I have an 08 Strat, an 11 Tele, and a 12 JB--all American Standards, and I would swear these are the golden years of the American Std. All three are excellently built and set up, and they're keepers. Barring financial collapse, I'm going to the grave with these three.

Cool - any pictures?

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I agree .. the best Fenders are the ones produced now ... the real pre CBS vintage ones give you that nostalgic sound that we're used to hear on LP's and I can understand that they would command top dollars.. I for one would have loved having one .. .. but the ones we used in the 1970's were no where to be compared to the ones we have today IMHO. YMMV as always though

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I don't know for sure but the one sitting right beside me has a can't put it down sorta thing going on and it's just a Partscaster. I think the best Strat ever made is the one that makes you happy everytime you play it!

IMO 2000- early 2008 American Series were the best. Really thought I think an ash body with the neck from a 54's style strat,thin finish 2 tone sunburst,tinted maple neck and pickups from a 50's-60's Strat with current wiring and jack man I would be in heaven That's probably more custom shop stuff though which I can't afford lol One day >:D

It's really a general question.

With that in mind, I agree with many that, on average, the current era of Fender products probably have the highest build quality and consistency.

But, I am also certain that there are individual guitars from every era which have as good, or possibly even better, build quality than the average Fender produced today.

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele

Every Strat (or any guitar) eventually takes on a life of it's own.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

My admiration for the 2008-12 Am. Stds is subjective of course. I have no doubt that there are great Strats from the mid 90s. I had a 96 Am. Std., and it was a horrible guitar. But there are gems from every era. And every era has its duds.

I understand that the '82 - '84 JV (on neckplate too) models are from a partnering with Fender USA in building these. USA pups from Fullerton, cloth wiring and dead on specs to vintage Strats. I believe that Jeff Healey played a JV Squier from this era that was also very high end.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I my experience as a guitar player for 35 years who has owned and played lots of Strats, there are great Strats, average Strats, and quite poor Strats from all years of manufacture, and also at all price levels. I've played real vintage early 60's Strats, and yes, some were absolutely amazing if only I could have afforded to buy them, but some from the same years were nothing special at all.
I'm currently lusting after a real 1973 Strat in Oly White which a local dealer has for just over £3k, and it's one of the lightest, most resonant Strats I've ever played, with a great slim neck and is just amazing, so I'm thinking that's why Malmsteen is into these if he found one as good as this one.
Of more recent Strats the early Japanese 60's reissues were often really great guitars, on average much better than the American ones at the time.
Mexican Classic Strats and the first run of Mexican Roadworn 60's Strats from 2009 were some of best recent Strats irespective of price. I bought a first run 60's Roadworn Strat that is really light and resonant, is superbly finished with great laquer checking, has a really dark, almost ebony, fingerboard and which sounded, played and felt better than even a whole bunch of Custom Shop models from the same dealer which were 3 or 4 times the price. And as for American Standard Strats, well the ones I tried were not in even the same ball park, with poorly contoured very blocky body shapes and a very weak and rather dead and characterless sound. This Roadworn is a keeper for sure.
A few months ago I went in search of a great Custom Shop Strat and eventually found an amazing 1960 Relic in Sea Foam Green which is also a definate keeper, but having travelled to many dealers and tried lots of CS Strats, I was quite surprised to find how much the quality varied, and not all of the very expensive guitars were great guitars. I did however try out a John Cruz Masterbuilt 59 Strat Relic which really came alive through a cranked Marshall and was complete Strat heaven, but was sadly already spoken for when I returned to the dealer.
So to sum up, I think you can find Gems, and Dogs from any year and at any price range. I think that's what makes buying a Strat such an interesting experience. Try as many as you can, ignore the country of manufacture, ignore the price, and wait till you find a Gem.

Good luck on the '73 - - I played one for about 30 years and loved it. Decided to sell it in '04 and got over 5x what I originally paid for it.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I've been lucky enough to had been around many musicians with many different guitars (vintage and modern).

The tone I liked the best in a strat was from a '73 strat played through an Ampeg VT-22 with two EV 12" speakers. The guitar was all original, it sounded great, but was unpleasant to play. The finish was worn off the fretboard and the wood was starting to dry rot, you could get splinters from playing it.

I heard a great Tele sound from a '64 esquire (rosewood fretboard) fitted with a strat neck pickup and played through a '65 twin reverb.

Most of the musicains modded their guitars (even the vintage ones) to get the sound they wanted. I knew one musician that settled on the bodies ('68 strat and '65 tele), but was always trying different pickups and necks, looking for that certain tone and feel.

I know where tha need for modding comes from. I bought a '09 Am Dlx tele and an '04 Am Dlx Ash tele. The '09 Dlx ash looked and felt great, but the '04 Dlx sounded great, but would have my hand cramping up by the end of the night (thin modern C neck). I wound up buying a neck from another '09 Dlx Ash tele (U neck) and putting on it to try to get the better feel with the tone of the alder '04 Dlx.

From what I've seen, heard, and experienced, I'd have to say that there was no particular era for the best guitars, there were just particul guitars that had great sound. Some made that way, and some re-made to be that way. But it also had to be paired up with the right amp and musician.