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Post subject: NGD! 2011 American Standard Strat +My little review
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 10:28 pm
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Joined: Tue May 18, 2010 2:56 pm
Posts: 266
Location: Marysville, WA
I've been saving for a while and selling some of my golf gear. The plan was that I was going to get $750ish together and buy a couple of Squier Classic Vibes to mod and goof off with. I also had a bit of money set aside to buy an amp for the worship pastor at our church. It kind of hurt to have almost enough money to buy the guitar that I've been jonesing for (the 2012 Am Standard Strat.)

Anyway, I found the amp on craigslist and while I was communicating with the seller, I found out that he had a 2012 American Standard at a great price. He let me know that it was actually the 2011 model with a 2012 date on it. Not the one with the fat 50's. I agreed to buy the amp, but thought that I would proceed with my goofy classic vibe plan. When I went there to check out the amp, he let me try the guitar. I had no intention of even liking it, much less buying it. The guitar was gorgeous. Not a mark on it, still remnants of plastic stuck under the pickguard screws. The only mod to this guitar are the Fender brand locking tuners that he had installed. It had been professionally set up by a really great guitar tech.

I could not believe how "at home" the guitar felt in my hands. The neck just feels perfect. I tried to control my excitement and not show how perfect the guitar felt. Especially since I was there for the amp, not the guitar. I plugged it in, expecting to feel indifferent to the sound. I know that I like the Fat 50's. I started on the neck pickup knowing that I love the neck sound on the Fat 50's. I figured that the Alnico V on this guitar would be nothing compared to the Fat 50's. I was wrong. This neck pickup is certainly more bold that the Fat 50's. The best description of this pickup is thick and syrupy. Back off of the volume and tone a bit and you get that vintage sound, but crank it and it is full with woody mids. I turned up the gain on the amp and could not believe the blues and rock tones that were coming out of this thing.

I pushed it over to the bridge pickup. It is a pretty harsh sound, but when you back off of the volume it really shines. It will get as nasty as you want, but still retains a lot of clarity. I was pretty impressed that even when I cranked up some gain, the rock tones were very good. I normally play my HSS American Special and use my humbucker on that guitar for rock type tones, but this bridge single coil can handle a lot of tones. It was definitely too harsh for me with the volume and tone cranked, but when you back off of either the volume or tone, you can get some great sounds.

The #2 and #4 positions were as quacky and character filled as I had hoped. The middle pickup was also useful.

This Delta Tone Circuit is interesting. The bridge pickup sounds really cool cranked when you are playing clean blues. A very vintage harsh type tone. But roll off of the tone even a little bit and the bridge pickup becomes very useful. I'm not too sure that I understand everything about this pickup, but you can get so many useful tones when you mess around with the tone and volume on this particular pickup. I'm still playing around with it at home, but this pickup can go from a quite twangy and harsh sound all of the way to a real woody blues tone. I was goofing off with it today and it even gave me a really weird Telecaster kind of twang when I got aggressive with it.

Even though I had wanted Fat 50's pickups in a Strat, these pickups are far more versatile. The Fat 50's are probably the coolest vintage tone that I can find. But these Alnico V's will get you great vintage tones and some of the best rock and clean tones that I have ever heard.

This guitar is crazy good. I've never had as much fun playing with the volume and tone knobs on any guitar in order to get really great and useful tones. The fact that the cleans are thick and syrupy, the rock tones are as harsh and defined as I want and the sustain and resonance are as full and round as I could imagine makes this guitar sound as good as anything that I have ever played. The Charcoal Frost Metallic finish is as perfect as a guitar can look to me. The neck has a satin feel with what I would call a "medium c" shape.

The guy who sold it to me gave me a great deal and could not have been a nicer human being. I am so glad that I bought this guitar rather than 2 classic vibes or rather than saving for longer to buy a Am Standard 2012 online. This is a great guitar. It feels as high quality as anything that I have ever played. It sounds amazing and is just a dream to own.

If you are thinking of buying an Am Standard be sure to try both the new 2012's as well as the most recent 2008-2011's too. I am normally a guy who wants the newest, latest, greatest thing. But man o man, did I ever get a great deal on a dream guitar!

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Post subject: Re: NGD! 2011 American Standard Strat +My little review
Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 2:25 am
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 1:03 pm
Posts: 637
Location: Rockcity - Germany
Yes, heaven can wait.
That´s for sure one great guitar. Awesome color the best thing is you found one that spoke to you.
Congrats and enjoy!

All the best,
Robin

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Post subject: Re: NGD! 2011 American Standard Strat +My little review
Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 2:23 pm
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Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2012 6:51 pm
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Congrats on that score. Great color. Bought a 3TSB RW myself and haven't been able to put it down since.


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Post subject: Re: NGD! 2011 American Standard Strat +My little review
Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 2:26 pm
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Joined: Mon Mar 11, 2013 12:41 pm
Posts: 105
Just beautiful. I love that color.


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Post subject: Re: NGD! 2011 American Standard Strat +My little review
Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 8:15 pm
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Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:59 pm
Posts: 1152
Location: Surf City, USA
Nice one. Be glad you pulled the trigger on it or you would have forever regretted it!


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Post subject: Re: NGD! 2011 American Standard Strat +My little review
Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:55 am
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Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:36 pm
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Very nice trio of Fenders you got there!

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my gear:

Jackson USA Phil Collen PC-1
Warmoth Custom-Build Stratocaster (The Andersong)
Fender American Special Stratocaster
Squier J. Mascis Jazzmaster
Fender Mustang GT40
Eleven HeadRush w/ two Alto TS212 FRFRs


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Post subject: Re: NGD! 2011 American Standard Strat +My little review
Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 12:16 pm
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Joined: Tue May 18, 2010 2:56 pm
Posts: 266
Location: Marysville, WA
I love these guitars!

I am finding that I am very happy that I have the 2011 version with the Am Standard pickups. I do love the Fat 50's and would like to have them in a Strat, but I can make these pickups sound really fat and syrupy when I want to. But unlike the Fat 50's, I feel like I can get a bolder rock tone too.

I think that this guitar is a better choice for me than the 2012 models.


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