Re: Opinions on Highway One
I bought one of the older versions when the new one was coming out, sight unseen, off the net simply because it was down to 399.00. The neck is great. This body is a nice piece of wood (2 piece, not a 3).
There were few problems. The high E string felt too close to the edge of the neck even though the neck was aligned straight. I noticed that the high E 's nut slot was cut too far away from the B string, so I had that fixed. The problem was still there. I then got to looking at the bridge and measuring everything. The bridge was what had caused a lot of the problem. The string spacing on the bridge was so wide that it not only moved the high E too close to the edge of the neck, but the pickup pole pieces didn't even remotely line up with the strings! I then replaced the bridge with a wilkinson vintage bridge with narrower string spacing. The A5 magnet pickups were also crap, so I put in a set of SSL-1's and NOW, after ALL THAT, I have a fairly nice guitar. Did not turn out to be the DEAL I thought I was getting.
I played one of the newer versions. The larger frets are actually a big help and feel great for bends. I've always liked the big headstock because it reminds me of Hendrix. I still don't like that crappy bridge, and whether you play vintage stuff or modern progressive stuff those A3 magnets are going to please no one.
I think Fender realized that the HWY 1 was aimed at older players prefering vintage tone, but many of them were adding a few hundred $ and getting the American Standard. Younger players were the main ones buying the HWY series, and they weren't into the vintage tone. So Fender decides to please NO ONE by putting pickups in that aren't heavy enough for modern tones or vintage enough for vintage tones.
I just get sick of hearing everyone chanting Fenders line of bull about the finish being a Self-relic-ing finish. I know it is actually nitro-laquer, and that is "vintage". But it is also (at least on the older versions) a thin fragile laquer that chips off at the slightest bump, thus the "INSTANT RELIC" bull that Fender uses to cover up a crappy marketing scam. Let us not forget that the Vintage '59 or '63 strat took 50 plus years to look in the shape they are now. Had Fender marketed a guitar with paint that chipped off in the first weeks of use in the 50's, their sales would have dried up real fast!! Those vintage strats may have used the same TYPE of paint, but it was definately a BETTER finish.
