You will have read many times in Guitarist’s pages that no two Strats are the same. And if you own more than one of these game-changing guitars you’ll appreciate the truth in that statement. Ash body, alder body, rosewood or maple fingerboard, hardtail, traditional or floating vibrato; these apparently minor changes all impact the tone, albeit in subtle ways. Pickup height, string action, neck carve, and roller or conventional nut also play their part in how the guitar feels and sounds to each of us.
Back in the day, pretty much every operation to build a Fender guitar was carried out by workers who hand-sanded, hand-wound and hand-finished every aspect. And while much of this still happens in today’s Corona California facility, modern production techniques mean tolerances
