...or does it seem like Fender took what parts it has left lingering around the factory to make a "new" line of guitars while production of regular models seems to have come to a halt? I'm sure it's an okay guitar, but nothing special, at least from what I can tell. Whew, had to get that off my chest. Thanks for reading - flame away.

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'10 Gibson LP Studio Faded
'09 Fender American Standard Stratocaster
'08 Fender Classic Player 60s Stratocaster
'07 Fender Classic Player Baja Telecaster
'05 Breedlove AC 25 SR Plus

Nothing to flame about!!

Ha - I got a little excited cause my shop had a Blacktop Jazzmaster in stock. Went over there and never made it past the new American Deluxe Teles...didn't even waste our time with the BT.

definitely seems like not too much planning went into the Blacktop series. They seemed to have focused on making them "look" pretty but at the price of $450 sure Fender didn't put that much into them. I wouldnt imagine they are super super guitars that are underpriced because Fender decided to offer a guitar that they were willing to take a loss on.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

I'll be standing right next to you on this one as I thought the exact same thing.

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You dig?

The Black Top Strat is a 22-fretter with medium-jumbo fretwire, although it's a Mexican model. Generally, MIM Strats are available with 21 vintage frets.

The Black Top isn't really the first Mexican-made Strat to feature a 22-fret neck. In fact, the first Mexican 22-fretter was the ill-fated Prodigy model of the late 1980s-early 1990s.

IMO, there is a lot of what would be considered MIA and MIM stuff being mixed and matched to accommodate corporate objectives where the country of origin decals are more of a price point rather than a true indication of where the instruments are from.

For example and let's go right for the throat: I find it hard to believe that a typical American Standard Strat (or whatever you want to call it this year) cannot be absolutely duplicated in the Mexican factory. After all, both factories use the same CNC machines and both factories' work force can be trained for whatever supposed hand touches are inherent. And like I've been saying since 2006 where to date no one has ever offered any bonafide proof to the contrary, there is no disparity in quality between MIA products and MIM products. YMMV.

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You dig?

The "Blacktop" Strats (Why does pavement come to mind when I hear this name? ) do nothing for me and are just a waste of production assets for the models that really count. I also feel that there are so many "Custom Shop" models being made for various stores that the "CS" cachet is becoming diluted.

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Bill

I was gassing over the idea of a H-H strat...dunno why but here in Europe they are selling that Blacktops a lot more expensive than in USA, more than 500 Euros, that means almost 700$ with current currency!

According to your comments, I shouldn't lost my time on that axes, specially for that price range, should I?

It seems with Fender, if you can wait, they will eventually produce something of value. IMHO, this blacktop thing isn't it - you can do better.

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'10 Gibson LP Studio Faded
'09 Fender American Standard Stratocaster
'08 Fender Classic Player 60s Stratocaster
'07 Fender Classic Player Baja Telecaster
'05 Breedlove AC 25 SR Plus

Come on people they don't look bad. I haven't had a chance to play one, but want to. It is something I have been looking for, an affordable HH Stratocaster. Alnico 5 pickups, should have a killer tone. This guitar may be finding a home with me if I like it.

It is what it is, an affordable option for the Rock market. It beats having to modifying one to match the specs.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Come on people they don't look bad. I haven't had a chance to play one, but want to. It is something I have been looking for, an affordable HH Stratocaster. Alnico 5 pickups, should have a killer tone. This guitar may be finding a home with me if I like it.

It is what it is, an affordable option for the Rock market. It beats having to modifying one to match the specs.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I wonder why you say that. I doubt they had many nickel humbuckers laying around. Or Fender Tele and Strat bodys routed out for Humbucking pups laying around..I really like the Tele and the Jaguar but the Strat is kinda hard to look at for me if you know what I mean. Shoot for $450 they are a good deal and I bet they sell a ton of them.

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08 Fender Highway One Tele-Sunburst
09 Squier Custom Tele II-Blonde
04 Squier Standard Strat Antiqueburst
07 Washburn D10SCE natural with Rosewood backing
Fender Mustang II amp


Experience is the best teacher

All these people evaluating a guitar they have hardly handled, if even played at all. Solely by the way it looks. Or more accurately because they don't like black knobs on a white scratchplate.

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No no and no

I personally love everything about my Blacktop Strat

Daphne Blue, mint pickguard, very cool coil tap switching. Lots of sounds in a nicely wrapped package at a decent price.

To each their own.