Personally I would rather have a "cheap" finish that stays on than a laquer finish that is half gone in a couple of months. Its no coincidence that I saw so many of these with chips while still on the sell rack. These models were notorious for the paint chiping off, just read the reviews on harmony central. I have never really heard anyone that seriously knows guitars say that the three bolt neck CBS introduced to save 2cents was anything except a very bad design flaw. It couldn't help the wood/wood connection and it cannot be as stable as a four bolt. These guitars have several good things going for them: American alder bodies, american necks with 22 frets, I like the extra mass of the 70's peghead, and the alnico 3 pickups sound like an improvement. I won't say that there arent a few things about the HWY 1's that are not ideal though, thats why we will still pay much more for an american strat. All of those "special" appointments that fender has "added" are just marketing gimmicks to draw your attention away from the fact that a 300$ less guitar..... is 300$ less guitar. (Satin finish = we did not take time to polish the finish. Vintage neck pocket = we saved two cents on a screw). All these things are ok since they save us money (Gibson is doing it too) and we still end up with a very playable guitar which is what really matters. SRV's number 1 didn't have a finish left on it and we would all give our left nut to own that one.
