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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 7:16 am
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I love the large headstock, but to me the early small headstock Highway One strats were the best!


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 11:44 am
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richedie wrote:
I love the large headstock, but to me the early small headstock Highway One strats were the best!


What made them better to you? I only played and owned the ones with hot alnico single coils atomic humbuckers and 70s pegheads so Im not familiar with those.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 5:52 pm
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donnycraven wrote:
Between me and the other guitarist we have 6 strats only 2 of them,
his 1966 strat and my 2009 Highway 1 (which he keeps trying to buy btw)
are large headstock.
I really at this point love all our strats.

Thru my research, Fender claims that large headstocks give a more deeper tone in the sound but I don't see logically how that coud happen

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 6:26 pm
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I can assure you that is true. Larger peghead equals more sustain and tone. They actually sell a brass pegead plate that bolts to the back of the peghead that's called a sustain plate. Mass=Sustain my friend. Simple guitar physics.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 3:41 pm
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I believe ya, if you say it's true cause you have alot more experience with strats than I do. I have a record of Jimi Hendrix with a cover of him playin' the same exact strat as what I have, so ifn it's good enough for you and Jimi, than it's good nuff for me !!!

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 3:47 pm
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stratcodger wrote:
I believe ya, if you say it's true cause you have alot more experience with strats than I do. I have a record of Jimi Hendrix with a cover of him playin' the same exact strat as what I have, so ifn it's good enough for you and Jimi, than it's good nuff for me !!!



Awesome :) Jimi is the King man

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:56 am
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Every guitarist who owns multiple guitars has a favourite guitar or no.1 guitar.

My no.1 Guitar is the Andy Timmons Signature Ibanez AT-100. Since it is a Fender Strat-based guitar I decided to get myself a Fender Strat. But I wanted it to be US made. My very first Strat is Fender highway one with maple mech and SSS hot pick-ups which I have purchased in 2011. It's like heaven and he'll comparison with my Ibanez AT-100. I like the sound too. But it was a big change as most my guitars have noiseless pick-ups. And my highway-1's pick-ups are way too noisy for me at first; character of a single coil pickup. I got used to it quickly, though. My highway-1 was used as a back-up guitar on my gig but never had used it. I had few issues with it at first, like the unstable tuning and the volume knob is too loose. I play mostly Hardrock and my picking style always hit the volume knob so it's important for me that volume/tone knobs are snug and tight. So I replaced the tuners with original fender locking tuners and placed a rubber washer/spacers under the volume knob to create friction and so that the knob will stay on it's position even if I hit it accidentally. And that solved the problems. My particular guitar doesn't have fret problems and I think they are properly done. That's because I tried the guitar before buying it. At that point, I still didn't have idea if my highway-1 is a good or bad guitar because I just couldn't compare it with my premium Ibanez AT-100. I really really love the oversized headstock of the highway-1.

In 2013, I bought myself a 2013 Fender Strat US Standard with Custom Shop pick-up ( as per the sticker) as a birthday gift. I was very very happy and proud because it was my first American Standard. I was expecting that it will sound as good as my AT-100. But no! No comparison! The sound of my 2013 American Standard start is too gentle. I bought it anyway, because to me, an American Strat is a "must have guitar" for a guitarist.

Going back to the topic. Is the highway-1 a good guitar? Since I can now have a proper apple-to-apple comparison; American Standard Strat vs American Highway-1 Strat. Yes, the American Standard Strat is a good guitar and a better built among the 2, but for my type of music, the American standard sounds too gentle. If I have to choose my no.2 guitar, it will be the Highway-1. The hot Alnico pick-ups works better for me. I really really REALLY love the sound of it now. And as mentioned earlier, I like the classic look of the highway-1. I am not a fan of satin finish but for this particular guitar, satin really looks good with it.

The conclusion I will make will only be based on my experience and must be used as reference. I think A Highway-1 Strat is a good guitar. It's made in USA with cheaper materials. To me, highway-1 with hot pick-ups sound is a better sounding guitar among the 2. AGAIN, this is just because of the music style my band plays. Even after I got the American Standard Strat I still use the Highway-1 more often. Many of my guitar collector friends would say that once you own and play and American Standard you will not go back to Highway-1 or Special; you'd never go back to American Standard once you own a American Deluxe; you'd never go back to American Deluxe once you own an American Custom Shop.... I'm not sure about the deluxe and custom shop because I haven't owned one yet; so far, I have proven that this is not always the case. At first, I'd also thought that my highway-1 will be abandoned after getting the American standard; I even played the guitar on a scheduled rock gig a day after I bought it because of my extreme excitement. But I didn't enjoy my sound on that gig. Not really the right guitar for me. So I went back to using the highway-1 when I Am not using the AT-100.

However, I am glad that the highway-1 had been discontinued. I believe that American built guitars should maintain it's exclusivity to building high quality guitars and must not cut corners to lower the price tag. "made in USA" should be synonymous high/best quality.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 4:28 pm
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When I bought my Hiway 1, It was a 2007 and I bought it in 2013 and didn't know anything about it other than it was made in U.S.A. It was like brand new and I talked them into throwing in a new Strat hard shell case to go with it. I was skeptical because why is it like brand new when it was 6 years old ? The grease bucket wiring had been changed to traditional Strat wiring with up-graded Seymour-Duncan pups. After buying it, I learned that the fat frets on a Hiway-1 were real rough and uncomfortable to play. (Now I know why it was like new). I got out my thin file and did some work and it changed everything ! the fat frets are hard to get used to, but I did and now it is the best playing and sounding gtr I have ever had in my life. I have used it in gigs and for a Strat with a "whammy bar", it even stays in tune very well ! I would NEVER let go of it for anything and especially since it was the first issue year which makes it that much more rare.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:36 am
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I lucked into a pre-upgrade one in Olympic White in a pawn shop for $200.
I own several Fenders (a 1992 Strat Plus with gold Lace Sensors, a Cheapo $40 pawn shop Affinity series made somewhere overseas, and a bevvy of Telecasters -- 1 mexi, 1 japanese, 1 chinese). The HWY1 is quickly becoming my favorite guitar. Great looks (I have the smaller headstock), good tones, nice feeling neck.

I have several other Strat-adjacent guitars (83 Ibanez Roadstar II, old Fernandes Strat, 70s Ibanez lawsuit Strat Copy), and it is pound for pound, the best player out there. I am sorry dude got a lemon, but I have a few Gibsons from the Nashville factory that are dogs (before they got worked over by my luthier).

YMMV and Cheers,
Tim


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 7:25 am
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66cl77 wrote:
I lucked into a pre-upgrade one in Olympic White in a pawn shop for $200.
I own several Fenders (a 1992 Strat Plus with gold Lace Sensors, a Cheapo $40 pawn shop Affinity series made somewhere overseas, and a bevvy of Telecasters -- 1 mexi, 1 japanese, 1 chinese). The HWY1 is quickly becoming my favorite guitar. Great looks (I have the smaller headstock), good tones, nice feeling neck.Tim


Nice score!

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 5:10 pm
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I have an Affinity Tele and they were made in Korea. Nice playing guitar but they are only good if the pups are up-graded cause they sound like crap for recording. I use it for a back-up for the Hiway-1 in case of a tune or string change. My Strat has found it's home til the day I die.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 8:41 pm
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I was reading your post, and I got to say, I had a very different experience with the HWY1. Mine was wonderful and never gave me any problems.

It sounds like all your issues with the guitar are systemic to "your" guitar, and not the HWY1 as whole.

The sharp edges on the frets are caused by neck shrinkage from change in moisture content. This can happem to, and often does, to any guitar that is in a really dry place. We in Maryland deal with this all the time.

Even the best electronics can crap out. I've owned and played expensive guitars have quirky noise problems. The best things about the HWY1 are as follows:

Comfortable neck
nice frets
very useful and versitile electronics
nitro paint you can buff to a nice vintage shine and good sustain


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 6:44 am
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if you think the quality of any other strat is any different your kindly mistaken, they are all the same. I modded mine out with 500k electronics and vintage noiseless. I got the first rum of them in 2002, has the regular not 70's headstock.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 6:56 am
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donnycraven wrote:
Mass=Sustain my friend. Simple guitar physics.

If that is true, why don't we see many grand piano sized guitars? :wink:

(= There's the small factor of a string's vibration transferring to the mass, too.)


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:38 am
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paris wrote:
I was reading your post, and I got to say, I had a very different experience with the HWY1. Mine was wonderful and never gave me any problems.

It sounds like all your issues with the guitar are systemic to "your" guitar, and not the HWY1 as whole.

The sharp edges on the frets are caused by neck shrinkage from change in moisture content. This can happem to, and often does, to any guitar that is in a really dry place. We in Maryland deal with this all the time.

Even the best electronics can crap out. I've owned and played expensive guitars have quirky noise problems. The best things about the HWY1 are as follows:

Comfortable neck
nice frets
very useful and versitile electronics
nitro paint you can buff to a nice vintage shine and good sustain

I share this opinion as well (yes, I understand the thread is old...still relevant to new readers).
I have a 2006 Anniversary Hwy. 1; and though I am the second owner...the original owner said he never had ANY issues with the guitar, and I have not either.
I switched the loaded pickgaurd out (had black HSS on Mint) for SSS Custom Shop Texas Specials on Aged White Pearl w/ aged cream pickup covers, knobs, and switch tip. NOT because I had any trouble with the original electronics (in fact I am putting that loaded pickgaurd on my modified Bullet)...it is a matter of taste and cosmetics for me.

The guitar looks good, plays good, feels good, sounds good, even smells good. So; just like any instrument...it is luck of the draw if you get a good one that lasts forever, or a bad one that breaks down. Plus...it is also how the instrument is taken care of, how it's stored, and cared for.


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