What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

I think the one I saw didn't have 3 Gold Lace Sensors, if I recall they were single coil and 3 different colors. Maybe Blue-Silver-Red?

I get that Lace Sensors don't exactly give pure old school strat tone, but pickups are the least of anyone's worries when buying a guitar.

Today I played a guitar that sounded P-H-E-N-O-M-E-N-A-L, the woods were AMAZING but I wasn't getting along with the Dirty Fingers.
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

astrozombie said:
Today, I played a guitar that sounded P-H-E-N-O-M-E-N-A-L, the woods were AMAZING but I wasn't getting along with the Dirty Fingers.
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Glenn. In order to buy gear that "will be useful", you need to define two fundamental things;
1) To what use will the gear be put?
2) How much money are you willing to throw at the project?

Right now, your number one guitar is a modified Fender HH Jaguar and you have access to a Gibson SG.

For a working guitarist, it would make good sense to carry a back-up guitar on which you can recreate the majority of the sounds that you require in the viaCadiz set.

The two no-brainer options have to be a second Fender HH Jag (like the Cobain model) or a Gibson SG. This is purely a matter of practicality in the short- to medium term future.

Exotic, figured timber guitars can wait another year or so. Alternatively, deploy your tech skills to assemble a Warmoth.
 
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Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

A family member has a strat plus laying around, that's why I wanted to get info on it, it might fall into my hands.
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

I briefly had a '96 Strat Plus, natural-finished ash body, Torty scratchplate, maple neck, LSR roller nut, Schaller tuners, Gold Lace Sensors. It was practically brand new, whoever owned it before me seemed to have played it until the top string snapped then put it away in its case and left it there!!

I would have loved to have kept it, but at the time I had to choose between it and my G&L Legacy and the Legacy won due to its more vintage tones. The Strat Plus was an excellent modern Strat and sounded fantastic under gain, but for me it didn't have the glassiness of a vintage Strat which was what I was after.

I would happily get another tho... :D
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

stevie_bees said:
an excellent modern Strat ... sounded fantastic under gain ... didn't have the glassiness of a vintage Strat
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This, in a nutshell, is what Lace Sensor pickups are like.

When I get around to it, I am supposed to be wiring three Lace Sensors into a GFS Brian May style pickguard assembly. Knowing that these pickups do not do a true vintage Strat sound, I want to see what they can be made to do in another context.
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

Funkfingers said:
This, in a nutshell, is what Lace Sensor pickups are like.

When I get around to it, I am supposed to be wiring three Lace Sensors into a GFS Brian May style pickguard assembly. Knowing that these pickups do not do a true vintage Strat sound, I want to see what they can be made to do in another context.
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I'd just get a loaded pickguard.
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

Xzhefri's page has a lot of great info on Plus series.

I had two in my shop in the past, one being an ordinary Plus, and one being Plus Ultra. The Ultra has the locking Fender trem, and a HSS design, LSR nut , locking tuners, ebony board (very pale, dyed ebony). Both had Lace Sensors, lots of abalone and perloid, the plus comes with a standard block saddle trem and Wilkinson roller nut. Some Plus series came with a Hipshot tremsetter out of the factory, while the Ultra I worked on was a regular 3-spring setup with no indication that Hipshot was installed and removed later.

The Ultra has a mini-toggle for the humbucker which are in fact two Lace Sensors tied together. They all had the TBX tone pot for bridge/middle and swimming type routing if I'm not mistaken.

The specs are standard. What I hate about them are Lace Sensors and roller nuts, both the Wilkinson and LSR are finicky and only adjustable by shims. The LSR nut is flat and symmetrical which calls for a thicker shim on the treble side right from the factory.
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

In 2003 , I was playing in a band called " Cool Water Blues " and my drummer at the time, ran a store which sold records, tapes, and used guitars . He sold me a 1990 model for only $500.00 which was in Fine condition. At that time, I was just learning how to do setups and how to intonation, etc. The guitar I had bought from him did sound great but the previous owner did not really take care of it as far as having it setup right because it would always go out of tune. I was frustrated and ended up selling it. To this day , that was one of my biggest blunders that I wish I had never done.
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

Vasshu the humanoid typhoon said:
Hmm I think I remember something about it started out being Jeff Becks siggie guitar, but he did not want one back then....
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Yep, I had one in vintage white/ cream. It had all gold Lace sensors, a dually in the bridge and singles middle and neck. As already stated it sounded pretty darn good with a fair amount of gain, and whilst it did sound nice and clear when clean it was somewhat sterile sounding. I had the big fat boat neck shaved down a little and it was a great player but the thing would not stay in tune even though I had it set up 2 or 3 times by different well respected local techs??? In the end it met with a grim death out of sheer frustration :smash: Shouldn't have done that!
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

Prolly due to the rather soft baseplate on the vibrator.....those where quite soft back then on those things.....not much better today either...
Hehe yeps they had huge necks on some of them!
Had a few of those going through the shop where I worked back then...
Chewed right through the chrome and into the plate, the posts had grooves and it was in general a mess to repair.
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

Niels, that makes sense. But all those years ago I knew very little about guitar parts and set ups and was in the hands of the local techs :chairshot
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

I had lace sensors for a WHILE but switched back to normal 69 style ones for the more authentic vintage glassy tone and depth people love in a strat. BUT they were totally awesome. Gave more sustain and harmonics, consistent volume on all strings even while bending, sounded like 90% of what a vintage strat sounds like if you get the golds or hot golds. Slightly more mids and compression then normal strat pickups, but this actually makes them more flexible. They take gain and effects remarkably well If you get a mid booster and/or a tbx circuit (like the clapton sig) you can dial in pretty much any tone under the sun on board your guitar. Incredibly wide tonal range: Fat humbucker sounds to a classic strat. Plus I like the look of laces too, very sleek. Awesome quality and versatility, very easy to work with. I just switched because my taste changed and I wanted full on vintage strat dynamics. Plus they have the different flavors of them too, But I usually prefer gold or hot gold in all 3 to get all the bite and treble you can out of them, because they'll take whatever you throw at them in terms of pedal and eq, but it's your call.

Wilkinsons are awesome too, you just gotta take care of them. LSR's do have a replacement system that fills the large gap from the Wilkinson nut, but the LSR's ball bearings can be a pain in the ass when they fall out when your neck gets hit, so I think the Wilkinson's are a little more reliable. Good enough for Jeff Beck, good enough for anybody.

And if I remember right, a lot of strat pluses or something like that came with a trem setter system to prevent your other strings from going out of tune when bending, and improve the feel of the bar. Very awesome guitars.
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

The guitar I played was a les paul 70s studio tribute, i think i got that name right.

but the price isn't right for a guitar that only does one thing.
 
Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

I just bought an '89, in excellent shape. It plays like a dream and sounds like one too. Mine has two grey and one blue lace sensors, stainless steel hardware, a flat bridge that doesn't dig into my hand. The neck is extremely comfortable. I've had other strats, and never kept them. They had tuning issues, poor sound, uneven weight balance; yuk. If you find a strat plus, buy it you will enjoy it. Cheers !
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Re: What do you know about the Fender Strat Plus?

I had one years ago. It was a great guitar. Kind of a gaudy looking nut, but it worked. I wasn't crazy about the lace sensor pickups and didn't know about changing them out at the time. I avoid guitars with strange size nuts now because I want to be able to replace the nuts myself if they wear out.
 
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