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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 8:59 pm
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well, after take sometimes with the guitar, do some ajustment, changes the strings with d'addario regular light gauge size 10-46, set up the grabscrew etc etc, i feel comfortable and even feel great with my HW1 now. The neck feel great and the sounds good to me so it's a great guitar in my opinion.

JB



cvilleira wrote:
HWY1Strat wrote:
godsgifttomusic wrote:
Man i am glad Fender is scrapping the Highway One Strat. What a low end pile of junk. A Highway One may be okay for a home player hobbyist but that junk isn't gig worthy.


As a proud owner of 7 Highway One Stratocaster HSS's...I would have to disagree!
The bodies and necks on these guitars are wonderful, resonant pieces of wood.
What I WILL agree on is the ELECTRONICS issue.
Let's face it.....the pickups SUCK!! After scrapping ALL the pickups, cheap Ping tuners, and putting on Graph Tech saddles.....I must say....these are some of the finest guitars I've owned!!





Well after changing the Nut, Tuners, Electronics and Pick-ups You might as well bought a different guitar that had better ones in them from the start!!!! You can bet being the low cost American product it is that the body and neck are not from the best of wood grades. You might as well buy a Squier Standered and just change everything or an MIM Standard.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 7:23 pm
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I have a 2003 highway one stratocaster that I bought used and I just don't like it in comparison to my '89 strat ultra. It sounds too trebly even when the tone is rolled all the way down. And I can't get the action set right even by a professional luthier! It's sad because this is the the seventh Fender I've owned.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 7:50 pm
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comradejay wrote:
I have a 2003 highway one stratocaster that I bought used and I just don't like it in comparison to my '89 strat ultra. It sounds too trebly even when the tone is rolled all the way down. And I can't get the action set right even by a professional luthier! It's sad because this is the the seventh Fender I've owned.



And yet I cannot seem to find a pre 2006 Highway 1 Strat to add to my Stratocaster collection. I wish more people who do not like theirs would put them up for sale.

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2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 4:40 am
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cvilleira wrote:
Well after changing the Nut, Tuners, Electronics and Pick-ups You might as well bought a different guitar that had better ones in them from the start!!!!


"Well after changing the Nut, Tuners, Electronics and Pick-ups"...
Let's set the record straight.....I DID NOT change the: Nut and Electronics.
I DID change the pickups and tuners.

What is so godawful about that??!?
Rarely does a right off the shelf guitar meet ALL of my needs!
I haven't found one yet that does!
It goes without saying.......that it may need a bit of 'tweaking'.
If I had bought a $1500.00 Am. Dlx.......I would have had to change SOMETHING (more than likely...the pickups!)on it to suit me !
The Highways..., for a total investment of about $1100.00 each, meet and exceeded all my expectations!!

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:56 am
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Hi, I've just bought secondhand 2007 High One Strat from friend, it's all original part without changing anything and I have checked it by myself. My question is why there's a lot noise /hum when my switch position is on 1, 3 and 5 which mean only 1 PU selected, but on position 2 and 4 it sounds nicely without hum/noise. Is it normal for 2007 HW1 strat or my strat has something wrong w/ its wiring? I have check the spec for this HW1, I came up with "Reverse Wound/Reverse Polarity Hot Single-Coil Strat® Middle Pickup with Alnico 3 Magnets". Does RWRP make noise/hum more than american std strat or regular wiring strat?
I realy need some assistance, Thank you....

I'm from Indonesia and I'm sorry because I'm not fluently in English. :D :D :o


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:26 am
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obhetz wrote:
Hi, I've just bought secondhand 2007 High One Strat from friend, it's all original part without changing anything and I have checked it by myself. My question is why there's a lot noise /hum when my switch position is on 1, 3 and 5 which mean only 1 PU selected, but on position 2 and 4 it sounds nicely without hum/noise. Is it normal for 2007 HW1 strat or my strat has something wrong w/ its wiring? I have check the spec for this HW1, I came up with "Reverse Wound/Reverse Polarity Hot Single-Coil Strat® Middle Pickup with Alnico 3 Magnets". Does RWRP make noise/hum more than american std strat or regular wiring strat?
I realy need some assistance, Thank you....

I'm from Indonesia and I'm sorry because I'm not fluently in English. :D :D :o



What you have here my friend is a common problem that that troubled Strat players from the beginning.
The hum you're hearing in positions 1, 3,and 5 is normal. Single coil pickups are prone to 60 cycle hum. (google it for a more scientific explanation)
The middle pickup is Reverse Wound Reverse Polarity. That helps positions 2 and 4 to be more quiet than the others.
RWRP stands for "reverse wind, reverse polarity" This refers to the winding of the pickup coil and the polarity of the magnets in the pickup. It is the "humbucking principle." When one pickup is out of phase with another TWO WAYS, that is, when the windings are reversed, and the polarity of the magnet(north and south) is reversed you get the noise reduction effect of a humbucking pickup NOT THE TONE OF A GIBSON TYPE PICKUP, JUST THE NOISE REDUCTION effect.

So....there is nothing "wrong" with your guitar.....you have a normal Strat.
I have a bunch of Highway One guitars that I have put "NOISELESS" single coil pickups in....and that eliminated the problem.
There are many really good NOISELESS pickups out there.
The DiMarzio AREA series is my personal favorite.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:00 pm
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@HWY1Strat : Thank you very much for your help. Your bright explanation really cheers me up sir. Yes, I have plan to upgrade it with noiseless PU by Fender. If your favorite PU is Dimarzio, will strat lose its sound character? I mean, Strat has special sound, I don't want the sound character will change like others guitar with Dimarzio PU. But if you say the sound character will remain, I'll consider to change it with Dimarzio :D :D


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 3:53 pm
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obhetz wrote:
@HWY1Strat : Thank you very much for your help. Your bright explanation really cheers me up sir. Yes, I have plan to upgrade it with noiseless PU by Fender. If your favorite PU is Dimarzio, will strat lose its sound character? I mean, Strat has special sound, I don't want the sound character will change like others guitar with Dimarzio PU. But if you say the sound character will remain, I'll consider to change it with Dimarzio :D :D


You're very welcome!
Keep this in mind though........NOISELESS single coil pickups by construction/design are essentially HUMBUCKERS. Their coils are stacked on top of each other as opposed to the traditional side by side humbucker design.
Unfortunately because of that fact....there will be a slight straying from the character single coil sound.
Believe me....it is ever so slight.
To my ears...the DiMarzio's retain a lot of the typical Stratocaster sound.
When playing out LIVE with my DiMarzio equipped Strats....I've gotten compliments from listeners on my 'sound'.
And...isn't THAT what we are really all after......

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 6:05 pm
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The Hwy 1 strat is one of the most misunderstood guitars. I am utterly blown away by my 2010 Hwy 1. Black/maple, single coils. A fattish, rigid, purrfect, fast neck. Huge, easy to play frets. The pickups go from subtle n' deep and clear w/ low volume and lowered tone to chimey character at middle volume and tone to searingly bright distortion flat-out, all of which works really well with all amp modelers I'm using. The way the pickups are dialed into a bright/dark center makes the sound really, really versatile going from clean n' chimey single coil attacks to brutal, outright humbuckerish assaults. ...I played a lot of guitars for a long, long time before buying a Fender to be able to understand this guitar, the key factor me having played metal guitars with huge frets. I took like a duck to water on the Hwy 1's huge frets. I'm glad I waited. ...they took the bugs out of the original strats with the Hwy 1, the bugs that bugged me...thin frets, thin pickups, sweet but lacking oomph. The Hwy 1 is truly a work-horse of a guitar, it's very sturdy n' versatile.

If Fender threw better VG electronics into a Hwy 1 and called it ...The Perfect 1, Hwy 1's little brother ("say hello to my lee-tul friend")...I'd be tickled pink. I want light swamp ash and alder bodies, and beefy multi-radiused necks, roundish at the nut to flat and wide towards the bridge, with the same exact frets as the Hwy 1. ...black/white maple/chrome on alder, and blonde/rosewood gold/tortise on ash, both getting staggered, locking tuners, recessed strap locks and a comfy, padded understated Fender Prefect 1 strap (like a commfort strap, w/ an understated Fender logo near the strap locks).

Granted, there are some Hwy ones that are too heavy, imbalanced, etc. But there are mostly prime specimens, some just utterly perfect.

I'm glad I left mine stock. When I'm able, I am purchasing as many stock Hwy 1 strats and teles as I can, I want one in each color and wood type.

The Perfect 1 will pretty much resolve the guitar issue, providing a one guitar fits all option! ...one portable amp modeler that sounds good that you can plug into any sound board, and one guitar that stays in tune and *duplicates* everything in all tunings, with a vibrato bar, done!

oh, ...a tele model Perfect 1 too!


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:13 am
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Man, I love my highway one. I have the honey blonde with maple neck.

I replaced my stock pickups with Texas Specials but I think I actually preferred the stock pickups better and I think I'm going to put the stock pickups back in it. You can hear my highway one with the stock pickups in some original recordings I uploaded to soundcloud. To my ears this is the way a strat should sound and I'm sorry I tinkered with it by swapping pickups.

http://soundcloud.com/curetones/tubeboogie-full-song
http://soundcloud.com/curetones/lacquer ... -full-song
http://soundcloud.com/curetones/can-you-hear-me-clip
http://soundcloud.com/curetones/pastime-clip


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:38 am
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I have a 2011 sunburst Hwy1. Upgraded to Schaller locking tuners, Custom Shop Texas Special pickups and Callaham tremolo bridge assembly and had the frets dressed by a luthier. Best guitar I have ever played for the money I have into it.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:03 pm
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Minnesotastrats wrote:
I have a 2011 sunburst Hwy1. Upgraded to Schaller locking tuners ... and had the frets dressed by a luthier. Best guitar I have ever played for the money I have into it.


I fell into a beat up mid-70s Les Paul Gold Top for pretty cheap. It still had plenty of fret material left, so the first thing I did was have a luthier dress the frets. That made it play better than new!

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:33 pm
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I have an upgraded 2006 HWY1 and love it. Aside from personal mods I do to most of my Strats, it's fine out of the box. Mine had nice fretwork and nut set-up. I had to get used to the jumbo frets, as my other Strats have vintage or medium-jumbos.

The stock electronics are not "crap", and they're the same pots, caps, and resistors as the rest of the American line. Your tech was probably lying to you to sell you stuff.

I took all of the Greasebucket components out because to me, they make the pups sound like they're under a blanket. I took the Greasebucket out of my Custom Shop Strat Pro too and it improved the tone. However, after I took that stuff out, the Hot AlNiCo 3 pups in the HWY1 sounded harsh. AlNiCo 3 pups are bright and cutting by nature, and winding them hotter (my pups all measured in the high 8 ohm range) accentuates that characteristic. I like weak pups, so I replaced them with custom winds in the high 5 ohm range with AlNiCo 5 magnets and now it sounds awesome. The stock pups did sound great overdriving an amp or when I used a fuzz/distortion/overdrive pedal. They retained good clarity and note definition. I thing Fender was going for a more "rock" tone with the HWY1.

The trem is a bit weird because it has modern narrow spacing with vintage mounting to the body. I think this is the only Fender model to have this.

I changed my tuners to locking ones just because I hate the standard tuners.

My nitro finish is starting to shine in some spots after being polished by my arm during playing.

But I have to say, even stock, every HWY1 I've played has been nice, especially or the money.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:49 am
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I remember thinking this was one of the best deals ever when these first came out. An American Strat? But Cheaper? Sign me up I said!

The big headstock ones though? Ugliest guitar I've seen after the Squier Affinity.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Strat
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 3:12 pm
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auxsend wrote:
The big headstock ones though? Ugliest guitar I've seen after the Squier Affinity.


Yup, big headstock -- it improves sustain, improves tone, *and* looks cool.

Now, when I see the small Fender headstock, to me, it looks winky, child like, weird, not right, ...girly.


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