Std. Strat - Gotta have one !

[Mincer]

Love the shape, but also like refinements by several companies. Love the 'sculpted' look of my Ernie Ball Silhouette Special, and the 4+2 headstock, locking tuners and lower weight. I also like humbuckers better than SCs. Fender is kinda locked into not refining the basic strat appointments, because of the conservative buying public. They might change a knob or a pickup or a color or a neck shape, but they really can't change much else. That why I like 'refined' models by other companies because they aren't linked to tradition.

[midnite_man]

Originally posted by Mincer
Fender is kinda locked into not refining the basic strat appointments, because of the conservative buying public. They might change a knob or a pickup or a color or a neck shape, but they really can't change much else. That why I like 'refined' models by other companies because they aren't linked to tradition.

What? Refined?
That's quite a statement, Mincer, unless you're only referring to the Standard Strat. I kinda find your words a little hard to understand when Fender offers so many different styles of the Stratocaster. I mean, how refined can you get? 50's, 60's, 70's RI models, Deluxe series, Hot Rod series, Jeff Beck nodel, Eric Clapton model, Jimmie Vaughn model, SRV model, Custom Shop, etc. All kinds of different neck shapes, body and neck woods, and different pickups mixed in there as well. I could list ALL the different Strat guitars Fender has to offer and the differences between them based on the specs Fender supplies, but you can go to the Fender website and see for yourself.
What would "other companies" have to copy from if the Strat hadn't been invented? That pretty much links them all to the Strat "tradition," don't you think?
Even the Standard Strat comes in either a U.S. or Mexican version, and some of the components differ on those two models as well.
The bottom line is the Fender Stratocaster look, sound, and playability speaks for itself, and there's at least one model for every guitar player out there to feel comfortable with. I'll take that "tradition" any day.
By the way, I am by no means conservative....

[Empty Pockets]

Essential Guitars:
Classic Fender (Tele, Strat, Mustang) for the pickguard look
Classic Gibson (SG, 335) 'cuz red guitars are cool
One shredder (Jackson, Ibanez) so you can still be "metal"
One Acoustic 'cuz everybody's got one
Something weird (V, BC Rich) to get people's attention
One baritone so you can be "current"
One seven string for the same reason
One four-string bass
One five-string bass
and umm...
oh nevermind

[Mincer]

Hey, I own an 82, and had a 96 mexi, and love them both...what I am saying is that Fender makes 200 versions of Strats that are 'slightly different'. Maybe different pickups, colors, neckshapes, etc, but hey..they could probably offer 1 model, and let you choose your options.
They can't, however, change the shape- like Music Man did, or G&L, or Charvel, or Ibanez...they have certain parameters in which they work with. The shape stays the same, so does the headstock. Anderson Guitars changed the formula sucessfully because they are not linked to a 'tradition'. So did G&L, so did Music Man, and many other companies.
Fender doesn't offer what I currently want in a guitar, although I could buy it through their Custom Shop, paying about $3-4k...is a mongrel stat worth it so I can say 'look, its a Fender'..no way! Either I will build it or get a smaller builder to do it..they need the $ more than Fender does.