I am looking at these 2 models and im very highly interested in buying one of them. of course i already went to my local music shop and sat down with each and i liked the feel of both... i didn't really notice the difference between the Fret sizes, since i play alot of different fret sizes from vast different guitar companies... both bodies are obviously the same they both have the "Original Contour Body" both have rosewood, and each one has a unique sound that i like, i'm not chasing a sound i'm just looking to see which one suits to my liking, i do like the 70's CBS style Headstock but that doesn't really sway me that much anymore... so now i'm going to turn to some of the forum members to perhaps tell me what its like to deal with these guitars...

for example what i did on my Strat because i hate tremolos and don't use them, is i get a block of wood wedge it between the trem and body in the trem cavity so the trem is flush against the body... the American Standard has a 2 point trem system or something it operates the same but is the design different where i cant use this little trick?

for those that owned these guitars for a long time how do they hold up? is there any annoyances that a certain model goes through or any mods you had to make in order to make the certain problem go away?

its turned to this i cant really decide one has a higher price tag then the other but they are in a dead lock and i genuinely cant decide which... so now i have to turn to the negatives of each guitar and perhaps ill be swayed that way

I own an American Special SSS. Really I cannot provide any negatives on my guitar. The only modifications I did to it was change the tuners to Fender/Schaller locking tuners and change the white plastic knobs and pickup covers to black. These were more for personal reasons than necessity. I have my Tremolo flush to the body, but I could use the tremolo to do little dives. I am like you, I do not use the tremolo bar at all when I am playing my Strats. You could block it with wood if you like.

Personally for me I liked the sound of the pickups better on the American Special better than the American Standard, otherwise I would have an American Standard right now.

Sorry no help from me, but I am interested in this thread.

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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

American standard has hand rolled edges on the fingerboard, thinner undercoat, two point trem which helps with tuning stability, staggered tuners for better tuning and a microtilt but IMO with modern quality control you dont really need a micro tilt anymore (that's good) american special has texas special pups while the standard has american standard pups wired to a delta tone pot and the bridge is wired hotter, the special has a greasebucket tone circut, there are the facts....

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1965 Fender Precision Bass, 1994 Fender '54 Reissue Precision Bass, 2007 Applause Celebrity, 2011 Fender American Special Jazz Bass, 2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazzmaster, 2013 Fender American Special Stratocaster, 2013 Gibson LPJ

hey thanks rkreisher for that insight... ive been leaning over towards the American Special for a while now, also im a traditional person, i would prefer a vintage spec instrument over a Modern Day one... but since you and on the other forums i have read really dont have any issues with the American Special i might finally go for it then

I have the American Special for almost a year now and love it. I just bought a Baja Tele and I still go for the Strat first. I do like the larger headstock, never had a problem keeping it in tune, love the sound. I would have bought a Standard because I wasn't crazy about the two colors the Special came in. When Guitar Center offered the Special in white with maple neck I was sold.

I have the Am Special HSS, and I can't stop telling everyone how much I love it. Seriously this is the best guitar for me. I too compared it to the Standard and could have purchased either, here are the highlights of why I love the Special and why I chose it...

First, I prefer the Texas Specials. I love their tone clean or dirty. (The HSS also features the Atomic Humbucker which I think is the most underrated humbucker that I have tried. I love it.)

Second, the Greasebucket is a great tone circuit. This is the first guitar where I actually adjust the tone on the guitar rather than through an amp eq. It will not allow your tone to become muddy by exaggerating the lows.

Third, The Sustain. Compare the sustain of the Special to the Standard. Even out of the box where the trems are set to float, the sustain difference was pretty big. The sales guy told me that it was due to the larger headstock, but the special sings with the a true and pleasing sustain.

Fourth, the Feel. The Special felt perfect right out of the box. Just felt perfect in my hand.

Fifth, the value. Though I could have afforded either guitar, I felt like I would have been paying for the two post trem, (which is a feature that I don't use much) on the standard. This is a big upgrade to many people, but I certainly don't need it. Especially when the Special seemed to sustain better right away.
I also loved the fact that I could buy the Special and have a few hundred left over.
I also loved that on the special, I felt no need to do any modifications that would cost me $ down the road.

I have never purchased a guitar and left it with its stock components, but truly there is nothing on the Special that I want to change.

Hope that helps.

+1 on all counts, I picked mine up and couldn't believe how comfortable the neck felt.
Slight neck adjustment and a new set of strings and a general polish/neck oiling later, I took home my first Strat.

Well then its settled... i'm sold... as soon as i have gathered enough money i shall go out and get the American Special and a Hard Case to match by the way... the Sustain doesn't actually alter/differ if the bridge is Flush up against the body does it?

Often when people talk about sustain they say that they add a couple of springs and put the bridge flush with the body which increases sustain. I had a MIM that I tried this with and it did seem to help, at least a little.

[/quote]Often when people talk about sustain they say that they add a couple of springs and put the bridge flush with the body which increases sustain. I had a MIM that I tried this with and it did seem to help, at least a little.[/quote]

what i was going to do is wedge a piece of wood in between the tremolo and the body in the tremolo cavity so it never moves... this would increase sustain?

Before I purchased my Am Special SSS last Aug I spent about a year playing every daggone MIM to AM std i could get my hands on. As much as I loved the AM std the feel of the satin neck and the sound of the Texas Special pups did it for me. Anything i've ever done to this guitar has outside of adding trem springs has been cosmetic. It's a matter of preference play them and pick the one you fell in love with. I'm starting to get the "time to buy a guitar" bug again I was thinking of putting an EC boost kit in the Am Special, but I think it's not going to kill this want for a EC Strat