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Fender Highway 1 Stratocaster |
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You may also be interested in the Fender Highway 1 Telecaster. The Fender Highway One Strat is a more affordable American made Stratocaster. It right in-between the Mexican made Fenders and the American Series ones. The things that were changed are the use of a gig bag instead of a hardshell case. The pickups are Hot Single Coil pickups. The main difference is the finish has a thinner coat of nitrocellulose lacquer. It has a matte (low gloss) finish that allows the wood to breath. I really like the Highway 1's simplicity. It’s been estimated that about 85% of the guitar is made in America. In June of 2006 it was upgraded to include a few new features. The pickups are now Hot Single-Coil Strat Pickups with Alnico3 Magnets with the middle pickup reverse polarity for hum canceling. The pickups were American Series type of pickups that were made in Ensenada (Fender Plant in Mexico). The other is the body finish is now satin nitrocellulose lacquer in stead of acrylic lacquer. The body of the guitar is made of Alder with a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. It's available in 3-Tone Sunburst, Crimson Daphne Blue, Flat Black, Honey Blonde, and my favorite Transparent Wine. The body shape is taken for the mid 50’s Strat body and is actually routed to hold a Humbucker-Single-Humbucker which means there is a lesser amount of wood to resonant. This also allows you to add or change to humbuckers (FAT Strat) in the neck and bridge positions and either keep or remove the middle pickup. This of course would mean that you would have to change the pickguard as well. The pickguard is 3-ply parchment (white, black, white). The bridge is a Vintage style synchronized tremolo. The tremolo was based on the ones used in the Classic series 60’s Strats. The 25.5 inch scale length neck is made of Maple and has a ‘C’-shape neck profile. This profile is slightly thinner than most neck profiles and is known for its ease of playing. There are 22 Jumbo Frets with either a rosewood or maple top or fingerboard with white dot position makers. The radius of the neck is 9.5 inches which is great for both lead and chord playing styles. The machine heads are Fender/Ping standard die cast tuners. The headstock is the larger 70’s style headstock and even has the larger logo on it (From the CBS years). This is probably because a number of 70’s California rockers like Jackson Browne, The Eagles, and others played Fender Strats. The electronics consist of a 5-way pickup selector with Master volume and a neck pickup tone control and a bridge tone control. The bridge pickup doesn’t have one. The tone controls use a Greasebucket ™ circuit which doesn’t produce more bass when you turn down the treble (remove the higher frequencies). The pickups are wired with the middle pickup’s polarity reverse which means in positions 2 and 4 you get hum canceling. The pickups as previously mentioned are Hot Single-Coil pickups which use Alnico3 magnets. The vintage pickups have staggered polepieces like those found on the Classic Series 60's strats. The Body and neck are made at the Corona California plant and are painted there as well. Fender says that about 85% of the guitar is American Made. Features
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