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Post subject: 1996 FENDER STRATOCASTER HSS CANDY APPLE RED info
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:55 am
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Hi Folks,
This is my first time posting at a Forum.
I have always wanted a Strat. I have been playing Gibson electrics and Fender basses for many years, and the main instrument I have played for some time now is a 1974 20th anniversary Les Paul Custom.
I live in a regional area in Australia, and I have found a Strat online that I like the look of. The problem is I know nothing about Strats, in that I don't know how to validate authenticity etc. I can't travel to the guitar in question to play it, but I have a friend who is a superior player to me who will go and check it out for playability, tuning, condition etc. He's also a Gibson player, and so cannot be of assistance regarding authenticity. I don't distrust the shop salesman, but it's too easy to make a mistake in this. So I have been attempting to research the Strat for sale, and don't find a lot of information regarding the instrument on the web. The couple of photos I do find in Google images have maple fret boards, whereas the one for sale has Rosewood.

This is the Strat I'm interested in:
http://www.jacksonsrareguitars.com/fend ... -1996.html

To me it looks good, and I'd like to find a website where I can learn more about how it should look (original components so forth).
I had hoped to visit the Fender website and be able to find a web page dedicated to the 1996 FENDER STRATOCASTER HSS CANDY APPLE RED, but I don't find one. This may be a result of my ineptitude in utilizing the correct search criteria, but if there is anyone at this forum who can assist in any way in gathering detailed information about this particular model I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks for your time :)


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Post subject: Re: 1996 FENDER STRATOCASTER HSS CANDY APPLE RED info
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:14 am
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Looks like a USA Lonestar with two Texas Specials and a Duncan Pearly Gates humbucker, though I'm not as 100% certain.

The 3-ply white scratchplate appears to be not stock since the US Lonestar and American Fat Texas Special Strats use a white shell pearloid "mother-of-toilet seat" pickguard.


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Post subject: Re: 1996 FENDER STRATOCASTER HSS CANDY APPLE RED info
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:17 am
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Welcome to the forum.

That looks to me like a 1996 Lone Star Stratocaster. Back then this was part of the "Hot Rodded" American Standard lineup, so all the basic specs were the same as the typical 1996 American Standard Strat - sealed tuners made by Schaller, 2 string trees, 2-post trem with cast steel saddles, alder body, etc. The Lone Star changes the pickups to 2 Texas Special single coils and a Duncan "Pearly Gates Plus" pickup that was wound for the guitar, and it has a regular tone control for the middle and bridge pickup instead of the TBX tone control.

There were 3 "Hot Rodded" American Standards - the Lone Star, the Roadhouse Strat (which had 3 Texas Special pickups) and the Big Apple Strat (which had a Duncan '59 humbucker in the neck position and the Pearly Gates Plus in the bridge position). The Hot Rodded models all had different finishes than the "regular" models and had pearl pickguards (or tortoise shell on a couple of finishes).

These guitars were made up through mid-2000. In July 2000 Fender replaced the American Standard with the American Series Strat which had several updates. Fender updated the "Hot Rodded" models but gave them all new names:

The Roadhouse became the "American Texas Special Strat"

The Lone Star became the "American Texas Special Fat Strat"

the Big Apple became the "American Double Fat Strat"

These models were made until mid-2003 when Fender changed the pickups on them and added the S-1 switching:

The American Texas Special Fat Strat became the "American HSS Strat" and now had Tex-Mex single coils and a Fender humbucker.

The American Double Fat Strat became the "American HH Strat" now had 2 Fender humbuckers

The American Texas Special Strat was discontinued

The American HH Strat was discontinued at the start of 2007; in 2008 the "new" American Standards came out with multiple updates. The current American Standard HSS has the same pickups as the old American Series HSS Strat but no longer has the S-1 Switching.

Fender confused things by bringing out "new" Roadhouse and Lone Star Strats, but these are now made in Mexico. The do, however, and the same pickups as the original 1990s USA models.


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Post subject: Re: 1996 FENDER STRATOCASTER HSS CANDY APPLE RED info
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:36 am
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The Hot-Rodded American Series included three Telecasters (the US Fat Tele with a chrome-covered neck humbucker, the Tele-Sonic with dual DeArmond P-90s and a Tech-tonic stop tailpiece, the Nashville B-Bender with a Parsons-Green B-Bender system and a Texas Special Strat pickup in the middle) and a P/J Bass with a split-coil humbucker in the neck and a linear humbucker in the bridge.

The US Fat Tele came initially with a maple fingerboard, however, with the advent of the American Series in 2000, this option has been dropped. The Nashville B-Bender lasted until 2007.


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Post subject: Re: 1996 FENDER STRATOCASTER HSS CANDY APPLE RED info
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 6:40 pm
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Thank you for the welcome John C. The Fender community is obviously a caring one.

Most excellent information, and I thank you all very much for your input.

It's comforting to know the instrument does look the real thing to you both, and other than a probable pick guard change, appears to look right. I'm after a quality USA built instrument. In that there is no mention of it in your informative posts, I'm assuming the rosewood board is a standard feature. At least I can feel confident I won't be wasting my friend's time in asking him to go assess it.

The $AU and the $US being of virtually equal value currently, I wonder if anyone there might have a handle on whether the 2G price tag is 'a fair market price' for the guitar in question? We do tend to pay a little more for quality instruments here in Australia, and I realize beauty is in the eye of the beholder (the Internet eye in this case :).

Desirability: This will not be a collector's instrument. I have a Pro Tools project Studio here at home, and my intention is that the Strat will be a permanent and frequently used instrument in the studio. This being the case, and considering the price-point, I wonder if there are any valid reasons why I might consider another Strat model? Certainly there are plenty of available instruments at the same website as this guitar, but many are price prohibitive, in that I'm not really interested in paying for a year tag or specific model because my favorite Strat player used it (there's one I can think of, but soooo many more who have created wonderful music from the instrument).

I'm becoming information greedy here, and once again I very much appreciate your previous assistance and any further guidance on offer :)


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Post subject: Re: 1996 FENDER STRATOCASTER HSS CANDY APPLE RED info
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 6:53 pm
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AU$ to US$ is not a equall comparison in this venture because of import duties and shipping. If you compare new prices, you still pay more. :( It's the same for us in the UK. Despite the pound being a fair bit stronger than the US$, we pay the same rate as though it were dollars. A guitar selling for $1000 sells for £1000, despite £1000 being worth around $1600.


You're better off to compare it to new instrument prices from authorized dealers in Oz. I'd suspect it to sit somewhere between the local price of new American Deluxes and American Standards, as a very rough guide.

Hopefully some of our longstanding antipodean members will chime in with better estimates. They know their onions.

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Post subject: Re: 1996 FENDER STRATOCASTER HSS CANDY APPLE RED info
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 6:06 am
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IMHO, that is too much to pay for a Lone Star even Downunder. I have own two of these and sold them around $850 US and that seemed about tshebgoing market 2 years ago. The value may have gone up a little but not that much. Nice guitars though and have killer sound.

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Post subject: Re: 1996 FENDER STRATOCASTER HSS CANDY APPLE RED info
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 8:18 am
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raan wrote:
Thank you for the welcome John C. The Fender community is obviously a caring one.

Most excellent information, and I thank you all very much for your input.

It's comforting to know the instrument does look the real thing to you both, and other than a probable pick guard change, appears to look right. I'm after a quality USA built instrument. In that there is no mention of it in your informative posts, I'm assuming the rosewood board is a standard feature. At least I can feel confident I won't be wasting my friend's time in asking him to go assess it.



I don't think the pickguard has been changed on that guitar; the photo must have had a lot of flash because the pickguard is washed out, but it does look like a pearloid pickguard on my laptop screen. Granted I had to move my screen around a bit so the glare didn't wash it out further.

The prices are just crazy down in under; good luck finding the right Strat.


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Post subject: Re: 1996 FENDER STRATOCASTER HSS CANDY APPLE RED info
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:42 am
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Hi Folks,
Thanks again for the useful information.
I feel I'm going to end up with a more informed selection having been advised at this Forum.

Xhefri (good website by the way) I'm interested in your comment regarding pricing. So much so that I took a look around for deals here in Australia, and found that Turramurra Music (a major supplier to the pro market in Sydney and country wide) are currently selling Fender guitars at US prices. This was a welcome discovery as it means I can purchase a Fender Highway 1 Stratocaster HSS for AU$995 (retail $1299). What I need to ascertain now is how good the new Highway 1 will be compared to the '96 HSS I've been looking at.

In web reviews I find a little criticism of the neck shaping, and that maybe the jumbo frets are a little TOO jumbo. It would however be nice to think I could achieve my objective of a Strat sound with a little added crunch from the humbucker for half the amount I was planning to spend. I figure if I can't cover pretty well all the bases between the HSS Strat and the Les Paul I may as well pack it in. What am I saying...the Les Paul sounds fabulous, and is all I really need, but I'm going to fulfill a long held dream to own a Strat, and feel/hear those beautiful sonorous and toneful sounds emanate from it.

If anyone here says DON"T go near the Highway 1 HSS I'll be taking that under serious consideration, but there's a lot to be said for the fact it's a certain sound I'm after, and not a prestige guitar. I've never owned a guitar made in the USA that was less than useful at a professional level, so I'm happy to stick with that basic criteria.

Please feel free to shoot me down if I'm headed in the wrong direction here :)


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