This one has a volume and a tone knob. The input is where the other tone knob would be. It also has a weird bridge and does not string thru the body.


If anyone out there owns, owned or has played one what do you think about them?

I can't play it before I buy it.

I owned one. It was different, I'll say that. The fingerboard was really flat and the pickups were awful. All in all, it was a decently put together guitar and I had no problems with it. I certainly wouldn't pay big bucks for one when as the new Fender stuff is light years better.

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You dig?

What about some details on that Free Flyte tremolo system? That's what it was called, no? The good folks at Fender must have thought it was some kind of improvement over that "older" system.

Just think, if the company hadn't about gone under and was sold, that tremolo system might very well still be in use today (except on the Vintage Reissue models of course).

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I'm sure there are some good ones to be had, but that particular '83 model was probably the least successful incarnation of the Stratocaster. The absence of the second tone knob and an angled input jack were cost-cutting measures. That doesn't inspire much confidence in the quality of the rest of the guitar. These are often billed as "Dan Smith era" strats, but it would be more accurate to say that they were the guitars that made Smith decide that reissues based on the best pre-CBS years were the way forward.

These are enjoying inflated prices at the moment due to the halo effect of the proper Smith strats, but if you're contemplating spending the amount they're going for you would be much, much better off with one of Fender's current top-shelf offerings. You'd be able to get a second-hand custom shop model, at the very least. No cost-cutting in those!

Isn't the Free Flyte the worst of all the trems, and also very difficult to retrofit out? I am not an expert -- that is just what I remember from what I have read.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

IMO, it not only was a dog but it reminded me of the Gibson Maestro Vibrola - Unique to what it was and essentially useless for what it was supposed to do.

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You dig?

I've got one of these guitars. It's a decent electric, certainly no bells and whistles. I replaced the bridge and middle pups with Seymour Duncans. I don't use the tremolo so the Free-Flyte is not an issue. It is what it is and it does have a place in Fender history.

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1983 Standard Strat, second version
9 "others"