I wonder if there is anyone who know what type of strings Fender used to the Strat as standard in the late 1960 to mid of 1970 decade? Was it 009-042 or maybe something else. What I can remember was the G-string wounded at that time. And what was the materiel, was it pure nickel wound or nickelplatedsteel? Maybe it was not the same in US like it was here in Sweden?

To be perfectly honest, I can't remember what guage strings came on new Fenders back in the day. I didn't buy a whole lot of brand new guitars back then, maybe 2 or 3 over a 10 -15 year period. I mostly bought and sold in the used market with people I knew or people who knew people I knew.

I can tell you this much, the strings were steel cores with nickel windings and that's still my string of choice. Nickel plated steel does nothing for me one little bit. Nada. Zip.

Fender's stainless wound strings (the 350's) have an interesting tone albeit a tad different sounding. I occasionally run them on the Teles.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Not sure about that late 60s to mid 70s era, but I was digging through the my '79 Lead II's case the other day and took some time to look throught the old manuals, etc. In '79 that guitar came with Super Bullet .010 - .038 strings. The guy I took lessons from suggested changing to .009s, so when it needed a string change I had them put on .009 - .042s and show me how to do the changes. Back then the mom & pop stores believed in service; all I had to do was pay for the strings and they did the change and made a couple of adjustments for free.