There have been a lot of post lately about Srat Plus and Ultra models. Well being the owner of an Ultra I have to say not your typical strat but an amazing guitar. I was just thinking of how Fender just never hit it right with a humbucking guitar in my opinion. It is like Fender king of single coil guitars and Gibson king of the humbucker. I would like to know if the guys on the forum think it might be time for Fender to make a classic humbucking guitar. Now if they use a Strat or Tele shaped body I guess they just will produce a suped up Strat or Tele which we all know has been done before,So i would have to believe it would have to have more of a fresh and new body shape I also think it should be done in the vein of an Ultra with some hot smoking pickups and maybe with a bridge system like on a music man Petrucci that you dont need to lock but can take amazing abuse and if they dont want to do a differant body maybe they can just revise the Ultra but bring it up to modern standards as I think that guitar could be the ultimate metal machine as if you never played one it has everything.These are just some of my thoughts on the subject. So what do you guys think of Fender finally making a humbucking classic.

Well friend i understand what your saying i also own a 89 Strat ultra with the Floyd Rose and H.S.S Lace Sensor pups ..But Fender has made the Showmaster which was a thinner profiled one piece body and neck Strat with no pick guard that had the Double Humbuckers ..You can still find them on ebay but make sure your not looking at a squier showmaster as they are two different guitars...I would suggest you Google Fender Showmaster and checkout the results...
Also as you mentioned Fender has also always or at least since the 90's made the Big apple Strat which is a Double Humbucker Strat..
I'm in the process of reworking a Strat body that may end up being a Big apple strat but i haven't decided that fully just yet and may be guided on what pick up arrangement i can get the best deal on...

A humbucker and a Strat. ( Straight Six Stratocaster ) I have a lot of fun with this one. Single volume + one Atomic Bucker

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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

Fender's made a lot of different humbucker versions over the years. There's no lack of that. I think it's just that most people (myself included) prefer a single coil strat because, well, that's what a strat is. I don't want a pickup bed on my honda accord. I'd just get a pickup truck if that's want I wanted. I have humbucker guitars, nice ones, that I rarely play because I like the strat single sound.

Just like I wouldn't want to get a Les Paul with single coils. What's the point? Just get a strat if that's what you want.

I prefer the feel and action of a Strat over a Les Paul or SG ..I personally don't buy into if it isn't 3 singles it isn't a strat ..It still has the Strat neck Strat body Strat headstock Strat knobs Strat switches Strat feel Strat action Strat weight and Strat comfort...Thats why i don't buy a Les Paul...I no longer care for a baseball bat for a neck or a guitar that weighs like a boat anchor... Besides the fact that one extra knob really throws me off :>)

With all the different sounding single coils you can get it is hard to say for it to be a Stratocaster it has to have only singles coils in it. Which single coils would it have to be. A strat to me is a platform ( body & neck ) You can make them sound old school or modern, pickups that are handwound, overwound, flat pole, staggard pole even stacked single coil buckers. A Strat is a platform.

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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

While I agree with Digonz, I depart company at the statement that strats need'nt have a single coil at the bridge position. I think it's important for every Strat player to have at last one traditional strat, however there are many sounds that wouldn't exist if it weren't for simply putting a humbucker in a strat body. As for singles in a LP, P-90's were around first and as far as I know, people still like them.

Totally. I can see "why" someone would want a humbucker, but that starts to depart from a "strat" to me. Hell, I have a single sized JB Jr in my main strat just to be able to use it for loud-ass hard rock when I want. Even with that humbucker dialed down to one coil, it still isn't a true "strat" tone. Close, not the real deal. For the pure strat tone, at the bridge, I have my MIM that has the pickups from the MIA.

P90's are a great tone, to me. I love that slightly thin but damn dirty sound. That JB Jr dialed down to one single and just a little of the second coil is very P90 like, which is a very cool semi-dirty tone that I use a lot.

Singles, humbuckers, actives, passives - those are all great tones for different things. It depends on what you want to sound like most of the time, and what you want "your" tone to be. For the longest time, back in the day, that tone was a humbucker, lots of gain, and only in the bridge position. I NEVER used the other pickups and never messed with the tone knob. After year, I wanted something different. Semi-dirty single tones were what got me hooked on strat. And the feel of playing a good strat is something that, to me, can't be beat.

I've been playing for over 25 yrs in about every scenario I can think of. I'd be perfectly happy with just one strat, all stock singles, for anything I might want to do. And just when I think I've gotten down all (or most) of the cool tones and things you can do with a strat, I'll listen to one of my many Jeff Beck CD's and think - Damn, there's soooooooooo much more I can do with this thing.

Again, we agree in principal. I am simply making the case for more and lots of variation in one's guitar stable to acheive thr broadest palette possible. For me, I get along just fine with a hot 'bucker in the bridge position and two hot vintage singles on up. One configuration I am looking forward to trying is the SD P-Rails pickups combined with the Triple Shot hoops. I think that tonally, for a single guitar setup, that will be as versatile as it's gonna get.

I part company from the old school players who insist that hum is an integral part of the strat sc sound. I want the sound without the hum and I am pleased as punch to play a guitar with SCN's or Lace Sensors no matter what the old guys think of my disregard for tradition,

Maybe I did not make it clear. I was not implying to change the strat in any way. I was just saying why is it that Fender cant come up wit a total kickass humbucking guitar that is a major success like all there famous single coil models and just used the Ultra as a platform because it is such a versatile ax ans would be a shredders dream with humbuckers. I am just wondering why Fender cant put some time and effort into making something totaly new and successful that has humbuckers. With all those geniuses in the custom shop I wonder why there has never been a great Fender with Humbuckers indifferent to the shape of the guitar or is everyone just happy they are the king of the single coil guitar. I love all my guitars but I love Fenders the best by far and when I buy something I know it is going to be great sounding and well made. I am lost on the Gibson website because I have never owned a Gibson though I have borrowed Les Pauls for a length of time and do love them not fond of the SG,COME TO THINK ABOUT IT GIBSON HAS THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM BUT IN REVERSE.. They really dont have a classic single coil ax but I am not concerned with Gibson. I would just like to see something unveiled at NAMM 2011 from Fender a humbucking guitar that will blow me away and my point was that would you guys like to see something to or are you contene going to the old reliables for your humbucking models.

Perhaps you should look at Charvel which is owned by Fender. San Dimas style one.
http://www.charvel.com/production_models.html

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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

Thanks for that link Cvilliera real nice. I know Fender had bought Charvel and those are the classics from the 80s. I love how Fender bought them and now you buy a guitar for $1,100 and they give you a gigbag,Cmon how cheap you want to be. I just cant understand why Fender themselves have always struck out when it comes to making a humbucking guitar. I mean they have been around for 60 years and you think they would of hit gold once. Well I would like to see them continue to try. If you think about it I think that is why Fender and Gibson both got cut down to size from being the BIG 2 in the guitar world and let all the little companies close in because a lot of the little guys are not so little anymore. When you look at the big picture both companies signature guitar desighns are40- 50 years old and though the classics will always be around outside of tweaking them neither company has come up with anything new for ages while companies like Ibanez, Ernie Ball,ESP,PRS, Jackson, and so many others grabbed a lot of the more modern guitar greats to work with them to come up with all the new hot guitars. Its like anyone that works with Fender or Gibson and does an artist model even the young guys they grab just tweak a Strat ,Tele,Les Paul,S,G and never have anything to do with coming up with a body shape thats differant like the other companies do.

The Robben Ford Ultra modeled on the Esprit was a pretty fancy humbucking Fender... not really geared toward the shredder, but if you want a Fender with humbuckers that would be the one. Alainlafrance put up some pics of his a while back in the Custom Shop forum... beautiful!

Straycat, I have an ultra like you ('91, though)... great, great guitars. I agree it would be nice to see them revisited in some form, although I guess many of their features were incorporated into the current line of Deluxe strats. It was nice to have a flagship production guitar that had a few attributes not to be found in a regular strat.

American Deluxe is arguably one of the best strats ever made, and you can buy it with a humbucker.

Unless I missed it nobody mentioned the 72' thinline with wide range humbuckers (specifically in sunburst). Beautiful guitar...nice thick done without losing your fender pop and shimmer.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwYcDLZAFAQ
Heres a clip of one of my favorite french rockers with the beast...fabulous artist if you can get past the language barrier.


And some guitar porn, everyones favorite
http://www.rocknrollvintage.com/proddet ... e-Sunburst

Cheers,
Pat