Greetings.

I love my 2009 Fender Standard Stratocaster (modified w/ all American electronics and SCN pickups). My guitar is like butter. Love it. Yes, eventually I'd love to buy an American Strtatocaster or Telecaster.

I've been doing tons of research to find the "perfect" heavy metal guitar...looked into Gibsons, Epiphones, Ibanez, Schecter and B.C. Rich...I went full-circle and came back to either Fender Blacktop Series. I can't decide on a new Blacktop Strat or Tele. But am leaning towards the Tele.

Question:

Does anybody own both a Blacktop (Strat or Tele or both) and a 2009 or later Standard HSS or HH Stratocaster? If you do or played both types, how much better or worse (bridge humbucker distorted and high gain) is the Standard HSS or HH compared to the Blacktop?

I understand that both are slightly different (extra fret, knobs etc) but what I really want to know is how much better (for hard rock/metal ie. Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer, Slipknot) one stock Standard/Blacktop bridge humbucker is compared to the other? Are either not enough? Upgrade a must?

I play with a Line 6 Spider 3 and will soon get a Fender G DEC.

Thank you. Your help is much appreciated. I've learned a TON over the past couple years of reading the Fender Lounge. I love Fender and don't want to buy another brad period.

Hi marcaltus,

I just bought a new Blacktop Strat (not the FR), and I'm thrilled with it. I've played a few HSS Strats with Atomic hum-bucker, and with the Pearly Gates hum-bucker, and I thought that the Pearly Gates was the better of the two. But, the Blacktop bridge pup sounds much better for both distortion and clean, than either the Atomic or Pearly Gates. The Blacktop bridge pup is perfect for distortion, giving great balance and crunch, great lows and solid mids, with lots of top end sparkle and chirp. I've played my Blacktop on a DRRI, HRDlx, Tiny Terror, BJr MIA and MIM, Mesa Boogie combo, JCM800, and using a POD into a BJr with many different amp models, and all sound fantastic (clean or distorted). If you try the Blacktop, I'm sure that you will like it too.

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Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

I love my blacktop strat and my lonestar strat. I feel that I get a harsher distortion from the pearly gates and a creamier sound out of the blacktop. Don't forget a good eq goes a long way. I run them both through a zvex distortron and i get some convincing sabbath and early metallica. Don't forget the jim root tele and strat. They might get you even closer.

I had a Lonestar strat playing through a superchamp XD. I didn't think it did a good job playing metal, the output was really unbalanced with the single coils (and they were Fender's highest output single coils, Texas Specials). I think the blacktop Tele would be better since its a solid fixed bridge and you won't get a loss of sustain (key for metal) with a floating tremolo like the strat has.

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The thing about the blacktop strat is it has a universal route instead of actual pickup cuts. Also the floyd rose loses sustain too.
The blacktop is hands down Fender Mexicos finest. I have had one. I play metal sort of BLS Sabbath Hendrix Godsmack Zombie stuff.
I had a line 6 spider 2 then got the 4 now the spider valve. Its hands down the best amp I ever heard.
I suggest you put a dimarzio in your fender. Super distortion for a floyd and a D'ACTIVATER for a standard tremolo or fixed.
John 5 thinks the tele rocks so do i. For the money them blacktops are sweet. Im gonna get me a floyd rose strat one and put a super distort in it. I run through a boss blues driver into the high gain setting on the spider valve

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My sincere thanks to everyone who has responded thus far.

Sounds to me like the Blacktop series is a exceptional Fender line of guitars (of course it all depends on what sound you're after because all Fenders are great).

Yes, as donnycraven posted, I noticed that the Blacktop Stratocaster has a universal route...I wondered if it had an effect on the sustain. The Telecaster has 2 humbucker pickup cuts...that along with the fixed bridge and strings that go through the body like traditional Teles may mean that the Telecaster is better suited to be a metal beast. No surprise to me as John 5 and James Root demonstrate.

I have couple more questions:

1) If you were to purchase a Blacktop Stratocaster OR Telecaster, other than pickups and scratchplate, what upgrades would make it even better?

2) If I were to purchase another SSS Fender Standard Stratocaster Telecaster, changed the pickguard to HH configuration and wanted a metal guitar, what would be your pickup recommendations to make it as good as or better than the Blacktop's stock humbuckers? (Yes, EMGs would be awesome, but what passives would you choose and why?)

I heard that a capaciter change would make it sound beefier. I also wondered if it's possible to reverse the volume, tone knob and 3-way switch to make it like the traditional Telecaster...not sure if the wires are long enough to reverse. I also presume that the tuners (Fender Ping as on Standards?) are sufficient for the Telecaster...would you change them to locking tuners? My Standard Strat is very stable and keeps in-tune since I have the bridge flush with the body, 5 springs, and never use the tremlo.

Thank you! I appreciate any and all replies. I'm sure a lot of people out there have similar questions about the Blacktop series.

The Most Metal Pickup in the Tele would be the Dimarzio D'Activater set. Everything else for the Tele is fine and you dont need to upgrade much else. Those are what John 5 uses in his so listen to his latest solo and Zombie cds to hear them blaze.

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Bro I would give it a Super-Vee Tremelo https://super-vee.com/index.html.

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HOUSE-OUT!

Just rip a humbucker off of an SG and put it in a Tele like I did. You can customize more and more from there. Also, just leave the bridge pickup stock. It has plenty of grunt (at least mine does)

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic