I bought my first Strat in the mid 70's fro what i remember of it I loved it (ok so i was a teenager at the time and did alot of drinking, so my drunk'in opinion might not mean much)

But if I remember right (and i could be wrong) I think i remember reading many years ago that both Blackmore and Malmsteen is a fan of the 70s style Strat. So yes I think they could be what you would call the dark ages, but as the saying goes....one mans junk is another mans treasure.


Jimmie

I only own the one '74, but I have played a couple of other 70's era Fenders and they were fine (did what I wanted them to).
Fit and finish was the biggest 70's issue (and the cast tremolo was icky)
I have also played MIM's that were good and I've played some that were really "rough". That's my only point.

Much of the "CBS = Dark Era" legend gets passed on, accepted, and expanded by folks repeating what they have heard. I was there, I played them, I still own one. No they weren't perfect but they weren't that bad either.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

I think the 70's guitars were hit and miss. There were some dogs and some gems. Much like every other year of strat production. I dont fully blame cbs either. I think atleast half of it is down to guitarist gripes. The telecaster really blossomed in that era. Some of the re-designs for the strat were questionable (how much do you save by leaving a screw off but redesigning the neckplate?) but largely it was a fashion trend.

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No no and no

I agree, the only complaint that really has any merit is the neck pocket tightness. Bad machining resulted in the metal discs on the neck and in the pocket to be impropely cut and this resulted in shifting of the neck when tightened so they trimmed the pocket so the neck would fit.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

All I know is that my buddy bought a '72 Strat brand new for $220 in a natural finish with a maple fb, and it's been his main (actually only electric) axe ever since, he loves it, and says he will never get rid of it. And a short while ago, I had a '78 P-bass that I loved.
(Had to sell it to pay rent . *sob*)
I suspect the bad rep for CBS guitars is somewhat exaggerrated.

Don't know a thing about the "Fender Dark Ages"; my Dark Age started when I realized I wanted a Strat and couldn't get one. Life got in the way for the next 26 years and when I finally got my first Strat the clouds parted & angels sang. The Dark Age was over.

I had a couple of Strats from that era, and just be aware that Fender didn't pay too much attention to quality control and upped production by a HUGE percentage during the late 60s and early 70s. When the guitars were good, they were good, when they were bad, you could wedge a quarter into the neck pocket... granted that's not the 3 bolt's fault entirely, it's the QC of the bodies and necks.

Tone also suffered due to the types of wire and windings that were used.

You can look all of this up in the book The Fender Stratocaster and the 50th Anniversary Strat book. All well documented.

Just stay away from buying a Fender made in the 70s unless you can play it in person.

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Some Guitars played through an amp...

Don't know a thing about the "Fender Dark Ages"; my Dark Age started when I realized I wanted a Strat and couldn't get one. Life got in the way for the next 26 years and when I finally got my first Strat the clouds parted & angels sang. The Dark Age was over.

And now you know why I say (see below):

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You dig?

My 72 Strat is still fine. It's a great sounding and playing guitar and comes in at a tad under 6.75lbs. They were out there, you just had to find them. The 3 bolt neck on mine was never a problem and mine has a pretty tight neck pocket. If it was a POS I would have sold it 30 years ago. I still have it. Fender made some bad ones from the beginning and some bad ones still get through. I've played some early 60's and late 50's that were wonderful and some that were real garbage. Lots of great music was made on late 60's and 70's gear.

I have an 81 strat that I absolutely love. It's only a 3 bolt neck but it has never gone out of alignment or anything like that. I know they get a bad rap for that, but my neck pocket is nice and tight so maybe that's why i never had problems with it. The finish was gorgeous and still is for an almost 30 year old guitar. The neck felt great and it quickly became my favorite guitar ( this coming from a person who just had to have a Les Paul ). I still have the Les Paul, but I know if I could only have one guitar with a bridge pup change the Strat could pull off an acceptable Les Paul sound but I don't think the Les Paul could ever pull off the strat sounds.
filerj

i own a '77 strat. Has been my main guitar since early 80's when i bought it off a student needing tuition for $300. Nothing but body and neck(which has been refretted) is original. Over the years, i've had people tell me to put down my Les Paul or Ibanez and put back on the Strat. They all said the same thing,"That guitar has more balls". And it has seriously taken some major abuse. Maybe i got lucky, i dont know. But i never got the "CBS is garbage" tag. Love my '05 Am deluxe, but its completely different from the '77. And yet they both sound and play great, just like fenders should.

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'05 american deluxe ash strat
'77 stratocaster
'93 custom shop gibson LP standard
'76 gibson SG
ibanez sa470qt
taylor 310
ovation tornado
early 70's mm 130head
'75 champ
carvin legacy w/v30's 4/12

Consistency improved during th CBS years. I don't think the level of quality it became consistent at was as high as the better gear that was coming out of the 60's but there was much more inconsistency in the 60's. The quality, playability and tone of 50's and 60's Fenders varied GREATLY from one instrument to the next. There were just as many lemons as there were diamonds. People forget that sometimes and only want to remember that there were some real jewels. It's not popular to spread the truth about how many poor "vintage" guitars there are out there. The truth isn't good for the value of collectible guitars on the open market. Truth be told many (not all but many) of the "Vintage" instruments we see collecting thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of dollars these days are not even all that good. Most of the truly good ones were destroyed long ago. The ones with MOJO got played to death because you couldn't put them down. Many times some drug induced hype caused the really good ones to be destroyed by the very guitarists who loved them in an ill chosen act that was so prevalent that John Hiatt eventually wrote a song about it. People didn't think the same way about guitars that we do today. The ones that didn't have the same magic were the ones that sat under gramma's bed for 35 years because they were forgettable back in the day. They never brought that inspiration to anyone. When CBS took over consistency improved and many players felt the industry was going to hell in a hand basket because all the guitars seemed so "vanilla", bland. The same thing we see happening today only today the effect is much greater with CNC machining and pup winding. There is a lot of myth surrounding Fenders of old and there is an entire industry designed to prop up and perpetuate that myth and those who have invested heaviest in the myth usually grab the gun when somebody tries to overturn the applecart. I'm old enough that I remember the 60's. I was just a kid but I also started playing very young and I do remember those old guitars. A lot of them were crap and some people hated the new CBS guitars because so few of them had the special magic that made some guitars legendary. However there were also a lot fewer lemons as well. You knew what you were getting and it was a decent product for a decent price but no shining stars.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

BMW

I agree with a lot of what you say in that last post. Particularly about forgetable vintage guitars, that makes perfect sense to me. However I do question the consistency claims you made of CBS. I've not played more than a dozen and dont consider myself an authority. However a close friend who I do consider an authority. Worked for a British guitar builder who during those years had a contract to repair fender guitars before they hit the shops, has constantly warned me against them. Snapped off headstocks, trems bashed into the body and a whole other gamut of problems before they ever hit the shops during that time. Production increased expodentialy so did the problems. Aside from that guitar choices remain on a guitar to guitar basis here. Year be damned.

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No no and no

That's pretty much how I see it. Even though the lowest point was in the early '80s, that doesn't mean that they were all junk. Far from it.



This is a good point. I got to check out all of the '70s Strats I bought before buying.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.