On the bench - Fender Contemporary Strat w/ System 1

[Chris Pile]

I have a 3 color sunburst w/ a maple neck on the bench. It needed some parts for the whammy, a fresh setup, and general cleaning. It's been played, some damage, but can be saved with some work. Pix later!

 

[beaubrummels]

Those are reputed to be pretty stellar Strats.

 

[larryguitar]

What's the System 1; one of Fenders out-of-the-box switching layouts?

Larry

 

[Chris Pile]

Fender's new vibrato system, produced by Schaller. They used it only one year.

 

[Chris Pile]

Okay, here it is in playing condition. It was purchased from an estate sale several years back. Needed some new fine tuners for the whammy (a couple of them broke off in the body of the vibrato), it was missing the arm, and the selector switch was really noisy. There is also damage near the nut which the owner didn't want repaired (everything works fine, it just looks bad). None of the rollers on the bridge worked, and I was able to persuade them to roll once again. The action is super low, truss rod works, very straight neck, and the trem bar action is very light (2 springs). Plays wonderfully, sounds good, stays in tune.

 

[Mincer]

Wow, I like the bridge! My guess the lock is something that gets around FR patents.

 

[Chris Pile]

Wow, I like the bridge! My guess the lock is something that gets around FR patents.

Fender used Floyds and Kahlers on later years of the short lived Contemporary Series... It works fine. Don't know why people didn't like it.
They tried a couple versions of the string lock, which again - worked fine.