
Vibro King
Fulltone Clyde>Deja-Vibe>TS-808>TS-9>Boss Tuner

Thanks for your final word! Good info !

I don't think anyone is knocking this guitar it's just not for everyone! And who care if someone thinks it looks more traditional. The HWY has a nice sound but it is nothing like a traditional strat tone and the guitar was designed to be that way which is one of the purposes it has the greasebucket circut to help ease the highend and not add mud so as to still be keeping the highs up there. Another Fender venture to the Metal sound.

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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

I found the tone to be very traditional- in fact the only guitars I've played with a more traditional tone are the reissues. The pickups are a bit on the hot side but that is completely negligible to me as I have never kept stock pickups in any guitar I've owned.

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Custom Shop '59 Strat with John Cruz Master Design Pickups
Vibro King
Fulltone Clyde>Deja-Vibe>TS-808>TS-9>Boss Tuner

Hey Hwy One Heads,

Alwaysstrat, I want to ask you a serious question about the trem block. What is it made of and does it have the same issues as the MiM's (Little sustain and messes with the tone)?

Thanks buddy-

The Freeze

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There's Always Room For MELLOW !!!!

2000 MIM Stratocaster, Midnight Wine W/Texas Specials
2000 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe
1969 Fender Vibro Champ

Me neither CW, I have a set of Lollar Blackface in my Hwy1 and they sound awsome! The bell tones and qwack in #2 & 4 are amazing.

Yes but when changing the pickups in a HWY 1 then you still are not geting the traditional sound because of the wiring is non traditional fas in the tone control of the bridge and the use of the greasebucket. I put custom shop 69's in for someone and had to rewire and eliminate the greasebucket to get the sound to be correct to what thay wanted. My guess is since its a non tradition tone circut is not going to give you the traditional tone no matter what pickup you have. That is all a matter of choice as to what you want, this dude did not like just the pickup change so I had to charge him for the other work on top of cracking the shell again. I warned him ahead of time that I thought the sound would be different to him from the other guitar that he owns with the 69's unless I were to make the electronics the same as well.

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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

HW1's are a really nice guitar. But they aren't traditional. The finish definitely isn't 'like they were in the 50's' Its not urethane that its laid over, but polyester. You could say its closer to the 60's finishes. Given the way laws are changing with enviro-unfriendly finishing practices (especially in California,) the vintage correct finish is gonna be few and far between.

I don't have one, because I didn't buy a Strat to have more versatility than a Strat, I bought it to get Strat sounds. I have a few other guitars that I get my 'metal/shred' or my super high gain sounds from. That said, if you want or need a guitar to cover that range, still get some strat sounds (but not all,) then it is a great buy.

On the neck, I can't get used to the frets, but that is probably just because I am used to what i am used to. Sorta like favorite old shoes. You don't want to replace em, you hold out until you have to, then you have to break in and get used to the new ones, only I never have to do that, my guitars will most likely outlive me, but if something did happen, and I got a HW1 i assume i would adjust to it fairly quickly.

On the starter guitar thing though, I think if you exclude the off name products (Squier etc.) the HW1 and the Am Std. probably are not strictly starter guitars but maybe starter Strats, and the Custom shop probably moving toward being the pinnacle now. That being said, what's wrong with that? I think right now you probably get the best bang for your buck ever at that price point there are a ton of great guitars. To be honest last time I went out looking the 2 strat like guitars in that sort of price range I liked best were a Korean made Lite Ash Strat (I wish I hadn't procrastinated for 2 days, when I went back to pull the trigger it was gone,) and a Charvel San Dimas.

I do think there are way too many production strats right now to ever see them gain in value, like older strats. So that includes HW1's and Am Std's and all the mass produced ones. Who knows maybe there will be a huge guitar cataclysm, but something is going to have to happen to thin the herd for them to rise in value.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Charvel San Dimas very nice guitars 12B!

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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

Yeah, I really liked it. I couldn't convince myself to buy another axe right now though. I already have 2 Ibanezes a Teisco and a P-bass in pieces for restoration (well, 1 Ibanez is a super crappy cheap body I got for free, that I am just using to test finishes on for the restore of my main Ibanez--hopefully have a thread up for that next week,) and my Les Paul project guitar. So kinda hard to justify buying something new right now.

I have a question though. Charvel falls under the Fender umbrella of products, do these companies work with a certain autonomy, or do the same people make the design decisions?

Kind of wondered about that. i look at my collection (meager at best compared to some here,) and I have to say, if you count the off brands, I'm probably over half Fender now.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Pretty sure fender and jackson operate out of the same factory. Particularly the high end one off finishes on the jacksons. If thats the case i can see charvel being the same.

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No no and no

Yes here is a link from Music Zoo visiting Charvel under the roof of the Fender factory in Corona.
http://www.themusiczoo.com/features/mus ... harvel.htm

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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

My final words on the subject

I LOVE MY HIGHWAY ONE

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The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say.