Hi all,

It's my first post here.

First of all i'd like to state that i have been using Fender Stratocasters for over 30 years now and love the sound and playability but i recently bought a MIA Strat 2008 model and was disappointed to find that the Delta Tone circuits are not implemented on the left hand model and also that the tone and volume controls are pretty much useless. Doing nothing at all from 1 - 9 and then going from 0-10 with hardly and movement. Treble and volume and basically on or off.

I know people are going to talk about left handed pots but why are they not fitted as standard on an £800.00 guitar.

They were certainly fitted on my 1976 Strat which doesn't suffer from the problem.

When did Fender decide to not upgrade the tone circuits on their left handed strats in line with their right handed counterparts and when did they downgrade the volume/tone pots.

I seems to me that Fenders support for left handers is worse now than it has ever been. Even a cheaper made in Korea Jackson Dinky Pro has been volume and tone control.

My Gibson Les Paul has left handed pots but i prefer playing my MIA Strat i just have hardly any control over tone and volume.

What i would like to do if i could get enough support from other left handers on this forums is to maybe Petition Fenders to get their arses in order and rectify these problems with their left hand guitars.

I would welcome all your thoughts on this matter.

Rock on!

I have actually never heard of this.
Honestly I dont think there are enough left hand players to justify spending alot of money on upgrading things like that. If you really want better pots put them on yourself.

I highly doubt you will be able to get a petition together..

First I've heard of any problem like that myself. Are you sure that it is not just this particular guitar? We have several full time left handed posters on the forums so maybe they can shed some light on this. Good luck and welcome to the forum!!

I couldn't imagine the left handed guitars would actually be lessor quality than right handed. Its a Fender, there shouldn't be a double standard...

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Is it possible that there is just a wiring mistake on the pots? Can you take off the pick guard and check it against the schematic? It doesn't seem like Fender would treat lefties as second rate. My dad was a lefty and he always wondered why everything was backwards.

http://www.fender.com/support/wiring_diagrams_parts_lists.php

Just scroll down to "American Standard Stratocaster® LH ". If you compare the right and left hand versions of the wiring, it looks like the "Delta Tone" jumper is indeed missing on the left-hand version. You can put one in easily if you can solder.

Unfortunately having compared the respective parts list the left handed strat doesn't include the no load capacitor required for delta tone so the left handed strat is indeed non standard and sub standard compared to it's right handed counterpart. Considering it's also 15% more expensive Fender are taking the piss being the only major guitar manufacturer than can't be bothered to make a left handed guitar as good as it's right handed version.

Absolutely shameful.

Thestratman59

I have never heard of these issues with Lefty Fender's.

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

I haven't heard anything about lefty Fenders being substandard,I have a 2000 MIM lefty Strat(strung righty-into the upside down Jimi thing)and it's just a great guitar and tonight I checked out my buddy's lefty 57 reissue Strat at a gig he was playing and it looked and sounded absolutely wonderful-Olympic White,maple neck,single ply pickguard.

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Ok.. a fellow lefty here (although I am a bit ambidextrous - guitar and writing are the only things I can do left handed).

Bit of background - I have three Fender Masterbuilt Strats and one Gibson 'off the shelf' ES335, all lefty.

My 1st lefty Fender MB Strat was an EC Strat in 1995. When it got delivered it had a note in from Gene Baker (the builder) that he'd had to wire it as per righty due to the nature of the EC circuit at the time. To be honest this meant nothing to me. All I knew was I turned the knobs clockwise to increase volume/treble/midboost, anti-clockwise to decrease. That was fine with me.

My 2nd lefty Fender MB Strat was an EC Strat in 2005. When it arrived the knobs were wired the other way and it was horrid. I guess this was traditional lefty wiring ( ? ) I had to turn the knobs anti-clockwise to increase volume/treble/midboost. Another problem was the volume was incredibly difficult to control - it went from nothing to MENTAL in no space at all. After a few discussions on the forum I had it rewired so that it worked like #1, and it was then fine.

My 3rd lefty Fender MB Strat was (again) an EC Strat in 2007 and this time I specifically said I want the knobs to work by clockwise = increase (as per righty). Again, works perfectly.

My Gibson ES335 - well I had to just get it out of the case to check - it actually works that way anyway - clockwise = increase in volume / treble.

Thanks for that Elliot,

It would appear that an 2009 American Standard L/H is wired as per your 2005 masterbuild ie. Nothing to Mental.

No inbetween adjustment, either Max volume of Silence, Max treble or no treble.

I've started using a Les Paul as my main guitar now as it has proper tone & volume controls on it that work. I was previously using a 1976 American Strat which suffered from none of the above problems. Fender really need to treat left handers better.

theStratman59