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Post subject: Fender HWY1 and American Standard
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:40 pm
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I am looking at buying a decent strat. I have narrowed it down between a Highway 1 and an American Standard. I was wondering if anyone that has either of these guitars could tell me what they thought of them.


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Post subject: Re: Fender HWY1 and American Standard
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:57 pm
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I bought my 2006 HSS HW1 (in satin black) nearly a month ago and I am very happy with it. It plays great and has amazing tone through my Vox amp. One term I wouldn't use though when describing it is "decent."

I can not wait to buy another Fender guitar.=)


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Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:01 pm
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I own both 2007 highway one strat and a 2006 american standard strat. Comparing both, I prepferre the 2007 highway one strat over the 2006 amrican standard strat. The neck on the highway one is a little thicker and the sound is much warmer, not as thinny. The 2007 highwayone with its upgrades is certainly a much better guitar IMHO.


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Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:06 pm
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Well my friend I'm going to give you the exact opposite advice of the last guy.

Buy the American Standard. The bridge on them is a better unit and I think the pickups sound superior.

That being said, try them both side by side through the same amp and see which one YOU like best. Then buy that guitar!


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Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:20 am
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Thanks guys. My main concern is about the neck and body since I can upgrade the bridge and pickups. I've heard that the HWY1 has a fuller sound due to something about the finish. Does anyone know if that is true?


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Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:28 pm
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I have an '06 Highway with the upgrades. I've played the Americans in the store. They're made similarly. The difference would be the bridge and the pickups. The American has a better bridge - it's steel and they just redid it for the American Standard. I didn't like the modern look before but now it looks better. The Highway One I bought has a zinc bridge with a steel plate into the body for the good sustain. Eventually when I get a burr in the zinc I'll upgrade my Highway to stainless steel saddles, which cost about $50 but you've got to get a setup.

The Highway One pickups are good through my Blues Junior. In comparison to the American, the Highway One pickups love gain and sound fantastic with gain, but played very low gain with the tone knobs on 10 the Highway p'ups can sound a little metallic, and I've never heard that from an American. The Highway p'ups also are made in Mexico and I think the bridge may be made there also. The Highway has a thin finish that is really beautiful on my wine transparent one. It's satin but buffs out and then the wood shows through.

Aside from that, both guitars are made in the USA. They're both Fender Strats.

I was on a budget and the Highway gave me what I needed without sending my wife through the roof. It sounds and plays wonderfully. I mean, after a week you never bump into that metallic sound again because you know where it is. The way I play with the gain on my Blues Junio on about 8 or even 5 my Highway One sounds muy fantastico!


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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:01 am
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Buy the Highway One Strat.

A couple of weeks ago I got a coupon in the mail for 20% off of any one item at Sam Ash, so I went down there to buy a Strat to compliment my new HRD amp I had bought the week before. I stayed in that store a good two hours playing Strats. And here's what I found out:

Through a HRD, the HW1 simply sounds better. And the more gain you use, the more this shows. This is probably in part to the thinner finish (as this is the case on my Les Paul Standard Faded). However, this guitar will get beat up a lot easier than the others, but this may or may not matter to you. I personally love the jumbo frets and the large 70s headstock. Some say the headstock adds sustain; I don't know about that- I just think it looks sweet. I do not like the fact that it doesn't come with a HSC, but that's ok (and if it did, it would be closer in price to the American Standard).

I played both the American and the MIM Standards and I just wasn't that impressed. My initial assessment was that one had an extra fret (and I know some people will kill me for speaking such blasphemy :D ). Both seemed identical to the 1996 MIM Standard I sold 3 years ago.

And with the HW1 you can't beat the price. It was $699.99 regularly priced and I got mine with an extra 20% off! Over time, the American Standard may turn out to be the better made instrument, but as it stands right now, my vote is for the HW1!

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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 2:43 pm
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For what I like - a fat blues tone, my Highway One pickups are better than pretty much anything I hear around except maybe the SRV pickups, with a sweet fat tone in the neck mid and a sharp fat tone in the bridge mid, and hum cancelling in those slots without the humbucker or noiseless tradeoffs. Fender can't stand to design a bad set of pickups and they poured a lot of know how into these Highway One pickups. They're hot pickups. The SCN noiseless I played through a half-ruined Blues Junior in comparison were subdued because noiseless and a touch that would sound a note would produce nada from them, which is good in that you'll play cleaner. It's all a yin-yang tradeoff. The other thing about the SCN noiseless is that I could hear just a little bit of a wicked, crazy tone starting to pour out of them when I upped the treble and gain, but that guitar really needed an amp that wasn't F'd up and I couldn't stay there all day and play every amp.

My conclusion is that I never want to give up that pure single-coil hot Highway One tone. The different Fender Strats are really very different instruments, each unique and good in its own way. The only solution is to buy another guitar - an American Deluxe or a Custom Pro - and I'll have to wait a while for that. Fender, how about some HOT SCN Noiseless that amp up the crazy vibe?


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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 4:17 pm
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I say go for the Hwy1, I think for the money it is a great guitar. If price is not a factor go play a bunch and pick the one that feels right to you. And remember you can always finance 12 mo same as cash!


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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 4:51 pm
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I upgraded my MIM Classic Stratocaster with a Gotoh vintage Strat
tremolo GE101TS with a steel block for better tone and sustain.
The screws for height and intonation adjustment fit tighter in the
saddles then on the vintage Fender bridges.
The improvement is stunning, in the USA Callaham make also
better bridges.(www.callahamguitars.com)
By the way i would go for the Highway 1. 8)

Peter


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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:57 pm
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Highway one all the way man! Thats what ive ben wanting.


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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 10:02 pm
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I would go the highway strat man. although ive only had a 5 minute play on the highway, i think its got a much lighter tone than the standard, which its probally more warmer. it could have just been the different amp which i was using, but thats just what i got out of playing it very quickly.


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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:09 pm
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Something special about the finish that somehow affects the tone? No, it's hype, hype, hype, vintage blah blah hype. Then again, the thinner finish is very nice LOOKING and that is what should be important to you. It is fragile and will check and wear like a vintage relic. The Highway One has a nitrocellulose topcoat over a thinner undercoat. They've adopted that thinner undercoat for the 08 Am Std as well. It does make the guitar look much different but please don't disappoint yourself by expecting it to sound different. Guitar bodies don't "breathe" and the coating won't really make a discernable difference in the "resonance."

The important thing is, is the guitar you're thinking of buying made of a piece of wood that happens to resonate and feel and sound good? Play it unplugged and compare it to others in the store. If you can feel the vibrations of the body where the belly contour sits against your ribs, well then you've got a nice resonant piece of wood.

keep in mind that you'll wind up with some lesser grade hardware, such as the Ping tuners instead of Shallers (there is a noticeable difference there in quality control), and you'll need to understand that the Highway One's have electronics such as the pickups manufactured in Ensenada with the rest of it assembled in Corona. Remember there's a certain percentage that has to be done here in order to get the "made in USA" decal - and it's not 100%. The whole idea of an entry level guitar in the American series is nice, as long as you understand that there have to be ways for them to meet that price point.

OK, now that I've gotten my rant out of the way about the nitrocellulose hype (don't get me wrong, I have a Highway One), the major difference is going to be in the frets. The Highway Ones have enormous frets that feel and look like speed bumps. They're so large that the strings will not touch the fretboard when you hold them against the frets. This has a much different feel that some players like, but I found it hard to do finger vibratos since my finger slid along the string instead of getting a little fretboard drag. On the whole I prefer the medium jumbo frets on my '97 Roadhouse American Standard to the jumbo jumbo frets on the '07 Highway One.


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Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:56 pm
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id go both. they both send a shiver down my spine when i hear them play. i can't choose


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Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:06 pm
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lets not forget that since the minor changes where made to the american the highway one no longer has a better finish or neck. therefore due t obetter pickups and bridge i say american


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